A manual of the book of Psalms · Martin Luther
PSALM CXXXVII.
_The constancy of the Jews in captivity.—The prophet curseth Edom and Babel._ By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion. We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof. For there they that carried us away captive required of us a song; and they that wasted us _required of us_ mirth, _saying_, Sing us _one_ of the songs of Zion. How shall we sing the LORD’S song in a strange land? If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget _her cunning_. If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth; if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy. Remember, O LORD, the children of Edom in the day of Jerusalem; who said, Rase _it_, rase _it, even_ to the foundation thereof. O daughter of Babylon, who art to be destroyed; happy _shall he be_, that rewardeth thee as thou hast served us. Happy _shall he be_, that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones. This Psalm is a prayer in the persons of the captives of Babylon; whether we understand it as having been written after the captivity, or before it in the way of prophecy. The captives here pray for the city of Jerusalem; that is, for the place of the word and the worship of God; for all these things had been destroyed by the Babylonians.
This Psalm shows us that the first concern of all that fear and know God should be the preservation of a place for the ministration of the word, and for the true religion and true worship of God. For, as here, when Jerusalem is destroyed, Babylon and Edom, and all other wicked nations rejoice, and triumph over the grief and the tears of the people of God, which adds great bitterness to their afflictions. But such enemies shall never enjoy their triumph unpunished of God. They themselves shall be laid waste in their appointed time, and shall be utterly overthrown and laid in ruins and in ashes; their flourishing youth shall be destroyed by the sword, their children shall be dashed against the stones, and neither age nor sex shall find mercy. But Israel and the people of God shall remain for evermore. In this manner fell Babylon, that queen of nations: and in the same manner also shall fall all the Babylonians and Edomites in our day, who rejoice, like their forefathers, in the afflictions and calamities of the true church of God.
Text from Project Gutenberg, public domain in the United States.