Patrick Comerford
In the Calendar of the Church, we are in Ordinary Time, and today is the Fourth Sunday after Trinity (10 July 2022). Later this morning, I hope to attend the Parish Eucharist in the Church of Saint Mary and Saint Giles in Stony Stratford. But, before today begins, I am taking some time this morning to continue my reflections drawing on the Psalms.
In my blog, I am reflecting each morning in this Prayer Diary in these ways:
1, Short reflections on a psalm or psalms;
2, reading the psalm or psalms;
3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary.
Psalm 137:
Psalm 137 is popularly known because of its opening words, ‘By the rivers of Babylon’, and has often been set to music and paraphrased in hymns. In the slightly different numbering system in the Greek Septuagint and the Latin Vulgate, this is Psalm 136. Its name in Latin is Super flumina Babylonis.
Psalm 137 is the only one of the 150 psalms set in a particular time and place. Its nine verses paint a scene of captives mourning ‘by the rivers of Babylon,’ mocked by their captors. It expresses a vow to remember Jerusalem even in exile, and closes with fantasies of vengeance against the oppressors.
This is a hymn expressing the yearnings of the people in exile, a communal lament about remembering Zion, and a yearning for Jerusalem while living in exile in the Babylonian captivity.
The rivers of Babylon are the Euphrates and its tributaries, and the Tigris. After Nebuchadnezzar II’s successful siege of Jerusalem in 597 BCE, and subsequent campaigns, the people of the Kingdom of Judah were deported to Babylonia, where they were held captive until after the Fall of Babylon in 539 BCE.
In its nine verses, Psalm 137 reflects the yearning for Jerusalem as well as hatred for the Holy City’s enemies with sometimes violent imagery.
Psalm 137 was probably written after the return from exile in Babylon. The psalmist remembers the time when the people were deportees and sat down by the rivers of Babylon, which were fed by the Tigris and Euphrates. When their captors mocked them and called for songs praising Zion as the city where God dwells, they found it difficult to sing God’s praise for Jerusalem was in ruins.
Now, when this psalm is being sung back in Jerusalem and in the Temple, they can praise God. They are reminded not to forget God, Jerusalem and their joy.
Rabbinical tradition attributes the poem to the Prophet Jeremiah, and the Septuagint version of the psalm bears the superscription: ‘For David. By Jeremias, in the Captivity.’
In verses 1-4, the psalm describe the sadness of the Israelites in exile, while remembering their homeland, weeping and hanging their harps on trees. Asked to ‘sing the Lord’s song in a strange land,’ they refuse.
1 By the rivers of Babylon—
there we sat down and there we wept
when we remembered Zion.
2 On the willows there
we hung up our harps.
3 For there our captors
asked us for songs,
and our tormentors asked for mirth, saying,
‘Sing us one of the songs of Zion!’
4 How could we sing the Lord’s song
in a foreign land?
In verses 5-6, the speaker turns into self-exhortation to remember Jerusalem:
5 If I forget you, O Jerusalem,
let my right hand wither!
6 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.
The psalm ends in verses 7-9 with prophetic predictions of violent revenge:
7 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!’
8 O daughter Babylon, you devastator!
Happy shall they be who pay you back
what you have done to us!
9 Happy shall they be who take your little ones
and dash them against the rock!
In Jewish tradition, this psalm is customarily recited on Tisha B’Av (6-7 August 2022) and by some people during the nine days preceding Tisha B’Av, commemorating the destruction of the Temples in Jerusalem. Psalm 137 is traditionally recited before the Birkat Hamazon (Grace After Meals) on a weekday. Verses 5 and 6 are customarily said by the groom at a Jewish wedding shortly before breaking a glass as a symbolic act of mourning over the destruction of the Temple.
In the Eastern Orthodox Church , Psalm 137 (known by its Septuagint numbering as Psalm 136) is read at Matins on Friday mornings throughout the year, except during Bright Week, the week following Easter Day, when no psalms at all are read.
Pope Gregory X quoted Psalm 137: 5 (‘If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand wither!’) before departing from the Crusades upon his election by the papal conclave.
After the Second Vatican Council, the last three verses of this psalm were removed from Catholic liturgical books because of their perceived cruelty. Many lectionaries and many Anglican prayer books have also removed these verses. Many composers who have set this psalm to music also omit the last verse.
The hymnwriter John L Bell comments alongside his own setting of this Psalm: ‘The final verse is omitted in this metricization, because its seemingly outrageous curse is better dealt with in preaching or group conversation. It should not be forgotten, especially by those who have never known exile, dispossession or the rape of people and land.’
The Biblical scholar Walter Brueggemann suggests it is absolutely necessary to listen to this Psalm. It speaks with unfailing honesty about the abuse that was done, and is still done, to individuals and to whole groups of people. It is necessary to hear how it feels to suffer this kind of violence and humiliation.
So often we want to move quickly from this Psalm to words telling us to forgive. But, as Brueggemann asks in The Message of the Psalms: A Theological Commentary (1984), ‘Could it be that genuine forgiveness is possible only when there has been a genuine articulation of [anger] and hatred?’
Psalm 137 gives permission, and actually authorises the powerless who have been brutalized to vent their indignation and turn to God for justice. As Brueggemann says, ‘It is an act of profound faith to entrust one’s most precious hatreds to God, knowing they will be taken seriously.’
Psalm 137 has long served as an uplifting historical analogy for a variety of oppressed and subjugated groups, including African-Americans. It has inspired numerous political leaders and social movements, and immigrants as varied as Irish and Korean have identified with the story.
Psalm 137 was the inspiration for the famous slave chorus ‘Va, pensiero’ in Giuseppe Verdi’s opera Nabucco (1842). Gabriel Fauré wrote a Super Flumina Babylonis for mixed chorus and orchestra (1863). Antonín Dvořák set verses 1-5 to music as No 7 of his Biblical Songs (1894). The Estonian composer Arvo Pärt composed An den Wassern zu Babel saßen wir und weinten (1976, revised 1984). Psalm 137 is the central text of John Tavener's ‘Lament for Jerusalem – a mystical love song.’
The ‘Rivers of Babylon,’ based on the opening verses of Psalm 137, is a Rastafarian song that became a hit single for Boney M in 1978.
The psalm is the inspiration for Leonard Cohen’s ‘By the Rivers Dark’ on his 2001 album Ten New Songs (2001).
Phrases from the psalm are cited in many works of literature. Captain Snegiryov quotes verses 5 and 6 in The Brothers Karamazov (Book X, Chapter 7).
In the third stanza, ‘The Fire Sermon,’ of TS Eliot’s 1922 poem The Waste Land line 182 is: ‘By the waters of Leman I sat down and wept ...’
Psalm 137 (NRSVA):
1 By the rivers of Babylon—
there we sat down and there we wept
when we remembered Zion.
2 On the willows there
we hung up our harps.
3 For there our captors
asked us for songs,
and our tormentors asked for mirth, saying,
‘Sing us one of the songs of Zion!’
4 How could we sing the Lord’s song
in a foreign land?
5 If I forget you, O Jerusalem,
let my right hand wither!
6 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.
7 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!’
8 O daughter Babylon, you devastator!
Happy shall they be who pay you back
what you have done to us!
9 Happy shall they be who take your little ones
and dash them against the rock!
Today’s Prayer:
The theme in the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel) this week is ‘Partners in Mission.’ It is introduced today:
‘The USPG Partners in Mission scheme is an opportunity to join one of our global church partners in their local mission. Through the scheme, you are able to partner with one of seven churches around the world with 100% of your donations funding their vital local programmes. There are two ways to take part in the scheme, you can support as an individual, or you can join as a church to fund your chosen partner’s life-changing work.
‘We are currently in the process of launching new materials for each of our Partners in Mission churches. You will have access to a special web page for your partner church, where you can find the latest programme updates and prayer requests. You’ll be able to read stories from local people whose lives have been transformed by your donations. The web page will also contain handy downloadable resources to help you make the most of your fundraising.
If you are already a Partner in Mission, look out for an email with all the latest updates. If you would like to join the scheme and help to transform lives across the world through God’s love, you can sign up at www.uspg.org.uk/partners-in-mission.’
Sunday 10 July 2022:
The USPG Prayer Diary invites us to pray today in these words:
Loving Lord,
guide us as we partner in mission.
May we be sensitive and considerate
as we live out our mission alongside our fellow Christians.
Yesterday’s reflection
Continued tomorrow
Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org
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