Psalms 137 · ESV Study Bible

How Shall We Sing the LORD’s Song?

PSALM 137 [†] By the waters of Babylon,

there we sat down and wept,

when we remembered Zion.

2[†] On the willows [1] there

we hung up our lyres.

3 For there our captors

required of us songs,

and our tormentors, mirth, saying,

“Sing us one of the songs of Zion!”

4[†] s How shall we sing the LORD’s song

in a foreign land?

5 If I forget you, O Jerusalem,

t let my right hand forget its skill!

6[^] Let my u tongue stick to the roof of my mouth,

if I do not remember you,

if I do not set Jerusalem

above my highest joy!

7[†] Remember, O LORD, against the v Edomites

w the day of Jerusalem,

how they said, x “Lay it bare, lay it bare,

down to its foundations!”

8 O daughter of Babylon, y doomed to be destroyed,

blessed shall he be who z repays you

with what you have done to us!

9 Blessed shall he be who takes your little ones

and a dashes them against the rock!

Of David.

PSALM—NOTE ON 137:1–3 Our Sadness as Captives in Babylon. The opening section recalls the captivity by the waters of Babylon (the Euphrates River, several streams and canals), where the Babylonian captors had required of us songs. The songs of Zion would be sacred songs (such as the psalms), and apparently the captors wanted the Judeans to sing them for entertainment (and perhaps gloating) rather than for worship.

PSALM—NOTE ON Psalm 137. This community lament remembers the Babylonian captivity, and provides words by which the returned exiles can express their loyalty to Jerusalem and pray that God would pay out his just punishment on those who gloat over its destruction. This psalm is notable for the ferocity of its final wish (v. 9). This is a vivid application of the principle of talion, the principle that punishment should match the crime (Gen. 9:6; Ex. 21:23–24). It is a prayer that the Babylonians, who had smashed Israelite infants, should be punished appropriately. Three additional comments may be made. First, even though Babylon was the Lord’s tool for disciplining his people, they apparently went about their work with cruel glee (cf. Isa. 47:6; cf. the Assyrians, Isa. 10:5–7). Second, the vile practice of destroying the infants of a conquered people is well-attested in the ancient world (e.g., 2 Kings 8:12; Hos. 10:14; 13:16; Nah. 3:10; Homer’s Iliad 22.63), and was therefore foretold of the fall of Babylon (Isa. 13:16). Further, the Babylonians had apparently done this to the Judeans (as the connection with Ps. 137:8 suggests), and the prophets led the people to await God’s justice (Isa. 47:1–9; Jer. 51:24). In this light, the psalm is not endorsing the action in itself but is instead seeing the conquerors of Babylon as carrying out God’s just sentence (even unwittingly). Neither Israelites nor Christians are permitted to indulge personal hatred and vengeance (cf. Lev. 19:17–18; Matt. 5:44); generally speaking, the repentance of those who hate God’s people is preferred (see note on Ps. 83:9–18), and yet, failing that, any prayer for God’s justice (and for Christ’s return) will involve punishment for those who have oppressed his people (cf. Rev. 6:9–10).

PSALM—NOTE ON 137:2 willows. Or “poplars” (cf. esv footnote). In either case this kind of tree grows beside flowing water.

PSALM—NOTE ON 137:1 sat down and wept. The past tense distances the singers from these events, which favors the conclusion that the psalm comes from after the exile.