137
📚By the rivers of Babylon 📖, there we sat down;
yes, we wept, when we
remembered Zion.
2 📚We hung our harps on
the willows in the
midst of it.
3 📚For there those who carried us
away captive required a song
from us,
and those who tormented us
demanded merry making,
saying,
“Sing us some of the songs
of Zion”.
4 📚How shall we sing the LORD’s
song in a foreign land?
137:2-4 Their joy was completely gone. Their oppressors tried to make sport of them, demanding that they sing when their hearts were broken. Compare Jud 16:23-25. This only added to their sorrow and no doubt was intended to do so.⚜
5 📚If I forget you, O Jerusalem,
let my right hand forget its skill.
6 📚If I do not remember you,
if I do not prefer Jerusalem above
my chief joy,
let my tongue cling to the roof
of my mouth.
137:5-6 Jerusalem was in their hearts because it was the city of God, the place of Jehovah’s temple, the dwelling place of heaven’s King.⚜
7 📚Remember, O LORD,
the children of Edom on the day
of Jerusalem’s fall,
who said, “Raze it,
raze it to its
very foundation!”
137:7 Lam 4:21-22. The Edomites were descended from Esau, the brother of Jacob, and so were related to the Jews (Gen 25:24-34). Instead of helping them against the Babylonians they rejoiced in their defeat.⚜
8 📚O daughter of Babylon,
you who are to be destroyed,
happy will he be who
repays you as you have dealt
with us.
9 📚Happy shall he be who
takes your little ones and dashes
them against the stones.
137:8-9 This language seems very harsh today to those who have believed the gospel of the Lord Jesus. But all we have here is a cry for justice – “do to them as they have done to us”. The Babylonians doubtless had done to the infants of Israel what he now wishes someone would do to their infants. He longed to see God’s retribution coming on a nation which had cruelly oppressed his people. If it was right for God to avenge them, it was also right for God to inspire a hope in their heart that He would indeed do so. This is in accordance with God’s law of retribution clearly expressed in the Bible (Ps 18:25-26; Num 31:1-3; Deut 32:35, 41, 43; Gal 6:7). But see the notes at Ps 35:8; 139:19.⚜