137
Psalm 137 · Book Five
About this psalm
By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion. They hung their harps on the willows because their captors wanted a song. How shall we sing the LORD’s song in a strange land? It ends with two verses so violent that many people stop before them. They are the sound of what had been done to their own children.
Read it when grief has turned into something you are ashamed of.
One verse at a time, slowly
1By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion.2We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof.3For 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.4How shall we sing the LORD’s song in a strange land?5If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning.6If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth;if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy.7Remember, O LORD, the children of Edom in the day of Jerusalem;who said, Rase it, rase it, even to the foundation thereof.8O daughter of Babylon, who art to be destroyed;happy shall he be, that rewardeth thee as thou hast served us.9Happy shall he be, that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones.
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Open Psalm 137 in XA Daily for the Hebrew, the cross-references and the other translations.