Praying the Psalms with Augustine and Friends

Chapter 8: Psalms 131–150

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invite the Babylonians to destroy them. However, the psalmist does not burst into these awful denunciations rashly, but as God’s herald, to confirm former prophecies. God had announced through Ezekiel and Jeremiah that he would punish the Edomites (Ezek 25:13; Jer 49:7; and Lam 4:21, 22). Obadiah distinctly gives the reason why— they had conspired with the Babylonians (Obad 1:11). The psalmist prays, under the inspiration of the Spirit, that God would demonstrate the truth of this announcement practically. And when he says, remember, LORD, he reminds God’s people of his promise to strengthen their belief in his avenging justice, and make them wait patiently for the event. Happy is the one who seizes your infants and dashes them against the rocks (v. 9). It may seem cruel, but he does not speak under the impulse of personal feeling, and only employs words which God had himself authorized, so that this is the declaration of a just judgment, as when our Lord says, “With the measure you use, it will be measured to you” (Matt 7:2).