Angry Words - Psalm 137

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!

1.     Does being angry make you uncomfortable? Is it something you resist or try not to acknowledge?

2.     Is it comforting or upsetting that God gets angry? What do you think of God giving us angry words to bring to him?

3.     Has anger or another strong emotion ever kept you from being able to worship? Do you agree that praying your anger might lead to a spiritual breakthrough?

4.     Can you trust God with all the injustice you’ve experienced or witnessed? Explain.

5.     Do you ever hesitate to pray something that might be theologically incomplete or inaccurate? Does this passage give you permission to?

6.     Are you open to God responding to your anger and asking you questions? Do you see Jesus as the one who meets you in your trauma, as well as the one who redeems traumatizers? Can you accept that?