The call to dash their captives little ones against the rocks seems a bit harsh. Maybe it's hyperbole (wow. I don't think I've ever used that word before, but it just popped in my head and it fits.) But then again, God often asked the Israelites to completely destroy their enemies. When they didn't, those enemies ended up either turning the Israelites hearts against the Lord or they rebuilt their armies and attacked them.
This is how we must deal with sin in our lives. We must completely kill it off - dash even the little pieces of it against the rocks. An alcoholic can't give up drinking and then just have a sip every now and then because "just a little won't hurt."
I hate giving that example because you, my reader, may say, "Oh, I don't drink. I'm OK." That was just a way for me to demonstrate my point. You have your own sin you need to completely destroy.
You also have to put something in sin's place. Jesus told about the man who had demons cast out but the man didn't fill his heart/soul/thoughts/etc. with something else and the demon came back and found a nice big empty spot and brought back more demons with him "and the last state of that man becomes worse than the first." See Matthew 12:43-45 A heart swept clean of sin needs to be refilled with God's Spirit, God's word, pure, lovely, holy thoughts and actions. (I've just started the list. God will show you what you need to do.)
We should have the same sadness for sin in our lives as the sadness the Israelites had for being captives in a foreign land.
Well... that's not where I thought I would be going with this Psalm, but I think it's a good thought for the day.
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