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Commentary on Psalms 137 verses 1–6
1 ¶ By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion.
2 We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof.
3 For 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.
4 How shall we sing the LORD'S song in a strange land?
5 If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning.
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.
I. II. Main points1. 2. Sub-points
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, Lam 3:29. "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, Psa 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, Psa 102:13, Psa 102:14. 4. They laid by their instruments of music (Psa 137:2): 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, Amo 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, Isa 24:16.
II. The abuses which their enemies put upon them when they were in this melancholy condition, Psa 137:3. 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, Psa 137:4. 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, Psa 39:1, Psa 39:2. 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, Psa 137:5, Psa 137:6. 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.
Matthew Henry (1662–1714) — Commentary on the Whole Bible. This section covers verses 1–6. Public domain.
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Methodius of OlympusAD 311
SYMPOSIUM OR THE BANQUET OF THE TEN VIRGINS 4:3
To continue with our subject, let us take in our hands and examine this psalm, which the pure and stainless souls sing to God, saying, “By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down; we wept, when we remembered Zion. We hanged our harps on the willows in the midst thereof,” clearly giving the name of harps to their bodies, which they hung on the branches of chastity, fastening them to the wood that they might not be snatched away and dragged along again by the stream of incontinence. For Babylon, which is interpreted “disturbance” or “confusion,” signifies this life around which the water flows, while we sit in the midst of the water that flows round us, as long as we are in the world, the rivers of evil always beating on us. Wherefore, also, we are always fearful, and we groan and cry with weeping to God, that our harps may not be snatched off by the waves of pleasure and slip down from the tree of chastity.
Augustine of HippoAD 430
Exposition on Psalm 137
"On the willows in the midst thereof we hung up our instruments of music" [Psalm 137:2]. The citizens of Jerusalem have their "instruments of music," God's Scriptures, God's commands, God's promises, meditation on the life to come; but while they are dwelling "in Babylon," they "hang up their instruments." Willows are unfruitful trees, and here so placed, that no good whatever can be understood of them: elsewhere perhaps there may. Here understand barren trees, growing by the waters of Babylon. These trees are watered by the waters of Babylon, and bring forth no fruit; just as there are men greedy, covetous, barren in good works, citizens of Babylon in such wise, that they are even trees of that region; they are fed there by these pleasures of transitory things, as though watered by "the waters of Babylon." You seek fruit of them, and nowhere findest it....Therefore by deferring to apply the Scriptures to them, "we hang up our instruments of music upon the willows." For we hold them not worthy to carry our instruments. We do not therefore insert our instruments into them and bind them to them, but defer to use them, and so hang them up. For the willows are the unfruitful trees of Babylon, fed by temporal pleasures, as by the "waters of Babylon."
Source: Quotations drawn from early Church Fathers and historical Christian theologians (AD 100–1500). Some quotes address the surrounding passage context rather than this verse alone.
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SUMMARY
Psalms 137:2 powerfully depicts the profound grief and spiritual despondency of the Jewish exiles in Babylon. By hanging their harps upon the willows, the psalmist conveys the complete cessation of joyful worship and the overwhelming sorrow that rendered them unable to sing the songs of Zion in a foreign land. This act symbolizes a deep spiritual paralysis, where the instruments of praise, once central to their identity and communion with God, are silenced and left neglected in a place of captivity and lament, reflecting a people stripped of their spiritual joy and unable to express their faith through song.
CONTEXT
Literary Context: This verse is an integral part of Psalm 137, a deeply poignant lament that captures the raw emotion of the Israelites during their forced exile in Babylon. The preceding verse, Psalms 137:1, sets the sorrowful scene, depicting the exiles sitting by the rivers, weeping as they remember Zion. Verse 2 directly follows, illustrating a concrete action that embodies their grief and the depth of their spiritual paralysis. The subsequent verses, particularly Psalms 137:3-4, reveal the cruel mockery of their captors, who demand songs of Zion, only to be met with the exiles' resolute refusal, emphasizing the impossibility of joyful worship in such a desolate state. The psalm then escalates into a fierce imprecation, reflecting the profound trauma and longing for divine justice and restoration, culminating in a desire for retribution against Babylon.
Historical & Cultural Context: The historical backdrop for Psalm 137 is the Babylonian Exile, a traumatic period in Israelite history following the destruction of Jerusalem and the First Temple in 586 BC by Nebuchadnezzar II, as vividly detailed in 2 Kings 25 and Jeremiah 52. Thousands of Jews were forcibly deported to Babylon, a foreign land with different gods, customs, and landscapes. For the Israelites, the Temple in Jerusalem was the dwelling place of God, the center of their worship, and the heart of their national identity. Its destruction and their subsequent exile were not merely political or geographical calamities but profound theological crises, raising existential questions about God's covenant, presence, and faithfulness. Willows were common trees along the rivers of Mesopotamia, often associated with mourning and melancholy in ancient Near Eastern poetry, making them a fitting symbol for the exiles' despair and the unsuitability of their environment for joyful praise.
Key Themes: Psalms 137:2 contributes significantly to several overarching themes within the psalm and broader biblical narrative. Firstly, it powerfully conveys Profound Sorrow and Loss, illustrating the deep anguish experienced by a people dispossessed of their homeland, their sacred Temple, and their spiritual routines. The harps, instruments of joy and praise in Israelite worship (e.g., Psalms 33:2), are rendered useless, symbolizing the silencing of their collective spiritual song. Secondly, the verse highlights the Inability to Praise in Captivity, emphasizing that the environment of exile was antithetical to the spirit of praise. Their hearts were too heavy with sorrow to "sing the Lord's song in a strange land," a sentiment explicitly articulated in Psalms 137:4. Finally, the image underscores Despair and Despondency, portraying a community overwhelmed by dejection, unable to find hope for immediate celebration or spiritual expression in their current circumstances, yet maintaining a defiant loyalty to Zion and their God by refusing to profane sacred worship for their captors.
EXPOSITION AND ANALYSIS
Key Word Analysis
Verse Breakdown
Literary Devices
Psalms 137:2 is rich in Symbolism and vivid Imagery. The harps symbolize joy, praise, and the vibrant worship life of Israel, particularly within the Temple in Jerusalem. Their silence and suspension represent the profound grief and spiritual paralysis of the exiles, who found themselves utterly unable to sing the Lord's songs in a foreign land. The willows, often associated with weeping and growing by water, symbolize sorrow, mourning, and the desolate, alien environment of their Babylonian captivity. The act of hanging the harps on these trees creates a powerful visual metaphor for the cessation of praise and the overwhelming despair that had taken root in their hearts. The entire verse functions as a poignant tableau, painting a vivid picture of a people stripped of their spiritual identity and joy, leaving a lasting impression of their deep and collective sorrow.
THEOLOGICAL AND THEMATIC CONNECTIONS
Psalms 137:2 offers a profound theological insight into the nature of lament and the human experience of profound spiritual and existential grief. It teaches that there are seasons in life where sorrow is so overwhelming that the customary expressions of praise and joy become impossible. This is not a failure of faith but an honest acknowledgment of the depth of human suffering in a fallen world. The exiles' inability to sing is a testament to their loyalty to Zion and their God; they would not profane the sacred songs by performing them for their captors in a place of idolatry and oppression. This verse validates the experience of spiritual despondency, reminding us that God understands and embraces our laments, even when our voices for praise are silenced by pain, affirming that true faith can manifest in profound sorrow as much as in exuberant joy.
REFLECTION AND APPLICATION
Psalms 137:2 offers a profound and empathetic insight into the human condition, particularly during seasons of overwhelming sorrow, loss, or spiritual dryness. It grants us permission to lament, to acknowledge that there are times when our hearts are too heavy, our circumstances too dire, or our grief too profound for us to naturally express joy or engage in praise. This verse reminds us that genuine faith does not always manifest as exuberant worship but can also be expressed through honest lament, quiet endurance, and the painful recognition of what has been lost. It teaches us that God meets us in our deepest despair, understanding the silence of our harps. In such moments, remembering God's past faithfulness and longing for His future restoration, even without a song on our lips, can be a profound act of trust. It calls us to extend grace to ourselves and others who are navigating seasons where their "harps are hung up," trusting that the melody will return in God's perfect timing and that even in silence, our God remains present and compassionate.
Questions for Reflection
FAQ
Why did they hang their harps specifically on willows?
Answer: The choice of willows is highly symbolic and culturally significant. Willows (Hebrew: ʻârâb) are trees that typically grow near water, such as the "rivers of Babylon" mentioned in Psalms 137:1. In ancient Near Eastern poetry and tradition, trees growing by water were often associated with sadness, weeping, and mourning, with their drooping branches visually mirroring grief. By hanging their harps—instruments of joy and worship—on these trees of sorrow, the exiles created a powerful visual metaphor for their profound grief, the cessation of their joyful praise, and the desolate spiritual state they experienced in captivity. It underscored that the very environment of their exile was antithetical to the spirit of worship, making the act a profound statement of their sorrow and integrity.
Does this verse imply that it is wrong to praise God during times of deep sorrow?
Answer: No, this verse does not imply that it is wrong to praise God during sorrow, but rather it acknowledges the profound human reality that sometimes grief is so overwhelming that the heart cannot naturally produce a song of praise. The exiles' act was less about a refusal to praise God and more about their inability to do so in an authentic, joyful manner under the mocking gaze of their captors, in a foreign land that had desecrated their homeland and Temple. It highlights the integrity of their sorrow and their refusal to profane the sacred songs of Zion by performing them for entertainment in a place of idolatry. The Bible encourages both praise in all circumstances (1 Thessalonians 5:18) and honest lament before God (Psalms 42:3). This verse validates the latter, showing that God understands and accepts our deepest laments and the seasons when our spiritual "music" is silenced by pain, affirming that true faith encompasses both joy and sorrow.
CHRIST-CENTERED FULFILLMENT
Psalms 137:2, with its poignant image of silenced harps and a people unable to sing the Lord's song, finds profound Christ-centered fulfillment in the person and work of Jesus. The Babylonian exile represents humanity's ultimate spiritual exile from God due to sin, where the "harps" of true worship and joyful communion were silenced. Humanity, in its fallen state, was truly "in a strange land," unable to offer acceptable praise or find genuine spiritual melody. Jesus Christ, the ultimate exile who left the glory of heaven to dwell among us, fully entered into this human condition of sorrow and alienation. He experienced the deepest lament, crying out from the cross, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?," a moment where the "harp" of divine communion seemed utterly silenced, bearing the weight of humanity's separation from God. Yet, through His perfect obedience, sacrificial death, and glorious resurrection, Christ broke the bonds of our spiritual captivity. He became the new Temple, the true Zion, and the means by which our harps are unhung. Through Him, we are no longer in a foreign land but are brought near to God, adopted as His children, and enabled to offer a "sacrifice of praise" continually (Hebrews 13:15). The New Covenant, established by His blood, allows for worship "in spirit and truth" (John 4:23-24), transcending physical location or earthly circumstances. Ultimately, the longing expressed in Psalms 137:2 for a return to joyful worship finds its glorious consummation in Christ, who will one day wipe away every tear, ensuring that in the new heaven and new earth, our harps will never again be silenced, and our songs of praise will resound eternally in His glorious presence (Revelation 21:4).