October 4th Reflection - Hate & Joy - by Bill Lynch

Psalm 137
Lament over the Destruction of Jerusalem

By the rivers of Babylon—
   there we sat down and there we wept
   when we remembered Zion.
On the willows there
   we hung up our harps.
For there our captors
   asked us for songs,
and our tormentors asked for mirth, saying,
   ‘Sing us one of the songs of Zion!’

How could we sing the Lord’s song
   in a foreign land?
If I forget you, O Jerusalem,
   let my right hand wither!
Let my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth,
   if I do not remember you,
if I do not set Jerusalem
   above my highest joy.

Remember, O Lord, against the Edomites
   the day of Jerusalem’s fall,
how they said, ‘Tear it down! Tear it down!
   Down to its foundations!’
O daughter Babylon, you devastator!
   Happy shall they be who pay you back
   what you have done to us!
Happy shall they be who take your little ones
   and dash them against the rock!

Reflection
We love to love our neighbor and hate our enemy. We all seem to love the one who agrees with us or is on our side and hate the one who is against us or disagrees with us. We do this today and it was done in ages past. We think that it is God that directs this action of hate and we justify our actions by our own reasoning.

Yes, there are times that God hates. God hates sin, our sin and any sin. God hates for us to separate ourselves from him. God can't stand it. There are those, and we are included, that deserve the wrath of God. We all deserve eternal damnation and punishment for our sin. It's my sin after all and your sin too. We are guilty of sin! Which brings us back to God... WE NEED GOD!

We need God's love and forgiveness. Jesus took on the punishment of God and became the sacrifice for our sin. A sacrifice that gave his life on the altar of the cross in pain, in blood, in suffering. Jesus took on our eternal punishment and damnation in our stead, for you, for me. Jesus took on the hatred and wrath of God on that cross for all people.

This psalm is from a point of view of the exile. The people were in Babylon. They wished for the way it was in Jerusalem. They longed to return to the life that they had abandoned. They were in sorrow and now understand that they had abandoned God for their own selfish gods and pleasures.

In this realm of emotion, the writer thinks of the religious joy that once was in Jerusalem. A joy and a song that was now missed and longed for in the present land of Babylon. A joy the people missed, now feeling cast aside from God. As this joy is remembered, the wrath that is deserved for ungodly actions becomes apparent. Guilty as charged! Off to exile!

Yet... yet... God waits. God waits for us as well. Waits with a joy. A joy that comes to save all people. A joy to rescue us from our exile. A joy that comes to us and saves us and brings us back to life in God. A joy... a Savior... Jesus comes! Thanks be to God!

Prayer
As I wait for you, I give you thanks that you have waited for me. Waited for me to repent. Waited for me to confess. Waited for me as I have separated myself and exiled myself from you. Waited for me in the love of Jesus. Waited for me to give me new life in the waters of my baptism. Guide me in the return to you. The return to joy. The return to you my Savior, my God. I NEED YOU!... today... tomorrow... and forever. --- Amen