Psalm 137 is an imprecatory Psalm that relates the deep sadness of God’s people in exile – away from their beloved home – Jerusalem. “By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept when we remembered Zion” (verse 1). Why were they in Babylon, of all places? Babylon epitomizes everything that is opposed to God and His people. We know that sin was the reason for their exile, and that their exile was rightly deserved, but even while His people experienced the harsh consequences of their removal from their land, God was still present, and He still loved them. Yet, even in captivity, the Israelites knew with certainty the promises and prophecies of God to “doom and destroy Babylon” at a future time (cf., verse 8). Psalm 137 expresses the intense emotions that we feel when our sin separates us from the blessings of our divine inheritance. Indeed, how can we rejoice “while in a foreign land” (verse 4)? How can we sing when we are “tormented” by our “captors?” (verse 3). They are the enemies of God. We need to “remember” the glories of “Zion” – God’s very presence – and return to Him. Only when we return from our “exile” in sin to a right relationship with Him, will we truly experience our “highest joy” (verse 6).
In Daniel 9:20–11;1, we see Gabriel “instructing” Daniel regarding his vision of “seventy sevens which have been decreed for his people” (verses 22-24). This vision relates to the end times – with both near and far fulfillment – when God will eventually “finish transgression, put an end to sin, atone for wickedness, bring in everlasting righteousness, seal up vision and prophecy, and anoint the most holy” (verse 24). This passage prophetically refers to the wickedness of Antiochus Epiphanes who, by his desecration of the temple in 168 BC, foreshadows the coming Antichrist. Like the historical and deceitful Antiochus, the future Antichrist will break his “covenant” with the people of Israel, and commit the “abomination that causes desolation” (verse 27). Here, we also see a prophecy about the coming and the death of the “Anointed One” – Jesus Christ. In Daniel 10-11:1, we see Daniel’s vision of “the man dressed in linen,” (verses 5-6). Consistent with Revelation 1:12-20, this Man is a pre-incarnate appearance of our Lord Jesus Christ, and He had come to explain what would happen in the future (verse 14). Daniel’s encounter with the Lord was so breathtaking that it affected him physically – he was “speechless, overcome with anguish; he trembled and could hardly breathe” (verses 15-17). We can see from this that Jesus Christ holds divine authority, and He alone is truly worthy of all our highest praise and worship.
In 1 John 3, the apostle contrasts the hatred of the world with the love of Christ which should characterize the life of every believer. Hatred is equated with murder, and contrary to popular belief, we are all capable of it (verse 12). We are commanded to love not only in our words, but also through our actions (verse 16). In 1 John 4, we are told to “test the spirits” (verse 1) to determine their origin. The acknowledgment that Jesus Christ is God in the flesh testifies that the spirit is of God. Moreover, those who truly “know God,” will “listen to us” (verse 6), but those who “do not listen” to our message “are not from God;” they are from the world, and they “speak from the viewpoint of the world” (verses 5-6). John calls us to “love one another because love comes from God” (verse 7). Nothing testifies or transmits the truth of God more effectively than our love for one another.
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