Through My Bible Yr 02 – October 17
Psalm 137 – 138
Psalm 137
Beside the Rivers of Babylon
Sorrow for Jerusalem
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!”
Zeal for 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.
Zeal for God’s Vengeance
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.
Psalm 138
May the Kings Praise You
Heading
By David.
Thanks From a Grateful Heart
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
- Psalm 137:1 Many of the rivers were in fact canals running off the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers.
- Psalm 137:5 The words how to play music are supplied to clarify the point of reference.
- Psalm 137:7 This wording recalls the hostility between Jacob (called Israel) and Esau (called Edom).
- 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.
- 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
- Psalm 138:8 Or complete his plans
- Psalm 138:8 Hebrew variant work
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.