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Christian Standard Bible

Psalms 137

1 By the rivers of Babylon — there we sat down and wept when we remembered Zion.
2 There we hung up our lyres on the poplar trees,
3 for our captors there asked us for songs, and our tormentors, for rejoicing: "Sing us one of the songs of Zion."
4 How can we sing the LORD's song on foreign soil?
5 If I forget you, Jerusalem, may my right hand forget its skill.
6 May my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth if I do not remember you, if I do not exalt Jerusalem as my greatest joy!
7 Remember, LORD, what the Edomites said that day at Jerusalem: "Destroy it! Destroy it down to its foundations!"
8 Daughter Babylon, doomed to destruction, happy is the one who pays you back what you have done to us.
9 Happy is he who takes your little ones and dashes them against the rocks.

Chapter Summary

Exiles weep by Babylon's rivers, unable to sing the LORD's song in a foreign land, remembering Jerusalem.

Book Summary

Psalms is the Bible's songbook: one hundred fifty prayers and hymns of praise, lament, thanksgiving, and trust, many attributed to David. From the depths of despair to the heights of worship, it has voiced the prayers of God's people for millennia.