Introduction
When examining the scriptural text of Psalm 137 it is one that has a unique context and
structure. Albert Anderson stated, "The brief but difficult Psalm does not fit easily into any of the
common psalm-types."1 The fact that the Israelite song calls for the wrath of God, and hurling
curses towards their enemies is not what psalms are commonly known for. However, with the
suffering and sorrow the Israelites were suffering at the time, it is only right that the psalms
match their current emotional state. According to Jan Fokkelman, Psalm 137 is broken down
into the following strophes: Strophe one (vv. 1-4) contains the lament of the people, strophe two
(vv. 5-6) can be described as self-imprecation. The Song of Zion is turned upside-down, and
instead of joy, the emphasis falls on grief and bitterness. Strophe three (vv. 7-9) is a curse,
directed at the enemy, in the form of a petition addressed to God.2
Despite the fact that this psalm does not fit neatly into a book that many Christians turn to
for encouragement, understanding Psalm 137 in its original historical-cultural as well as examine
it’s literary context, the passage then can be appreciated especially when the call for vengeance
contradicts the love and forgiveness we are taught to exercise as Christians.3 While the main
purpose of this exegesis is to show Psalm137 is just as relevant to modern Christian as it was for
the Israelites it is also important to understand that Psalm 137 is an Israelite song of sorrow and
grief that also serves as an outlet of their anger and resentment, praying for vengeance for a
culture looking for preservation.
Cultural Context
1 A. A. (Arnold A.) Anderson, The Book of Psalms: Volumes I-II(Greenwood: Attic, 1972),
2 Jan P Fokkelman, Major Poems of the Hebrew Bible: At the Interface of Hermeneutics and Structural
Analysis (Assen: Van Gorcum, 1998)
3 Matthew 5:44
Understanding why this psalm was written is the first step in understanding the cultural
context as it relates to the psalm. As Richard Belcher Jr. illustrates, “Psalm 137 arises out of the
experience of the community in exile in Babylon following the destruction of the temple and
commits their situation into the hand of God.4 The committing of their situation with their
enemy falls into the third strophe as identified by Fokkelman. The Israelites felt they deserved
more protection from God being that Jerusalem was the promised to them through their
forefathers and was now taken away from them. The fall of the Israelites being captured in
Psalms 137 also highlights an additional importance that is often overlooked, which is the fact
that Psalm 137 is a psalm that actually deals with an event that “we can be certain actually
occurred in history”.5 Further examination as pointed out by Hans-Joachim Krause is that the
historical situation portrayed in the psalm is that of the Babylonian exile and maintains
that verse eight implies that the Babylonian Empire still existed when the psalm was
composed.6 Although the psalm was composed during the Babylonian exile the psalmists more
than likely was writing the psalm from an experienced point of view and as a reflection instead
of as a current event.
Geoffrey Grogan and John Goldingay assisted in breaking down the emotional
illustrations in the first strophe which gives a better view and understanding of the historical
location through their graphic explanations. Grogan and Goldingay point out the exiles sat and
cried at the rivers of Babylon, which had a high probability of being the Tigris and Euphrates,
4 Richard P Belcher, The Messiah and the Psalms: Preaching Christ from All the Psalms (Fearn, Ross-shire,
Scotland: Mentor, 2006), 78
5 Philip Stern, “Psalm 137: the Babylonian exile: pieces of the puzzle,” Midstream 53, no. 4 (2007): 33.
6 Hans-Joachim Kraus, Psalms 60-150: A Continental Commentary (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1993)
their tributaries, and a network of irrigation canals. Their memories of Zion filled them with
sorrow and longing to return home. The land that had been promised to them had been
destroyed, everything they relied on and trusted in had been taken away from them and now they
had to deal with their captors.7
The psalms were heartfelt emotions, Keil and Delitzsch stated, while in solitude by the
river’s bank, the people began to weep when acknowledging how the natural scenery around
them was not what they were used to seeing in their native land, remembering Zion only forced
them into more pain as they were overwhelmed with the feeling of being isolated from their
home.8 Being that Zion was a symbol of God’s presence the Israelites believed that Zion would
never fall and they would always experience prosperity, safety and security. However, as it has
been examined in Psalm 137 Zion is no longer a place of refuge and security but a place filled
with sadness also representative of the traumatic experience Israel just suffered.
Literary Context
The most important thing to remember about the psalms is that they are poems that
expressed what the psalmist was feeling at the time it was composed.9 Stern explains, “Psalm
137 is filled with literary devices such as alliteration and wordplay. For instance, in English we
are forced to translate two succeeding verbs as ‘forget’ and ‘wither,’ whereas in Hebrew the two
verbs appear to be the same, although they derive from different roots.”10 Frank E. Gaebelein
explains, “the psalmist is praying for God’s vengeance on those who are responsible for his
7 Geoffrey Grogan, Psalms (Grand Rapids, Mich: Eerdmans, 2008), 215
8 C. F. Keil and Franz Delitzsch, Commentary on the Old Testament in Ten Volumes. Vol. 5, Vol. 5 (Grand Rapids:
Eerdmans, 1980), 800.
9 Gordon D. Fee and Douglas K. Stuart, How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth (Grand Rapids, Mich: Zondervan, 2003), 206-
207
10 Stern, "The Babylonian Exile," 34
misery”.11 When looking for a breakdown and understanding of Psalms 137 scholars use the
reference term imprecatory when explaining its context. DeClaissé-Walford et al. explains,
“Psalm 137 is a group of psalms called “imprecatory”. Imprecatory means the psalmist invoke
the wrath of God upon their foe. In the case of Psalm 137, the foe is clearly Babylon.12 These
imprecatory psalms are responses to extreme hurt and pain in which the psalmist is looking for
vengeance for the wrong that has come to them. The pain they are expressing is not a healthy
exchange of emotions and the wrath they are seeking is absence of divine justice; however, it is a
display of raw feelings that shows an insight into how the psalmist is feeling. Fee and Stuart
explain, “The psalmist in Psalm 137 is telling God about their feelings using exaggerated words
of expression to mimic those found in the covenant curses.”13
Scholars have acknowledged that the placement of Psalm 137 is interesting, especially
when considering Psalm 135 and 136 are community hymns of praise, which celebrate the
steadfast and unchanging love of the Lord. Then there is the placement of Psalm 138 which is a
hymn of thanksgiving. 14 The placement of Psalm 137 between these praise and thanksgiving is
thought to be set on purpose as an example of faithfulness of God even while being faced with
the hardships of captivity and exile from their homeland.
Relation to Modern Christians
11 Frank E. Gaebelein, ed., The Expositor’s Bible Commentary – Volume 5: Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and
Song of Songs (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1991), 826
12 Nancy L. DeClaissé-Walford, Rolf A. Jacobson, and Beth LaNeel Tanner, The Book of Psalms (Grand Rapids:
William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2016)
13 Fee and Douglas Stuart, How to Read the Bible for All It’s Worth, 221.
14 DeClaissé-Walford, Jacobson, and Tanner, NICOT– The Book of Psalms, 958
When reviewing Psalm 137 there are several questions the modern Christian should ask
themselves. What should Christians do with this psalm of vengeance? Does it have a place
within today’s Christian church? Pleins argues, “Even the anger of the refugee or the exile can
become an act of prayerful worship.” 15 A violent text such as Psalm 137 should be understood
within its own context and be interpreted against the customs and social institutions of its own
time.16 In other words Psalm 137 should be evaluated and connected to what is happening in the
church at the present time. Although the psalm is violent by nature, the psalmist used images and
metaphors regarding warfare familiar to his own time. This is how the Psalm relates to the
modern Christian.
This psalm is a prayer, an expression to God of what justice the psalmist would like to
see prevail over his enemies. It is a bold statement of faith where the psalmist commits his raw
emotions of vengeance and hate into the hands of God. At no time does the psalmists take actions
into his own hands against his enemies. They did not have the means or ability to enact their
own vengeance on Babylon. They held no weapons with the exception of their words which they
used to verbalize their experiences of powerlessness and humiliation as well as their feelings of
anger and retribution. Levine calls this verbalization the “verbal counterpart to the all-too-real
bloodshed in the streets of Jerusalem at the time of the destruction.”17
Today’s Christians often errors on the idea and the illusion that believers should not
experience or confess anything negative. The ideology in itself is incorrect especially the so-
called “prosperity theology” who take this viewpoint and who believe that if the rules of faith are
followed then there should never be an experience of hardship. This is simply a lie. Christians in
15 J. David Pleins, The Psalms: Songs of Tragedy, Hope, and Justice (Maryknoll N.Y: Orbis Books, 1993), 41
16 Van Dyk, "Violence and the Old Testament," OTE 16, no. 1 (2003): 96
17 Herbert J Levine, Sing Unto God a New Song: A Contemporary Reading of the Psalms (Indiana Studies in
Biblical Literature) (Indiana University Press, 1995), 185
fact do experience times of hardship and exile. What Christians can learn from Psalm 137 is that
when hardships do come praise is not always a necessary response and should be comfortable
with pouring out their heart before God, verbalizing all the raw emotions of anguish, anger, hate
and vengeance. Taking all of this emotion before God becomes a healthy outlet. There is no need
to actually take the vengeance or act on those things verbalized to God as in the lamenting it
before God who claims sole proprietary rights to vengeance and payback.18 Psalm 137 is an
attempt, to take the most primitive human emotions for violence and suppress them by
surrendering the raw emotion and hatred to God.
Conclusion
The psalm describes a time when all hope seemed to be gone, a time when almost
everything seemed discouraging and meaningless. There are times in every Christian walk where
God seems far away. Exile should not be considered simply as a geographical issue, but as a
metaphor for a more contemporary experience. Great injustices take place in every corner of the
world, and people still live in and through their emotions. Abuse, infidelity, war, humanitarian
crises, sickness, mistreatment of ethnic minorities, political upheaval, economic crises and the
horror of violent crime are all expressions of exile in today’s world.19
Psalm 137 has shown that Israel did not sing the songs of joy during exile; it would not
have been appropriate. They reacted to the loss of their world by crying out to the Lord to give
them justice, relief and security. The psalmist continued to worship God even within a strange
land. They did not do this through singing songs of praise and joy but by expressing their deepest
18 Brent A. Strawn, “Psalm 137,” in Psalms for preaching and worship: A lectionary commentary (eds. Roger E. van
Harn and Brent A. Strawn. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2009), 351
19 Leonard P. Mare', "Psalm 137: Exile - Not the Time for Singing the Lord's Song," (PhD diss., NORTH-WEST
UNIVERSITY, 2010)
heartfelt emotions to God. Christians today have to be willing to surrender their innermost lustful
desires for justice and vengeance to God. Surrendering to the Lord is the biggest lesson and
takeaway the contemporary Christian can take from Psalm 137. In so doing, the understanding
that joy does not always have to be a reason to talk to God and the illusion that hardships does
not fall upon the Christian can be lifted.
In initially setting upon Psalm 137 it was a task to understand. After experiencing
hardships and not wanting others to see it was easy for the author to fall into the category of
illusion of a joy only lifestyle. However, in understanding imprecatory it became easier for the
author to take the hardship to God and surrender it to him leaving the raw emotions with the
Lord in prayer.
Bibliography
Anderson, A. A. (Arnold A.). The Book of Psalms: Volumes I-II. Greenwood: Attic, 1972.
Belcher, Richard P. The Messiah and the Psalms: Preaching Christ from All the Psalms, 78.
Fearn, Ross-shire, Scotland: Mentor, 2006.
DeClaissé-Walford, Nancy L., Rolf A. Jacobson, and Beth LaNeel Tanner. The Book of Psalms.
Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2016.
Dyk, Van. "Violence and the Old Testament." OTE 16, no. 1 (2003), 96-112.
Fee, Gordon D., and Douglas K. Stuart. How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth. Grand Rapids,
Mich: Zondervan, 2003.
Fokkelman, Jan P. Major Poems of the Hebrew Bible: At the Interface of Hermeneutics and
Structural Analysis. Assen: Van Gorcum, 1998.
Grogan, Geoffrey. Psalms. Grand Rapids, Mich: Eerdmans, 2008.
Keil, C. F., and Franz Delitzsch. Commentary on the Old Testament in Ten Volumes. Vol. 5, Vol.
5. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1980.
Kraus, Hans-Joachim. Psalms 60-150: A Continental Commentary. Minneapolis: Fortress Press,
1993.
Levine, Herbert J. Sing Unto God a New Song: A Contemporary Reading of the Psalms
(Indiana Studies in Biblical Literature). Indiana University Press, 1995.
Mare', Leonard P. "Psalm 137: Exile - Not the Time for Singing the Lord's Song." PhD diss.,
NORTH-WEST UNIVERSITY, 2010.
Pleins, J. David. The Psalms: Songs of Tragedy, Hope, and Justice. Maryknoll N.Y: Orbis
Books, 1993.
Stern, Philip. "Psalm 137: the Babylonian exile: pieces of the puzzle." Midstream, July 2007.
https://www.thefreelibrary.com/Psalm+137%3A+the+Babylonian+exile
%3A+pieces+of+the+puzzle.-a0166933958.
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