Worthy.Bible » STRONG » Psalms » Chapter 137 » Verse 1

Psalms 137:1 King James Version with Strong's Concordance (STRONG)

1 By the rivers H5104 of Babylon, H894 there we sat down, H3427 yea, we wept, H1058 when we remembered H2142 Zion. H6726

Cross Reference

Daniel 10:2-3 STRONG

In those days H3117 I Daniel H1840 was mourning H56 three H7969 full H3117 weeks. H7620 I ate H398 no pleasant H2532 bread, H3899 neither came H935 flesh H1320 nor wine H3196 in my mouth, H6310 neither did I anoint H5480 myself at all, H5480 till three H7969 whole H3117 weeks H7620 were fulfilled. H4390

Lamentations 2:10-11 STRONG

The elders H2205 of the daughter H1323 of Zion H6726 sit H3427 upon the ground, H776 and keep silence: H1826 they have cast up H5927 dust H6083 upon their heads; H7218 they have girded H2296 themselves with sackcloth: H8242 the virgins H1330 of Jerusalem H3389 hang down H3381 their heads H7218 to the ground. H776 Mine eyes H5869 do fail H3615 with tears, H1832 my bowels H4578 are troubled, H2560 my liver H3516 is poured H8210 upon the earth, H776 for the destruction H7667 of the daughter H1323 of my people; H5971 because the children H5768 and the sucklings H3243 swoon H5848 in the streets H7339 of the city. H7151

Genesis 2:10-14 STRONG

And a river H5104 went out H3318 of Eden H5731 to water H8248 the garden; H1588 and from thence it was parted, H6504 and became into four H702 heads. H7218 The name H8034 of the first H259 is Pison: H6376 that H1931 is it which compasseth H5437 the whole land H776 of Havilah, H2341 where H834 there is gold; H2091 And the gold H2091 of that H1931 land H776 is good: H2896 there is bdellium H916 and the onyx H7718 stone. H68 And the name H8034 of the second H8145 river H5104 is Gihon: H1521 the same is it that compasseth H5437 the whole land H776 of Ethiopia. H3568 And the name H8034 of the third H7992 river H5104 is Hiddekel: H2313 that is it which goeth toward H1980 the east H6926 of Assyria. H804 And the fourth H7243 river H5104 is Euphrates. H6578

Jeremiah 51:50-51 STRONG

Ye that have escaped H6405 the sword, H2719 go away, H1980 stand not still: H5975 remember H2142 the LORD H3068 afar off, H7350 and let Jerusalem H3389 come H5927 into your mind. H3824 We are confounded, H954 because we have heard H8085 reproach: H2781 shame H3639 hath covered H3680 our faces: H6440 for strangers H2114 are come H935 into the sanctuaries H4720 of the LORD'S H3068 house. H1004

Jeremiah 13:17-18 STRONG

But if ye will not hear H8085 it, my soul H5315 shall weep H1058 in secret places H4565 for H6440 your pride; H1466 and mine eye H5869 shall weep H1830 sore, H1830 and run down H3381 with tears, H1832 because the LORD'S H3068 flock H5739 is carried away captive. H7617 Say H559 unto the king H4428 and to the queen, H1377 Humble H8213 yourselves, sit down: H3427 for your principalities H4761 shall come down, H3381 even the crown H5850 of your glory. H8597

Psalms 102:9-14 STRONG

For I have eaten H398 ashes H665 like bread, H3899 and mingled H4537 my drink H8249 with weeping, H1065 Because H6440 of thine indignation H2195 and thy wrath: H7110 for thou hast lifted me up, H5375 and cast me down. H7993 My days H3117 are like a shadow H6738 that declineth; H5186 and I am withered H3001 like grass. H6212 But thou, O LORD, H3068 shalt endure H3427 for ever; H5769 and thy remembrance H2143 unto all H1755 generations. H1755 Thou shalt arise, H6965 and have mercy H7355 upon Zion: H6726 for the time H6256 to favour H2603 her, yea, the set time, H4150 is come. H935 For thy servants H5650 take pleasure H7521 in her stones, H68 and favour H2603 the dust H6083 thereof.

Job 2:12-13 STRONG

And when they lifted up H5375 their eyes H5869 afar off, H7350 and knew H5234 him not, they lifted up H5375 their voice, H6963 and wept; H1058 and they rent H7167 every one H376 his mantle, H4598 and sprinkled H2236 dust H6083 upon their heads H7218 toward heaven. H8064 So they sat down H3427 with him upon the ground H776 seven H7651 days H3117 and seven H7651 nights, H3915 and none spake H1696 a word H1697 unto him: for they saw H7200 that his grief H3511 was very H3966 great. H1431

Nehemiah 1:3-4 STRONG

And they said H559 unto me, The remnant H7604 that are left H7604 of the captivity H7628 there in the province H4082 are in great H1419 affliction H7451 and reproach: H2781 the wall H2346 of Jerusalem H3389 also is broken down, H6555 and the gates H8179 thereof are burned H3341 with fire. H784 And it came to pass, when I heard H8085 these words, H1697 that I sat down H3427 and wept, H1058 and mourned H56 certain days, H3117 and fasted, H6684 and prayed H6419 before H6440 the God H430 of heaven, H8064

Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Psalms 137

Commentary on Psalms 137 Matthew Henry Commentary


Psalm 137

There are divers psalms which are thought to have been penned in the latter days of the Jewish church, when prophecy was near expiring and the canon of the Old Testament ready to be closed up, but none of them appears so plainly to be of a late date as this, which was penned when the people of God were captives in Babylon, and there insulted over by these proud oppressors; probably it was towards the latter end of their captivity; for now they saw the destruction of Babylon hastening on apace (v. 8), which would be their discharge. It is a mournful psalm, a lamentation; and the Septuagint makes it one of the lamentations of Jeremiah, naming him for the author of it. Here

  • I. The melancholy captives cannot enjoy themselves (v. 1, 2).
  • II. They cannot humour their proud oppressors (v. 3, 4).
  • III. They cannot forget Jerusalem (v. 5, 6).
  • IV. They cannot forgive Edom and Babylon (v. 7-9).

In singing this psalm we must be much affected with the concernments of the church, especially that part of it that is in affliction, laying the sorrows of God's people near our hearts, comforting ourselves in the prospect of the deliverance of the church and the ruin of its enemies, in due time, but carefully avoiding all personal animosities, and not mixing the leaven of malice with our sacrifices.

Psa 137:1-6

We have here the daughter of Zion covered with a cloud, and dwelling with the daughter of Babylon; the people of God in tears, but sowing in tears. Observe,

  • I. The mournful posture they were in as to their affairs and as to their spirits.
    • 1. They were posted by the rivers of Babylon, in a strange land, a great way from their own country, whence they were brought as prisoners of war. The land of Babylon was now a house of bondage to that people, as Egypt had been in their beginning. Their conquerors quartered them by the rivers, with design to employ them there, and keep them to work in their galleys; or perhaps they chose it as the most melancholy place, and therefore most suitable to their sorrowful spirits. If they must build houses there (Jer. 29:5), it shall not be in the cities, the places of concourse, but by the rivers, the places of solitude, where they might mingle their tears with the streams. We find some of them by the river Chebar (Eze. 1:3), others by the river Ulai, Dan. 8:2.
    • 2. There they sat down to indulge their grief by poring on their miseries. Jeremiah had taught them under this yoke to sit alone, and keep silence, and put their mouths in the dust, Lam. 3:28, 29. "We sat down, as those that expected to stay, and were content, since it was the will of God that it must be so.'
    • 3. Thoughts of Zion drew tears from their eyes; and it was not a sudden passion of weeping, such as we are sometimes put into by a trouble that surprises us, but they were deliberate tears (we sat down and wept), tears with consideration-we wept when we remembered Zion, the holy hill on which the temple was built. Their affection to God's house swallowed up their concern for their own houses. They remembered Zion's former glory and the satisfaction they had had in Zion's courts, Lam. 1:7. Jerusalem remembered, in the days of her misery, all her pleasant things which she had in the days of old, Ps. 42:4. They remembered Zion's present desolations, and favoured the dust thereof, which was a good sign that the time for God to favour it was not far off, Ps. 102:13, 14.
    • 4. They laid by their instruments of music (v. 2): We hung our harps upon the willows.
      • (1.) The harps they used for their own diversion and entertainment. These they laid aside, both because it was their judgment that they ought not to use them now that God called to weeping and mourning (Isa. 22:12), and their spirits were so sad that they had no hearts to use them; they brought their harps with them, designing perhaps to use them for the alleviating of their grief, but it proved so great that it would not admit the experiment. Music makes some people melancholy. As vinegar upon nitre, so is he that sings songs to a heavy heart.
      • (2.) The harps they used in God's worship, the Levites' harps. These they did not throw away, hoping they might yet again have occasion to use them, but they laid them aside because they had no present use for them; God had cut them out other work by turning their feasting into mourning and their songs into lamentations, Amos 8:10. Every thing is beautiful in its season. They did not hide their harps in the bushes, or the hollows of the rocks; but hung them up in view, that the sight of them might affect them with this deplorable change. Yet perhaps they were faulty in doing this; for praising God is never out of season; it is his will that we should in every thing give thanks, Isa. 24:15, 16.
  • II. The abuses which their enemies put upon them when they were in this melancholy condition, v. 3. They had carried them away captive from their own land and then wasted them in the land of their captivity, took what little they had from them. But this was not enough; to complete their woes they insulted over them: They required of us mirth and a song. Now,
    • 1. This was very barbarous and inhuman; even an enemy, in misery, is to be pitied and not trampled upon. It argues a base and sordid spirit to upbraid those that are in distress either with their former joys or with their present griefs, or to challenge those to be merry who, we know, are out of tune for it. This is adding affliction to the afflicted.
    • 2. It was very profane and impious. No songs would serve them but the songs of Zion, with which God had been honoured; so that in this demand they reflected upon God himself as Belshazzar, when he drank wine in temple-bowls. Their enemies mocked at their sabbaths, Lam. 1:7.
  • III. The patience wherewith they bore these abuses, v. 4. 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. Profane scoffers are not to be humoured, nor pearls cast before swine. 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, Ps. 39:1, 2. The reason they gave is very mild and pious: How shall we sing the Lord's song in a strange land? They do not say, "How shall we sing when we are so much in sorrow?' If that had been all, they might perhaps have put a force upon themselves so far as to oblige their masters with a song; but "It is the Lord's song; it is a sacred thing; it is peculiar to the temple-service, and therefore we dare not sing it in the land of a stranger, among idolaters.' We must not serve common mirth, much less profane mirth, with any thing that is appropriated to God, who is sometimes to be honoured by a religious silence as well as by religious speaking.
  • IV. The constant affection they retained for Jerusalem, the city of their solemnities, even now that they were in Babylon. Though their enemies banter them for talking so much of Jerusalem, and even doting upon it, their love to it is not in the least abated; it is what they may be jeered for, but will never be jeered out of, v. 5, 6. Observe,
    • 1. How these pious captives stood affected to Jerusalem.
      • (1.) Their heads were full of it. It was always in their minds; they remembered it; they did not forget it, though they had been long absent from it; many of them had never seen it, nor knew any thing of it but by report, and by what they had read in the scripture, yet it was graven upon the palms of their hands, and even its ruins were continually before them, which was ann evidence of their faith in the promise of its restoration in due time. In their daily prayers they opened their windows towards Jerusalem; and how then could they forget it?
      • (2.) Their hearts were full of it. They preferred it above their chief joy, and therefore they remembered it and could not forget it. What we love we love to think of. Those that rejoice in God do, for his sake, make Jerusalem their joy, and prefer it before that, whatever it is, which is the head of their joy, which is dearest to them in this world. A godly man will prefer a public good before any private satisfaction or gratification whatsoever.
    • 2. How stedfastly they resolved to keep up this affection, which they express by a solemn imprecation of mischief to themselves if they should let it fall: "Let me be for ever disabled either to sing or play on the harp if I so far forget the religion of my country as to make use of my songs and harps for the pleasing of Babylon's sons or the praising of Babylon's gods. Let my right hand forget her art' (which the hand of an expert musician never can, unless it be withered), "nay, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth, if I have not a good word to say for Jerusalem wherever I am.' Though they dare not sing Zion's songs among the Babylonians, yet they cannot forget them, but, as soon as ever the present restraint is taken off, they will sing them as readily as ever, notwithstanding the long disuse.

Psa 137:7-9

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.

  • I. The Edomites will certainly be reckoned with, and all others that were accessaries to the destruction of Jerusalem, that were aiding and abetting, that helped forward the affliction (Zec. 1:15) and triumphed in it, that said, in the day of Jerusalem, the day of her judgment, "Rase it, rase it to the foundations; down with it, down with it; do not leave one stone upon another.' Thus they made the Chaldean army more furious, who were already so enraged that they needed no spur. 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. 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. Far be it from us to avenge ourselves, if ever it should be in our power, but we will leave it to him who has said, Vengeance is mine. Note, Those that are glad at calamities, especially the calamities of Jerusalem, shall not go unpunished. Those that are confederate with the persecutors of good people, and stir them up, and set them on, and are pleased with what they do, shall certainly be called to an account for it against another day, and God will remember it against them.
  • II. Babylon is the principal, and it will come to her turn too to drink of the cup of tremblings, the very dregs of it (v. 8, 9): O daughter of Babylon! proud and secure as thou art, we know well, by the scriptures of truth, thou art to be destroyed, or (as Dr. Hammond reads it) who art the destroyer. The destroyers shall be destroyed, Rev. 13:10. And perhaps it is with reference to this that the man of sin, the head of the New-Testament Babylon, is called a son of perdition, 2 Th. 2:3. The destruction of Babylon being foreseen as a sure destruction (thou art to be destroyed), it is spoken of,
    • 1. As a just destruction. She shall be paid in her own coin: "Thou shalt be served as thou hast served us, as barbarously used by the destroyers as we have been by thee,' See Rev. 18:6. Let not those expect to find mercy who, when they had power, did not show mercy.
    • 2. As an utter destruction. 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. None escape if these little ones perish. 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. It is sunk like a millstone into the sea, never to rise.
    • 3. As a destruction which should reflect honour upon the instruments of it. Happy shall those be that do it; for they are fulfilling God's counsels; and therefore he calls Cyrus, who did it, his servant, his shepherd, his anointed (Isa. 44:28; 45:1), and the soldiers that were employed in it his sanctified ones, Isa. 13:3. They are making way for the enlargement of God's Israel, and happy are those who are in any way serviceable to that. The fall of the New-Testament Babylon will be the triumph of all the saints, Rev. 19:1.