Psalm 137...

Psalm 137 begins:

“By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down,

yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion.”

And ends in a scream for vengeance.

The psalmists lived through genocide

which might make their language understandable

but also maybe not hyperbole.

In “Song of Exile,” David W. Stowe interviewed Miroslav Volf,

who knew ethnic and religious tension growing up in Yugoslavia

and who taught seminary there as war broke out.

“In the imprecatory Psalms, torrents of rage...flow freely,

channeled only by the...structure of a...prayer,”

Volf said.

“...by placing unattended rage before God

we place both our unjust enemy and our own vengeful self

face to face with a God who loves and does justice....”

“Hidden in the dark chambers of our hearts...

hate grows and seeks to infest everything

with its hellish will to exclusion,” Volf said,

“In the light of the justice and love of God...

hate recedes and the seed is planted

for the miracle of forgiveness.”