Psalm 137
From Psalms: Layer by Layer
Authorship
This Psalm is anonymous.
Outline
(This began as Wendland's Expository Outline[1], but may be adapted.)
I. Despair. By the rivers of Babylon: (1-2)
- A. There we sat down.
- B. Yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion.
- C. We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof.
II. Dilemma. (3-4)
- A. For there, they that carried us away captive required of us a song.
- B. They that wasted us required of us mirth.
- C. They said, “Sing us one of the songs of Zion.”
- D. How shall we sing the Lord's song in a strange land?
III. Determination. (5-6)
- A. If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning.
- B. If I do not prefer Jerusalem above my chief joy and remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth.
IV. Declaration. (7-9)
- A. Remember, O Lord, the children of Edom in the day of Jerusalem; who said, “Rase it, rase it, even to the foundation thereof.”
- B. O daughter of Babylon, who art to be destroyed; happy shall he be...
- 1. That rewards thee as thou hast served us.
- 2. That does to you as you did to us (takes and dashes thy little ones against the stones.)
References
- ↑ Ernst Wendland, Expository Outlines of the Psalms, https://www.academia.edu/37220700/Expository_Outlines_of_the_PSALMS