The implication here is that many did indeed learn to prefer Babylon. PSALM 137 OVERVIEW. Brueggemann, Walter, The Message of the Psalms A Theological Commentary (Minneapolis: Augsburg Press, 1984) Clifford, Richard J., Abingdon Old Testament Commentaries: Psalms 73-150 … Psalm 137. IV. The Psalms: 137: The Mourning of the Exiles in Babylon: 1 By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion. As vinegar upon nitre, so is he that sings songs to a heavy heart. 2. Audio Commentary: Psalm 137 Psalm 137 1 By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion. She shall be paid in her own coin: "Thou shalt be served as thou hast served us, as barbarously used by the destroyers as we have been by thee," See Revelation 18:6. 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, Amos 8:10. The historical occasion for that behavior of Edom was apparently the capture of Jerusalem by the Philistines and the Arabians a couple of centuries before the fall of the city to Babylon. Study This × Bible Gateway Plus. 2. The Jews in exile were then told to “sing us one of the songs of Zion!” (Psalm 137:1), adding further humiliation and frustration to a defeated people. This is the repayment. I. Psalms 137 Commentary, One of over 110 Bible commentaries freely available, this commentary is one of the most respected interdenominational commentaries ever written. The psalmist penned this poem while … You, the Bible, and the Holy Spirit are priority in interpretation. As Amos said of Edom, "His anger did tear perpetually, and he kept his wrath forever" (Psalms 1:11). Matthew Henry :: Commentary on Psalms 137 ← Back to Matthew Henry's Bio & Resources . Psalm 137:4 in all English translations. It is a mournful psalm, a lamentation and the Septuagint makes it one of the lamentations of Jeremiah, naming him for the author of it. Enduring Word Bible Commentary Psalm 137 Psalm 137 – The Mournful Song of the Exiles Because this psalm is a remembrance of Babylon, many commentators believe it was written after the return from exile. "If I prefer not Jerusalem" (Psalms 137:6). Every thing is beautiful in its season. The destruction of Babylon being foreseen as a sure destruction (thou art to be destroyed), it is spoken of, 1. 139. Let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth, If I prefer not Jerusalem Above my chief joy.". (See Vol. This was very barbarous; also profane, for no songs would serve but the songs of Zion. A psalm of David, for Jeremias. The willows were a quick-growth tree that sprang up in abundance along the many canals of the Euphrates. Their hearts were full of it. "In the day that thou stoodest on the other side, in the day that strangers carried away his substance, and foreigners entered into his gates, and cast lots upon Jerusalem, even thou wast as one of them" (Obadiah 1:1:11). 140. 2 We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof. 1. An imprecation of this type invoked against innocent and helpless little children is contrary to the word of Christ and the holy apostles; yet this is an accurate statement of the attitude that was common among the warring peoples of antiquity. And they that wasted us required of us mirth, saying. 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." New American Standard Version. 137:9 "dashes our little ones" This was a common practice in the ANE (cf. In singing this psalm we must be much affected with the concernments of the church, especially that part of it that is in affliction, laying the sorrows of God's people near our hearts, comforting ourselves in the prospect of the deliverance of the church and the ruin of its enemies, in due time, but carefully avoiding all personal animosities, and not mixing the leaven of malice with our sacrifices. 137:1 In 586 BC, Babylon's army destroyed Jerusalem, the capital city of Judah. See my full comment on the prophecy of Babylon's destruction in the fourth year of Zedekiah, at the very climax of Babylonian authority and power in the whole world of that era. 1. rivers of Babylon—the name of the city used for the whole country. It was not mere secular “mirth” khat was requested in ver, 3; but, as the parallelism shows, the sacred gladness audible in the songs of Zion, which were at the same time the sowgs of Jehovah. 2, of my commentary on the major prophets (Jeremiah), pp. Psalms 137:7. 1. PSALM 137 Ps 137:1-9. Thus they put shame upon Israel, who would be looked upon as a people worthy to be cut off when their next neighbours had such an ill-will to them. Verse-by-Verse Bible Commentary Psalms 137:6. Psalms 137 Commentary, One of over 110 Bible commentaries freely available, this commentary, filling six volumes, provides an exhaustive look at every verse in the Bible. Every sensitive mind instinctively feels that, second only to the joy of regained Temple worship, would be, to the psalmist, khe crowning joy NASB E-Prime R.S.V. https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/bcc/psalms-137.html. "By the rivers of Babylon, There we sat down, yea, we wept. Our Price: $13.99 Save: $26.00 (65%) Buy Now. The New Century Bible Commentary: Psalms 73-150 (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1972) Broyles, Craig C., New International Biblical Commentary: Psalms (Peabody, Massachusetts: Hendrickson Publishers, 1999. IV. Book 1 (Psalms 1 - 41) » Psalms 1-41 in one file [or download in RTF format] ... Psalm 137: By The Rivers In Babylon [or download in R TF format] Psalm 138: Thanks! Herewith the Psalm closes, Happy, that takes and dashes your little ones against the rock Psalm 136:9. It appears that the status of the captive Israelites in Babylon was not unbearable. The poet had experienced what the psalms call “a day of trouble” (see Psalms 20:1, 27:5; 41:1), a “day of … Continue reading "Commentary on Psalm 138:1-8" "Remember ... against the children of Edom" (Psalms 137:7). (Psalms 137:4). How these pious captives stood affected to Jerusalem. By the Rivers of Babylon — Al Naharot Bavel (Psalm 137) contains some of the Bible’s most beautiful passages. Rashi 's Commentary: Show Hide. proud and secure as thou art, we know well, by the scriptures of truth, thou art to be destroyed, or (as Dr. Hammond reads it) who art the destroyer. This Psalm records the mourning of the captive Israelites, and a prayer and prediction respecting the destruction of their enemies. NIV, The Jesus Bible, Hardcover. They cannot humour their proud oppressors, Psalm 137:3,4. 138. 13:16,18; Hosea 10:14; Nahum 3:10). There are divers psalms which are thought to have been penned in the latter days of the Jewish church, when prophecy was near expiring and the canon of the Old Testament ready to be closed up, but none of them appears so plainly to be of a late date as this, which was penned when the people of God were captives in Babylon, and there insulted over by these proud oppressors probably it was towards the latter end of their captivity for now they saw the destruction of Babylon hastening on apace (Psalm 137:8), which would be their discharge. Psalm 137 is not a selfish prayer for personal revenge. These were the `righteous remnant' spoken of by Isaiah. NIV Faith and Work Bible, hardcover. "Matthew Henry Complete Commentary on the Whole Bible". Those that rejoice in God, for his sake make Jerusalem their joy. The Edomites seem to have been almost totally a wicked people. 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. Let not those expect to find mercy who, when they had power, did not show mercy. 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 (Isaiah 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. 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. 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, Psalm 102:13,14. Happy shall those be that do it for they are fulfilling God's counsels and therefore he calls Cyrus, who did it, his servant, his shepherd, his anointed (Isaiah 44:28,45:1), and the soldiers that were employed in it his sanctified ones, Isaiah 13:3. And perhaps it is with reference to this that the man of sin, the head of the New-Testament Babylon, is called a son of perdition, 2 Thessalonians 2:3. As a just destruction. 2 Kgs. Matthew Henry :: Commentary on Psalms 137 ← Back to Matthew Henry's Bio & Resources. My zeal hath consumed me, because mine enemies have forgotten thy words. 2 We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof. In that sense, it is reminiscent of the opening of the songs of ascents in Psalm 120, where the desire is to be delivered from a hostile foreign environment to travel to Jerusalem, as expressed in other songs of ascents, to be in fellowship with God. (1.) Psalm 137 is a song of Zion expressing desire for God’s holy city while in exile in the land of Babylon. Ancient armies had no medical corps, or battalion of nurses, to take care of the infant children of their slaughtered enemies! Bibliography InformationHenry, Matthew. Psalms 137. For once, there is no need for guessing about the occasion of this Psalm. The first three verses describe the situation. Psalms 137:1 (King James Version) A.F.V A.S.V. 1983-1999. It is a plea for God to intervene in the affairs of men to keep His covenant and right all wrongs. This is not a reference to their inability to sing such songs for their captors. They cannot forget Jerusalem, Psalm 137:5,6. Jerusalem remembered, in the days of her misery, all her pleasant things which she had in the days of old, Psalm 42:4. Psalms 137 - By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion.We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof.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 … It is a clear and judicious explanation of the text, and cannot be dispensed with. Now, 1. The Jews bewail their captivity. Psalm 30 frames the struggles of the life of faith within a glorious edifice: the Jerusalem Temple, a powerful cultural icon that “narrates” the faith of the believing community, the enduring presence of God, and the inviolability of God’s promises to Israel. we hung up our lyres. 137:0 This is Psalm 137 in the whole book, the 37 th of the third fifty. The Story of Psalm 137 The *Jews lived in Judah. How Shall We Sing the Lord ’s Song? They cannot forgive Edom and Babylon, Psalm 137:7-9. This is the same as before, to forget, repeated for the confirmation of it. 137) invokes God to bring down judgment or punishment on his enemies. Finding the new version too difficult to understand? Psalm 137:1 The Jews just bawled their eyes out. 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. "Happy shall he be that rewardeth thee as thou hast served us" (Psalms 137:8). As an utter destruction. The picture that emerges here is one of extreme dejection, sorrow and bitterness. Her he calls unhappy, but him happy who pays her as she has served us. (5-9) 1-4 Their enemies had carried the Jews captive from their own land. Chapter 137. "Commentary on Psalms 137:4". Commentary on Psalm 139. They do not say, "How shall we sing when we are so much in sorrow?" The psalmist writes from exile in what today is southern Iraq. 4. Psalm 137 - Beside the rivers of Babylon, we sat and wept as we thought of Jerusalem. Scoffers are not to be compiled with. We put away our harps, hanging them on the branches of poplar trees. Bibliography InformationCoffman, James Burton. Bible Gateway Recommends. "Remember, O Jehovah, against the children of Edom. The basis of that undying hatred is stated in the book of Obadiah. The melancholy captives cannot enjoy themselves, Psalm 137:1,2. (Spurgeon, C. H. Lectures to my Students: Commenting and Commentaries)Rosscup adds: This is one of the more thorough older exegetical … These are curses upon themselves, applicable in case of their forgetting Jerusalem, or preferring not Jerusalem above their chief joy. Copyright StatementJames Burton Coffman Commentaries reproduced by permission of Abilene Christian University Press, Abilene, Texas, USA. PSALMS RESOURCES Commentaries, Sermons, Illustrations, Devotionals. It is interesting to note that the specific prophecy mentioned in Isa. Psalms 137 Commentary | Old Testament | Matthew Henry | St-Takla.org Their affection to God's house swallowed up their concern for their own houses. Could it? Psalm 137:9 shocks: “Blessed shall he be who takes your little ones and dashes them against the rock!”. Whole Psalm.—This Psalm is composed of two parts. The verse, אִם אֶשְׁכָּחֵךְ יְרוּשָׁלָ‍ִם תִּשְׁכַּח יְמִינִי , “If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand wither,” is sung at traditional Jewish weddings. 5 If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning. 2 We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof. We find some of them by the river Chebar (Ezekiel 1:3), others by the river Ulai, Daniel 8:2. There they sat down to indulge their grief by poring on their miseries. Woah. 1 By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat, we also wept when we remembered Zion. Recommended Resource: Psalms 76-150, Holman Old Testament Commentary by Steven Lawson More insights from your Bible study - Get Started with Logos Bible Software for Free! Her he calls unhappy, but him happy who pays her as she has served us. In prayer, in discourse, in conversation. HINT: Since there are such a large number of resources on this page (>10,000 links) you might consider beginning with the more recent commentaries that briefly discuss all 150 Psalms - Paul Apple (750 pages), Thomas Constable, David Guzik, Bob Utley.For more devotional thoughts consider Spurgeon's The … Josephus gave the total number of the returnees as, "Forty-two thousand four hundred and sixty two; yet did many of them stay at Babylon, as not willing to leave their possessions."[3]. As a destruction which should reflect honour upon the instruments of it. Far be it from us to avenge ourselves, if ever it should be in our power, but we will leave it to him who has said, Vengeance is mine. Commentary for Psalms 137 . Their heads were full of it. Bible Commentary Early Church Fathers Medieval Patristic. 3 For there our captors. 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, Isaiah 24:15,16. Here I. There is this factor that entered into the destruction of the children, namely, that with the defeat and death of their parents, the fate of the children was sealed; and in the views of ancient conquerors it was, in a sense, merciful to destroy the children instead of abandoning them to a fate of starvation or something worse. The gardens and industries thus watered were in all likelihood the areas where the Hebrew slaves would have been employed. Bible commentary on the Book of Psalms, chapter 137, by Dr. Bob Utley, retired professor of hermeneutics. ", "How shall we sing Jehovah's song in a foreign land? 3 For there they that carried us away captive required of us a song; and they that wasted us required […] It is sunk like a millstone into the sea, never to rise. 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. 137. 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. required of us songs, and our tormentors, mirth, saying, 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. 8:12; Isa. Note, Those that are glad at calamities, especially the calamities of Jerusalem, shall not go unpunished. The psalmist penned this poem while … In these psalms, the author (usually David, although not in Ps. Psalms 137, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, One of over 110 Bible commentaries freely available, this commentary is a one-volume commentary prepared by Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset and David Brown 2. When suffering, we should recollect with godly sorrow our … These short commentaries are based on Level A EasyEnglish (about 1200 word vocabulary) by Gordon Churchyard. If they must build houses there (Jeremiah 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. The other is an heavy imprecation and a prophetical denunciation against the enemies of the church, unto the end of the psalm (Psa 137:7-9). Psalm 137:8-9. 141. The picture that emerges here is one of pity and sympathy for the oppressed. 137:2 We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof. For there they that led us captive required of us songs. The psalmist here had evidently read and believed the prophecy of Jeremiah in that tremendous fiftieth chapter describing the utter destruction of Babylon. We call the time that the people of Judah were prisoners in Babylon ‘the exile.’ They were not happy there and they wanted to return to Jerusalem. III. Go to, To report dead links, typos, or html errors or suggestions about making these resources more useful use our convenient, "They that led us captive required of us songs. It is an exclamation of their extreme displeasure in being compelled to do so. There was not even a hope of going back to what they remembered. 2 We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof. There was indeed a remnant of true Israelites, the faithful believers in God, among the multitudes of the Babylonian captives. "Them that wasted us, or `tormentors'" (Psalms 137:3b). Abilene Christian University Press, Abilene, Texas, USA. Psalm 137 is the 137th psalm of the Book of Psalms, and as such it is included in the Hebrew Bible. They took the people who lived there to Babylon as prisoners. Browse Sermons on Psalm 137:1-4. 2. "Complete Commentary on Psalms 137:4". To complete their woes, they insulted over them; they required of them mirth and a song. And all this was a fruit of the old enmity of Esau against Jacob, because he got the birthright and the blessing, and a branch of that more ancient enmity between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent: Lord, remember them, says the psalmist, which is an appeal to his justice against them. There has been considerable debate about the precise genre of this psalm. Commentary on Psalm 137(138) Catholic Online; Featured Today; Free World Class Education FREE Catholic Classes . Do we ask, what reward? Browse Sermons on Psalm 137:1-4. Commentary on Psalm 137:5-9 (Read Psalm 137:5-9) What we love, we love to think of. Join. Tehillim - Psalms - Chapter 137 « Previous Chapter 136. 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, Psalm 137:5,6. It was very profane and impious. Psalm 136 is a special psalm, with each one of its 26 verses repeating the sentence, His mercy endures forever. Their extremely distasteful assignment of entertaining their captors and amusing them precipitated the bitter thoughts of the next three verses. 137. The land of Babylon was now a house of bondage to that people, as Egypt had been in their beginning. What is the deal with murdering babies? This is the repayment. The songs of the captives would have been considered as sport or entertainment by their masters; and the very fact of their hanging their harps on the willows indicates that they unwillingly complied with such demands, muttering to themselves, perhaps, the curses upon themselves and their terrible imprecations upon the enemy. Kidner stated that, "`Tormentors' here is as likely a meaning as most of the others that have been proposed or substituted for this expression, which is found only here in the Bible."[2]. The pious Jews in Babylon, having afflicted themselves with the thoughts of the ruins of Jerusalem, here please themselves with the prospect of the ruin of her impenitent implacable enemies but this not from a spirit of revenge, but from a holy zeal for the glory of God and the honour of his kingdom. Profane scoffers are not to be humoured, nor pearls cast before swine. 1 When we sat down beside the rivers in Babylon, we were very upset. 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. The very little ones of Babylon, when it is taken by storm, and all in it are put to the sword, shall be dashed to pieces by the enraged and merciless conqueror. "Coffman Commentaries on the Old and New Testament". O daughter of Babylon — By which he understands the city and empire of Babylon, and the people thereof, who art to be destroyed — Who by God’s righteous and irrevocable sentence, art devoted to certain destruction, and whose destruction is particularly and circumstantially foretold by God’s holy prophets. Book of Tehillim (Psalms): Chapter 137. This psalm of thanksgiving — one of those songs that was composed after its author had come through a rather tight scrape — offers praise to the Lord in response to an experience of deliverance. They remembered Zion's former glory and the satisfaction they had had in Zion's courts, Lamentations 1:7. In 586 B.C., the soldiers from Babylon destroyed the capital city of Judah, Jerusalem. In their daily prayers they opened their windows towards Jerusalem and how then could they forget it? Audio Commentary: Psalm 137 Psalm 137 1 By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion. Babylon is the principal, and it will come to her turn too to drink of the cup of tremblings, the very dregs of it (Psalm 137:8,9): O daughter of Babylon! The psalm itself … https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/mhm/psalms-137.html. Psalm 137 A sad song. II. Title: Psalm 137/Commentary, Author: Mark Dunagan, Name: Psalm 137/Commentary, Length: 5 pages, Page: 1, Published: 2020-09-24 . The chosen people are suffering the captivity in Babylon, enduring the sporting taunts of their enemies, and weeping over their sorrows as they contrasted their status with what it once was in their beloved Jerusalem. Footnotes: Psalm 137 A singer refuses to sing the people’s sacred songs in an alien land despite demands from Babylonian captors (Ps 137:1–4).The singer swears an oath by what is most dear to a musician—hands and tongue—to exalt Jerusalem always (Ps 137:5–6).The Psalm ends with a prayer that the old enemies of Jerusalem, Edom and Babylon, be destroyed (Ps 137:7–9). 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