Psalm 137 is a difficult and complex psalm. This reflection helps us understand it better and provides some background and suggestions for how it might be used in our current context. For a prayer based on this psalm, see “What to Do with Psalm 137?—A Prayer”.
I remember the discussions when the editorial team was working on Lift Up Your Hearts (Faith Alive Christian Resources, 2013) and Psalms for All Seasons (Faith Alive Christian Resources, 2012)—what should we do with Psalm 137? How do we exegete this psalm musically and textually in a way that honors its historical and canonical context, allows for the movement within the psalm including a change in audience, doesn’t ignore the difficult final verses, and is understood through a Christological lens? We even pondered whether the last verses of this psalm should be sung at all.
If the words of Psalm 137 don’t readily come to your mind it may be because it isn’t covered in the memory work of Sunday School or parochial school curriculum and it's not likely you’ve heard many sermons on it. It only occurs once in the Revised Common Lectionary (Proper 22C) and then only as an optional reading (though the other texts on that Sunday from Lamentations cover the same historical period). If the psalm had concluded with the 6th verse we wouldn’t struggle quite so much with what to do with it, but instead it ends with these words:
Happy shall they be who pay you back
what you have done to us!
Happy shall they be who take your little ones
and dash them against the rock!
—Psalm 137:8–9
Such shocking words and imagery! It's hard to know what to do with these words lest we be condoning such violence—yet these words are in scripture.
In Lift Up Your Hearts the psalm is represented by one song that does not cover the psalm in its entirety—a deviation from our goal. If you are familiar with Psalms for All Seasons, you may know that the songs that immediately follow the text of the psalm are closest textually to scripture; each successive song is a progressively looser versification. For Psalm 137 the song closest to the biblical text doesn’t include the ending verses, only Richard Leach’s versification, “God of Memory” covers them.
I remember children tumbling, not in play.
I will not forget the longing to strike back in that same way.
—Richard Leach, 1994 © 1996 Selah Publishing Company, Inc.
Before we start making any application to our own context we need to gain a better understanding of the psalm’s context. Around 586 B.C. the temple in Jerusalem was destroyed and most of the Jews (except for some laborers) were deported to Babylon. This in itself would have been bad enough, but this deportation was on the heels of other deportations, at least 10 years of war, and for those who lived inside the walled city of Jerusalem, it followed after 18–33 months of siege with many deaths from starvation and epidemics. When the Babylonians breached the walls, they were indiscriminate in their killing, and thousands were slaughtered. It was the survivors of all these horrors that found themselves by the rivers of Babylon, grieving together, when one of their captors tried goading them into singing (vv. 1–3). To sing at such a time for the entertainment of others was impossible and the request a form of torture itself (v. 4). These first four verses set the context for what follows.
In verse 5 the pronoun changes from the collective “we” to the singular “I.” The psalm becomes a personal call to remembrance, to never forget Jerusalem, which means to not forget the temple or the God whom they worship. Despite all the pain, all the horror, they may be leaving the promised land, but they are not leaving God.
The psalmist then addresses God directly. “Remember, O LORD” begins verse 7. This is where it is helpful to recognize the context of the psalm within scripture. It appears in the fourth section of the book of Psalms which is made up primarily of the psalms of ascent (psalms recited as people journeyed to go and worship at the temple) and psalms of praise. Psalm 136 which immediately precedes this lament repeats the phrase, “O give thanks to the LORD of lords, for his steadfast love endures forever” as the psalmist presents an historical account of the mighty deeds that God had done for his covenant people. And then, amidst all of this praise and celebration, is Psalm 137.
When the psalmist pleads with God to remember, they aren't invoking only God’s mighty deeds and ability to save the deportees, but they are also calling on God’s promises to bring about justice and punish evil doers. God must remember promises such as those found in Psalm 1, “the wicked will not stand in the judgment nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous, for the LORD watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish” (vv. 5–6). And Isaiah 13, a prophecy against the Babylonians given around 100 years before Psalm 137,
I will punish the world for its evil,
the wicked for their sins.
I will put an end to the arrogance of the haughty
and will humble the pride of the ruthless…
Whoever is captured will be thrust through;
all who are caught will fall by the sword.
Their infants will be dashed to pieces before their eyes;
their houses will be looted and their wives violated…
Babylon, the jewel of kingdoms,
the pride and glory of the Babylonians,
will be overthrown by God
like Sodom and Gomorrah.
—Isaiah 13:11, 15–16, 19
It is that scriptural context that also helps us understand the final verses of Psalm 137. These are words of a people who have experienced a level of trauma few of us can imagine. They are uttered from the depth of grief and despair with raw honesty of thought and feeling—and God hears it. By putting these verses in the holy word of God the expression of these feelings are given validity; they are neither squelched or denied. But this lament, just like all laments in scripture, is directed to God. Ultimately, it is God who is the judge, and those who are found to have been a part of such unjust and horrendous acts will be found wanting, and they will perish.
As New Testament Christians we know the rest of the story. We know that about 50 years later Persia conquered Babylon, and some of the Jews and their descendants were able to return to the promised land. More importantly, we know that one of their descendants was the promised Messiah who came to save us all. And we too hold on to the promise of the day when Christ shall return and judge all. On that day the evildoers throughout all of history will be judged and receive their just punishment.
As we read this psalm today we need to be careful not to spiritualize it but to leave it raw and ask ourselves who we are in it. Are we the ones weeping? If we have lived through such pain then let us not be ashamed to offer our unedited laments to God and seek God’s justice. If we ourselves have not experienced that unimaginable trauma, are we listening to the cries of those who have or are we trying to quiet them or even ignore their laments? Are we standing in solidarity with those weeping, or do we stand with or as one of the oppressors?
Expressions of deep grief and honest lament often make us feel uncomfortable, and certainly there is a lot to unpack in this psalm. However, we shouldn't skip over it, but rather we should courageously engage it. Maybe we won’t sing those final verses, but we certainly ought to speak them on behalf of those who can’t.
