otcanon
Psalms 137
The exiles of Judah sit beside Babylon's rivers, unable to sing Jehovah's songs in a land of captivity — the harp falls silent because Zion is not a transferable allegiance. The psalmist binds covenant memory to hand and tongue: forgetting Jerusalem is self-erasure, not merely grief. The closing verses invoke Jehovah as judge against Edom, which cheered Jerusalem's razing, and against Babylon herself, whose coming destruction is declared certain. The psalm frames exile not as God's abandonment but as the covenant people's witness that Zion cannot be replicated in a strange land — it is a literal place, a literal throne, and a literal promise not yet fully fulfilled.
1
By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, 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.
