A holy hatred? (2)

Remember, Lord, what the Edomites did on the day Jerusalem fell. ‘Tear it down,’ they cried, ‘tear it down to its foundations!’ Daughter Babylon, doomed to destruction, happy is the one who repays you according to what you have done to us. Happy is the one who seizes your infants and dashes them against the rocks. Psalm 137:7-9

Last time I offered a couple of thoughts that might help us as we try to come to terms with the shocking end of Psalm 137. First, don’t sugar it over – it’s there in scripture and must be taken at face value. And second, keep in mind that outbursts of emotion are rarely the final word in fraught situations. Psalm 137:7-9 is, so to speak, merely a snapshot in a still-moving sequence of events – it is not given to us to justify a spirit of vengefulness.

The third thought, the one that I didn’t have space for, is: bear in mind that there is a difference between hatred and malice on the one hand, and a desire for justice on the other.

Hatred and malice are always wrong, whatever the circumstances; a desire for justice is always right, because justice is precious to God. If, in these verses, we make allowance for the understandable passion of the moment, can we not say that the psalmist is in fact pleading for justice rather than thirsting for revenge?

Is that wishful thinking on my part? I hope not! Bear with me, please…

Regarding the Edomites, let’s not fail to notice that verse 7 is, in essence, a prayer to God himself: “Remember, Lord, what the Edomites did, on the day Jerusalem fell…” The writer doesn’t curse the Edomites, but prays that true justice – God’s justice – will be brought to bear on them.

It’s as if he is saying, “Lord, you know how I feel about the Edomites and their malice and gloating on that terrible day. Well, there’s nothing I can do to sort them out! But what I can do is to leave them in your hands, and simply pray that you, who are perfectly just, will do what I can’t do”.

Even in relation to the cruel Babylonians, he doesn’t see himself as personally enjoying the experience of “getting his own back”. He is, once again, pleading for justice in the God-given form of “eye for eye and tooth for tooth” – “according to what they have done to us” - gruesome though that is in this particular case.

“Happy is the one who repays you…” he cries out to the Babylonians. Who precisely he has in mind by “the one who repays you” isn’t entirely clear, but I like to think that that too is in fact a reference to God himself.

In a word, if the white heat of rage has already cooled somewhat, perhaps he has reached the point of saying, “Well, now it’s in the hands of God, and I must do my best to leave it just there”.

In our fallen world, this may be the best we can hope for in all sorts of situations. After the fall of apartheid in South Africa a “Truth and Reconciliation Commission” was set up to try and deal justly with the backlog of anger and hatred that it had left behind. The Commission knew its limitations… Did it deliver a completely harmonious society? - of course it didn’t. Was every wrong righted? – of course not. But better, surely, to edge towards some kind of harmony than to allow bitter enmity to fester.

Why not pray for a similar thing today for Israel and Gaza once the immediate horrors are over? True, it’s hard to imagine an Israeli prime minister and a Palestinian president joining hands in a search for a lasting and just peace – indeed, it seems nothing less than dreaming of the impossible. But is not our God one who works miracles? He is the one who “makes wars cease to the ends of the earth. He breaks the bow and shatters the spear; he burns the shields with fire. He says, ‘Be still and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth’” (Psalm 46).

What applies to international affairs applies also to personal circumstances. Perhaps you or I have had an injustice done to us by somebody. Perhaps we are nursing bitterness. Perhaps we need to recognise that that can only poison us inwardly. Why not take a deep breath and dump our bitterness (yes, really!) into God’s lap? “Lord, I know so-and-so will seem to have ‘got away with it’. But so be it! I leave it with you, the perfect judge. I trust you to deal with it with your perfect, holy judgment”.

To repeat: we can easily confuse judgment, a bad thing except when in the hands of a perfect God, with justice, a value precious in his eyes; as the prophet Amos put it, “Let justice roll on like a river, and righteousness like a never-failing stream” (Amos 5:24). And as God himself has declared: “I, the Lord, love justice” (Isaiah 61:8).

Dear Father in heaven, I remember how Jesus said ‘Blessed are the peace-makers’. Help me to be one of that number every day of my life – and please hear my prayer for justice and peace in every corner of our troubled world. Amen.

O Lord, your tenderness,/ Melting all my bitterness,/ O Lord, I receive your love./ O Lord, your loveliness,/ Changing all my ugliness,/ O Lord, I receive your love… Graham Kendrick