Psalms 137:1 By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion. 2 Kgs. "By the rivers of Babylon, There we sat down, yea, we wept. IV. Music makes some people melancholy. For our captors demanded a song from us. Thy word is very pure; therefore thy servant loveth it. "Rivers of Babylon." âHow shall we singâ: A rhetorical question ⦠David prudently kept silence even from good when the wicked were before him, who, he knew, would ridicule what he said and make a jest of it, Psalm 39:1,2. It is interesting to note that the specific prophecy mentioned in Isa. It may also have been written many years into the exile. The destroyers shall be destroyed, Revelation 13:10. The bitterness of Israel against their enemies who had vented their sadistic cruelties upon them is understandable enough, however foreign to the spirit of Christianity they must appear to us who follow Christ. Our tormentors insisted on a joyful hymn: âSing us one of those songs of Jerusalem!â But how can we sing the songs of the LORD while in a pagan land? "Remember ... against the children of Edom" (Psalms 137:7). 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. Join. "Complete Commentary on Psalms 137:4". It is a plea for God to intervene in the affairs of men to keep His covenant and right all wrongs. 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. The destruction of Babylon being foreseen as a sure destruction (thou art to be destroyed), it is spoken of, 1. The gardens and industries thus watered were in all likelihood the areas where the Hebrew slaves would have been employed. PSALM 137 OVERVIEW. We have already sung in another Psalm, The words of the wicked have prevailed against us. IV. The prophet Ezekiel evidently was permitted to own property, as were many others; and, in time, as the `seventy years' expired, many of the Jews became prosperous and even wealthy. They had laid by their harps, and would not resume them, no, not to ingratiate themselves with those at whose mercy they lay they would not answer those fools according to their folly. They cannot humour their proud oppressors, Psalm 137:3,4. Now, 1. Profane scoffers are not to be humoured, nor pearls cast before swine. It is an exclamation of their extreme displeasure in being compelled to do so. Do we ask, what reward? 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. The fall of the New-Testament Babylon will be the triumph of all the saints, Revelation 19:1. Psalm 137 - Beside the rivers of Babylon, we sat and wept as we thought of Jerusalem. Choose a verse from 'Psalms 137' to begin your 'Verse-by-Verse' study of God's Word using the more than 100 commentaries available on StudyLight.org 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. Study This × Bible Gateway Plus. 1 By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat, we also wept when we remembered Zion. "Babylon ... thou art to be destroyed" (Psalms 137:8). Exposition of Psalm 119:137-144. by Charles Spurgeon. Matthew Henry :: Commentary on Psalms 137 â Back to Matthew Henry's Bio & Resources. Next » Chapter 138. You, the Bible, and the Holy Spirit are priority in interpretation. How Shall We Sing the Lord âs Song? Support JVL. The land of Babylon was now a house of bondage to that people, as Egypt had been in their beginning. II. ... Psalm 137:5-6 ⦠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. Throughout the Hebrew Scriptures, the phrase has somewhat of a liturgical sense to it, as if the assembled people of Israel said or sung this in response to the direction of the Levites leading singing and worship. This is the same as before, to forget, repeated for the confirmation of it. Psalm 137 - Beside the rivers of Babylon, we sat and wept as we thought of Jerusalem. "There we sat down, yea, we wept." The first three verses describe the situation. 1 By the waters of Babylon, there we sat down and wept, when we remembered Zion. The patience wherewith they bore these abuses, Psalm 137:4. All other rights reserved. 137:9 "dashes our little ones" This was a common practice in the ANE (cf. Psalm 137:9 shocks: “Blessed shall he be who takes your little ones and dashes them against the rock!”. 2, of my commentary on the major prophets (Jeremiah), pp. 137:0 This is Psalm 137 in the whole book, the 37 th of the third fifty. Commentary on Psalm 137:5-9 (Read Psalm 137:5-9) What we love, we love to think of. Her he calls unhappy, but him happy who pays her as she has served us. Their enemies mocked at their sabbaths, Lamentations 1:7. Every sensitive mind instinctively feels that, second only to the joy of regained Temple worship, would be, to the psalmist, khe crowning joy Maré : Psalm 137 OTE 23/1 (2010), 116-128 119 The psalm not only relates the story of a specific period in Israel’s history, but it was probably utilised in the cult as an observance of lament by the exiles. We put away our harps, hanging them on the branches of poplar trees. Category » Book of Tehillim (Psalms) Join our mailing list. 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. Brueggemann, Walter, The Message of the Psalms A Theological Commentary (Minneapolis: Augsburg Press, 1984) Clifford, Richard J., Abingdon Old Testament Commentaries: Psalms 73-150 … But this was not enough to complete their woes they insulted over them: They required of us mirth and a song. View More Titles. When suffering, we should recollect with godly sorrow our ⦠and 537 B.C."[1]. The basis of that undying hatred is stated in the book of Obadiah. Those are the seed of another generation so that, if they be cut off, the ruin will be not only total, as Jerusalem's was, but final. (2.) For there they that carried us away captive required of us a song; and they that wasted us required ⦠The mournful posture they were in as to their affairs and as to their spirits. | Home ... Psalms, i.e., Psalms 55; 59; 69; 79; 109; 137. PSALMS RESOURCES Commentaries, Sermons, Illustrations, Devotionals. Every thing is beautiful in its season. 3 For there they that carried us away captive required of us a song; and they that wasted us required […] These short commentaries are based on Level A EasyEnglish (about 1200 word vocabulary) by Gordon Churchyard. 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. The psalmist penned this poem while ⦠To complete their woes, they insulted over them; they required of them mirth and a song. we hung up our lyres. The picture that emerges here is one of pity and sympathy for the oppressed. JOSEPH A ALEXANDER Psalms Commentary (1864) Spurgeon had high praise for Alexander's work writing that it "Occupies a first place among expositions. 3. Here I. 8 O daughter of Babylon, who art to be destroyed happy shall he be, that rewardeth thee as thou hast served us. 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. 137:1 In 586 BC, Babylon's army destroyed Jerusalem, the capital city of Judah. It is sunk like a millstone into the sea, never to rise. 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. 1983-1999. 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. Psalms 137. We have already sung in another Psalm, The words of the wicked have prevailed against us. Psalm 137 is in the context of the Jewish exile in Babylon (Psalm 137:1) where they had been taken as slaves after the Babylonians burned down the city of Jerusalem. Psalm 137:6 "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." Chapter 137. It was indeed a long and terrible trail of blood and suffering that was initiated by our ancestors in Eden who failed to honor God's Word regarding the "forbidden fruit". What is the deal with murdering babies? 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