My wife recently wrote the following. I liked it so much I decided to post it here:
"I like your inquisitive mind...and your question from Psalm 137:9...its still banging around in my head...
"The God of the Bible is not a god we can make up:
"In the Bible are two meanings for putting a person to death: (1) is to kill, (2) to murder.
"Murder is a sin and God calls for the death penalty. The other: to kill is the responsibility of a government or the military to dispense justice. If we are sinned against, vengeance is God's option and He uses government to create law and order and to give us justice. Our responsibility is not to seek vengeance. Our job is to forgive...but, Roxy here is something helpful, I think:
"C. S. Lewis in Mere Christianity has a freeing explanation of forgiveness:
" 'Does loving your enemy mean not punishing him? No, for loving myself does not mean that I ought not to subject myself to punishment - even death. If you had committed a murder, the right Christian thing to do would be to give yourself up to the police and be hanged. It is therefore, in my opinion, perfectly right for a Christian judge to sentence a man to death or a Christian soldier to kill an enemy....'Thou shalt not kill,' (Jesus)...There are two Greek words used in the New Testament for putting to death: the ordinary word to kill and the word to murder. And when Christ quotes that commandment He uses the murder one in all three accounts...I am told there is the same distinction in Hebrew (in the Old Testament). All killing is not murder any more than all sexual intercourse is adultery...'
"In Psalm 137, it is referring to justice: God is the One to handle it. When we forgive we are not pretending we do not "see" the injustice, it is laying down our inclination to pay back. Forgiveness (and I'm getting this understanding from C.S.Lewis chapter on forgiveness) is "fighting" the hate and hoping the person who hurt us will become a better person. Always remember: "Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord." Romans_12:19
"One more thing: Edom called for Jerusalem to be demolished (Psalm 137:7) (they ) were a historically evil enemy to God's people. Some people have darkened hearts...only God knows what their judgment should be."
