Psalm 137:9

Happy is the one who seizes your infants and dashes them against the rocks.

Yesterday we had our morning devotions in the car as we drove to an arboretum to enjoy nature. We have been reading through the Book of Psalms and arrived at Psalm 137. My children were shocked by the last line of the Psalm recorded above “Happy is the one who seizes your infants and dashes them against the rocks.” Such a vivid image was created in our minds by these words that we had to discuss more symbolic interpretations.

I compared this verse to God's warning to Cain in Genesis 4:7, “Sin is crouching at your door, it desires to have you but you must rule over it.” What Cain had to rule over in that moment was only his hurt feelings and his jealousy. The sin was in its infancy. Cain did not dash this infant on the rocks however, and later spoke in fear and despair “My punishment is more than I can bear.” (Genesis 4:13) The sin, by that point, was full grown and had dominated Cain, overpowering him as much as Cain had overpowered his brother.

My children seemed satisfied by my little sermon and we went on with our day of exploring the flowers, trees, visiting the butterflies and sitting by the creek.

Full of the sights after a long morning and ready for lunch we began to make our way back to our car. My son ran ahead of my daughter, and snatched the front passenger door handle - when it was my daughter’s turn to sit in the front seat. She began to complain and remind him of our system of taking turns. I told her I would deal with the situation and called him to come to me for a family meeting - he would not come. I walked to the pond and encouraged my daughter to follow. He called after us and we ignored him. He came over and sat down asking what we were doing. I asked them both what they remembered of our Psalm from earlier. They both recalled “bashing the baby’s head on the rocks.” I said we had a baby here. My son refused to continue the conversation and turned his back on us. My daughter and I rose to our feet in silence and began to walk back to the car. My son noticed our leaving and ran ahead to grab the same door handle, setting up the same power struggle. So I took a detour and walked around looking among the trees. My son asked what I was looking for. “Rocks!” I said. He laughed, sounding nervous.

I came back with a small collection and arranged a row of rocks by size on the hood of our car. I put the smallest in his hand and said, “This is the size of me saying ‘Come here and talk’ is that enough to smash this baby?” I put the largest rock in his hand and asked “What would this rock be?” “A spanking,” he said. I asked which size would be able to smash this baby and he chose a smallish rock with sharp edges. I asked what it would be “Get in your seat or you can’t eat!” Then he went to his side of the car. Perfect sized rock for this infant!

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