Through My Bible Yr 02 – October 17

Through My Bible – October 17

Psalm 137 – 138 (EHV)

See series: Through My Bible

¹ Beside the rivers ^[1] of Babylon,
there we sat, and, yes, we wept as we remembered Zion.
² There we hung up our lyres on the willows,
³ because there our captors asked us for words of a song,
and our tormentors asked for a happy song:
“Sing for us one of the songs of Zion!”

⁴ How can we sing a song of the Lord on foreign soil?
⁵ If I forget you, Jerusalem,
may my right hand forget how to play music. ^[2]
6 May my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth
if I do not remember you,
if I do not exalt Jerusalem above my highest joy.

⁷ Remember the day of Jerusalem, O Lord,
against the descendants of Edom ^[3] who said,
“Tear it down, tear it down to its foundations!”
⁸ Daughter of Babylon, doomed to be destroyed,
how blessed is the one who repays you
    with the same deeds you did against us.
⁹ How blessed is the one who seizes your children
and dashes them against the cliff.

¹ I will thank you with all my heart.
Before the gods ^[4] I will make music for you.
² I will bow down toward your holy temple.
I will give thanks to your name
    because of your mercy and because of your truth.
Yes, you made your word even greater than your name. ^[5]
3 By day I called, and you answered me.
You have made my soul strong.
⁴ All the kings of the earth will thank you, Lord,
when they have heard the message from your mouth.
⁵ Then they will sing about the ways of the Lord,
because the glory of the Lord is great.
⁶ Indeed the Lord is exalted, but he sees the lowly,
and he recognizes the proud from a distance.
⁷ If I walk surrounded by danger, you keep me alive
    in spite of the anger of my enemies.
You stretch out your hand.
You save me with your right hand.
⁸ The Lord will fulfill his purpose ^[6] for me.
Lord, your mercy endures forever.
Do not let go of the works ^[7] of your hands.

Footnotes

1. Psalm 137:1 Many of the rivers were in fact canals running off the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers.
2. Psalm 137:5 The words how to play music are supplied to clarify the point of reference.
3. Psalm 137:7 This wording recalls the hostility between Jacob (called Israel) and Esau (called Edom).
4. Psalm 138:1 Gods here may refer to angels, though that use of the term is rare. The point may simply be a declaration of God’s superiority to the pagan gods, who are only demons.
5. Psalm 138:2 Literally for you have made great over all your name your saying or, with a different reading of the Hebrew, you made your word higher than the heavens
6. Psalm 138:8 Or complete his plans
7. Psalm 138:8 Hebrew variant work