Psalms 137
Big idea: The only psalm written from inside the exile, and its detail is unbearable: the captors wanted entertainment. Sing us one of the songs of Zion. Everything in the first half is refusal — harps hung in trees, a vow to let his own hand fail before he forgets Jerusalem. And then it ends with three verses nobody quotes, asking for Babylon's infants to be killed the way Babylon killed theirs. The Psalter records the words a wrecked people actually said. It does not endorse them; it hands them to God rather than to a sword.
Psalm 137 cannot sing. Psalm 138 sings before the gods of the nations that silenced it.
137:1–6 — How can we sing Yahweh's song?
The most painful psalm to read and one of the most precisely constructed. The captors ask for a SONG OF ZION — entertainment made out of the place they destroyed — and the answer is a question that has no answer, followed by two self-curses. And both curses target a musician's own instruments: the right hand that plays, and the tongue that sings.
1 By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down. Yes, we wept, when we remembered Zion. 2 On the willows in that land, we hung up our harps. 3 For there, those who led us captive asked us for songs. Those who tormented us demanded songs of joy: “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!” 4 How can we sing Yahweh’s song in a foreign land? 5 If I forget you, Jerusalem, let my right hand forget its skill. 6 Let my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth if I don’t remember you, if I don’t prefer Jerusalem above my chief joy.
137:7–9 — Remember, Yahweh, against the children of Edom
The three verses most readers wish were not in the Bible, and they should not be softened or skipped. Edom is remembered for cheering the demolition; Babylon is addressed as already doomed. And verse 9 wishes on Babylon's children exactly what Babylon did to Jerusalem's — it is a demand for symmetry, spoken by someone who watched it happen, and the psalm records the wish rather than endorsing it.
7 Remember, Yahweh, against the children of Edom in the day of Jerusalem, who said, “Raze it! Raze it even to its foundation!” 8 Daughter of Babylon, doomed to destruction, he will be happy who repays you, as you have done to us. 9 Happy shall he be, who takes and dashes your little ones against the rock.
Scripture text: World English Bible (public domain).