Sermon Summary
Big Idea: The Father’s disciplinary love and the silent suffering of the Son enable us to use Psalm 137 by the Holy Spirit for Christian worship.
Psalm 137 is a controvertial psalm that far too many Christians have suggested we not use for Christian worship. After explaining the historical meaning of Psalm 137, Pastor Phill explains how Jesus’ silent suffering on the cross enables us to use and apply Psalm 137 for our own lives and worship.
Sermon Outline
What is the historical context of Psalm 137? — God, the Father’s disciplanary love of Israel.
What is the broader biblical context of Psalm 137? — God’s “little one,” His Son silently suffered on the cross for the punishment we deserved.
What is the way to read Psalm 137 today? — 1) Take out the log in your own eye; 2) Seek first the kingdom of heaven; and 3) Turn the other cheeck.
Sermon Text: Psalm 137
1 By the waters of Babylon,
there we sat down and wept,
when we remembered Zion.
2 On the willows there
we hung up our lyres.
3 For there our captors
required of us songs,
and our tormentors, mirth, saying,
“Sing us one of the songs of Zion!”
4 How shall we sing the Lord’s song
in a foreign land?
5 If I forget you, O Jerusalem,
let my right hand forget its skill!
6 Let my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth,
if I do not remember you,
if I do not set Jerusalem
above my highest joy!
7 Remember, O Lord, against the Edomites
the day of Jerusalem,
how they said, “Lay it bare, lay it bare,
down to its foundations!”
8 O daughter of Babylon, doomed to be destroyed,
blessed shall he be who repays you
with what you have done to us!
9 Blessed shall he be who takes your little ones
and dashes them against the rock!
