This Psalm is written after the fall of Judah in 586 B.C. and the people were being taken into exiles by the Babylonians. Though God used the Babylonians as His instrument to punish Judah for its unfaithfulness to Him during the monarchic reign, the Babylonians had gone too far in mistreating the Israelites as captives. They committed appalling war crime atrocities such as smashing infants to death (verse 9).

This Psalm can be divided into 3 portions. First, verses one to four give a sorrowful description of what was happening to the exiles in Babylon. Each time they remembered the temple of God back home in Zion, they wept (verse 1). The Jews were apt to use music and songs in any of their worship celebrations. But as exiles with their city destroyed and the temple trampled, there was no longer any reason to celebrate. They hung up their musical instruments (verse 2). Verse 4 vividly describes their heartfelt sorrow in a foreign land. Verses 2 and 3 explain how the Babylonians treated the Jews sadistically. They deliberately rubbed salt on the emotional wounds of the exiles by requiring them to sing.

The second section (verses 5-6) contains a string of three conditional deeds that would be considered acts of treachery against God if these deeds were to happen. The three acts are forgetting Jerusalem, not remembering God and not setting Jerusalem above their highest joy. Once again, these are heartfelt grievances of the captives over how their city and temple had been destroyed and they had been taken as exiles far away from their nation.

The last section of this Psalm in verses 7-9 is a talion. Talion is a Latin word and it means a system of retaliation where a punishment used corresponds to the crime committed. It is often expressed as the principle of "an eye for an eye"; its synonyms are “retribution” or “retaliation.” Another example of a talion can be found in Gen. 9:6, “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image.” The hurts in verses 1-6 leads to a prayer in verse 7 that God will remember the deeds of his people’s enemies. The Edomites (specifically highlighted) is a conventional representative of all those who hate God’s people as well as the daughter of Babylon (the personified city) in verse 8. While the Edomites took great delight in destroying Jerusalem utterly (see Obad. 11– 14), the Psalmist specifically describes how the Babylonians had carried out excessive violence against the helpless in Jerusalem (verse 9).

Dear brothers and sisters, if you are surrounded by people who are mistreating or have mistreated you, we should not take things into our hands and retaliate by hitting them back. Vengeance belongs to our God. In the same way as the Jewish captives in this Psalm, we can call upon God. He is just as well as righteous to carry out talion. And even if these people are not being held accountable for their misdeeds, the day of judgement will arrive on Christ’s Second Coming. God will deal with them as what their deeds deserve.

PRAYER

Dear Lord, please grant me your peace and strength as I deal with this trying situation – [pray to God what is happening to you…] Please grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference. I pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.