4 How shall we sing H7891 the LORD'S H3068 song H7892 in a strange H5236 land? H127
A time H6256 to weep, H1058 and a time H6256 to laugh; H7832 a time H6256 to mourn, H5594 and a time H6256 to dance; H7540
And in that day H3117 did the Lord H136 GOD H3069 of hosts H6635 call H7121 to weeping, H1065 and to mourning, H4553 and to baldness, H7144 and to girding H2296 with sackcloth: H8242
Then shalt thou say H559 in thine heart, H3824 Who hath begotten H3205 me these, seeing I have lost my children, H7921 and am desolate, H1565 a captive, H1540 and removing to and fro? H5493 and who hath brought up H1431 these? Behold, I was left H7604 alone; these, where H375 had they been?
The elders H2205 have ceased H7673 from the gate, H8179 the young men H970 from their musick. H5058 The joy H4885 of our heart H3820 is ceased; H7673 our dance H4234 is turned H2015 into mourning. H60
They shall not offer H5258 wine H3196 offerings to the LORD, H3068 neither shall they be pleasing H6149 unto him: their sacrifices H2077 shall be unto them as the bread H3899 of mourners; H205 all that eat H398 thereof shall be polluted: H2930 for their bread H3899 for their soul H5315 shall not come H935 into the house H1004 of the LORD. H3068
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
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,
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.