Psalms 125 to 137

Here is the previous psalm bunching.  Now for this chunk:

PSALM 125

This is another short psalm (they all are around here).  It promotes trusting in the Lord. The Lord is like the mountains; he’s there forever.  (Fun fact: according to continental drift theory, the mountains aren’t there forever).

I do like the line, “Do good, Lord, to the good.”

PSALM 126

This is a psalm about the sheer joy of returning to Jerusalem after the Babylonian Captivity.  I can’t quite tell what the time frame is.  The first half makes is seem like it’s something that’s already happened, but the second half makes it seem like it’s something the psalmist hopes will happen.

I assume it’s the latter, and the first half of the psalm is just something of a daydream he’s having; a “Wouldn’t It Be Nice” sort of moment. 

PSALM 127

This psalm has two main thoughts.  First, all labor is in vain unless the Lord is involved.  The phrase “In vain” is used three times in the first two verses, and the worse “unless” comes up twice in the first verse alone. 

Then comes the second stanza that frankly feels a little like a different psalm, where the psalm glories in having sons.  Both halves of the psalm are well done and nicely written, but I’m not sure what one has to do with the other.

My paternal grandmother would like this one.  She loved having sons a lot. 

I hope this psalmist had a lot of sons instead of daughters.  I’d hate to think someone with a lot of daughters would write something like this.  I have an aunt and uncle you had seven kids – all girls.  They felt the same way about their daughters as this psalmist says you should feel about having sons.

PSALM 128

We’re still in the midst of Short Psalm Valhalla.  This six verse-r is about how wonderful life is if you fear the Lord.  Your wife will be fruitful, your kids will be great, and life will be wonderful.  It’s a well-executed psalm.

PSALM 129

At eight verses, this is actually the longest psalm since #124 (which was also eight verses). 

It’s an “us versus them” psalm about how bad a guy’s enemies are treating him.  But don’t worry – God has just cut him free.  So all hail the Lord!

PSLAM 130

It’s a psalm appeals to God for mercy.  It’s OK, but nothing special.  The most distinctive feature is that a line is repeated back-to-back.  The end of one sentence is “more than sentinels for daybreak.” Then the next sentence begins “more than sentinels for daybreak.”  It’s a bit odd, but it actually works.

PSALM 131

This is a psalm about being humble that’s attributed to David.  Yeah, I hope that’s a misattribution because David isn’t really my go-to guy for humbleness.  The first line says my heart isn’t proud and then we’re told he doesn’t busy himself with great matters – man, this better be a false attribution. 

It’s only three verses long, one of the shortest psalms of all.

PSALM 132

Well, it’s been a nice run, but we finally have a psalm that hits double-digits in its verse count.  18 verses!  It’s practically “War and Peace” and the last bunching of psalm stubs.

It’s just a recap of the covenant of David.  In it, David promises to worship God and find a place for him in this world (the temple is son Solomon will build) and in return God pledges that David’s line will forever rule Israel.

It’s clear that this psalm is from the Babylonian Captivity.  The psalmist wants God to remember this.  He wants to go back to Zion.  It’s an OK psalm, but it’s more a history lesson than anything.  Most of it is pretty dispassionate under the circumstances.

PSALM 133

Like Psalm 131, this is just three verses long.  It’s a version of a community where people get along.  The first line reads, “How good and how pleasant it is when brothers dwell together as one!”  That does sound good and pleasant. But it’s a shame the psalmist doesn’t really elaborate much beyond that, because this could’ve been one of the better psalms after a start like that.

PSALM 134

For the third time in the last four psalms, this is just three verses long.  And it’s just a psalm praising God.  Well, that’s the type of psalm I get the least out of, and with just a modest length that there really isn’t much to get out of it anyway.  Eh, next. 

PSALM 135

OK, finally back with some longer psalms and Psalm 135 is a rockin’ psalm in praise of the Lord.  Normally praise of Lord psalms don’t do much for me (that’s life as an non-believer), but this one – I dunno.  It had a good beat and I could dance to it.

It’s just so exuberant.  It's a rockin’ psalm.  It begins by calling for praise of God, and then gives a bunch of reasons.  But it also keeps the energy of the opening verses.  I can’t give a good reason why I liked this one so much, other than to say I felt all of its exclamation points where earned.  I guess it just seemed like such an honest and open celebration.

It gets a little weird midway through, though.  You get all these lines celebrating God, and then you’re told, “He struck down Egypt’s firstborn.” Er, wait.  Yeah, I know he did and I get that it’s a sign of his power – but are we really making that a source of celebration?  Hurrah, he killed children!  Yeah, that’s weird.

It also goes back and forth on the existence of other gods.  Early on, it says hat “our Lord is great than all gods.”  That indicates polytheism is real.  But later on it notes, “The idols of the nations are silver and gold, the work of human hands” so they aren’t just foreign gods, but false gods.  So monotheism it is.  It’s also well written, as it says of the idols, “They have mouths but do not speak; they have eyes but do not see; They have ears but do not hear, nor is there breath in their mouths.”  Well done, psalmist, well done.

When this psalm is finished, I felt that someone should strike a power chord on a guitar.  It just seemed like a good way to end this one.

ROCK ON!

PSALM 136

This one reads like the B-side to Psalm 135.  Actually, it might be better to call it a rough draft of Psalm 135.  It’s the same basic psalm – a praise of the Lord.  It’s full of events from the Torah explaining why God is great.  It even uses some of the same events, including the tenth plague.  In fact, not only do both psalms note some kings God slew, but they even note the same ones!

I really hope this is the work of a different psalmist than Psalm 135, because if it’s the same guy, he’s clearly copying himself too much.

This psalm does have some originality.  It has a refrain.  In fact, I think it’s the biggest refrain in all the psalms so far.  Every single verse ends with the line, “for his mercy endures forever.”  Well, if you’re going to praise God, praising him for mercy is a quality reason.  (But it does lead to some odd moments, as we’re told how he kills all the Egyptian first born, and then the next line is about his mercy.  Yeah, that’s a bad fit). 

26 verses, 26 times God’s mercy endures forever.  I believe that is a record. 

Again, ROCK ON! 

PSALM 137

This is one of the most beautifully written psalms of all.  It’s a short psalm (nine verses) but it’s one of the most memorable.  It begins with maybe the most beautiful line in the entire books of psalms (and perhaps of the entire Bible): “By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat weeping when we remembered of Zion.”

Right away, you know the time and place of this psalm (in Babylon, during the captivity) and you get the mood – a sad longing for what once was but no longer is.

The sad mood of remembrance continues.  The captors torment the psalmist and his brook, asking for them to sing a song of Zion.  But how can we sing those sings in a foreign land?   I suppose he means the triumphant psalms and songs of David’s success – which would be greeted with gleeful, ironic laughs from the Babylonians. 

But the psalmist pledges he’ll never forget it: “If I forget you, Jerusalem, may my right hand forget.  May my tongue stick to my palate if I do not remember you.”  Again, it’s just well written.

So you can imagine the horror that you get when you get to the last line of the psalm, which is the most disgusted and morally reprehensible line in the entire Bible.  The psalmist says of the Babylonians: “Blessed the one who seizes your children and smashes them against the rock.”

GAAAHHH!!

Holy smokes – it’s a call for child murder.  That, that – that isn’t what you expect.  That said, it is foreshadowed as he doesn’t like the Babylonians.  And it fits in with the theme of many psalms of pitting good versus evil and calling for vengeance.  But this is so stark and sudden.  You go from melancholy to murder just like that. And not just any murder, but the murder of children!  Scary reality: this last line sounds like something out of the Holocaust. 

Thus in nine short verses Psalm 137 show the Bible at its best and worst.  

Click here for the final psalms