Abstract: Psalm 137

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Psalm 137

When I read the Psalm for the day, I decide not to re-interpret it. Psalm 137 is a song from a people held captive and longing for their homeland (and the punishment of their captors.) It is intense and personal. And, I didn’t feel right about putting their lament into my context. So, I left it as translated in the New American Standard Bible.

An Experience of the Captivity.

By the rivers of Babylon,

There we sat down and wept,

When we remembered Zion.

Upon the willows in the midst of it

We hung our harps.

For there our captors demanded of us songs,

And our tormentors mirth, saying,

“Sing us one of the songs of Zion.”

How can we sing the Lord’s song

In a foreign land?

If I forget you, O Jerusalem,

May my right hand forget her skill.

May my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth

If I do not remember you,

If I do not exalt Jerusalem

Above my chief joy.

Remember, O Lord, against the sons of Edom

The day of Jerusalem,

Who said, “Raze it, raze it

To its very foundation.”

O daughter of Babylon, you devastated one,

How blessed will be the one who repays you

With the recompense with which you have repaid us.

How blessed will be the one who seizes and dashes your little ones

Against the rock.

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