Psalms 137
A lament of exiles longing for Jerusalem in Babylon.
Psalm 137 opens with one of Scripture's most vivid laments, exiles who "sat down, yea, we wept" beside the rivers of Babylon and hung their harps on the willows. It stands in sharp contrast to the joyful mercy refrain of Psalms 136, shifting from praise to grief.
By the rivers of Babylon, there, we sat down, yea we wept—when we remembered Zion:
Upon the willows—in the midst thereof, hanged we our lyres:
For, there, our captors asked of us words of song, and our plunderers—gladness,—Sing us of the songs of Zion!
How shall we sing the song of Yahweh, on a foreign soil?
If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, Let my right-hand forget:
Let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth, if I do not remember thee! if I do not lift up Jerusalem above the head of mine own gladness.
Remember, O Yahweh, against the sons of Edom, the day of Jerusalem,—how they continued to say—Overthrow! Overthrow! unto the foundation within it.
O ruined daughter of Babylon,—how happy the man who shall repay thee thy dealing, wherewith thou didst deal with us!
How happy the man who shall snatch away and dash thy children against the crag.