Meditation

Hi there,

I have always been deeply moved by Psalm 137. It's a well-known communal lament for the losses borne of the destruction of Jerusalem and the pain of the Babylonian captivity.​

As you copy this out, you feel this sense of loss keenly and the strength of defiance in the act of hanging up their harps and refusing to sing or celebrate. It's notable that they hang up their harps, but they do not break them, leaving open the possibility that they will play them again, as indeed they did.

There's an immediacy to these lines that captures the imagination even today, thousands of years later.​

Today's verses are a profound lament, but the tone shifts dramatically in the verses we'll copy tomorrow to complete the Psalm.

Today's text is Psalm 137: 1-4 Today's verses are in black. I've provided tomorrow's in grey for context.

Psalm 137

¹ By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept
when we remembered Zion.
​² There on the poplars
we hung our harps,

³ for there our captors asked us for songs,
our tormentors demanded songs of joy;
they said, “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!”

⁴ How can we sing the songs of the Lord
while in a foreign land?

⁵ If I forget you, Jerusalem,
may my right hand forget its skill.
​⁶ May my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth
if I do not remember you,
if I do not consider Jerusalem
my highest joy.

⁷ Remember, Lord, what the Edomites did
on the day Jerusalem fell.
“Tear it down,” they cried,
“tear it down to its foundations!”

⁸ Daughter Babylon, doomed to destruction,
happy is the one who repays you
according to what you have done to us.
​⁹ Happy is the one who seizes your infants
and dashes them against the rocks.

Encouragement

The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.

Psalm 34:18

Andy​

God's Word In Your Hand

I often use David Guzik's "Enduring Word" commentary to support my devotions. If you have time over the next two days, it's well worth hearing his exposition of this psalm.

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