PSALM 137: AN EXEGETICAL STUDY ON THE PSALM AND ITS RELATIONSHIP TO ANCIENT Babylonia Exile of the Hebrew People

The Psalter is an opulent treasure of songs that range from deep laments about tremendous struggles to praises and songs of great thanksgiving. It is comprised of 150 chapters in the Hebrew Bible. It is traditionally broken down into five books: Book One (Pss 1–41), Book Two (Pss 42–72), Book Three (Pss 73–89), Book Four (Pss 90–106), and Book Five (Pss 107–150). This blog entry will perform an exegetical study on the 137th Psalm by creating a dialogue between several commentary writers to create an interpretation of the text that is comparable to how it original readers would have understood the poetic stanzas. This blog entry will also examine the relationship of the Psalm to the experiences f the Babylonian exile of the enslaved Hebrews who produced this work of Jewish literature. Similarly, the blog entry will argue that the Psalm is a post-exilic text that  could in many ways compare to many African American slave narratives.

     I.         The Context

The context of this psalm is quite unique in that it can be directly linked to a particular set of events in Jewish history. The setting is somewhere after the destruction of the state, the Temple, and the exile to Babylonia, which is somewhere around the sixth and fifth centuries before the Common Era. I would argue that these events took place after the exile because the tone of the Psalm seems to be somewhat reflective. For instance, in verses one thru four it says phrases in the past tense like: “there we sat, there we wept, when we remembered, we hung our harps, asked us for songs, asked for mirth, How could we sing”. This would lead a reader to believe that maybe the author is not in exile or Babylon, but rather a survivor or perhaps someone reminiscing while on the way to Jerusalem in Second Isaiah. However, there is another tradition that would suggest that the author is writing this poem while in captivity. Although I have chosen to side with the scholars who vouch for this Psalm as being postexilic, we cannot be absolutely certain that it was either exilic or postexilic. For instance:

The tender pathos of the opening verses enlists our sympathy: the crash of bitter denunciation in the closing stanza shocks and repels’ leads one to think that he date of the psalm is variously taken to be during the Exile, when the mockery of vv. 1–3 were a present experience, or soon after the return from exile when the psalmist looked back on past suffering.[1]

The happenings of the exile were very important portions of the Hebrew narrative. They were extremely traumatic experiences for the Jewish people. This point is very essential to anyone attempting to exegete this Psalm. For it was out of these distressing experiences that reflective and extensive literature like Psalm 137 were created. This Psalm contains within it reflections, desires for retaliation, expressions of contrition and lamentation, and the aspirations for the people to be reconciled with God and their homeland. There is also a certain level of honestly in the Psalm because the author is very revealing about their feelings of indignation against the Babylonian and Edomite adversaries of Israel.

We are unsure as to who the author of this narrative could be. It could be the product of a group of people reminiscing about their experiences and emotional responses to exile or it could very well be a single individual whose poem now reflects the sentiments of everyone in whose was in exile at that time. In other words, it is written from the perspective of an exile or the exiled in Babylon. It maybe a bit of a stretch, but I would also venture to say that this Psalm was written by a person who had actually been in exile and not someone who was a descendant of the exiled. I make this claim because of the utter emotion with which the Psalm is written. The account seems to be a first hand account and not that of one who had heard the story through oral tradition. The author seems to have actually been apart of the weeping along the canals and also felt the resentment and anger towards the Babylonians. The writer says words like "we sat",  "we wept", and “we remembered” in verse one.

   II.         The Structure of the Psalm

This particular poem in the Psalter appears to have three metrical movements. There are variants to this grouping. According to the Oxford Commentary, “the structure is either as in NRSV (vv. 1–3, 4–6, 7–9) or v. 4 belongs to the first stanza, and the rest of the psalm divides into 5–6, 7, 8–9”. [2] For this blog entry we will be using the grouping method of the New Revised Standard Version. The first movement is verses one thru three, the second movement is contained within verses four thru 6, and the last movement is verses seven thru nine. They are set apart by their meaning, intent, and styles. Movement one is written in written in more of a communally reflective style with somewhat of a mournful tone. It uses a lot of plural pronouns like “we”, “our”, and “us”. It is intended for an audience interested in hearing the historical exile narrative of the Jewish people. It’s meaning and purpose is to convey the sentiments of a captured people who were being forced by their captors to perform uncomfortable and humiliating acts. The second movement seems to be more of a personal and private inward reflection/reminder of the writer to his/herself to remember Jerusalem/Zion. Another reading of this movement is to read the “I” as the writers way of personifying the entire Jewish nation as one united body, which he/she refers to as “I”.  This movement also switches up its reference to Jerusalem to the third person, while allow the writer, the subject of the poem, to be referred to in the first person singular. The second movement also employs an if/let or rather an if/then clause. This conditional clause is used twice. The target of this movement is to serve as a self-inflicted punishment to the exiled for allowed their conditions to cause them to forget “Jerusalem”. The last and final movement is somewhat of an imprecation against Edom and Babylon.  There is a very clear distinct tone within it that conveys a message of possible destruction and disaster. Here, the psalmist turns the attention from mourning the memory of the pleased Zion in order to directly address the adversaries of the Jewish people.

III.         The Exegesis of the Psalm

Verse 1

By the rivers of Babylon—there we sat down and there we wept when we remembered Zion.

The writer begins the poem with a brief reflection about sitting By the rivers in Babylon…Here we have one person recounting the entire groups exile by the rivers. I would first like to examine these rivers. The mention of rivers gives the reader somewhat of a visual aid to couple with the communal reflection that is to come. This could also be the author’s way of describing the scenery of this particular group of exiles’ spatial dwelling. According to the Access Bible, “The Rivers of Babylon refer to the canals between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers.[3] Man-made channels of flowing water were abundant in Babylon, it was known for its extensive irrigation systems, which produced many canals across the flat plains of the country. The text says that they are sitting by these canals. The depiction of them as sitting is also quite interesting and it also gives us a reason for their gathering. According to the Anchor Bible, "It was a widespread custom among Semitic peoples to mourn seated upon the ground." (Num. 11:4, Deut. 1:45, Jon. 3:6, Job 2:12-13, Lam. 2:10, and Neh. 1:4)[4] While being seated they wept when they remembered Zion. We do not know if the location of their gathering was their permanent dwelling place or a regular meeting place. However, what we do know is that the primary focus and purpose of this river gathering is to reminisce on Zion. They unite to lament and grieve. There is a thought that there is some sort of “cultic symbolism” behind the communal gatherings. [5] However, I personally lean more towards the New Century Bible Commentary’s reading of this text. It argues that such a claim about cultic rituals can be assumed but such “is not imperative”. [6]

The next question that we must ask of this verse is: “What did Zion mean to them and what/where was it?” According to Ben C. Ollenburger :

Poetry recalled that it was David who had found the ark and brought it to Zion, the place Yahweh desired for “his habitation” (Ps. 132.13). Already in early texts from the book of Psalms, however, Zion refers not to David's city but preeminently to Yahweh's dwelling place, Yahweh's “holy hill” (Ps. 2.6). ….The ark represented the footstool of Yahweh's royal throne, and the Temple enshrining it symbolized the presence of Yahweh as king. In this way the term Zion lost its originally precise geographic designation and came to refer to the Temple area and even to the entire city of Jerusalem.[7]

 Thus, for them, Zion was their Holy City, the place where God dwelled.

Verse 2, 3, and 4

On the willows there we hung up our harps. For there our captors asked us for songs, and our tormentors asked for mirth, saying, “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!” How could we sing the LORD's song in a foreign land?

The Catholic Study Bible interprets this verse to indicate that perhaps the author(s) are some sort of a temple singer(s)/musician(s) who are reminiscing on their time in exile. [8] The imagery of them hanging up their harps was reflective of the fact that God could only be praised at a Temple in Israel.[9] For them, instruments were tools used in corporate praise. However, without a reason to praise there was no reason to use their instruments.

In these verses we also see the singer(s) being demanded to sing the songs of Zion by their Babylonian captors. In this particular psalm the reference to the "song of Zion" is used synonymously with the virtues of joyfulness, bliss, and praise. This can be further validated by verses five and six. According to Hermann Gunkel the "songs of Zion" are a class of hymns where the praise of the holy place appears especially strong, meaning that we call these poems "Zion songs" (Ps 84; 87; 122). [10] The Oxford Commentary asserts that the Songs of Zion were possibly the Zion hymns (Ps 46; 48 ) or the pilgrimage psalms (Ps 84; 120–134 ).[11] .It is from this group of celebratory songs that the captors wish to hear a selection performed by his captives. However, the singer(s) refuse to sing because they are in an alien land. Their question: “How could we sing the LORD's song in a foreign land, is a refusal to sing and not a request as to how they should be sung. The singer refuses to sing for two apparent reasons: (1) because the Babylonians where trying to ridiculed the Jewish people by asking them to sing songs about the Lord delivering them amidst their captivity. They were asking the singer(s) to sing a songs of praise while in exile. This was a form of humiliation. Secondly, the singer(s) refuses to sing because in their tradition God could only be praised at a Temple in Israel. According to the Oxford Annotated Bibliography, exile was “equivalent to descent into the world of the dead; like the dead, the exiles are unable to praise God”.[12] The fact that the Jewish singer(s) were upset could suggest that the captors were aware of this tradition. If this is true, the captors knew that asking them to sing the songs would be somewhat inappropriate and they did such to intentionally insult and aggravate their captives. An example of these “songs of Zion” can be seen in Psalm 30.9; 88.11–13.

Verse 5 and 6

If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand wither! Let my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth, if I do not remember you, if I do not set Jerusalem above my highest joy.

As mentioned earlier, these verses have strong if/then clauses. These verses reveal the author’s undying loyalty and unconditional love for Jerusalem. The author creates physical consequence for anyone who forgets or does not set Jerusalem above the highest of joys. However, one might wonder why the author would choose the right hand and the tongue as the portions of the body that devastating things should happen too. If a persons tongue were clung to their mouth that would mean that they could no longer sing praises to God and if their right hand has withers one would be restricted from play instruments. The right hand is connected with this because the instruments, i.e. the harps, were normally played with the right hand. “The key issue is whether v. 6 implies that Jerusalem is restored or faith is holding on to a ruin. Usually described as a communal lament or complaint, the emphasis on Zion is reminiscent of the Songs of Zion, and it may be that the psalmist is reusing features from those songs in a new way”.[13] The consequences are actually connected to the idea of deliverance. Since, as we established earlier, the songs of Zion and praise were to only be sung in Jerusalem, for one to still desire to use these body parts in the future would suggest that there was hope that they would one day be delivered.  Thus, if one lost sign of Jerusalem, he or she might as well give up the ability to praise. According to the Access Bible, “Although remembering Jerusalem was painful (vs.1), to forget the city would mean permanent silence—that is, death. Memory sustains hope”.[14] Thus, for the exiled, to forget was blasphemous.

Verse 7 thru 9

Remember, O LORD, against the Edomites the day of Jerusalem's fall, how they said, “Tear it down! Tear it down! Down to its foundations! ”O daughter Babylon, you devastator! Happy shall they be who pay you back what you have done to us! Happy shall they be who take your little ones and dash them against the rock!

It is important to note here that the Psalmist never says that he wants to actually perform these actions. Instead he simply says that if someone should do these things to his enemies that they would be happy people. This portion of the Psalm is actually a perfect illustration of the transparency of the writer. He/she tries to capture the pain and hurt that the exiled Hebrews felt as a result of the brutality and humiliation that they were subjected too. Often times the imagery of the bashing of heads in the last verse creates a bit of controversy as to how a member of God’s chosen people could utter such words. However, the action of killing babies was often a ritual performed by armies that had defeated a country in order to assure that their defeated enemy could have no promise of a future.

History may help us to understand, if not to condone, the final curses. Edom was the traditional enemy of Israel, and at the time of the Exile the Edomites pressed into Judah, and brought upon themselves the undying hatred of Israel (cf. Isa 34; 63:1–6; Lam 4:21–2; Ezek 25:12–14 ; Ob). On one level it represents the ordinary features of ancient warfare; on another, the Babylonians were accounted the enemies of YHWH and not just of Israel, for they had destroyed his city and his temple.[15]

Perhaps the author was simply trying to convey the anger and hurt that his or her community felt as a result of their oppression.

 IV.         The Possible Usages of the Text in Various Cultural Settings

Often times I heard this text preached as a child during Watch Night Services in the African American Church. Watch Night is a service that takes place on New Years Eve in the African American community to commemorate the gathering on December 31, 1862, also known as "Freedom's Eve." Prior to this date on September 22, 1862, President Abraham Lincoln had issued a preliminary document declaring and promising that one hundred days later, on January 1, 1863, all slaves would be free. Eagerly awaiting their freedom on December 31, 1862, enslaved Africans gathered together in churches meeting halls, and private homes all across the nation, anxiously awaiting and watching for the town heralders to come riding their horses into their villages with the news that the Emancipation Proclamation had been signed legally declaring that all slaves in the Confederate States were free. [16]

            Even in black churches today, the New Years Eve watch night serve is the time where African Americas sing songs, read poems, and dance to remember when their ancestors were enslaved. Most times the 137th Psalm is read because the Children of Israel Narrative has been used for many years as a source of hope four countless African-American experiences. (i.e. Slavery, segregation, and Jim Crow laws). There are several parallels between this text and the African American experience. For example: many African American preachers compare the exile of the Hebrews to be comparable to the capturing of African and their enslavement in the Americas. I want to briefly make some comparisons to the verses.

Verse 1:

In African American history the enslaved African’s often sung and wrote about rivers.  The runaway slaves would flee at night by walking and swimming in rivers because the water would prevent the hound dogs from being able to trace their trails. Often the enslaved Africans took breaks to eat and sleep and they would sit along the banks of the American rivers and weep, longing for their Zion, Africa, and desiring freedom. They were in exile in America [17]

Verse 2, 3, and 4:

The enslaved were often asked by their slave masters to sing songs and play their drums and other instruments. Although this was humiliating for the enslaved it was entertaining for their masters.[18] This also grew to an actual genre a theater post the civil war years and it was called wearing “black face” or minstrel shows.[19]

Verse 7, 8, and 9:

Many of the ensaved African’s and freed slaves were often so enraged that they revolted and some even killed their oppressors. An example of this is found with in the narrative of Nat Turner who caused a massive slave uprising that killed over 50 white slave owners.[20]

   V.         The Conclusion

            My challenge in writing this blog entry was rooted in the fact that it is quite difficult to interpret what the unknown author’s real intent may have been considering that fact that he or she did not provide supplemental commentary on poem. Within this work I choose to gather as many commentaries as possible and merge them to create a hermeneutic that I personally agreed with. Although my processing was extremely bias, I did my best to provide an interpretation that was primarily guided by integrity.

[1] Commentary on Psalms." In The Oxford Bible Commentary. Oxford Biblical Studies Online. 29-Apr-2011.<http://www.oxfordbiblicalstudies.com/article/book/obso-9780198755005/obso-9780198755005-div1-641>.

[2] "Commentary on Psalms." In The Oxford Bible Commentary. Oxford Biblical Studies Online. 29-Apr-2011. <http://www.oxfordbiblicalstudies.com/article/book/obso-9780198755005/obso-9780198755005-div1-641>.

[3] Commentary on Psalms." In The Access Bible. Oxford Biblical Studies Online. 29-Apr-2011. <http://www.oxfordbiblicalstudies.com/article/book/obso-9780195282191/obso-9780195282191-div1-2655>.

[4] Dahood, Mitchell. The Anchor Bible - Psalms. New York: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1970

[5] Gunkel, Hermann. An Introduction to the Psalms. Macon, Georgia: Mercer University Press, 1998.

[6] Anderson, A.A. The Book of Psalms. Somerset, England: Marshal, Morgan & Scott, 1972.

[7] Ben C. Ollenburger "Zion"   The Oxford Companion to the Bible. Bruce M. Metzger and Michael D. Coogan, eds. Oxford University Press Inc. 1993. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press.   Harvard University Library.  30 April 2011  <http://www.oxfordreference.com/views/ENTRY.html?subview=Main&entry=t120.e0794

[8] "Commentary on Psalms." In The Catholic Study Bible. Oxford Biblical Studies Online. 29-Apr-2011. <http://www.oxfordbiblicalstudies.com/article/book/obso-9780195282801/obso-9780195282801-div1-3701>.

[9] "Commentary on Psalms." In The New Oxford Annotated Bible. Oxford Biblical Studies Online. 30-Apr-2011. <http://www.oxfordbiblicalstudies.com/article/book/obso-9780195288803/obso-9780195288803-div1-2363>.

[10] Gunkel, Hermann. An Introduction to the Psalms. Macon, Georgia: Mercer University Press, 1998.

[11] "Commentary on Psalms." In The New Oxford Annotated Bible. Oxford Biblical Studies Online. 29-Apr-2011. <http://www.oxfordbiblicalstudies.com/article/book/obso-9780195288803/obso-9780195288803-div1-2363>.

[12] Commentary on Psalms." In The New Oxford Annotated Bible. Oxford Biblical Studies Online. 29-Apr-2011. <http://www.oxfordbiblicalstudies.com/article/book/obso-9780195288803/obso-9780195288803-div1-2363>.

[13] "Commentary on Psalms." In The Oxford Bible Commentary. Oxford Biblical Studies Online. 30-Apr-2011. <http://www.oxfordbiblicalstudies.com/article/book/obso-9780198755005/obso-9780198755005-div1-641>.

[14] Commentary on Psalms." In The Access Bible. Oxford Biblical Studies Online. 30-Apr-2011. <http://www.oxfordbiblicalstudies.com/article/book/obso-9780195282191/obso-9780195282191-div1-2655>.

[15] "Commentary on Psalms." In The Oxford Bible Commentary. Oxford Biblical Studies Online. 29-Apr-2011. <http://www.oxfordbiblicalstudies.com/article/book/obso-9780198755005/obso-9780198755005-div1-641>.

[16] Hope Franklin, John. The Emancipation Proclamation. (1963) Garden City, NY: Doubleday; reprint edition, IL: Harlan Davidson, 1995.

[17] Bantu, Nkodi, Ndungu, and Nganga: Language, Politics, Music, and Religion in African American Poetry." In The Furious Flowering of African American Poetry. Ed. Joanne V. Gabbins. Copyright © 1999 by the Rectors and Visitors of the University of Virginia.

[18] Schneider, Dorothy, and Carl J. Schneider. An Eyewitness History of Slavery in America: From Colonial Times to the Civil War. New York: Checkmark Books, 2001.

[19] Cantwell, Robert Bluegrass Breakdown : The Making of the Old Southern Sound, (1984), Chicago: University of Illinois Press. And Cockrell, Dale Demons of Disorder: Early Blackface Minstrels and their World, (1997), Cambridge University Press / Cambridge Studies in American Theatre and Drama,

[20] Greenberg, Kenneth S. Nat Turner: A Slave Rebellion in History and Memory. New York: Oxford University Press USA, 2004.