By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down. Yes, we wept, when we remembered Zion.
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By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down. Yes, we wept, when we remembered Zion.
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By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion.
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By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion.
Cross-references (24)
Passages linked to Psalms 137:1 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Ezekiel 1:1 Now in the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, in the fifth day of the month, as I was among the captives by the river Chebar, the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God.
- Ezekiel 3:15 Then I came to them of the captivity at Tel Aviv, that lived by the river Chebar, and to where they lived; and I sat there overwhelmed among them seven days.
- Lamentations 2:10-11 The elders of the daughter of Zion sit on the ground. They keep silence. They have cast up dust on their heads. They have clothed themselves with sackcloth. The virgins of Jerusalem hang down their heads to the ground. My eyes fail with tears. My heart is troubled. My liver is poured on the earth, because of the destruction of the daughter of my people, because the young children and the infants swoon in the streets of the city.
- Lamentations 2:18 Their heart cried to the Lord. O wall of the daughter of Zion, let tears run down like a river day and night. Give yourself no relief. Don’t let the your eyes rest.
- Lamentations 3:48 My eye runs down with streams of water, for the destruction of the daughter of my people.
- Ezekiel 1:3 Yahweh’s word came to Ezekiel the priest, the son of Buzi, in the land of the Chaldeans by the river Chebar; and Yahweh’s hand was there on him.
- Ezra 8:21 Then I proclaimed a fast there, at the river Ahava, that we might humble ourselves before our God, to seek from him a straight way for us, and for our little ones, and for all our possessions.
- Ezra 8:31 Then we departed from the river Ahava on the twelfth day of the first month, to go to Jerusalem. The hand of our God was on us, and he delivered us from the hand of the enemy and the bandit by the way.
- Nehemiah 1:3-4 They said to me, “The remnant who are left of the captivity there in the province are in great affliction and reproach. The wall of Jerusalem is also broken down, and its gates are burned with fire.” When I heard these words, I sat down and wept, and mourned several days; and I fasted and prayed before the God of heaven,
- Nehemiah 2:3 I said to the king, “Let the king live forever! Why shouldn’t my face be sad, when the city, the place of my fathers’ tombs, lies waste, and its gates have been consumed with fire?”
- Job 2:12-13 When they lifted up their eyes from a distance, and didn’t recognize him, they raised their voices, and wept; and they each tore his robe, and sprinkled dust on their heads toward the sky. So they sat down with him on the ground seven days and seven nights, and no one spoke a word to him, for they saw that his grief was very great.
- Psalms 42:4 These things I remember, and pour out my soul within me, how I used to go with the crowd, and led them to God’s house, with the voice of joy and praise, a multitude keeping a holy day.
- Psalms 102:9-14 For I have eaten ashes like bread, and mixed my drink with tears, because of your indignation and your wrath; for you have taken me up and thrown me away. My days are like a long shadow. I have withered like grass. But you, Yahweh, will remain forever; your renown endures to all generations. You will arise and have mercy on Zion; for it is time to have pity on her. Yes, the set time has come. For your servants take pleasure in her stones, and have pity on her dust.
- Jeremiah 13:17-18 But if you will not hear it, my soul will weep in secret for your pride. My eye will weep bitterly, and run down with tears, because Yahweh’s flock has been taken captive. Say to the king and to the queen mother, “Humble yourselves. Sit down, for your crowns have come down, even the crown of your glory.
- Jeremiah 15:17 I didn’t sit in the assembly of those who make merry and rejoice. I sat alone because of your hand, for you have filled me with indignation.
- Jeremiah 51:50-51 You who have escaped the sword, go! Don’t stand still! Remember Yahweh from afar, and let Jerusalem come into your mind.” “We are confounded, because we have heard reproach. Confusion has covered our faces, for strangers have come into the sanctuaries of Yahweh’s house.”
- Lamentations 1:16 “For these things I weep. My eye, my eye runs down with water, because the comforter who should refresh my soul is far from me. My children are desolate, because the enemy has prevailed.”
- Luke 19:41 When he came near, he saw the city and wept over it,
- Isaiah 66:10 “Rejoice with Jerusalem, and be glad for her, all you who love her. Rejoice for joy with her, all you who mourn over her;
- Lamentations 3:51 My eye affects my soul, because of all the daughters of my city.
- Daniel 9:3 I set my face to the Lord God, to seek by prayer and petitions, with fasting and sackcloth and ashes.
- Daniel 10:2-3 In those days I, Daniel, was mourning three whole weeks. I ate no pleasant bread. No meat or wine came into my mouth. I didn’t anoint myself at all, until three whole weeks were fulfilled.
- Revelation 11:3 I will give power to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy one thousand two hundred sixty days, clothed in sackcloth.”
- Genesis 2:10-14 A river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from there it was parted, and became the source of four rivers. The name of the first is Pishon: it flows through the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold; and the gold of that land is good. Bdellium and onyx stone are also there. The name of the second river is Gihon. It is the same river that flows through the whole land of Cush. The name of the third river is Hiddekel. This is the one which flows in front of Assyria. The fourth river is the Euphrates.
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain 1. By the rivers of Babylon By “Babylon” is…
1. By the rivers of Babylon By “Babylon” is meant, not the city, but the kingdom; and the mention of rivers, according to the suggestion of Rosenmuller, is because the synagogues were usually built near rivers, for the greater convenience of the Jews, who were obliged to wash their hands before prayer. But as they had no synagogues in Babylon, they might frequent such localities as would, be suitable sites for places of worship, and there in the open air perform divine service. It is conjectured by Chrysostom that the Jewish captives were not suffered at first to dwell in any of their conquerors’ towns or cities, but were dispersed all along several rivers of the country, where they built for themselves tabernacles or cottages.
When they are said to have sat, this denotes a continued period of captivity, that they were not only torn from the sight of their native country, but in a manner buried and entombed. It may also be observed that sitting on the ground is a posture which indicates mourning and deep distress. Thus it is said in Isaiah 3:26, where the captivity of the Jews in Babylon is foretold, “And she [Judea] being desolate shall sit upon the ground.” And the Prophet Jeremiah, in portraying the sorrow which afflicted his pious and patriotic countrymen under the desolation of their country, says,
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“The elders of the daughter of Zion sit upon the ground and keep silence.” (Lamentations 2:10 )
“We find Judea,” says Mr. Addison, “on several coins of Vespasian and Titus in a posture that denotes sorrow and captivity. I need not mention her sitting on the ground, because we have already spoken of the aptness of such a posture to represent an extreme affliction. I fancy the Romans might have an eye on the customs of the Jewish nation, as well as those of their own country, in the several marks of sorrow they have set on this figure. The Psalmist describes the Jews lamenting their captivity in the same pensive posture: ‘By the waters of Babylon we sat down and wept, when we remembered thee, O Zion!’” — Addison on Medals, Dial. 2.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain That is, we abode a long time, and albeit…
That is, we abode a long time, and albeit that the country was pleasant, yet could not stay our tears, nor turn us from the true service of our God.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Psa 137:1 By the rivers of Babylon, there we…
Psa 137:1 By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion.
Ver. 1. By the rivers of Babylon] Tigris and Euphrates; for the land of Shinar (where Babel was founded, and afterwards Babylon built) was, as most geographers think, a part of the garden of Eden, fruitful beyond credulity; but to the poor captives all this was no comfort, when they remembered the desolations of their country, and the loss of their former liberty. The bird of paradise, they say, once taken and enraged, groaneth incessantly, till she die.
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There we sat down, yea, we wept] "He sitteth alone and keepeth silence, because he hath borne it upon him," saith Jeremiah of the mourner, Lam 3:28, who is much in meditation; so were these, bewailing bitterly their sin and misery, with their heart sounding as a harp, Isa 16:1, where, if one string be touched, all the rest sound.
When we remembered Zion] The former solemnities, the present desolations.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain Rivers of Babylon; either,
Rivers of Babylon; either,
1. Of the city of Babylon, and then the river is Euphrates, here called rivers for its greatness, and by a common enallage of the plural for the singular, as Tigris also is, Nah 2:6, yea, and Jordan, Psa 74:15. Or,
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2. Of the territory of Babylon, in which there were many rivers, as Euphrates, which also was divided into several streams or rivulets; and Tigris and others. Here they were either by the appointment of their lords for the making or repairing of the works beside the river; or by choice, retiring themselves thither from the noise and observation of their enemies, as they had opportunity, that they might disburden their oppressed minds before the Lord.
We sat down; the usual posture of mourners, Ezr 9:4, &c.; Job 2:13; Isa 47:1,5.
When we remembered Zion; either,
1. Our former enjoyments in Zion, which greatly aggravated their present misery, Lam 1:7. Or,
2. Zion’s present desolations and pollutions.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain We have here the daughter of Zion covered with…
We have here the daughter of Zion covered with a cloud, and dwelling with the daughter of Babylon; the people of God in tears, but sowing in tears. Observe,
I. The mournful posture they were in as to their affairs and as to their spirits. 1. They were posted by the rivers of Babylon, in a strange land, a great way from their own country, whence they were brought as prisoners of war. The land of Babylon was now a house of bondage to that people, as Egypt had been in their beginning. Their conquerors quartered them by the rivers, with design to employ them there, and keep them to work in their galleys; or perhaps they chose it as the most melancholy place, and therefore most suitable to their sorrowful spirits. If they must build houses there (Jer 29:5), it shall not be in the cities, the places of concourse, but by the rivers, the places of solitude, where they might mingle their tears with the streams. We find some of them by the river Chebar (Eze 1:3), others by the river Ulai, Dan 8:2. 2. There they sat down to indulge their grief by poring on their miseries. Jeremiah had taught them under this yoke to sit alone, and keep silence, and put their mouths in the dust, Lam 3:28, Lam 3:29. "We sat down, as those that expected to stay, and were content, since it was the will of God that it must be so." 3. Thoughts of Zion drew tears from their eyes; and it was not a sudden passion of weeping, such as we are sometimes put into by a trouble that surprises us, but they were deliberate tears (we sat down and wept), tears with consideration - we wept when we remembered Zion, the holy hill on which the temple was built. Their affection to God's house swallowed up their concern for their own houses. They remembered Zion's former glory and the satisfaction they had had in Zion's courts, Lam 1:7. Jerusalem remembered, in the days of her misery, all her pleasant things which she had in the days of old, Psa 42:4. They remembered Zion's present desolations, and favoured the dust thereof, which was a good sign that the time for God to favour it was not far off, Psa 102:13, Psa 102:14. 4. They laid by their instruments of music (Psa 137:2): We hung our harps upon the willows. (1.) The harps they used for their own diversion and entertainment. These they laid aside, both because it was their judgment that they ought not to use them now that God called to weeping and mourning (Isa 22:12), and their spirits were so sad that they had no hearts to use them; they brought their harps with them, designing perhaps to use them for the alleviating of their grief, but it proved so great that it would not admit the experiment. Music makes some people melancholy. As vinegar upon nitre, so is he that sings songs to a heavy heart. (2.) The harps they used in God's worship, the Levites' harps. These they did not throw away, hoping they might yet again have occasion to use them, but they laid them aside because they had no present use for them; God had cut them out other work by turning their feasting into mourning and their songs into lamentations, Amo 8:10. Every thing is beautiful in its season. They did not hide their harps in the bushes, or the hollows of the rocks; but hung them up in view, that the sight of them might affect them with this deplorable change. Yet perhaps they were faulty in doing this; for praising God is never out of season; it is his will that we should in every thing give thanks, Isa 24:15, Isa 24:16.
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II. The abuses which their enemies put upon them when they were in this melancholy condition, Psa 137:3. They had carried them away captive from their own land and then wasted them in the land of their captivity, took what little they had from them. But this was not enough; to complete their woes they insulted over them: They required of us mirth and a song. Now, 1. This was very barbarous and inhuman; even an enemy, in misery, is to be pitied and not trampled upon. It argues a base and sordid spirit to upbraid those that are in distress either with their former joys or with their present griefs, or to challenge those to be merry who, we know, are out of tune for it. This is adding affliction to the afflicted. 2. It was very profane and impious. No songs would serve them but the songs of Zion, with which God had been honoured; so that in this demand they reflected upon God himself as Belshazzar, when he drank wine in temple-bowls. Their enemies mocked at their sabbaths, Lam 1:7.
III. The patience wherewith they bore these abuses, Psa 137:4. They had laid by their harps, and would not resume them, no, not to ingratiate themselves with those at whose mercy they lay; they would not answer those fools according to their folly. Profane scoffers are not to be humoured, nor pearls cast before swine. David prudently kept silence even from good when the wicked were before him, who, he knew, would ridicule what he said and make a jest of it, Psa 39:1, Psa 39:2. The reason they gave is very mild and pious: How shall we sing the Lord's song in a strange land? They do not say, "How shall we sing when we are so much in sorrow?" If that had been all, they might perhaps have put a force upon themselves so far as to oblige their masters with a song; but "It is the Lord's song; it is a sacred thing; it is peculiar to the temple-service, and therefore we dare not sing it in the land of a stranger, among idolaters." We must not serve common mirth, much less profane mirth, with any thing that is appropriated to God, who is sometimes to be honoured by a religious silence as well as by religious speaking.
IV. The constant affection they retained for Jerusalem, the city of their solemnities, even now that they were in Babylon. Though their enemies banter them for talking so much of Jerusalem, and even doting upon it, their love to it is not in the least abated; it is what they may be jeered for, but will never be jeered out of, Psa 137:5, Psa 137:6. Observe,
1. How these pious captives stood affected to Jerusalem. (1.) Their heads were full of it. It was always in their minds; they remembered it; they did not forget it, though they had been long absent from it; many of them had never seen it, nor knew any thing of it but by report, and by what they had read in the scripture, yet it was graven upon the palms of their hands, and even its ruins were continually before them, which was ann evidence of their faith in the promise of its restoration in due time. In their daily prayers they opened their windows towards Jerusalem; and how then could they forget it? (2.) Their hearts were full of it. They preferred it above their chief joy, and therefore they remembered it and could not forget it. What we love we love to think of. Those that rejoice in God do, for his sake, make Jerusalem their joy, and prefer it before that, whatever it is, which is the head of their joy, which is dearest to them in this world. A godly man will prefer a public good before any private satisfaction or gratification whatsoever.
2. How stedfastly they resolved to keep up this affection, which they express by a solemn imprecation of mischief to themselves if they should let it fall: "Let me be for ever disabled either to sing or play on the harp if I so far forget the religion of my country as to make use of my songs and harps for the pleasing of Babylon's sons or the praising of Babylon's gods. Let my right hand forget her art" (which the hand of an expert musician never can, unless it be withered), "nay, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth, if I have not a good word to say for Jerusalem wherever I am." Though they dare not sing Zion's songs among the Babylonians, yet they cannot forget them, but, as soon as ever the present restraint is taken off, they will sing them as readily as ever, notwithstanding the long disuse.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down,....…
By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down,.... If by Babylon is meant the country, then the rivers of it are Chebar, Ulai, Tigris, Euphrates, and others; see Eze 1:1; but if the city itself, then only Euphrates, which ran through it; and is expressed by rivers, because of the largeness of it, and because of the several canals cut out of it, for the service of the city; hence Babylon is said to dwell upon many waters, Jer 51:13; upon the banks whereof the captive Jews were; either through choice, where they could be alone, and mourn their fate, indulge their sorrows, and give vent to their grief; or by the order of these who carried them captive, there to be employed, either in taking goods from ships here unloaded, or to repair and maintain the banks of the rivers, or to do some servile work or another; see Eze 1:1; and where they would sometimes "sit down" pensive, as mourners used to do, and lament their case, Job 2:8. Or this phrase may express their residence here, and the continuance and length of their captivity, which was seventy years: yea, Babylon itself may be meant by the waters of it; just as Thebes, in Pindar (w) is called the Dircaean waters, near to which it was;
yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion; they imitated the flowing stream by which they sat, and swelled it with their tears; they wept for their sins, which brought them thither; and it increased their sorrow, when they called to mind what privileges they had enjoyed in Zion, the city of their solemnities; where they had often seen the tribes of Israel bowing before and worshipping the God of Israel; the daily sacrifices and others offered up; the solemn feasts kept; the songs of Zion, sung by the Levites in delightful harmony; and, above all, the beauty of the Lord their God, his power and glory, while they were inquiring in his sanctuary: and also when they reflected upon the sad condition and melancholy circumstances in which Zion now was; the city, temple, and altar, lying in heaps of rubbish; no worship and service performed; no sacrifices offered, nor songs sung; nor any that came to her solemn feasts; see Lam 1:2.
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(w) Pythia, Ode 9. d. v. 6.
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John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain Probably this psalm was wrote toward the end of…
Probably this psalm was wrote toward the end of the Babylonish captivity. Herein the captives complain of the scoffs of their enemies, yet remember Jerusalem, and foresee the downfall of Babylon, ver. 1-9.
Sat - The usual posture of mourners.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain The desolate and afflicted state of the captives in…
PSALM CXXXVII
The desolate and afflicted state of the captives in Babylon,
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1, 2.
How they were insulted by their enemies, 3, 4.
Their attachment to their country, 5, 6.
Judgments denounced against their enemies, 7-9.
NOTES ON PSALM CXXXVII
The Vulgate, Septuagint, AEthiopic, and Arabic, say, ridiculously enough, a Psalm of David for Jeremiah. Anachronisms with those who wrote the titles to the Psalms were matters of no importance. Jeremiah never was at Babylon; and therefore could have no part in a Psalm that was sung on the banks of its rivers by the Israelitish captives. Neither the Hebrew nor Chaldee has any title; the Syriac attributes it to David. Some think it was sung when they returned from Babylon; others, while they were there. It is a matter of little importance. It was evidently composed during or at the close of the captivity.
Verse 1. By the rivers of Babylon] These might have been the Tigris and Euphrates, or their branches, or streams that flowed into them. In their captivity and dispersion, it was customary for the Jews to hold their religious meetings on the banks of rivers. Mention is made of this Ac 16:13, where we find the Jews of Philippi resorting to a river side, where prayer was wont to be made. And sometimes they built their synagogues here, when they were expelled from the cities.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Psa 137:1. By the rivers of Babylon — Of…
Psa 137:1. By the rivers of Babylon — Of the city, or rather of the territory of Babylon, in which there were many rivers, as Euphrates, which also was divided into several streams or rivulets, and Tigris, and others; there sat we down — The usual posture of mourners, Ezr 9:4; Job 2:12; Isa 47:1; Isa 47:5. It is supposed by some, that they were employed in draining the marshy parts of the country; but it seems more probable, that their present distress did not arise from that circumstance, but from their reflecting on Zion, and their banishment from it: and that they seated themselves down by the rivers from choice, retiring thither from the noise and observation of their enemies, as they had opportunity, in order that they might unburden their oppressed minds before the Lord, and to one another. We wept when we remembered Zion — He means, either their former enjoyments in Zion, which greatly aggravated their present misery, Lam 1:7, or Zion’s present desolation. “What an inexpressible pathos is there in these few words! How do they, at once, transport us to Babylon, and place before our eyes the mournful situation of the Israelitish captives! Driven from their native country, stripped of every comfort and convenience, in a strange land among idolaters, wearied and broken- hearted, they sit in silence by those hostile waters. Then the pleasant banks of Jordan present themselves to their imaginations; the towers of Salem rise to view; and the sad remembrance of much loved Zion causes tears to run down their cheeks!”
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain By the rivers of Babylon - The streams, the…
By the rivers of Babylon - The streams, the water-courses, the rivulets. There was properly only one river flowing through Babylon - the Euphrates; but the city was watered, as Damascus now is, by means of canals or water-courses cut from the main river, and conveying the water to different parts of the city. For a description of Babylon, see the introductory notes to Isa. 13. If the reference here is to Babylon proper, or the city, the allusion would be to the Euphrates flowing through it; if to Babylonia, the allusion would be to the Euphrates, and the other rivers which watered the country, as the Tigris, the Chaboras, and the Ulai. As it is most probable that the captive Hebrews were not scattered through the empire, but were concentrated in one or a few places, it is, perhaps, not improper to understand this of Babylon itself.
There we sat down - There we were sitting. Perhaps a little company of friends; perhaps those assembled for worship; perhaps those who happened to come together on some special occasion; or, perhaps, a poetic representation of the general condition of the Hebrew captives, as sitting and meditating on the desolations of their native land.
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Yea, we wept - We sat there; we meditated; we wept. Our emotions overpowered us, and we poured forth tears. So now, there is a place in Jerusalem, at the southwest corner of the area on which the temple was built, where the Jews resort on set occasions to weep over the ruins of their city and nation.
When we remembered Zion - When we thought on our native land; its former glory; the wrongs done to it; the desolations there; when we thought of the temple in ruins, and our homes as devastated; when we thought of the happy days which we had spent there, and when we contrasted them with our condition now.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain Psalms 137
Psalms 137
1 By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept,
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When we remembered Zion.
2 We hanged our harps
Upon the willows in the midst thereof.
3 For there they that carried us away captive required of us
A song; and they that wasted us required of us mirth, saying,
Sing us one of the songs of Zion.
4 How shall we sing the Lord’s song
In a strange land?
5 If I forget thee, O Jerusalem,
Let my right hand forget her cunning.
6 If I do not remember thee,
Let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth;
If I prefer not Jerusalem
Above my chief joy.
7 Remember, O Lord, the children of Edom in the day of Jerusalem;
Who said, Rase it, rase it, even to the foundation thereof.
8 O daughter of Babylon, who art to be destroyed;
Happy shall he be, that rewardeth thee as thou hast served us.
9 Happy shall he be, that taketh and dasheth thy little ones
Against the stones.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
Contents and Composition.—The poetically-gifted author, at one time speaking in an elegiac, at another in an epic strain, begins with a mournful reminiscence of the occasion when the exiles were derisively invited by the inhabitants of Babylon to sing their devotional songs, and could only answer by silence (Psa_137:1-3). He then makes the strongest assurances of his personal attachment to Jerusalem, which he ever loves in faithful remembrance and prefers to all joys (Psa_137:4-6). Finally, he entreats the divine retributive judgment upon Babylon and Edom in a tone of threatening and imprecation (Psa_137:7-9).
The time when this despite was endured seems still to remain in lively remembrance and to reach into the personal experience of the Psalmist (Venema and most); and there is no support for the assumption which connects the Psalm specially with the dedication of the Second Temple and the restoration of the sacred music (Rudinger), or for that which discovers (Hengstenberg) a more definite indication of the time in Psa_137:8 (see the exposition). It would make the poem artificial to suppose that the longing of the exiles was introduced merely as the counterpart of that of the poet himself who lived in the Maccabæan age (Hitzig). The superscription: by David (Sept.), with the addition in some Greek versions: by Jeremiah, can be defended neither by the assumption of a prophetical poem of David representing the feelings of Jeremiah (Geier, J. H. Michaelis), nor by that of a composition by Jeremiah after the manner and model of David (Du Pin, et al.).
[Perowne says, that there can be no doubt whatever as to the time when the Psalm was composed. He then says; “It expresses the feeling of an exile who had but just returned from the land of his captivity. In all probability the writer was a Levite who had been carried away captive by the armies of Nebuchadnezzar, . … and was one of the first, after the edict of Cyrus was published, to return to Jerusalem.” But for this specializing view he does not adduce the least evidence. Alexander rejects the opinion of Hengstenberg that the composition took place after the final destruction of Babylon by Darius Hystaspis. It is best to adhere to the general view mentioned above.—J. F. M.]
Psa_137:1-2.—By the rivers of Babylon. Not only the capital city with the Euphrates and its canals are here brought into view, but the whole Babylonian territory, intersected everywhere by rivers and canals. Ezekiel also (Psa_1:3) and Daniel (Psa_8:2) experienced their prophetic visions on the banks of the Chaboras and Eulæus. These surroundings, moreover, suggested the image of the willows upon which the captives sorrowfully hung their harps. This expression, if not exactly a proverbial one (Geier, J. H. Michaelis) is, at all events, a poetical method of referring to the hushing of their joyful and festal songs, especially those in which the harp was employed (Gen_31:27; 2Sa_6:5, and frequently in the Psalms), and whose silence indicated public misfortune and national grief (Isa_24:8; Eze_26:13; Amo_5:23; Job_30:31; Lam_5:14 f). The silent and pensive sitting among the willows by the side of the gently-flowing stream is in admirable agreement with the feeling of home-sickness. There is no allusion to the situation of the Jewish houses of devotion placed near water for the sake of the ceremonial lustrations (Venema, et al.). [Alexander: “It has been objected that the willow is unknown in the region once called Babylonia, which is said to produce nothing but the palm-tree. Some avoid this difficulty by explaining the whole verse as metaphorical, hanging up the harps being a figure for renouncing music, and willows being suggested by the mention of streams, perhaps with some allusion to associations connected with this particular tree. It may also be observed, that extraordinary changes have taken place in the vegetable products, and especially the trees of certain countries. Thus the palm-tree, so frequently referred to in the Scriptures and so common once that cities were called after it, is now almost unknown in Palestine.”—Delitzsch: “The עֲרָבָה, whose boughs formed a part of the Lulab at the Feast of Tabernacles (Lev_23:40), is understood to mean the brook-willow, and in our passage there is scarcely such a close botanical distinction made, that the weeping-willow (salix babylonica) could not be included under this term.” Del. also states that in the lower, well-watered portions of Babylonia, the willow and viburnum are indigenous.—J. F. M.]
Psa_137:3.—The grief occasioned by their lengthened sojourn as captives in a foreign land was heightened, on the one hand, by their oppressors insisting that they should strike up some one of their sacred songs, and, on the other, by the recollection of the blessings received in Jerusalem through these songs and the celebration of God’s worship generally. Nothing could supply their place as long as this celebration was inseparable from the Temple, and God was found there as His only dwelling-place on earth. The singing of sacred songs which were connected with the public worship of Jehovah (2Ch_29:27, comp. 1Ch_25:7), and therefore of a liturgical character, in a foreign country, was, however, not contrary to the Law, but, under the present circumstances, was opposed to religious and moral feelings. In Psa_137:3 c joy [E. V. mirth] may, according to the parallelism, mean here the expression of joy (Geier), especially in hymns of praise (Sept.) and joyful songs (Rosenmüller, De Wette, Hengst.). But it may also denote merely the frame of mind inspiring such songs (Hupfeld). [The translation in E. V.: They that wasted us, follows the Sept, Chald. and Syr. The word is thus regarded as an Aramaic form. But no such form exists; the one most resembling it being shôlal, which has a passive meaning and שׁ instead of ת. It is therefore now usually taken from ילל, to howl, and translated: those who made us to cry out—our torturers. The second clause of the verse is in E. V. rendered simply: a song. The Hebr. is: the words of a song. Del.: “Words of the songs, as portions or fragments of the national treasure of song, like מִשִּׁיר farther on, which Rosenmüller correctly explains: sacrum aliquod carmen ex veteribus illis suis Sionicis.” Psa_137:5. Perowne:Forget. Probably there is an aposiopesis, or we may supply either, as E. V.: “her cunning,” i.e. her skill with the harp, or more generally “the power of motion.”—J. F. M.]
Psa_137:6-7.—The head of my joy is the highest joy (Exo_30:23; Song Son_4:14). [Wordsworth literally: “If I advance not Jerusalem above the head of my joy. If I set not Jerusalem as a diadem upon the head of my rejoicing and crown all my happiness with it.” J. F. M.]—The Edomites were particularly active in the destruction of Jerusalem (Amo_1:11; Joel 4:19; Oba_1:10 f), for which they are threatened with the divine vengeance (Jer_49:7 f; Lam_4:21 f; Eze_25:12 f; Isaiah 34; Isa_63:1 f). As the kindred of Israel, they were still more odious to them than the Chaldæans were, and possibly for this reason are here mentioned before the latter (Hupfeld). [See Stanley, Jewish Church, ii., p. 556, quoted by Perowne. Psa_137:7 a b should be rendered: Remember, Jehovah, for the children of Edom, the day of Jerusalem. The day, according to the common Oriental usage of the word, is the day of calamity.—J. F. M.]
Psa_137:8.—Thou that art destroyed. It is not admissible to substitute for this rendering: thou who art to be destroyed (Theodotion, Amyrald, J. H. Michaelis, et al.), or: thou destroyer (Rosenm., De Wette), or: thou murderess (Hitzig). or: robber (Syr., Chald., Symmachus). The form, according to the existing pointing, is the pass. part., and therefore means: vastata (Jerome). From this it does not follow, that there is an allusion here to the second capture of Babylon by Darius (Hengst.), which was the only one that could be connected with a real destruction. For the object addressed is the daughter of Babel, i.e., her population, and the process of destruction, already begun, is represented in the following wish as still to be completed before the final destruction can take place. It is therefore also unsuitable to assume, with some expositors, that in this expression that event is prophetically represented as having actually taken place. It is threatened against the Babylonians in Isa_13:16 f, also, that their children shall be dashed to pieces. The custom was not unknown to antiquity generally, comp. Homer, Iliad 22:63; 24:732, nor to the Israelites (2Ki_6:12; Hos_10:14; Hos_14:1; Nah_3:10). No new generation is to be permitted to raise from her ruins the shattered world-power (Isa_14:21 f).
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
There is a sorrow which becomes the pious and is pleasing to God, even though the world does not understand it.—No earthly calamity, no worldly pleasure, no allurement of men, should make us forget that which we have received from God as members of His people, or what we have still to expect from Him, or what, for these reasons it is due to Him, to ourselves, and to the Church, that we should leave undone as well as perform.—It is well for us if we do not begin to prize and love the highest blessings of life only when we are in danger of losing them!
Starke: Remember your blessings with hearty thanksgiving to God while you have them, lest they be taken from you for your ingratitude.—Many a one hungers and thirsts in captivity for the nourishment of the Divine word, to whom it was once distasteful when he had more abundant opportunities of listening to it.—A true Christian cannot rightly ridicule the word of God, or quote sacred songs or Scripture phrases in jest.—A Christian cannot be truly joyful in this world, for here he is not at home, but in a strange land; his Fatherland is above, in heaven.—No place, no country, no tyrant, no imprisonment, no created object whatever can sever from Christ the citizen of the spiritual Zion.—Citizenship in the heavenly Jerusalem, compared to which everything which this world can give is only a shadow, must be the chief joy of a believer.—God’s punishment awaits not only those who make actual assaults upon His Church, but also those who by counselling, conniving, and inciting, become partakers of other men’s sins.
Arndt: It is the highest joy and delight of a true Christian to know, to extol, and to praise God, and to be in the society and citizenship of the heavenly Jerusalem.—Frisch: We should ever have before our eyes the Lord of all Lords, and never let dishonor be done to His name.—Diedrich: He who loves only the new nature, hates the old, and wishes his destruction.—Taube: The deep sorrow of God’s people in Babylon; their ardent zeal of love for Zion; their holy zeal of vengeance against Edom and Babylon.
[Matt. Henry: It argues a base and sordid spirit to upbraid those who are in distress, either with their former joys or present griefs, or to challenge those to be merry whom we know are out of time for it; this is adding affliction to the afflicted.—We must not serve common mirth, much less profane mirth, with anything that is appropriated to God, who is sometimes to be honored by a religious silence as well as by religious speaking.—The destruction of Babylon: (1) a just destruction; (2) an utter destruction; (3) a destruction which should reflect honor upon the instruments of it.—The fall of the New Testament Babylon will be the triumph of all the saints.—Bp. Horne: The hope of a return to Thee is my only comfort in this vale of tears, where I am and will be a mourner until my captivity be brought back, and my sorrow be turned into joy.—Barnes: When the joy of religion is sacrificed for the joy of the world, it proves that there is no true piety in the soul. Religion, if it exists at all, will always be supreme.—J. F. M.]
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 1. Rivers of Babylon—Beside the Euphrates, Tigris, Chebar, (Chaboras,)…
1. Rivers of Babylon—Beside the Euphrates, Tigris, Chebar, (Chaboras,) (Eze_1:1,) and Ulai, (Ulaeus,) near Susa, (Dan_8:2; Dan_8:16,) the vast plains of the Euphrates and Tigris were everywhere intersected with a network of canals, chiefly for irrigation.
We sat down—The word may signify that they abode or dwelt there, or that they “sat down” for rest or conversation. It also indicates a habit of meeting, and that the captives were chiefly distributed throughout the rich province of Babylonia proper.
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We wept… we remembered Zion—An elegiac description of inimitable tenderness. The mention of these gatherings by the rivers seems to suggest that it was a custom, and Phillips supposes, that, as it was prior to the period of synagogues, they might nevertheless frequent such localities as suitable places for worship, and there, in the open air, perform divine service. Such an instance is recorded Act_16:13; Act_16:16. Hengstenberg thinks they met there to weep. Similar to this has been the Jewish custom, more or less regularly observed for fifteen hundred years, and regularly for about seven hundred years, of meeting at the “place of ‘wailing,” so called, by the southwest wall of the area of their ancient temple in Jerusalem, to bewail their ruined nation and altars.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 1. the rivers of Babylon] Not only the Euphrates…
1. the rivers of Babylon] Not only the Euphrates and its tributaries, such as the Chebar (Eze_1:1; Eze_3:15), but the numerous canals with which the country was intersected. Babylonia was characteristically a land of streams, as Palestine was a land of hills; it was the feature of the country which would impress itself upon the mind of the exiles. Cp. Jer_51:13. They may have resorted to the banks of the rivers and canals to mourn; partly for the sake of the shade of the trees which grew there, partly because such places were suitable to melancholy meditation.
It is hardly likely that there is any reference to places of prayer chosen near water for the sake of ceremonial lustrations (Act_16:13).
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sat down] As mourners. Cp. Isa_47:1; Isa_47:5.
Zion] The name is chosen specially to suggest the sacred memories of the city.
1–3. The silence of sacred song in the sorrow of exile.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (1) By the rivers . . .—Mentioned as the…
(1) By the rivers . . .—Mentioned as the characteristic feature of the country, as we say “among the mountains of Wales.” The canals which irrigated Babylonia made it what an ancient writer called it, the greatest of “cities of river places.”
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain "THE most direct and striking reminiscence of the Babylonish…
"THE most direct and striking reminiscence of the Babylonish exile in the whole Psalter" (Professor Alexander). The psalm divides into two parts. First, we are given a picture of the unhappy condition of the exiles, drawn so evidently from the life, that almost every commentator has felt it must have been painted by one of those who had experienced the reality (vers. 14). Then the writer lays bare to us the predominant feelings of his own heart. These are two intense love for Jerusalem (vers. 5, 6); and intense hatred of Israel"s and Jehovah"s principal foes, Edom and Babylon (vers. 7-9). The two parts are strongly contrasted. "The plaintive sweetness, which (in the first) melted us into tears, is overpowered (in the second)by a crash of discords" (Cheyne).
By the rivers of Babylon The Euphrates and the canals derived from it, which were many, and filled with running, not stagnant, water. These would present themselves to the exiles as "rivers." There we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion. The exiles had their leisure hours they were not kept by their masters at hard work continually. During these leisure hours they naturally "sat down" by the rivers of Babylon, as the most pleasant and attractive places. They brought their harps with them (ver. 2), with some idea, perhaps, of indulging in mournful strains. Grief, however, overpowered them Zion came to their recollection-and they could do nothing but weep.
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Vers. 1-9. Incongruity in religion.
The psalm brings before us in very vivid color
I THE DARK SHADOW CAST BY A GREAT GOOD. Patriotism is an excellent thing, and we are all of us glad and thankful to belong to a land of light and liberty. We would not, on any account, forego so great an advantage, so valuable a privilege. But how much suffering that blessing may entail! Who can measure the intensity of the humiliation and distress which the children of Israel endured when they were torn from their native land, or when they were made to feel their subjection in the streets or the fields of Babylon? They "wept when they remembered Zion." The very beauties of its situation, (Psa_48:2) as contrasted with the dreary levels before their eyes; the very fullness of its privileges, as contrasted with the privations to which they were then submitting, filled their souls with grief. The richer our treasure, the severer our loss; the deeper and stronger our love, the keener and the more sustained our sorrow. "Our affections bring great afflictions, but they are well worth the cost." If we are wise we shall be more than content to pay that price for so great a good. For these sorrows are sacred; they are softening, and they are purifying; they provide the best opportunity for filial resignation; they draw us to God in hallowing communion, and in the prayer which brings down a large blessing from his Holy Spirit.
II THE LIMITS OF THE MOSAIC CIVILIZATION. No doubt the Law given by Moses was a civilizing institution, and made Israel much wiser and worthier in every way than that people would otherwise have been. But it left much to be desired. Among ether things it left its disciples unredeemed from the cruelties (or many of them) practiced in war. No Christian writer could, with any sort of propriety or consistency, have written the last verse of this psalm. It pains and shocks us as we read it. We conclude that the world wanted another Teacher, whose spirit should inspire, and whose principles should guide and control, his disciples in their treatment of friend and foe. It is not, indeed, that passages could not be found in the Law enjoining mercy; it is that there was needed One who by his own life, and by his gracious Spirit, and by his sovereign power, should be able to influence and inspire his followers with his own thought, and be able to lead them along a higher and nobler way.
III SOME MARKED INCONGRUITIES IN OUR EXPERIENCE. "How shall we sing the Lord"s song in a strange land?" How shall we sing the happy songs of Zion when we are in the power of the enemy, away from the city that we love, the sanctuary which is our spiritual home? There are strange lands" to the Christian man, in which the sounds that are native to the soil cannot be expected to be heard. There are spiritual conditions in which the graces of Christian character will not flourish, but will die away. Of such are pride, selfishness, covetousness, self-indulgence, uncharitableness. It would be quite an incongruous thing for thankfulness, helpfulness, piety, forbearance, anticipation of the heavenly kingdom, consecration to the cause of Christ and man, to abound in such "strange lands" as these. When we are called upon to practice the graces of Christian character, and when we find ourselves quite indisposed to do so, when any one of these is uncongenial to us, we should seriously inquire of ourselves where we stand. Are we on Immanuel"s ground? Are we on the King"s highway? Or are we in some strange land which belongs to the enemy? Is there good reason why we should return, promptly and penitently, to the kingdom from which we have been carried away captive? This is the first thing to do; and the way home is open to all earnest souls.
HOMILIES BY S. CONWAY Vers. 1-9. Fruits of exile from God.
It was Israel"s, or rather Judah"s, exile from Zion and Jerusalem that this psalm commemorated; but the fruits that exile bore, and which are here told of, set forth the fruits of the yet sadder exile from God which many a soul has known.
I THE MEMORY OF WHAT HAS BEEN LOST IS FULL OF SORROW. (Ver. 1) "Yea, we sat down and wept." And if, as with God"s ancient people, we through sin are banished from God, then, when we remember, we too shall weep.
II MUSIC, MIRTH, AND SONG ARE IMPOSSIBLE. (Vers. 2-4) How could Israel sing? How can we under like conditions? He who has once known, yet more if he has lived for a long time in, the joy of God"s love, when he loses that, loses all joy along with it. How can he sing the Lord"s song, etc. (ver. 4)?
III PASSIONATE DEVOTION AND DESIRE TOWARDS WHAT HAS BEEN LOST FILL THE SOUL. (Vers. 5, 6) His one desire is to return back; his most fervent vows that never, never will he again forget.
IV BURNING HATRED OF THOSE WHO HAVE WROUGHT THIS WRONG TAKES POSSESSION OF HIM. (Cf. 2Co_7:10, 2Co_7:11) In this sense we may use language which towards earthly enemies would be contrary to the spirit of Christ. S.C.
HOMILIES BY R. TUCK Ver 1. The tears of memory.
"Yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion." The rivers of Babylon and the district were the Euphrates, the Tigris, and the branch streams of those rivers. The writer of the psalm is not in Babylon, but is recalling to mind what happened when he was there. It is not easy to recognize the mood of the psalmist when he composed this psalm. Usually it is assumed that there was first a gentle and plaintive mood, and then a fierce and revengeful mood; but perhaps it is true to the weaknesses of human nature to regard it throughout as a bitter retrospect. The mood is one of intensity, excitement, and anger in the remembrance of sufferings and humiliations that had been endured. There is a weeping of anger and of remembered sufferings and humblings; as there is a weeping when enduring humiliations in the thought of bygone joys, relations, and privileges.
I MEMORY MAY AFFECTINGLY RECALL LOST PRIVILEGES. The psalmist seems to himself to be again in Babylon, again oppressed with the burden of the lost national liberty and the present national bondage. He no longer belonged to a nation. He no longer had any capital city. He no longer had any center for the religious life. The kingdom was broken up, the city was desolated, the temple lay in ruins, the nation was scattered, and the people were virtual slaves to severe and even cruel taskmasters. Some sullenly endured their fate; but to some every remembrance of the old days was a cutting pain it either made them angry and forced bitter tears, or in softer moods it broke them down and caused tears of regret. How often the memory of the past still brings pain and tears! There is so much in it that might have been otherwise. Often our memory-tears are bitter. Only in good moods are they gentle and tender. They may be, they should be, tears of thankful, trustful love.
II MEMORY MAY AFFECTINGLY RECALL THE CAUSE OF LOST PRIVILEGES. It was only an imperfect memory that recalled a desolated Zion. There was something more than loss and woe to remember there was the sin of the nation that caused the loss, and was punished in the woe. And it is only when memory of past sorrows includes the sin that brought the sorrows, that memory brings worthy and healing tears. R.T.
HOMILIES BY C. SHORT Vers. 1-6. "By the rivers of Babylon," etc.
"The psalm expresses the feelings of an exile who has but just returned from the land of his captivity.
I THE LOSS OF LIBERTY TEMPORAL AND SPIRITUAL.
1. Brings after it the most despondent sorrow. They hung their harps on the willows, and sat down and wept.
2. Blights the exercise of the highest gifts. They could not sing the joyful songs of Zion the songs of the Lord. An enslaved people lose the power, as a rule, which they had when they were free.
3. Converts the world into a place of exile. Home is lost, and the world becomes a "strange," mysterious place.
II FIDELITY TO THE HOLIEST MEMORIES AND HOPES. "If I forget thee." We cannot blot out from the heart the holiest things, however much they may be mutilated and injured by ourselves or by others. The most eloquent writings in all languages have been pleas for liberty and religion, when nations have been struggling to recover or attain their liberty. S.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Charles H. Spurgeon 1885 · Public Domain This plaintive ode is one of the most charming…
This plaintive ode is one of the most charming compositions in the whole Book of Psalms for its poetic power. If it were not inspired it would nevertheless occupy a high place in poesy, especially the former portion of it, which is tender and patriotic to the highest degree. In the later verses (Ps 137:7-9), we have utterances of burning indignation against the chief adversaries of Israel, an indignation as righteous as it was fervent. Let those find fault with it who have never seen their temple burned, their city ruined, their wives ravished, and after children slain; they might not, perhaps, be quite so velvet mouthed if they had suffered after this fashion. It is one thing to talk of the bitter feeling which moved captive Israelites in Babylon, and quite another thing to be captives ourselves under a savage and remorseless power, which knew not how to show mercy, but delighted in barbarities to the defenceless. The song is such as might fitly be sung in the Jews' wailing place. It is a fruit of the Captivity in Babylon, and often has it furnished expression for sorrows which else had been unutterable. It is an opalesque Psalm within whose mild radiance there glows afire which strikes the beholder with wonder.
Ver. 1. By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down. Water courses were abundant in Babylon, wherein were not only natural streams but artificial canals: it was place of broad rivers and streams. Glad to be away from the noisy streets, the captives sought the river side, where the flow of the waters seemed to be in sympathy with their tears. It was some slight comfort to be out of the crowd, and to have a little breathing room, and therefore they sat down, as if to rest a while and solace themselves in their sorrow. In little groups they sat down and made common lamentation, mingling their memories and their tears. The rivers were well enough, but, alas, they were the rivers of Babylon, and the ground whereon the sons of Israel sat was foreign soil, and therefore they wept. Those who came to interrupt their quiet were citizens of the destroying city, and their company was not desired. Everything reminded Israel of her banishment from the holy city, her servitude beneath the shadow of the temple of Bel, her helplessness under a cruel enemy; and therefore her sons and daughters sat down in sorrow,
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Yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion. Nothing else could have subdued their brave spirits; but the remembrance of the temple of their God, the palace of their king, and the centre of their national life, quite broke them down. Destruction had swept down all their delights, and therefore they weptthe strong men wept, the sweet singers wept! They did not weep when they remembered the cruelties of Babylon; the memory of fierce oppression dried their tears and made their hearts burn with wrath: but when the beloved city of their solemnities came into their minds they could not refrain from floods of tears. Even thus do true believers mourn when they see the church despoiled, and find themselves unable to succour her: we could bear anything better than this. In these our times the Babylon of error ravages the city of God, and the hearts of the faithful are grievously wounded as they see truth fallen in the streets, and unbelief rampant among the professed servants of the Lord. We bear our protests, but they appear to be in vain; the multitude are mad upon their idols. Be it ours to weep in secret for the hurt of our Zion: it is the least thing we can do; perhaps in its result it may prove to be the best thing we can do. Be it ours also to sit down and deeply consider what is to be done. Be it ours, in any case, to keep upon our mind and heart the memory of the church of God which is so dear to us. The frivolous may forget, but Zion is graven on our hearts, and her prosperity is our chief desire.
Whole Psalm. Observe that this very Psalm in which the question is asked, "How can we sing?" is itself a song, one of the Lord's songs, still. Nothing can be more sad, more desponding. It speaks of weeping in the remembrance of Zion; it speaks of harps hung upon the willows by exiles who have no heart to use them; and yet the very telling of these sorrows, of this incapacity for song, is a song still. We chant it in our congregations now, hundreds and thousands of years after its composition, as one of the Church's melodies, as one of the Lord's songs. It gives us a striking example of the variety, of the versatility of worship, even in that department which might seem to be all joyous, all praise. The very refusal to sing may be itself a song. Any real utterance of good thoughts, whether they be thoughts of gladness or thoughts of sorrow, may be a true hymn, a true melody for the congregation, even though it may not breathe at every moment the very thought of all the worshippers. "How shall we sing?" is itself a permanent hymn, an inspired song, for all the churches. C. J. Vaughan.
Whole Psalm. This Psalm is composed of two parts. The first is, an heavy complaint of the church, unto Ps 137:7. The other is an heavy imprecation and a prophetical denunciation against the enemies of the church, unto the end of the Psalm. Robert Rollock.
Whole Psalm. What a wonderful mixture is the Psalm of soft melancholy and fiery patriotism! The hand which wrote it must have known how to smite sharply with the sword, as well as how to tune the harp. The words are burning words of a heart breathing undying love to his country, undying hate to his foe. The poet is indeed
"Dower'd with the hate of hate, the scorn of scorn,
The love of love."
J. J. Stewart Perowne.
Whole Psalm. Several of the Psalms obviously refer to the time of the Babylonian captivity...The captives' mournful sentiments of pensive melancholy and weary longing during its long and weary continuance constitute the burden of the hundred and thirty-seventh. It was probably written by some gifted captive Levite at the time. Some suppose it to have been composed by Jeremiah, the prophet of tears, and sent to his countrymen in the land of their exile, in order to awaken fond memories of the past and sustain a lively hope for the future; and certainly the ode is worthy even of his pen, for it is one of the sweetest, most plaintive, and exquisitely beautiful elegies in any language. It is full of heart melting, tear bringing pathos. The moaning of the captive, the wailing of the exile, and the sighing of the saints are heard in every line. W. Ormiston, in "The Study, "1874.
Whole Psalm. Here, 1. The melancholy captives cannot enjoy themselves, Ps 137:1-2. 2. They cannot humour their proud oppressors, Ps 137:3-4. 3. They cannot forget Jerusalem, Ps 137:5-6. 4. They cannot forget Edom and Babylon, Ps 137:7-9. Matthew Henry.
Ver. 1. By the rivers of Babylon. The canals of Babylon itself, probably (comp. Ps 137:2.) William Kay.
Ver. 1. By the rivers. Euphrates, Tigris, Chaboras, etc., and the canals which intersected the country. The exiles would naturally resort to the banks of the streams as shady, cool and retired spots, where they could indulge in their sorrowful remembrances. The prophets of the exile saw their visions by the river. Eze 1:1 Da 8:2 10:4. "Bibliotheca Sacra and Theological Review", 1848.
Ver. 1. By the rivers. The bank of a river, like the seashore, is a favourite place of sojourn of those whom deep grief drives forth from the bustle of men into solitude. The boundary line of the river gives to solitude a safe back; the monotonous splashing of the waves keeps up the dull, melancholy alternation of thoughts and feelings; and at the same time the sight of the cool, fresh water exercises a soothing influence upon the consuming fever within the heart. Franz Delitzsch.
Ver. 1. By the rivers. The peculiar reason for the children of Israel being represented as sitting at the streams is the weeping. An internal reference of the weeping to the streams, must therefore have been what gave rise to the representation of the sitting. Nor is this reference difficult to be discovered. All languages know of brooks, or streams of tears, compare in Scripture, La 2:18; "Let tears run down like a river day and night"; La 3:48; also Job 28:11, where inversely the gushing of the floods is called weeping (Marg.). The children of Israel placed themselves beside the streams of Babel because they saw in them the image and symbol of their floods of tears. E. W. Hengstenberg.
Ver. 1. We sat down. Among the poets, sitting on the ground is a mark of misery or captivity.
Multos ilia dies incomtis moesta capillis
Sederat. Propertius.
With locks unkempt, mournful, for many days
She sat.
O utinam ante tuos sedeam captiva penates. Propertius.
O might I sit a captive at thy gate!
You have the same posture in an old coin that celebrates a victory of Lucius Verus over the Parthians.
We find Judea on several coins of Vespasian and Titus in the posture that denotes sorrow and captivity. From Joseph Addison's Dialogues on Medals.
Ver. 1. Sat down implies that the burst of grief was a long one, and also that it was looked on by the captives as some relaxation and repose. Chrysostom.
Ver. 1. We wept when we remembered Zion. A godly man lays to heart the miseries of the church. I have read of certain trees, whose leaves if cut or touched, the other leaves contract and shrink up themselves, and for a space hang down their heads: such a spiritual sympathy is there among Christians; when other parts of God's church suffer, they feel themselves, as it were, touched in their own persons. Ambrose reports, that when Theodosius was sick unto death, he was more troubled about the church of God than about his own sickness. When Aeneas would have saved Anchises' life, saith he, "Far be it from me that I should desire to live when Troy is buried in its ruins." There are in music two unisons; if you strike one, you shall perceive the other to stir, as if it were affected: when the Lord strikes others a godly heart is deeply affected, Isa 16:11: "My bowels shall sound like an harp." Though it be well with a child of God in his own particular, and he dwells in an house of cedar, yet he grieves to see it go ill with the public. Queen Esther enjoyed the king's favour, and all the delights of the court, yet when a bloody warrant was signed for the death of the Jews she mourns and fasts, and ventures her own life to save theirs. Thomas Watson.
Ver. 1. For Sion only they wept, unlike many who weep with the weeping and rejoice with the joy of Babylon, because their whole interests and affections are bound up in the things of this world. Augustine.
Ver. 1. Let us weep, because in this life we are forced to sit by the waters of Babylon, and are yet strangers and as it were banished and barred from being satisfied with the pleasures of that river which gladdens the city of God. Alas, if we did consider that our country were heaven, and did apprehend this place here below to be our prison, or place of banishment, the least absence from our country would draw tears from our eyes and sighs from our hearts, with David (Ps 120:5): "Woe is me that I sojourn in Mesech, and am constrained to dwell in the tents of Kedar."
Do you remember how the Jews behaved themselves in the time of their exile and captivity, while they sat by the rivers and waters of Babylon! They wept, would not be comforted; hanged up their harps and instruments. What are the waters of Babylon but the pleasures and delights of the world, the waters of confusion, as the word signifies! Now when the people of God sit by them, that is to say, do not carelessly, but deliberately, with a settled consideration, see them slide by and pass away, and compare them with Sion, that is to say, with the inconceivable rivers of pleasure, which are permanent in the heavenly Jerusalem; how can they choose but weep, when they see themselves sitting by the one, and sojourning from the other! And it is worthy your observing, that notwithstanding the Jews had many causes of tears, the Chaldeans had robbed them of their goods, honours, countries, liberty, parents, children, friends: the chief thing, for all this, that they mourn for is their absence from Sion, "We wept when we remembered thee, O Sion" for their absence from Jerusalem. What should we then do for our absence from another manner of Jerusalem! Theirs was an earthly, old, robbed, spoiled, burned, sacked Jerusalem; ours a heavenly, new one, into which no arrow can be shot, no noise of the drum heard, nor sound of the trumpet, nor calling unto battle: who would not then weep, to be absent from thence! Walter Balcanqual, in "A Sermon Preached at St. Maries Spittle", 1623.
Ver. 1. We remembered Zion. It necessarily implies they had forgot, else how could they now remember! In their peace and plenty the had but little regard of Zion then. John Whincop, in a Sermon entitled, "Israel's Tears for Distressed Zion", 1645.
Ver. 1. Nothing could present a more striking contrast to their native country than the region into which the Hebrews were transplanted. Instead of their irregular and picturesque mountain city, crowning its unequal heights, and looking down into its deep and precipitous ravines, through one of which a scanty stream wound along, they entered the vast, square, and level city of Babylon, occupying both sides of the broad Euphrates; while all around spread immense plains, which were intersected by long straight canals, bordered by rows of willows. How unlike their national temple a small but highly finished and richly adorned fabric, standing in the midst of its courts on the brow of a lofty precipicethe colossal temple of the Chaldean Bel, rising from the plain, with its eight stupendous stories or towers, one above the other, to the perpendicular height of a furlong! The palace of the Babylonian kings was more than twice the size of their whole city; it covered eight miles, with its hanging gardens built on arched terraces, each rising above the other, and rich in all the luxuriance of artificial cultivation. How different from the sunny cliffs of their own land, where the olive and the vine grew spontaneously, and the cool, shady, and secluded valleys, where they could always find shelter from the heat of the burning noon! No wonder then that, in the pathetic words of their own hymn, "by the waters of Babylon they sat down and wept, when they remembered thee, O Zion." Of their general treatment as captives we know little. The Psalm above quoted seems to intimate that the Babylonians had taste enough to appreciate the poetical and musical talent of the exiles, and that they were summoned occasionally to amuse the banquets of their masters, though it was much against their will that they sang the songs of Zion in a strange land. In general it seems that the Jewish exiles were allowed to dwell together in considerable bodies, not sold as household or personal or praedial slaves, at least not those of the better order of whom the Captivity chiefly consisted. They were colonists rather than captives, and became by degrees possessed of considerable property. They had taken the advice of the prophet Jeremiah (who gave them no hopes of speedy return to their homes): they had built houses, planted gardens, married and brought up children, submitted themselves as peaceful subjects to the local authorities: all which implies a certain freedom, a certain degree of prosperity and comfort. They had free enjoyment of their religion, such at least as adhered faithfully to their belief in Jehovah. We hear of no special and general religious persecution. Henry Hart Milman (1791-1868), in "The History of the Jews."
Ver. 1. They sat in silence; they remembered in silence; they wept in silence. J. W. Burgon.
Ver. 1-6. Israel was a typical people. 1. They were typical of God's church in all ages of the world. And, 2. They were typical of the soul of every individual believer.
This Psalm is composed for Israel in her captivity. Let us go over it, taking its typical meaning.
1. When a believer is in captivity he has a sorrowful remembrance of Zion. So it was with God's ancient people: "By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion" (Ps 137:1). In the last chapter of 2Ch 36:14-20, we find the melancholy tale of Judah's captivity. Many of their friends had been slain by the swordthe house of God was burnedthe walls of Jerusalem were broken downand they themselves were captives in a foreign land. No wonder that they sat down and wept when they remembered Zion.
So it is often with the believer when led captive by sinhe sits down and weeps when he remembers Zion. Zion is the place where God makes himself known. When a poor awakened sinner is brought to know the Saviour, and to enter through the rent veil into the holiest of all, then he becomes one of the people of Zion: "A day in thy courts is better than a thousand." He dwells in Zion; and the people that dwell therein are forgiven their iniquity. But when a believer falls into sin he falls into darknesshe is carried a captive away from Zion. No more does he find entrance within the veil; no more is he glad when they say to him, "Let us go up to the house of the Lord." He sits down and weeps when he remembers Zion.
2. The world derides the believer in his captivity. So it was with ancient Israel. The Chaldeans were cruel conquerors. God says by his prophet, "I was but a little displeased, and they helped forward the affliction." Not only did they carry them away from their temple, their country, and their homes, but they made a mock of their sorrows. When they saw them sit down to shed bitter tears by the rivers of Babylon, they demanded mirth and a song, saying, "Sing us one of the songs of Zion."
So is it with the world and the captive Christian. There are times when the world does not mock at the Christian. Often the Christian is filled with so strange a joy that the world wonders in silence. Often there is a meek and quiet spirit in the Christian, which disarms opposition. The soft answer turneth away wrath; and his very enemies are forced to be at peace with him. But stop till the Christian's day of darkness comesstop till sin and unbelief have brought him into captivitystop till he is shut out from Zion, and carried afar off, and sits and weeps; then will the cruel world help forward the afflictionthen will they ask for mirth and song; and when they see the bitter tear trickling down the cheek, they will ask with savage mockery, "Where is your Psalm singing now?" "Sing us one of the songs of Zion." Even Christ felt this bitterness when he hung upon the cross.
3. The Christian cannot sing in captivity. So it was with ancient Israel. They were peculiarly attached to the sweet songs of Zion. They reminded them of the times of David and Solomonwhen the temple was built, and Israel was in its greatest glory. They reminded them, above all, of their God, of their temple, and the services of the sanctuary. Three times a year they came up from the country in companies, singing these sweet songs of Zionlifting their eyes to the hills whence came their help. But now, when they were in captivity, they hanged their harps upon the willows; and when their cruel spoilers demanded mirth and a song, they said: "How shall we sing the Lord's song in a strange land?" So is it with the believer in darkness. He hangs his harp upon the willows, and cannot sing the song of the Lord. Every believer has got a harp. Every heart that has been made new is turned into a harp of praise. The mouth is filled with laughterthe tongue with most divine melody. Every true Christian loves praisethe holiest Christians love it most. But when the believer falls into sin and darkness, his harp is on the willows, and lie cannot sing the Lord's song, for lie is in a strange land.
1. He loses all sense of pardon. It is the sense of pardon that gives its sweetest tones to the song of the Christian. But when a believer is in captivity he loses this sweet sense of forgiveness, and therefore cannot sing.
2. He loses all sense of the presence of God. It is the sweet presence of God with, the soul that makes the believer sing. But when that presence is away, the Lord's house is but a howling wilderness; and you say, "How can we sing the Lord's song in a strange land?"
3. He loses sight of the heavenly Canaan. The sight of the everlasting hills, draws forth the heavenly melodies of the believing soul. But when a believer sins, and is carried away captive, he loses this hope of glory. He sits and weeps, he hangs his harp upon the willows, and cannot sing the Lord's song in a strange land.
4. The believer in darkness still remembers Zion, and prefers it above his chief joy. He often finds, when he has fallen into sin and captivity, that he has fallen among worldly delights and worldly friends. A thousand pleasures tempt him to take up his rest here; but if he be a true child of Zion he will never settle down in a strange land. He will look over all the pleasures of the world and the pleasures of sin, and say, "A day in thy courts is better than a thousand" "If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning."
Condensed from Robert Murray M'Cheyne, 1813-1843.
Ver. 1-2. The Psalm is universally admired. Indeed, nothing can be more exquisitely beautiful. It is written in a strain of sensibility that must touch every soul that is capable of feeling. It is remarkable that Dr. Watts, in his excellent versification, has omitted it. He has indeed some verses upon it in his Lyrics; and many others have written on this ode. We have seen more than ten productions of this kind; the last, and perhaps the best, of which is Lord Byron's. But who is satisfied with any of these attempts? Thus it begins: "By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion." These rivers were probably some of the streams branching off from the Euphrates and Tigris. Here it is commonly supposed these captive Jews were placed by their task masters, to preserve or repair the water works. But is it improper to conjecture that the Psalmist refers to their being here; not constantly, but occasionally; not by compulsion, but choice? Hither I imagine their retiring, to unbend their oppressed minds in solitude. "Come", said one of these pious Jews to another, "come, let us for a while go forth, from this vanity and vileness. Let us assemble together by ourselves under the refreshing shade of the willows by the watercourses. And let us take our harps with us, and solace ourselves with some of the songs of Zion." But as soon as they arrive, and begin to touch the chords, the notessuch is the power of association awaken the memory of their former privileges and pleasures. And, over whelmed with grief, they sit down on the grass; and weep when they remember Zion; their dejected looks, averted from each other, seeming to say, "If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning. If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth; if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy." But what do they with their harps? The voice of mirth is heard no more, and all the daughters of music are brought low. Melody is not in season to a distressed spirit. "Is any afflicted? Let him pray. Is any merry? Let him sing Psalms." "As he that taketh away a garment in cold weather, and as vinegar upon nitre, so is he that singeth songs to a heavy heart." They did not, however, break them to pieces, or throw them into the streambut hanged them up only. They hoped that what they could not use at present they might be able to resume as some happier period. To be cast down is not to be destroyed. Distress is not despondency.
"Beware of deperated steps; the darkest day
Live till to-morrow, will have passed away."
"We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof." Let us pass from the Jew to the Christian in his Spritiual Sorrows. He who preach well, says Luther, must distinguish well. It is peculiarly necessary to discriminate, when we enter upon the present subject. For all the sorrows of the Christian are not of the same kind or descent. Let us consider four sources of his moral sadness.
1. The first will be physical.
2. The second will be criminal.
3. The third will be intellectual.
4. The fourth will be pious.
William Jay in "The Christian Contemplated."
Ver. 1.
1. A duty once the source of joy: "remember Zion."
2. Circumstances which make the remembrance sorrowful.
3. Peculiar persons who feel this joy or sorrow: "we."
Ver. 1.
1. Zion forsaken in prosperity. Its services neglected; its priests demoralized; the worship of Baal and of Ashtaroth preferred to the worship of the true God.
2. Zion remembered in adversity. In Babylon more than in Jerusalem; on the banks of the Euphrates more than on the banks of Jordan; with tears when they might have remembered it with joy. "I spake unto thee in thy prosperity, and thou saidst, I will not hear." "Lord, in trouble they have visited thee. They poured out a prayer when thy chastening was upon them." G. R.
Psalms 137:2*
Charles H. Spurgeon's The Treasury of David (1869–1885) — public domain. Psalms only. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down,…
Psa_137:1-9
By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept.
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The tears of memory and the cry for vengeance
I. The tears of memory (Psa_137:1-6).
1. Their sorrow had reference to the loss of the highest blessing--Zion, where their nation met their God to worship Him, etc.
2. Their sorrow was deliberate and all-absorbing. Now these tears of memory--
(1) Reveal one of the most wonderful faculties of our nature, the faculty of memory.
(2) Reveal a view of retribution opposed to modern scepticism. Modern sceptics say we pay our moral debts as we go on, that retribution for sin is prompt and adequate here. Not so, memory brings up the sufferings of the past.
(3) Reveal a view of our mortal life terribly solemn. We do not, as the brute does, finish with life as we go on; we are bound by memory to re-visit the past, and to re-live our yesterdays.
(4) Reveal a futurity which must reverse our present calculations. How different do things appear to the eye of memory to what they do to the eye of sense.
II. A cry for vengeance (Psa_137:7-9). (Homilist.)
The patriots psalm
This psalm celebrates the splendid constancy of the Jews amid the oppressions of the Babylonian captivity, and is the production of some son of Korah or Asaph. The knowledge and love of music was widespread among the Sews; and it was most natural that the Babylonians, who were great musicians themselves, should ask their captives to sing them a song of Judaea. Whether they did it in scorn and mockery, or from genuine interest, the thought of singing of home was none the less painful to the exiles. The whole of the later books of the Old Testament are full of this consuming fire of Israelitish patriotism, a patriotism which burns in every nation under heaven, and in no nation more strongly than our own. Where it is trampled on, it breaks the oppressor like a potters vessel; where it is respected, it binds nations together in the strongest of bonds. So deep, so strong is the divine passion for fatherland in every human breast. Yet, loyal as you are, and lovers of old Caledonia, with heart and hand ever open to a brither Scot, you are free-born subjects of another country, owning another sovereign, like Andrew Melville, and fellow-citizens with the saints. Henceforth heaven is our home, our true and only home, and hero we are strangers and pilgrims. Many of the younger Jews had been born in captivity, but none the less did they love far-off Jerusalem, for their fathers talked of nothing else. The very fact that they had never seen it made them dream about it the more. So we often in imagination cross the Jordan and the wilderness, and enter one of the many mansions. We read and read again Rev_21:22.; the Pilgrims Progress, and the Paradise, and call curses on ourselves if we ever forget what we read there. The Jews sat down by the rivers of Babylon with a set purpose to weep. They deliberately intended to weep, and they had a never-failing specific for bringing tears to their eyes. It was deep, silent, solemnized, and deliberate weeping, reserved for a time when the Babylonians were not by. Nor do we intrude with our weeping into your feasts and dancing, nor hang our heads like bulrushes over the wine-cup; but never for one moment do we forget Jerusalem. Materially, the Jews lost little or nothing by having to migrate to Babylon. They were not slaves as they had been in Egypt, but prosperous colonists, and some of them were so well to do, so contented, that they let Zion and Jerusalem slip from their minds. Yet there was ever a remnant (or elect) whom no material prosperity could ever satisfy, who said, better a cottage in a vineyard in Jerusalem than a palace here. Asaph did not sell his harp nor tear its strings to pieces; he only hanged it on a willow-tree against the time he knew was coming. Then he struck it to some purpose, as we know in this far-off island of the sea. Not till her golden gates have closed and all her glorious children have gone in, will Jerusalem awake to her own full joy, and then will be heard the voice of mirth, and gladness, and feasting, the sound as of many waters, and the harpers harping with their harps. (A. Whyte, D. D.)
Injurious retrospection
The psalm opens with words of which the melancholy sweetness blinds us from seeing the evil tendencies which lie hid in them. By the rivers of Babylon, etc. Are the words so sweet? Is there not suppressed bitterness in them? What right had these exiles to sit down and weep, when it was God who had brought them to Babylon? What right had they to fold their hands and hang up their harps when God had told them by His prophet Jeremiah to build houses, and seek the peace of the city to which they were led captive (Jer_29:5-7)? God sends trouble to make men look forward, not backward. Living back in an irrevocable past is worse than mere waste of time. So it proved with the captives by the waters of Babylon. They thought upon the wrongs, but not upon the wrongful dealings of Zion. Zedekiahs broken oath to the king of Babylon (Eze_17:16), and their own intrigues with the enemies of Nebuchadnezzar were forgotten; the destruction of Jerusalem and the joys of their neighbours on the day of destruction were remembered too well. (W. E. Barnes, D. D.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain Psalms 137
Psalms 137
THE captivity is past, as the tenses in Psa_137:1-3 show, and as is manifest from the very fact that its miseries have become themes for a psalm. Grief must be somewhat removed before it can be sung. But the strains of triumph heard in other psalms are wanting in this, which breathes passionate love for Jerusalem, tinged with sadness still. The date of the psalm is apparently the early days of the Return, when true-hearted patriots still felt the smart of recent bondage and sadly gazed on the dear ruins of the city. The singer passes in brief compass from tender music breathing plaintive remembrance of the captives lot, to passionate devotion, and at last to an outburst of vehement imprecation, magnificent in its fiery rush, amply explicable by Israels wrongs and Babylons crimes, and yet to be frankly acknowledged as moving on a lower plane of sentiment than is permissible to those who have learned to repay scorn with gentleness, hate with love, and injuries with desires for the injurers highest good. The coals of fire which this psalmist scatters among Israels foes are not those which Christs servants are bidden to heap on their enemies heads.
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Nothing sweeter or sadder was ever written than that delicate, deeply felt picture of the exiles in the early verses of the psalm. We see them sitting, as too heavy-hearted for activity, and half noting, as adding to their grief, the unfamiliar landscape round them, with its innumerable canals, and the monotonous "willows" (rather, a species of poplar) stretching along their banks. How unlike this flat, tame fertility to the dear homeland, with its hills and glens and rushing streams! The psalmist was probably a Temple singer, but he did not find solace even in "the harp, his sole remaining joy." No doubt many of the exiles made themselves at home in captivity, but there were some more keenly sensitive or more devout, who found that it was better to remember Zion and weep than to enjoy Babylon. "Alas, alas! how much less it is to hold converse with others than to remember thee!" So they sat, like Michaelangelos brooding figure of Jeremiah in the Sistine Chapel, silent, motionless, lost in bittersweet memories.
But there was another reason than their own sadness for hanging their idle harps upon the willows. Their coarse oppressors bade them sing to make mirth. They wished entertainment from the odd sounds of foreign music, or they were petulantly angry that such dumb hang-dog people should keep sullen faces, like unilluminated windows, when their masters were pleased to be merry. So, like tipsy revellers, they called out "Sing!" The request drove the iron deeper into sad hearts, for it came from those who had made the misery. They had led away the captives, and now they bid them make sport.
The word rendered plunderers is difficult. The translation adopted here is that of the LXX and others. It requires a slight alteration of reading, which is approved by Hupfeld (as an alternative), Perowne, Baethgen, Graetz, etc. Cheyne follows Halevy in preferring another conjectural alteration which gives "dancers" ("and of our dancers, festive glee"), but admits that the other view is "somewhat more natural." The roystering Babylonians did not care what kind of songs their slaves sang. Temple music would do as well as any other; but the devout psalmist and his fellows shrank from profaning the sacred songs that praised Jehovah by making them parts of a heathen banquet. Such sacrilege would have been like Belshazzars using the Temple vessels for his orgy. "Give not that which is holy to dogs." And the singers were not influenced by superstition, but by reverence, and by sadness, when they could not sing these songs in that strange land. No doubt it was a fact that the Temple music fell into desuetude during the Captivity. There are moods and there are scenes in which it is profanation to utter the deep music which may be sounding on perpetually in the heart. "Songs unheard" are sometimes not only "sweetest," but the truest worship.
The psalmists remembrances of Babylon are suddenly broken off. His heart burns as he broods on that past, and then lifts his eyes to see how forlorn and forgotten-like Jerusalem stands, as if appealing to her sons for help. A rush of emotion sweeps over him, and he breaks into a passion of vowed loyalty to the mother city. He has Jerusalem written on his heart. It is noteworthy that her remembrance was the exiles crown of sorrow; it now becomes the apex of the singers joy. No private occasion for gladness so moves the depths of a soul, smitten with the noble and ennobling love of the city of God, as does its prosperity. Alas that the so called citizens of the true city of God should have so tepid interest in its welfare, and be so much more keenly touched by individual than by public prosperity or adversity! Alas that so often they should neither weep when they remember its bondage nor exult in its advancement!
Psa_137:5 b is emphatic by its incompleteness. "May my right hand forget!" What? Some word like "power," "cunning," or "movement" may be supplied. It would be as impossibly unnatural for the poet to forget Jerusalem as for his hand to forget to move or cease to be conscious of its connection with his body.
Psa_137:6 d reads literally "Above the head of my joy": an expression which may either mean the summit of my joy-i.e., my greatest joy; or the sum of my joy-i.e., my whole joy. In either case the well-being of Jerusalem is the psalmists climax of gladness; and so utterly does he lose himself in the community founded by God, that all his springs of felicity are in her. He had chosen the better part. Unselfish gladness is the only lasting bliss; and only they drink of an unfailing river of pleasures whose chiefest delight lies in beholding and sharing in the rebuilding of Gods city on earth.
The lightning flashes of the last part of the psalm need little commenting. The desire for the destruction of Zions enemies, which they express, is not the highest mood of the loyal citizen of Gods city, and is to be fully recognised as not in accordance with Christian morality. But it has been most unfairly judged, as if it were nothing nobler than ferocious thirsting for vengeance. It is a great deal more. It is desire for retribution, heavy as the count of crimes which demands it is heavy. It is a solemn appeal to God to sweep away the enemies of Zion, who, in hating her, rebelled against Him. First, the psalmist turns to the treacherous kinsmen of Israel, the Edomites, who had, as Obadiah says, "rejoiced over the children of Judah in the days of their destruction," {Oba_1:12} and stimulated the work of rasing the city. Then the singer turns to Babylon, and salutes her as already laid waste; for he is a seer as well as a singer, and is so sure of the judgment to be accomplished that it is as good as done. The most repellent part of the imprecation, that which contemplates the dreadful destruction of tender infants, has its harshness somewhat softened by the fact that it is the echo of Isaiahs prophecy concerning Babylon, {Isa_13:16-18}, and still further by the consideration that the purpose of the apparently barbarous cruelty was to make an end of a "seed of evil-doers," whose continuance meant misery for wide lands.
Undoubtedly, the words are stern, and the temper they embody is harsh discord, when compared with the Christian spirit. But they are not the utterances of mere ferocious revenge. Rather they proclaim Gods judgments, not with the impassiveness, indeed, which best befits the executors of such terrible sentences, but still less with the malignant gratification of sanguinary vengeance which has been often attributed to them. Perhaps, if some of their modern critics had been under the yoke from which this psalmist has been delivered, they would have understood a little better how a good man of that age could rejoice that Babylon was fallen and all its race extirpated. Perhaps, it would do modern tender heartedness no harm to have a little more iron infused into its gentleness, and to lay to heart that the King of Peace must first be King of Righteousness, and that Destruction of evil is the complement of Preservation of Good.
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain “There can be no doubt whatever,” says Perowne, “as…
INTRODUCTION
“There can be no doubt whatever,” says Perowne, “as to the time when this Psalm was written. It expresses the feeling of an exile who has but just returned from the land of his captivity. In all probability the writer was a Levite, who had been carried away by the armies of Nebuchadnezzar when Jerusalem was sacked and the Temple destroyed, and who was one of the first, as soon as the edict of Cyrus was published, to return to Jerusalem. He is again in his own land. He sees again the old familiar scenes, the mountains and the valleys that his foot trod in youth are before him. The great landmarks are the same, and yet the change is terrible. The spoiler has been in his home, his vines and his fig-trees have been cut down, the house of his God is a heap of ruins. His heart is heavy with a sense of desolation, and bitter with the memory of wrong and insult from which he has but lately escaped.
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“He takes his harp, the companion of his exile, the cherished relic of happier days,—the harp which he could not string at the bidding of his conquerors by the waters of Babylon; and now with faltering hand he sweeps the strings, first in low, plaintive, melancholy cadence pouring out his griefs, and then with a loud crash of wild and stormy music, answering to the wild and stormy numbers of his verse, he raises the pæan of vengeance over his foes.
“What a wonderful mixture is the Psalm of soft melancholy and fiery patriotism! The hand which wrote it must have known how to smite sharply with the sword, as well as how to tune his harp. The words are burning words of a heart breathing undying love to his country, undying hate to his foe. The poet is indeed—
“ ‘Dower’d with the hate of hate, the scorn of scorn,
The love of love.’ ”
PRECIOUS, YET SORROWFUL, RECOLLECTIONS
(Psa_137:1-6)
The poet here expresses the deep sorrow of Israel during their exile from the land of their fathers, and their solemn vow never to forget the holy city. No song of praise was heard amongst them, their harps were hung upon the willows, and their recollections of Zion filled them with sadness. Attracted by a common sympathy, a fellowship of suffering, they assembled in companies upon the banks of the Babylonian streams, and expressed their deep grief in sighs and tears. The scene is intensely poetic; it awakens our sympathy, and excites our imagination. But our business is to elicit its teachings.
I. They wept at the recollection of lost privileges. “We wept when we remembered Zion.”
1. Their tears express their patriotism. “If I forget thee, O Jerusalem,” &c. (Psa_137:5-6). We all know something of love of country. Whatever may be the natural, political, or moral characteristics of the country which gave us birth and education, there is none like unto it in heart attractions. In everything else it may be greatly surpassed by other countries; but in its hold upon our heart it stands unrivalled. “No power can sever our heart from the land of our birth.” But if a country be beautiful or sublime in its scenery, fertile in its soil, wise and liberal in its institutions and government, and rich in historical associations, then its hold upon the heart of its people is more intense and close. Thus stood the case in respect of the Jews and their country. To them there was no land like Canaan. It was a magnificent country, with grand old mountains towering sky-ward, and delicious plains fertile and flower-clad, and watered by delightful streams. “A good land, a land of brooks of water,” &c. (Deu_8:7-9). Moreover, it was sacred to them by immortal and precious memories,—memories of Abraham and Moses, Joshua and Samuel, David and Solomon, Elijah and Elisha,—memories of the glorious doings of God on behalf of their fathers. Well may these Jews love such a country. But this country they had lost; and these tears bewail their loss.
2. Their tears express their yearning for freedom. Once they were free under their glorious theocracy. But their freedom they had lost. They had lost their civil liberty, and were captives; their religious liberty, and were in the land of idolaters. Their tears expressed their sorrow for the loss of their liberty, and their longing for its recovery. Their tears expressing their yearning for liberty tell us that man was not made for bondage, that in proportion to the force and fulness of his manhood will be his unwillingness to submit to bondage in any form. In the same proportion he will feel the degradation and smart of the yoke of the oppressor, and pine and struggle for liberty. God made man to be free. Freedom is the birthright of man as man, and of every man.
3. Their tears express their love for the house of God and the ordinances of worship. The loss of their country and of their political privileges was great, and was deeply felt by them; but their spiritual deprivation in being sundered from Zion was a greater loss, and was more deeply felt by them. “We wept when we remembered Zion.” (On Zion and its associations, see Hom. Com. on Psa_48:1-3; Psa_76:2; Psa_132:13-14.) Zion was inseparably connected with the supply of their spiritual requirements, and the development of their moral and religious nature. The loss of those things which tend to ennoble and develop our higher nature—our true self—is the greatest of all losses. Having those things upon which the growth and progress of our soul depend we are rich, though in other respects we may be as destitute as Lazarus: without those things we are abjectly poor, though in other respects we may be as rich as he at whose gate Lazarus was laid. These most costly things, these divinest things, the Jews had lost. From Zion, with all its sacred mementoes, and delightful associations, and divine ordinances, and religious privileges, they were ruthlessly torn. They had lost all. Country lost, liberty lost, the Temple lost, the manifestation of God lost,—all lost! Well may they weep! Two facts are suggested by this portion of our subject:—
(1.) True love is independent of bodily presence or nearness. When far removed from Zion the love of the captive Jew for the sacred place became not cold, but more fervent. Material distance cannot quench the holy flame. Moral distance is the only thing which can.
(2.) True love endures through time and all its changes. Seventy weary years of deprivation and sorrow failed to extinguish the love of the pious and patriotic Jew for Zion. Neither duration nor change can exhaust genuine affection: it is a growing and abiding thing.
II. They wept at the recollection of privileges which they had lost by reason of their non-appreciation of them. They were removed from their country and their home because of their sins. They were carried to Babylon in consequence of their neglect of Divine ordinances, their idolatry, rebellion against God, and spiritual apostacy. No people were more favoured, or were so favoured as they were. They had been warned, exhorted, entreated, encouraged, &c. (Comp. Jer_7:25-26; Jer_25:1-11.) They were thoughtless, disobedient, stiff-necked, determined to pursue their own course; and it led them to Babylon with all its sorrows. And now in the sufferings of exile they begin to consider, now recollection plays its part, now their eye is turned upon themselves, and reflection brings self-reproach and added sorrow. How painful must have been their recollections of Zion! Zion which they had neglected, dishonoured, despised; and from which they were justly exiled;—Zion which once in the beauty of its situation they had regarded as “the joy of the whole earth,” now ruined and desolated by their Pagan foes, the fertile vales of Palestine all dreary and neglected, the walls of Jerusalem levelled to the ground, the city destroyed, the Temple desecrated—painful, indeed, must have been their recollections! Yet, could they forget their country and Zion? Never! Recollection constantly led them there, and their sins rose darkly before them. When they had their privileges they failed to appreciate them, neglected them; when they lost them they saw their value. “The well is never prized until it is dry.”
Observe here three important facts—
1. We are prone to disparage the ordinary and regular blessings of life. We see this as regards the blessings of the kind and pious home, the Christian ministry and means of grace, the Bible, and even salvation and the Saviour. Familiarity engenders neglect.
2. The disparagement of these blessings is an ample cause for their withdrawal. The Jews disparaged their privileges, and for seventy years God withdrew from them some of His most precious gifts. Let those who neglect the familiar blessings of this Christian land and age be warned. God may withdraw His most precious gifts from you, &c.
3. Should these blessings be withdrawn their value would then be felt—be felt when it is too late. The privileges of Zion were valued by the Jews in Babylon; they were valued when lost.
“Like birds whose beauties languish, half concealed,
Till mounted on the wing, their glossy plumes
Expanded shine with azure, green, and gold;
How blessings brighten as they take their flight!”
—Young.
Let us be wise and appreciate Heaven’s gifts while we have them.
What a solemn view of life this subject presents! Every circumstance and action of life by the operation of memory is endless in its influence. Memory eternalises the records of life. Memory makes the fleeting present everlasting. How important then is life! Do you love Zion? Are you wisely estimating and using your religious advantages and opportunities? Or are you penitently sorrowing at the recollections of the past? What opportunities neglected, blessings depreciated! &c. Thank God! the blessings are not yet withdrawn; salvation is still offered, &c. Look from the guilty past to Jesus for pardon and life. Then take your harp from the willows, and join in the song of the ransomed, “Unto Him that loved us,” &c. Our responsibilities are proportioned to our privileges. The Jews were banished from their Temple and country for neglecting their privileges. This was the most bitter ingredient in their sorrow by the rivers of Babylon. How great, then, are the responsibilities of the people of this land and age!
HARPS ON THE WILLOWS
(Psa_137:2)
This is a beautiful and pathetic picture of the captive Jews and their sorrows in the land of Babylon.…
And is not that a picture of many conditions of your human life? Sorrow has invaded our lives. We wander by the side of some Babylonian stream. We hang our harp upon the willow that bends above it. We weep when we remember the happier moments that have fled.
There are three things that we would learn from this picture of sorrow.
I. Every man has a harp.
The harp was the well-known instrument for the accompaniment of song. Its music was sweet and delightful. When calamity fell upon the nation their harps were silenced, &c.
And thus it is with all our lives. We have the elements of joy in them, the powers of song and gladness, and there is no man who has not the capacity and the occasion for delightful mirth.
1. Just think of the constitution of our nature, wherein a place is secured for joy. The body is attuned to pleasure. God might have made us with organisations fitted for life, for recreation, for intelligence and activity, and yet altogether without the capacity of experiencing pleasure. Consider the sense of hearing. Sounds might have been so indistinct that to hear would have required the constant exercise of attention, the strain of effort painful and wearying; or they might have been so powerful that a whisper would be shocking, whilst the natural speech of our friends would be like the explosion of cannon close to the ear. And yet how exquisitely has God harmonised the sound and the sense!
2. What a harp man possesses in physical nature if he would only let its music be heard. Every sight and sound, every scene and action, all things fair and good, bright and godly, are but fingers of Nature’s skilful hand, which will touch the strings of the harp of our being, and wake their perfect tones of rapture.
3. Man has the harp for pleasant accompaniment of happy song in the region of the immaterial and the intellectual. What delights there are in intellectual operations! The joy of learning—when it is indeed learning worthy of the name; the discovery of the unknown; the pursuit of the law which underlies obscure phenomena; the search for causes; the enumeration of effects—these and others afford keen and lasting delight.
4. The pleasure which belongs to the still higher sphere which we are privileged to enter. I forbear to pursue the delights of our soul in its affections—the raptures of home; the loves of children, &c. Let me now only remind you of that sacred melody which is attuned when the joys of the spirit are experienced. The sinner seeks his Saviour, and finds the pardon of Father and of Friend. You remember the hour of forgiveness. Heaven’s clouds were cleared, the storm was bushed, the dread was dissipated, and a Father’s love received you through the mighty merits of a Saviour’s death. The best music of all the Christian poets falls far short of the rapture which dwells within the forgiven heart.
And with what language shall we tell of the occasions for harping that have occurred so often since the first forgiveness! Have there not been Bethels of a Divine covenanting, Horebs of refreshment, and Red Sea passages of deliverance and triumph? Prayer has had its blessed answers, and meditation its holy raptures. Nothing but song could express our heightened feeling; and we felt as if angel-hands were sweeping the cords of our harp of life, and making the glad accompaniment to our joyous mood. (Comp. Isa_51:11.)
Remember, this harp must be tuned and practised on. And yet it is the last thing some Christians think of—tuning their harp. Let Zion re-echo with your songs.
II. But sometimes the harp has to be hung upon the willows. In the land of Babylon the Israelites had no heart to sing. Tears were the only out-pourings of which they were capable. And so it is with the harps of life. We have to lay them aside or hang them upon willows that droop over rivers of sadness, by whose banks we sit and wail.
1. It is thus when disease invades our bodies or sorrow smites the soul. Songs are not suitable to funerals, and harpings in the house of mourning are out of place and impertinent.
2. There are some silences still more profound that fall upon the music of our life. The father whose eldest son forswears his father’s faith, and throws away his father’s virtues, and wins only a name that will be a dishonour among men—such a father has little heart for harpings, and is, indeed, in a silent land of bitter exile.
3. And then how useless is the harp when we ourselves are in the hours of spiritual distress. God is absent, and we know no gladness till He shows His face again. They sang a hymn when the Master was among them, even though when they rose from the supper it was to pass to Gethsemane, and Pilate’s bar, and Calvary. But their hearts had no desire for singing in the suspense and numb agony of the hour when the Christ lay dead. And so it is with the Christian still, &c.
III. But though there is no heart or place for song, and the harp must be laid aside, it needs not to be cast away.
They had been foolish and wicked men of Israel if they had flung their harps beneath the running river, and thus deprived themselves altogether of the means of melody when the days of joy came back again. (See Ezr_3:9-13.)
So, brethren, cast not away your harp. The weather will clear and the soul will awake to gladness when the sunshine comes.
And the sickness will depart, and the strengthened frame shall recover its wonted sense of health and vigour. Not always the darkened room, &c.
Yea, and there shall be some hours of gladness even for the wailing weary heart that sickens over the sinfulness of child and friend. It was a sad home when the prodigal was far away. But one day the father saw the returning son, ragged, worn, and disgraced, and that night there was music and dancing in the long silent homestead. Keep your harp, my friend, &c.
And thou, too, depressed and cast down Christian, throw not away thy harp. There shall be peace and joy and fulness of blessing yet for thee. God shall show Himself, and Christ will yet return.
The time when the harp shall be needed may not come until the moment of death. A life of sorrow, doubt, or conflict may not have one hour of leisure or delight, and only swan-like can be the song; and yet, then the harp will be needed, though only one chord may be struck from it upon earth—its strains sounding amid the music of heaven. Then, for all a harp will be gained, for all shall sing the new song of Moses and the Lamb.—Ll. D. Bevan, LL.B.
THE DIFFICULTY OF SINGING SONGS IN EXILE
(Psa_137:4)
I. What the world is to the Christian. “A strange land.” Like Babylon to the Israelites. There they had many comforts; for God “made them to be pitied of all those that carried them captives.” They were treated more like colonists than captives; and many of them grew wealthy and were even loth to return. But it was not their home. What Babylon was to Israel such is the present evil world to the Christian. Like a man born in a cottage, the son of a prince, to whom a rich inheritance belongs in another country, when he comes to know the secret of his birth, the rank he sustains, and the possessions that belong to him; then that which was his home ceases to be so, and he longs to cross the river, or climb the mountain, or set sail for his true country: so it is with the Christian who, though born a worldling, and once satisfied with his portion, now learns the secret of his true and nobler birth. Many of the sons of the captives were born in Babylon; but, having the heart of an Israelite, felt it not a home: it was “a strange land” to them.
On earth the Christian feels himself to be an exile—distant from his Father’s home—distant from near and beloved connections and friends who have got home before him. True, he has many comforts, &c. But still this is not his rest; not his birthplace; not the condition for which his faculties and affections were originally designed. There are times in which his hope is full of immortality, and he has bright glimpses of the better country in his hours of faith and devotion; and then he feels indeed a stranger and a pilgrim; he spurns the yoke; he mourns the chain; and, like a captive minstrel, hangs his harp upon the willows, and cries, “Oh, that I had wings like a dove,” &c.
II. Whence arises the difficulty of singing the Lord’s song in a world like this? It may be done; it is important that it should be done; provisions are made for doing it, for they had harps and they had the subject of their song, just as Christians have now the means, the materials, and the elements of their spiritual joy. Yet there are obstructions to the full enjoyment of the peace which the Gospel brings. Whence arises the hindrance?
1. From want of sympathy in those around us Their oppressors did not ask for the song from love to the religion, or sympathy with the captives, but to add insult to their misery by holding up their religion to contempt, and mocking at the hope and promise it contained. Here we admire the captives. They did not forget to take their harps with them to Babylon. They did not refuse to sing because they were ashamed of their religion, or would make a secret of it. They did not hide their harps, as if they were afraid of their avowal; and they did not break their harps, as if they were abandoned to despair; but they hung them upon the willows in sight of the foe, and only refused to sing because the company was uncongenial.
And is it not so still? Are not the peace and happiness of the children of Zion grievously diminished by the uncongenial society with which they are called to mingle—sometimes in their own families, when a believing wife is yoked to an unbelieving husband, or a religious husband to an irreligious wife? “Can two walk together, except they be agreed?” (Amo_3:3). How much less can two sing together? When Christians mingle with irreligious persons in the same house, the same shop, the same workroom, &c.
2. From the pressure of outward trial and of mental grief. I know that all the troubles of the wilderness ought not to put us out of tune for singing the songs of Zion; but they sometimes do. We have often observed a counter-effect produced for a season by the calamities of life—that whereas they are both designed and adapted to lead us at once and directly to God, yet under the first and immediate pressure an opposite effect is produced, till principle has time to rally and grace obtains her triumph. The cup intoxicates; the blow stuns. David expresses this in Psa_60:3.
But even then the Christian does not break his harp: he only suspends it; and if he cannot find a song, he will at least hush the breath of murmuring and complaint. David corrects his despondency, and at the very worst anticipates brighter times (Psa_42:11). Yet the Lord Jesus anticipates even His sufferings with a song (Mat_26:30.)
3. Because our hearts are out of tune for the exercise. Under the consciousness of spiritual declension it is very difficult to “sing the Lord’s song.”
III. What answer shall be returned to the inquiry—“How shall we sing the Lord’s song”? &c.
1. If you would sing the Lord’s song in adversity, make yourself well acquainted with it in prosperity. It is bad to have our comforts to seek when we want to enjoy them; our anchor to provide when we want to use it; our song to learn, &c. (Isa_12:1).
2. Live close to God, and exercise renewed acts of faith in Christ. Retrace your steps if you have wandered. “Repent, and do thy first works.”
3. Be much in prayer. “Open Thou my lips,” &c.
4. Honour the work and agency of the Holy Spirit.—Samuel Thodey.
SONGS IN A STRANGE LAND
(Psa_137:4)
I. The Christian on earth is in a strange land—
1. As to his feelings.
2. As to his supplies.
3. As to his dangers.
II. The Christian on earth, although in a strange land, has songs—
1. Of gratitude.
2. Of penitence.
3. Of resignation.
4. Of hope.—George Brooks.
RETRIBUTION
(Psa_137:7-9)
We have in these verses—
I. An important feature of the Divine government of the world. The designs of God are sometimes wrought out by wicked men, but this affords no excuse to such men, nor will it secure to them any exemption from the just consequences of their deeds. In the Babylonish captivity this is strikingly exemplified. The Jews were carried into Babylon by the permission of God as a punishment for their many sins, particularly their idolatry. And in one respect, at least, the captivity accomplished its purpose; for the Jews have never since relapsed into idolatry. So far the Babylonians did the work of God. But they did it unintentionally, unconsciously. They had no thought of working out the purposes of God in so doing, but simply of fulfilling their own proud and lawless designs. The captivity was overruled by God for the accomplishment of His designs, yet on the part of Babylon it was unjustifiable and wicked. And did she go unpunished? No. The hour of retribution struck, the strange fingers appeared in the royal banquet hall, the letters of doom with appalling distinctness and mystery were inscribed upon the wall, the enemy even then was close upon the city: “in that night was Belshazzar king of the Chaldeans slain,” and Babylon, “the lady of kingdoms,” was a kingdom no longer. We see the same principle in operation in the life of Joseph (Gen_50:20; Psa_76:10).
How magnificent is this aspect of the Divine government! All things in the universe are under the control of the Almighty, and the most malignant powers are used for the accomplishment of His glorious purposes. There is no real triumph of falsehood and evil. Their victories are only brief appearances. All things in the universe are aiding to enthrone the True and the Good.
II. A cry for retribution. “Remember, O Lord, the children of Edom,” &c. “Deepest of all,” says Dean Stanley, “was the indignation roused by the sight of the nearest of kin, the race of Esau, often allied to Judah, often independent, now bound by the closest union with the power that was truly the common enemy of both. There was an intoxication of delight in the wild Edomite chiefs, as at each successive stroke against the venerable walls they shouted, ‘Down with it! down with it! even to the ground!’ They stood in the passes to interrupt the escape of those who would have fled down to the Jordan valley; they betrayed the fugitives; they indulged in their barbarous revels on the Temple hill. Long and loud has been the wail of execration which has gone up from the Jewish nation against Edom. It is the one imprecation which breaks forth from the Lamentations of Jeremiah; it is the culmination of the fierce threats of Ezekiel; it is the sole purpose of the short, sharp cry of Obadiah; it is the bitterest drop in the sad recollections of the Israelite captives by the waters of Babylon; and the one warlike strain of the Evangelical Prophet is inspired by the hope that the Divine Conqueror should come knee deep in Idumean blood (Lam_4:21-22; Eze_25:12-14; Oba_1:1-21; Jer_49:7-22; Isa_63:1-4).”
This cry to the Lord for retribution to Edom implies—
1. The existence of the sense of justice in the human soul.
2. Belief in the righteous government of God.
3. Belief in the efficacy of prayer to God.
III. An illustration of the nature of retribution. “O daughter of Babylon, who art to be destroyed, happy shall he be that rewardeth thee as thou hast served us.” Margin: “That recompenseth unto thee thy deed which thou didst to us.” Perowne, literally: “The requital wherewith thou hast requited us.” “Agreeably to His justice,” says Tholuck, “God exercises the justalionis. Justice is elastic; the unjust blow I inflict upon another, by the order of the moral world, recoils upon myself.” (Comp. Jdg_1:6-7; Jer_51:54-56.) “God has undertaken,” says Bushnell, “to dispense justice by a law of natural consequence. He has connected thus, with our moral and physical nature, a law of reaction, by which any wrong of thought, feeling, disposition, or act, provokes a retribution exactly fitted to it, and to the desert of it. And this law is just like every law of natural order, inviolable, not subject to suspension, or discontinuance, even by miracle itself. And justice is, in this view, a fixed principle of order, as truly as the laws of the heavenly bodies.”
IV. The desire for retribution is prone to develop into vindictiveness towards those who have injured us. “Happy shall he be that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the rock.” In ancient warfare the indiscriminate slaughter of persons of all ages and of both sexes was common. Perhaps the Psalmist in this utterance “only acts as a Divine herald to confirm former predictions.” As a matter of fact Cyrus, the conqueror of Babylon, is reckoned amongst the heroes of history. But “there is great need to have the heart well guarded with the fear of God, for, otherwise to allow the dashing of little ones against the stones, might make a man guilty of savage cruelty.” Guard earnestly against a vindictive spirit.
“Consider this,—
That, in the course of justice, none of us
Should see salvation: we do pray for mercy;
And that same prayer doth teach us all to render
The deeds of mercy.”—Shakespeare.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Sermon Bible 1900 · Public Domain Let us ask this question and ponder the answer…
Psa 137:4
Let us ask this question and ponder the answer to it in reference to our own poor efforts to awaken heart and voice to the utterance of the Lord’s song, whether of sadness or joy, in the services of the Lord’s house on the Lord’s Day.
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I. Consider the difficulty of singing the Lord’s song in a strange land. Difficult as I find it to pray, difficult to confess sin, difficult to ask for grace, it is still more difficult, I find, to praise, to perform that highest, that most unselfish, that most self-forgetting, of all offices of devotion which is the telling forth, in the hearing of others, in the presence, we believe, of the communion of saints, dead as well as living, what God is, in act and in counsel, in power, wisdom, and love. (1) The very life which we live here in the body is a life of sight and sense. The world of our common life is a strange land as regards the realisation of God, and consequently the work of praise. Naturally we walk by sight, and to sing the Lord’s song is possible only to faith. (2) Again, the feelings of the present life are often adverse to praise. The exiles in Babylon could not sing because they were in heaviness. In the common meaning of the words, the distressed and sorrowful cannot sing the Lord’s song. A body of flesh, a sense of unhappiness, a burden of sin, would stop the voice of praise anywhere in any one. The land itself, so to say, is strange to it.
II. But there is a land, could we but reach it, where praise is, as it were, indigenous. In heaven praise is the universal tongue. It takes a lifetime to make heaven our own land. How many things go to this, what a multitude of tears and sorrows, of falls and risings again, of resolutions and repentances, of prayers and watchings, of communions and communings with the Unseen! If heaven is to be our land, it must be by our knowing God—God in Christ. We can never sing the Lord’s song even here below intelligently or spiritually until we know the Lord. Life itself is only just long enough to educate us for God’s eternal praise.
C. J. Vaughan, Last Words at Doncaster.
References: Psa 137:4.—T. Arnold, Sermons, vol. iv., p. 221; F. E. Paget, Sermons for Special Occasions, p. 193; H. P. Liddon, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xx., p. 129. Psa 137:5.—J. Percival, Some Helps for School Life, p. 254; T. W. Gittens, Thursday Penny Pulpit, vol. xvi., p. 197. Psa 137:9.—Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. xvii., p. 345. Psalm 137—J. Hammond, Expositor, 1st scries, vol. iv., p. 232. Psa 138:1.—J. Keble, Sermons on Various Occasions, p. 72. Psa 138:1-3.—Spurgeon, My Sermon Notes: Genesis to Proverbs, p. 166. Psa 138:5.—Ibid., Morning by Morning, p. 32. Psa 138:6.—Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. iii., p. 82. Psa 138:7.—Ibid., vol. x., p. 147.
The Sermon Bible, ed. William Robertson Nicoll (1888–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
F. W. Grant 1903 · Public Domain Zion the one controlling object for the heart of…
Zion the one controlling object for the heart of the solitary (as cut off from Jehovah’s presence.)
1. In the first psalm, then; here, as already said, we are with the captives in Babylon. The plenteous streams that once enriched with unfailing fertility "the glory of the Chaldee’s excellency" are before their eyes only to remind them that they are far from Zion; and to minister to the awful home-sickness of men who realized, as Jews alone could do, what it was to be cut off from the one place of the presence of God. How unutterable the loneliness, amid crowds that might press around them; of such a condition. There then they sat down -all labor a vain labor there! -to weep as their unflagging memories called up before them the image of Zion. Estranged from joy, they hung their harps upon the willows, in resolute denial of the request of those who had carried them captive for "words of song," -mere "words" they would be, without music now, -` saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion."
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2. What could they know -these heathen -of "Jehovah’s songs," or the reproach which they would ring with, to the people of God (alas, such no longer) gone as captives into a strange land? In Jerusalem alone could the blood of atonement -and "without shedding of blood is no remission" -be sprinkled upon the golden mercy-seat, that a holy God might dwell among the praises of His people. It was but a waste spot now; yet there with inseparable attachment their hearts lingered. Their right hand might well forget, if Jerusalem were forgotten. The tongue might cleave to the roof of the mouth that exalted not Jerusalem above every other object of joy.
3. There is no mention of their sins, however, in all this, -no confession. It is the desolation of those who are away from the place of Jehovah’s manifestation; with the prayer only for judgment upon their enemies, who have destroyed or sympathized with the destruction of the home of their affections, in language from which the Christian naturally shrinks. But Edom and Babylon are both doomed by the prophets to extinction as a people; and to this doom of the latter there is distinct reference made here. Judgment is God’s strange work: we may be sure, a necessary one; and the solemn part which God has made His people sometimes take in it, as in the case of the nations of Canaan; has doubtless its deep necessity also. Calamities involve commonly enough babes as well as parents; while, of course, they are but the short and passing evils, which leave the eternity following to make up the balance-sheet.
F. W. Grant, The Numerical Bible (4th ed., 1903) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain A lifelike memorial of the bitter experiences of exile…
A lifelike memorial of the bitter experiences of exile concluding with (a) a strong expression of patriotism, and (b) an outburst of hatred against the enemies of Jerusalem. Probably written soon after the exile.
1. Rivers of Babylon] The river was the Euphrates, from which branched off a network of canals, on whose banks grew the willows here referred to. These were a species of poplar.
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2. Harps] the Kinnor was the most ancient kind of harp, properly a lyre.
3. A song] lit. 'the words of a song.' Sing us, etc.] probably in mockery. Hebrew music would not be so good as Babylonian.
5. Forget her cunning] i.e. her skill in playing on the harp.
7. The children of Edom in the day] RV 'against the children of Edom the day,' i.e. the day of the destruction of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans (2Ki_25:8), when Edom rejoiced at its fall: see Oba_1:10-12.
8. Who art to be destroyed] i.e. doomed to destruction.
9. Stones] RV 'rocks.' We cannot defend this terrible curse, but the cruelties of these Eastern oppressors were a provocation which fortunately we cannot now realise.
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein 1922 · Public Domain Psalm 137
Psalm 137
Remembering the Exile
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This Psalm is in remembrance of the Babylonian captivity written by an unknown person. Some have named Jeremiah, but he was not in Babylon. The Psalm expresseth the never dying love for Zion in the heart of Israel. The same love is alive today after an exile of almost two thousand years. “If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget its cunning. Let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth, if I remember thee not; if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chiefest joy.” But this Psalm also looks forward to the day when divine retribution will be measured out to the daughter of Babylon, when Israel’s enemies will be punished for their sins committed against His people. The fate of the final Babylon as given in Isa 13:16 corresponds with the last verse of this Psalm. See also Isa 47:6.
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain Song of Grief of the Captive Jews.
Song of Grief of the Captive Jews.
The unknown poet here records the deep grief and mourning of the Jews during the Babylonian captivity and includes a prayer for the destruction of their enemies, since their enmity was a challenge to the God of Israel.
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v. 1. By the rivers of Babylon, along the banks of which many of the Jews had settled for the period of the captivity, there we sat down, their deep grief having driven them away into the solitude of the country, yea, we wept when we remembered Zion, for the anxiety of the believing Jews did not concern the loss of their temporal goods so much as that of the Sanctuary, the visible sign of the true worship.
v. 2. We hanged our harps, otherwise used to accompany joyous and festal songs, upon the willows in the midst thereof, to indicate that all their joyful hymns were hushed. The silent and pensive sitting among the weeping willows by the side of the gently flowing streams agrees well with the feeling of homesickness which filled the hearts of the captives.
v. 3. For there they that carried us away captive required of us a song, either out of curiosity or in derision; and they wasted us, those who had inflicted pain upon them, their oppressors, required of us mirth, an expression of happiness, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion. The enemies did not realize how tactless they were, and did not care whether the compliance of the Jews with their request would agree with their depressed feelings or not. They had heard of the wonderful hymns of the Jews and insisted upon being entertained by them. But the resentment and the bitterness of the captives kept them from complying with the request addressed to them.
v. 4. How shall we sing the Lord’s song in a strange land? Their sacred songs were, in their minds, inseparably connected with the worship of the Temple, the Sanctuary in Jerusalem, and it seemed to them a desecration to strike up their psalms for the entertainment of their captors; it was opposed to their religious and moral feelings. After this descriptive part of the psalm the poet launches forth in a lyric strain expressive of the feelings which filled the hearts of the captive Jews.
v. 5. If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, the Sanctuary with the worship of Jehovah, let my right hand forget her cunning, the power of motion in general, and especially her skill with the harp.
v. 6. If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth, in an agony of thirst and suffering; if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy, literally, "if I do not place Jerusalem above the summit of my joy," that is, if he, and all believing Jews with him, did not consider the Sanctuary of Jehovah the source of his greatest delight in life. It is an expression of homesick longing which properly pictures the deep remorse and grief of the captives. The poet now, in holy anger, turns to call God’s wrath down upon the enemies of Israel, who were, at the same time, the enemies of Jehovah.
v. 7. Remember, O Lord, the children of Edom, who had been particularly active in the destruction of Jerusalem, Amo 1:11, for which reason they had been threatened with divine vengeance, Jer 49:7-8, in the day of Jerusalem, at the time of its downfall; who said, Raze it, raze it, even to the foundation thereof, not permitting one stone to remain upon the other, for such were their vindictive feelings. But Babylon was also included in the poet’s execration.
v. 8. O daughter of Babylon, who art to be destroyed, literally, "that art destroyed," for in the prophetic mind her destruction was already begun, happy shall he be that rewardeth thee as thou hast served us. Cf Isa 47:6.
v. 9. Happy shall he be that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones, so that no new generation, rising from the ruins, would restore her shattered world power, Isa 14:21-22. It is not personal vindictiveness that is speaking here, but the prophet of the Lord, in the name of the Lord; for the divine justice upon the blaspheming enemies must be carried out. Naturally, this psalm finds its application in the Christian Church of all times, for it is equivalent to a prayer that God would deliver us from every evil work and preserve us unto His heavenly kingdom.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 General Information:
General Information:
Parallelism is common in Hebrew poetry. (See: Poetry and Parallelism)
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By the rivers of Babylon
"Next to one of the rivers near Babylon"
we sat ... wept ... we thought ... we hung
The writer does not include the readers. (See: Exclusive and Inclusive "We")
On the poplars there
Poplar trees do not grow in Israel. "Poplars" may here stand for all the trees in Babylon. AT: "On the trees in Babylon" (See: Metonymy)
translationWords
Babylon
Zion
harp
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 Ps 137 In response to the pain of exile…
Ps 137 In response to the pain of exile (137:1-4), the psalmist resolves to remember Jerusalem even though the memories cause him pain (137:4-6). He also writes an astounding imprecation, or prayer for vengeance (137:7-9).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.