Psalm 137 paints a terrifying prophetic picture of a tragedy about to befall a great many of God’s people.
Our Church hymnal has a song, “By the Waters of Babylon,” which is taken from Psalm 137. This is a fascinating psalm of only nine verses.
It begins, “By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion” (Psalm 137:1). Zion refers to God’s Church. In the end time, there is a righteous Zion and a rebellious Zion. Here the rebels remembered their recent history with righteous Zion beforethey rebelled. This is a prophecy about God’s Church.
The Psalms are filled with prophecy: They are mainly the work of David, who was a prophet (Acts 2:29-31). Jeremiah and Moses were also prophets who wrote some of the psalms.
Verse 8 of Psalm 137 also shows that this isprophecy: “O daughter of Babylon, who art to be destroyed; happy shall he be, that rewardeth thee as thou hast served us.” Who is the “daughter of Babylon”? Anciently, God sent Jeremiah to Judah with a warning for the Jews that Babylon was coming. When he wrote his book, however, he didn’t address it to Judah—he addressed it to Israel. That is because his message is a prophecy for the end-time descendants of Israel. Babylon is coming again, but this time it is the daughter of Babylon.
This prophecy about “Zion” is for this end time.Specifically here, Zion refers to God’s Church in the modern day—the work of Herbert W. Armstrong and the Philadelphia Church of God.
This is talking specifically about people whoremember Zion—the work of Mr. Armstrong—while they are enslaved by Babylon. They are captive in Germany, Saudi Arabia perhaps, and other countries like Turkey and Lebanon—and they are weeping! They are weeping in Babylon. They didn’t weep when they were in the United States, Great Britain, Canada, Australia, New Zealand or Judah. They didn’t weep then, but they are weeping in captivity to Babylon!
There are people in God’s Church—the Laodiceans, in the last era of God’s Church before the Second Coming (Revelation 3:14-22)—who are about to go into captivity!
Why would God allow that? Many other scriptures refer to this captivity, and God saysHe put it in the minds of the modern-day Babylonians to punish Israel and the Laodiceans this way. What is God so upset about?
While in captivity, these people remember righteous Zion in—this must mean that they have forgotten righteous Zion today! Only the Laodiceans could ever remember loyal Zion. People who were never in that Church could remember themessage of Zion, but only the Laodiceans could remember righteous Zion. In that future distress, they will remember Mr. Armstrong; they will remember the members of the Church; they will remember what happened in the past. How can you just blot it out of your mind? They willremember how we served God together—so, in captivity, they will weep and finally repent. Butthey won’t remember until they are in Babylonian captivity!
They become victims of God’s warning prophecies, which they had helped to proclaimbefore they rebelled!
This is a strong warning for all of us. The Laodiceans have to repent and sing these songs in a strange land. It will take a Babylonian captivity to wake up these people of God!
They have heard all these prophecies that are being fulfilled today. They knew the prophecies about the Holy Roman Empire. God has been so patient, giving them many years to repent! But they chose not to pay attention. They were just too puffed up in their vanity and human reasoning.
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