Psalm 137 Part 1 

Commentators are unsure whether this was written during or shortly after the Babylonian captivity. Its context is one of the shores of Babylon’s mighty rivers like the Tigris or Euphrates. In their dispersion, it was customary for Jews to hold religious meetings on the banks of rivers. (Paul, Silas, and Timothy did likewise in Acts 16:13 when in Philippi one Sabbath they sought a gathering for prayer.) Here they remembered Zion and wept over the death of loved ones and the loss of everything they owned. They wept over the destroyed city and temple, the cruelty of their captors, and all they had lost. The future was bleak and their sin had invited such judgement from God. 

The English words are sad but the Hebrew words are even sadder. Vs1-3 leads up to and explains the pathetic question of v4. The pronoun ‘nu,’ repeated 9 times, have an even sadder mournful sound in the Hebrew language. It is like crying ‘ohh’ or ‘woe’ repeatedly. Large willow trees grew plentifully on the shores of the great river, and because there were no songs left in these captives, they ‘hung their harps’ on those willow trees. 

While ‘they could not sing”, there was a song in the heart remembering Jerusalem. (Silence is the language of the heart.) If the joy of your life has vanished and you are passing through the old routines, but without the exhilaration of former days, and you cannot be like Paul and Silas who sang in prison, then remember the promise of hope for the future. If you have hung up your harp and now live in silence because you are in the land of our enemy – the land of death, dying, suffering, and misery – remember the “blessed hope” (Titus2:13). We are but pilgrims here camping on our way to the better country where there will be no longer any curse (Rev22:3). The former things will have passed away. When He descends from heaven with the voice of the archangel (1THess4:16) and we are on our way to that eternal abode, any suffering, heartache, or misery will then just seem like an inconvenient night in a bad hotel.