Introduction: As you most likely are aware, Psalms are melodies. They were initially put to music. This specific tune was perhaps the saddest tune at any point made and at any point sung in the place of God.
This Psalm was composed by a P.O.W.. However, this was not simply a POW, this was a detainee of need, W-A-N-T. The lyricist here is singing of when adherents where in Babylon. These professors in Babylon were likewise adherents to servitude. Where whenever they had been excited with the new scent of opportunity, presently the acrid odor of servitude filled their noses.
Presently, rather than appreciating gifts, they were suffering weights. Productivity had gone to exposed state; satisfaction had gone to harshness; happiness had gone to brokenness.
Presently to comprehend the foundation of the story, recollect that the Children of Israel had been out of hand into imprisonment by the Babylonians. Presently they had been out of hand because not in view of their shortcoming but since of their devilishness. They had fallen away from the living God. God had permitted their guards to be separated and utilized an agnostic country to push them to the edge of total collapse to break them and to carry them to atonement.
Presently that ought not shock you. Since Babylon consistently prompts exposed state. Babylon consistently prompts sharpness and Babylon consistently prompts brokenness. That is, in case you are an offspring of God. The solitary individuals who are cheerful in Babylon are Babylonians. Presently there's a lesson in that sentence.
Babylon in the Bible is an image of the world in the entirety of its wrongdoing. It is an image of the world in the entirety of its excessive admiration. It is an image of the world in the entirety of its unethical behavior.
The name Babylon implies disarray. Presently, these individuals were in Babylon yet their hearts were in Zion. They were sobbing since they "recalled Zion" (section 1). They couldn't forget about Zion.
Zion is another name for Jerusalem. The name Jerusalem signifies "City of Peace". In the past these individuals lived in God's state house city. Since they were directly with God they were sacred. Since God was directly with them they were glad. Furthermore, in light of the fact that they were directly with one another they were solid.
There are two significant urban areas in the Bible and they are absolutely inverse but then, in a bizarre way, attractively pulled in. There is Babylon, the ghastly city; there is Jerusalem the heavenly city. There is Babylon, the seat of fiendishness; and there is Jerusalem, the wellspring of heavenliness. Individuals of God had been moved from Zion to Babylon.
There were two individuals around here, there were the prisoners and the captors. Presently the prisoners address the holy people, individuals of God. While the captors address miscreants, offspring of this world. Thus this is an image of adherents to Babylon. Christians who are in imprisonment. Also, it shares, both generally and religiously, The Backslidder's Burden.
I. V. 1-2 THERE IS A SADNESS THEY CANNOT ESCAPE
(Sick. A foreboding shadow of melancholy loomed over the tops of these individuals which completely overshadowed the daylight of satisfaction which whenever had lit up their lives. Presently there are two reasons they were miserable.)
A. The Misery In Their Hearts - "By the streams of Babylon there we plunked down, yea, we wept...." (section 1). From the absolute first day they moved into their new homes they were totally hopeless. There is an enormous distinction between being lost and being saved. Presently both a lost individual and a saved individual can sin. Indeed, I'll go farther, both a lost individual and a saved individual will sin. Be that as it may, the thing that matters is this, just one of them can appreciate it. Offense consistently carries tears to the eyes of a genuine offspring of God.
God loves you such a lot of that He will allow you to go to Babylon, yet He adores you an excessive amount to allow you to partake in the stay.
These individuals were despondent on account of where they were as well as more in light of why they were there in any case. For what reason would they say they were there? Well pay attention to the dismal story that is related in Jeremiah 25:1-11.
Presently we read there that God gave three things to individuals of Israel. He gave them a land, He gave them a Law, and He gave them a Lord. However, they polluted the land. The opposed the Law. Also, they denied the Lord. Also, when they did, God restrained them and He did it by "Nebuchadnezzar the ruler of Babylon, My worker" (refrain 9). God can hit a colossal lick with a slanted stick. God took an agnostic ruler administering over an agnostic armed force, living in an agnostic land, showing agnostic laws, serving agnostic divine beings and utilized him as His pole of discipline to rebuff His own kin.
Presently you might ponder internally "if God truly adored them He would not have done that". A remarkable opposite, it is on the grounds that God adored them that God did that. For we read in Jeremiah 24:5, "Accordingly saith the LORD, the God of Israel; Like these great figs, so will I recognize them that are out of hand hostage of Judah, whom I have conveyed of this spot into the place where there is the Chaldeans for their great."
Any parent realizes that discipline is never a joy however it is normal occasions an obligation. Furthermore, the parent does that obligation since the individual in question knows in the end the outcome will be an enjoyment to both the dad and the kid. Exactly the same thing is valid for God. God loves us enough to allow us to sin, on the off chance that we so want, however He cherishes us an excessive amount to allow us to appreciate it or to allow us to pull off it.
B. The Memory Of Their Home - These outcasts plunked down and "sobbed when we recalled Zion" (stanza 1). Zion here addresses Jerusalem, the Holy Hill of God. The home of God. Zion addresses the spot of the presence of God.
Their hearts were substantial. Their harps were hung: "We hung our
harps upon the willows amidst it."
Here they were sobbing in the shadows of sobbing willows. Their psyche had meandered back to Jerusalem, the "city of Peace" where the quiet presence of God could be felt all day every day. Be that as it may, presently they were here in Babylon, isolated from their Father, encircled by their adversaries, disheartened by their disappointment, shackled by their feelings of dread.
I concede that I feel frustrated about individuals who don't know God. Who have never encountered the delight that comes from an imperative relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. Since "in His essence is completion of euphoria". However, may I submit to you that the saddest individual on the planet isn't the individual who doesn't know God. The saddest individual on the planet is the individual who realizes God yet is out of association with Him.
There are so some so-call "Christians" who live like the Devil. Residents of misery who live in transgression, who show no enthusiasm for the things of God, who couldn't think often less about living sacred, isolated lives. They never sob, they never cry; they never appear to be troubled, significantly less broken due to their wrongdoing but then they proclaim to be saved.
Do you know why so many of these supposed Christians live in transgression and never shed a tear? It is on the grounds that they have no memory of Zion. They have never been to Zion. They have never been saved. They can't recall what it resembled when they strolled with God since they have never had a stroll with God.
Do you know why numerous individuals exit church? It is on the grounds that they were never a piece of the congregation in the first place, 1 John 2:19.
The congregation is in excess of a structure. The congregation is a body. It is the Body of Christ. There is a colossal contrast between having a place with a structure and being a gathering of body.
A parasite can append itself to my body but then never be a piece of my body. In my service I have found in the congregation profound parasites. Individuals who append themselves to the structure, sucking the entirety of the advantages and favors from it they can, however when the blood is gone - they go get another structure. Be that as it may, they never become a piece of the body.
Do you know why a genuine adherent can never be cheerful in Babylon? Since whenever you have tasted Jesus, you won't ever be happy with the food the world has to bring to the table. These dear individuals, who whenever had tasted the pleasantness of Zion's wonder, presently was tasting the harshness of Babylon's blame. Furthermore, I can well envision they were pondering internally:
Where is the blessedness I knew
When I initially saw the Lord?
Where is the spirit reviving perspective
Of Jesus and His Word?
What serene hours I once delighted in!
How sweet their memory still!
However, they have left a throbbing void
The world can never fill.
II. V. 3 THERE IS A SARCASM THEY CANNOT ENDURE
(Sick. Sin consistently brings something beyond subjection. It brings disgrace. This world isn't keen on a Christian as long as he remains on his feet. Be that as it may, he will put him on the first page of the paper when he crashes and burns. The world loves to see Christians fall. Their adage is "The greater they are the harder they fall and the better we like it."
Presently that ought not amaze you. Jesus said: "In case ye were of the world, the world would cherish his own: but since ye are not of the world, but rather I have picked you out of the world, hence the world hateth you.", John 15:19.
The world loves to stack its gun with the grain of fallen Christians. Did you see that when Jim Baker and Jimmy Swaggart fell they turned into the greatest focuses of humorists like Johnny Carson and others? They turned into the aim of such countless jokes.
Toss Swindoll said: "The scoffers and pundits of Christianity never stand any taller or yell any stronger than when God's kin freely fall into transgression and are power to endure the unavoidable fallout. All Satan's host hit the dance floor with happiness when devotees compromise, behave recklessly, then, at that point get burned."1
One of the main profound hotshots at any point to fall was the most grounded man who at any point lived by the name of Samson. You recall his story well. He was the blond kid of the Jewish race. He was God's decision and individuals' boss. However, he fell. He stumbled over his own wrongdoing. At the point when he did, his foes put out his eyes, they bound him, put him to accomplishing a lady's work and the final thing they requested of him before he rendered his retribution is described in Judges 16:25.
"So it occurred, when their he
