Psalm 137:5

5 If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget its skill.

Psalm 137:5 Meaning and Commentary

Psalms 137:5

If I forget thee, O Jerusalem
This was said by one or everyone of the Levites; or singers, as Aben Ezra and Kimchi; or by the congregation of Israel, as Jarchi; by one of them, in the name of the rest; or by the composer of the psalm. The Targum is,

``the voice of the Spirit of God answered and said, "if I forget"''

that is, to weep over the calamities of Jerusalem; which might be thought, if the songs of Zion were sung; or to pray for the restoration of her prosperity and peace; as the church of Christ may be said to be forgotten, when men forget to mourn over its breaches, and show no concern for the reparation of them; or at the death of principal persons, which they lay not to heart; or at the great decay of religion in those that survive; or at the sins of professors, and their disregard to the word and ordinances: also when they forget to pray for her happiness in general; for the good of her members in particular; and especially for her ministers, that they may have assistance and success; and for a blessing on the word and ordinances, and for the conversion of sinners; and when they forget the worship of the Lord in it, and forsake the assembling of themselves together;

let my right hand forget [her cunning];
her skill in music, particularly in playing on the harp; see ( 1 Samuel 16:16 1 Samuel 16:18 ) ; the harp was held in the left hand, and struck with the right; and that more softly or hardly, as the note required, in which was the skill or cunning of using it. Or let this befall me, should I so far forget Jerusalem as to strike the harp to one of the songs of Zion in a strange land: or let it forget any of its works; let it be disabled from working at all; let it be dry and withered, which, Aben Ezra says, is the sense of the word according to some; and Schultens ^F4, from the use of it in Arabic, renders it, let it be "disjointed", or the nerve loosened; see ( Job 31:22 ) . Or the sense is, let everything that is as dear as my right hand he taken from me: or, as it may be rendered, "my right hand [is] forgotten" ^F5; that is, should I forget Jerusalem, it would; for that is as my right hand; so Arama. Some choose to translate the words thus, "may thou (O God) forget my right hand" ^F6; that is, to be at my right hand; to be a present help to me in time of need; to hold me by it, and to be the shade of it.

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FOOTNOTES:

F4 Animadv. Philol. p. 181.
F5 (ynymy xkvt) "oblita est nostra dextra", Castalio.
F6 "Oblivisceris (O Domine) dexterae meae", Gejerus; so some in Michaelis.

Psalm 137:5 In-Context

3 For there they that had taken us captive asked of us the words of a song; and they that had carried us away asked a hymn, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Sion.

4 How should we sing the Lord’s song in a strange land?

5 If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget its skill.

6 May my tongue cleave to my throat, if I do not remember thee; if I do not prefer Jerusalem as the chief of my joy.

7 Remember, O Lord, the children of Edom in the day of Jerusalem; who said, Rase it, rase it, even to its foundations.