Psalms 137

The preterit tense of the verbs “we sat,” “we wept,” “we hung our harps,” “they asked” us a song, etc., would indicate that the writer was not now in Babylon, but one of the recently returned exiles perhaps an aged Levite. This also coincides with his remembering “Zion” while in Babylon. Others, taking these evidences as indecisive, suppose the author is still in the bitterness of the captivity, and with this coincides the lament, “How shall we sing the song of Jehovah in a strange land?” and the solemn oath form, “If I forget thee, O Jerusalem;” and especially the anathema of Babylon, (Psalms 137:8,) which does not suit the feelings of the Jews toward that people at the time of their liberation, (see on Psalms 126:2,) but well accords with the freshness of their sorrow in the early part of the captivity, and their degradation in the reign of Belshazzar. The eighth verse gives no definite clew to the date. See the note there. The vivid picture drawn, the lively grief, the tender memories of Jerusalem, and the unsparing vengeance denounced upon the pitiless enemies of his nation, indicate that the author had a living experience of the occurrences described. But he speaks from the heart of the nation, and from the standpoint of the theocracy as well. The psalm begins in a subdued, elegiac strain, but rises toward the close to the thunder tones of elevated and vengeful epic. On the harshness and vindictiveness of some of the expressions, see the notes, and Psalms 109:0. Its naturalness is wonderful. It is true to nature, true to the piety and patriotism of the Jewish character, true to the spirit of the age to which it belongs, and true to history. Its strophic divisions are three. Psalms 137:1-3, a reminiscence of the dishonour and sorrow of the captivity; Psalms 137:4-6, a solemn vow of affection and fealty to Jerusalem, as the earthly centre of all national and religious life; Psalms 137:7-9, an execration of the cruel enemies of the nation.