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 piercing beauty of its opening line and the ferocity of its final wish (v. 9), and many commentators, Jewish and Christian alike, are at pains to distance themselves from it. But this wish in verse 9 is a vivid application of the principle of talion, the idea that punishment should match the crime (Gen. 9:6; Ex. 21:23–24). It may be taken as 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; as did 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; Amos 1:13; Nah. 3:10; Homer, 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 or vengeance (Lev. 19:17–18; Matt. 5:44). Generally speaking, the repentance of those who hate God’s people is preferred (cf. 83:16–18; comment on 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 (Rev. 6:9–10).758

We can add to these thoughts some considerations of how Psalm 137 would work as corporate song. We first notice that the song moves from “we” (vv. 1–4) to “I” (vv. 5–6) and then to “they” and “we” (vv. 7–8). The members of the singing congregation are to picture themselves as if they had been in Babylon—even if they were not physically there, they shared membership in the people of God who had (esp. as their descendants).759 This becomes clear when we recognize that the verbs in verses 1–3 are in the past tense, which makes clear that these events are a corporate recollection: “we sat down and wept . . . we remembered Zion . . . our captors required of us songs.” Then the song involves each member of the congregation (“I”) in a pledge of loyalty for the future. The activities of repaying and taking (vv. 8–9) are potentially future; the fall of Babylon to the Persians (under Cyrus; Ezra 1:1) in 539 BC was not especially violent,760 and it allowed the Jewish exiles to return to their homeland. Even a subsequent incident, in which after a rebellion the Persians retook Babylon in 522 BC (under Darius; Hag. 1:1), did not lead to pillaging of the city.761 The Persians were notorious for the ruthless punishments they inflicted on the ringleaders of rebellions (and sometimes on their descendants as well), but the city of Babylon was treated gently. This suggests that Edom and Babylon in Psalm 137 are emblematic of world powers that oppress God’s own people, and the destruction in verses 8–9 is a figure for their final overthrow, when God vindicates himself in his world.762 From this perspective the identity and feelings of the songwriter(s)—which are unknowable anyhow—fade from the picture, as the song is part of the hymnal of the people of God.

The song moves from recollection in the past tense (vv. 1–3) to a renewed commitment to Jerusalem (vv. 4–6) and then turns to reflect on two representative nations that had taken part in destroying the sacred city, anticipating their own destruction (vv. 7–9).

  I.  Our Sadness as Captives in Babylon (137:1–3)

  II.  May We Never Forget Jerusalem (137:4–6)

  III.  May the Lord Repay Those Who Destroyed Jerusalem (137:7–9)

The psalm leads up to the breathtaking “blessings” of verses 8–9, which seem really to be curses on the people’s enemies. The song as a whole involves the faithful in (restored) Judea in reflecting on how the Lord has brought his people back from exile—an exile their ancestors brought upon themselves. The singers are to own their connection to the exiled generation (by way of the term “we”), and each singer is to renew his or her commitment to the Lord’s purposes for the future (by way of the term “I”).

The prayer that the Lord would remember the wrongs done to the people does not negate the unfaithfulness of the people; it rather highlights the Gentile powers’ too-enthusiastic brutality toward helpless Judah when the Lord handed her over to punishment. It further enables the faithful of following generations to trust that the Lord will indeed vindicate his choice of Abraham’s offspring, in his own proper time; it does not encourage them to vengeful warfare.

In books such as Revelation Christians are enabled to rejoice at the coming downfall of Babylon, that emblem of worldly power used to oppress and suppress the faithful. The Lord’s purposes will triumph in the end, and God’s people should never lose heart.Psalm 137

Psalm 138