Psalms 137:1-7

1 We were sitting by the rivers of Babylon. We cried when we remembered what had happened to Zion.

2 On the nearby poplar trees we hung up our harps.

3 Those who held us as prisoners asked us to sing. Those who enjoyed hurting us ordered us to sing joyful songs. They said, "Sing one of the songs of Zion to us!"

4 How can we sing the songs of the LORD while we are in another land?

5 Jerusalem, if I forget you, may my right hand never be able to play the harp again.

6 If I don't remember you, may my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth so I can't sing. May it happen if I don't consider Jerusalem to be my greatest joy.

7 Lord, remember what the people of Edom did on the day Jerusalem fell. "Tear it down!" they cried. "Tear it down to the ground!"

Psalms 137:1-7 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO PSALM 137

The occasion of this psalm was the captivity of the Jews in Babylon, and the treatment they met with there; either as foreseen, or as now endured. Aben Ezra ascribes this psalm to David; and so the Syriac version, which calls it,

``a psalm of David; the words of the saints, who were carried captive into Babylon.''

The Septuagint, Vulgate Latin, and Ethiopic versions, make it to be David's, and yet add the name of Jeremiah; and the Arabic version calls it David's, concerning Jeremiah: but, as Theodoret observes, Jeremiah was not carried into Babylon, but, after some short stay in or near Jerusalem, was forced away into Egypt; and could neither be the writer nor subject of this psalm: and though it might be written by David under a spirit of prophecy; who thereby might foresee and foretell the Babylonish captivity, and what the Jews would suffer in it; as the prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah did, many years before it came to pass; yet it seems rather to have been written by one of the captivity, either while in it, or immediately after it.