Psalms 137 - Introduction

CXXXVII.

This fine song, blended as it is of tears and fire, with its plaintive opening and its vindictive close, is one of the clearest records left in Hebrew literature of the captivity, but whether it dates immediately from it, or looks back with a distant though keen and clear gaze, is difficult to decide. Babylon may only have been on the verge of its doom, or she may already have fallen. (See Note on Psalms 137:8.) It is possible that just as long afterwards another great power was symbolised under the name, so here the ruin of the Persian or Grecian dominion may be covertly invoked under the symbol “daughter of Babylon.” The rhythm characteristic of the “songs of degrees” reappears here.

The LXX. prefix a curious title “To David of Jeremiah;” Vulg., “Psalmus David Jeremias,” which has been explained “a David-like song by Jeremiah.”