Psalm 137

The early lines of the psalm describe the sadness of the Israelites in exile, weeping and hanging their harps on trees. Asked to "sing the Lord's song in a strange land", they refuse.

In vv. 5–6 the speaker turns into self-exhortation to remember Jerusalem:

The psalm ends with prophetic predictions of violent revenge.

The psalm is customarily recited on Tisha B'Av and by some 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. However, on Shabbat and Jewish holidays, and at the celebratory meal accompanying a Jewish wedding, brit milah, or pidyon haben, Psalm 126 is recited before the Birkat Hamazon instead.[5]

Verses 5 and 6 are customarily said by the groom at Jewish wedding ceremony shortly before breaking a glass as a symbolic act of mourning over the destruction of the Temple.} Verse 7 is found in the repetition of the Amidah on Rosh Hashanah.[6]

Psalm 137 is one of the ten Psalms of the Tikkun HaKlali of Rebbe Nachman of Breslov.[7][8]

In the Eastern Orthodox Church and those Eastern Catholic Churches that use the Byzantine Rite, Psalm 137 (known by its Septuagint numbering as Psalm 136) is a part of the Nineteenth Kathisma (division of the Psalter) and is read at Matins on Friday mornings throughout the year, except during Bright Week (the week following Easter Sunday) when no psalms at all are read. During most of Great Lent it is read at Matins on Thursday and at the Third Hour on Friday, but during the fifth week of Great Lent it is read at Vespers on Tuesday evening and at the Third Hour on Friday.

This psalm is also solemnly chanted at Matins (Orthros) after the Polyeleos on the three Sundays preceding the beginning of Great Lent.

Following the rule of St. Benedict (530 AD), the Roman Breviary adopted the "Super flumina Babylonis" psalm for Vespers on Wednesdays.[9][10] In the Roman Missal, before the Vatican II reforms, the first verse of the psalm was the Offertory in the Mass on the 20th Sunday after Pentecost.[11]

In Lutheranism, a well-known hymn based on the psalm has been associated with a Gospel reading in which Jesus foretells and mourns the destruction of Jerusalem (Luke 19:41–48).[12]

After the Second Vatican Council, the last three verses of the psalm were removed from Catholic liturgical books because of their cruelty perceived to be incompatible with the gospel message.[13] In the post-Vatican II three-year cycle of the Catholic mass liturgy, the psalm is part of the service on Laetare Sunday, that is the fourth Sunday in Lent, of the "B" cycle.

Similarly, the Prayer Book of the Anglican Church of Canada has also removed these verses.[14]

Latin settings ("Super flumina Babylonis") as four-part motets were composed by Costanzo Festa,[16] Nicolas Gombert,[17] Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina[18] and Orlando Lassus.[19] Philippe de Monte[20] and Tomas Luis de Victoria set the text for eight parts.[21] French Baroque settings were written by Henry Dumont,[22] Marc-Antoine Charpentier, 2 settings, H.170 (1670) and H.171-H.171 a (? late 1670)[23] and Michel-Richard Delalande.[24]

Wolfgang Dachstein's "An Wasserflüssen Babylon", a German rhymed paraphrase and setting of the psalm, was first published in 1525.[25] It was soon adopted as a Lutheran hymn, and appeared in publications such as the Becker Psalter.[26][27] A manuscript written in the early 17th century and a 1660s print illustrate that Dachstein's version of the psalm was adopted in Ashkenazi culture.[28] Four-part chorale settings of Dachstein's hymn were realised by, among others, Johann Hermann Schein[29][30] and Heinrich Schütz.[27][31] Schütz also set Luther's prose translation of Psalm 137 ("An den Wassern zu Babel", SWV 37, included in the Psalmen Davids, Op. 2, 1619).[32][33] Organ compositions based on Dachstein's hymn include Johann Adam Reincken's An Wasserflüssen Babylon, and one of Johann Sebastian Bach's Great Eighteen Chorale Preludes.[25]

The first composition in Eustache Du Caurroy's Meslanges de la musique, published in 1610, a year after the composer's death, is "Le long des eaux, ou se bagne", a six-part setting of Gilles Durant de la Bergerie's paraphrase of Psalm 137.[34][35][36] Salamone Rossi (1570–1630) set the psalm in Hebrew (עַל נַהֲרוֹת בָּבֶל, Al naharot Bavel) for four parts.[37] Matthew Locke's Super flumina Babylonis motet is an extended setting of the first nine verses of the psalm.[38][39] The psalm's first two verses were used for a musical setting in a round by English composer Philip Hayes.[40] William Billings adapted the text to describe the British occupation of Boston in his anthem "Lamentation over Boston".[41][42]

Lord Byron's "We sat down and wept by the waters", a versified paraphrase of Psalm 137, was published in his Hebrew Melodies in 1815. The poetry was set by, among others, Isaac Nathan (1815) and Samuel Sebastian Wesley (c. 1834). The poem was translated in French by Alexis Paulin Paris, and in German by Adolf Böttger. A German translation by Franz Theremin, "An Babylons Wassern gefangen", was set by Carl Loewe (No. 2 of his Hebräische Gesänge, Op. 4, 1823). Another German translation was set by Ferruccio Busoni ("An Babylons Wassern wir weinten" in Zwei hebräische Melodien von Lord Byron, BV 202, 1884).[43][44]

Psalm 137 was the inspiration for the famous slave chorus "Va, pensiero" from Giuseppe Verdi's opera Nabucco (1842).[45] Charles-Valentin Alkan's piano piece Super flumina Babylonis: Paraphrase, Op. 52 (1859), is in the printed score preceded by a French translation of Psalm 137.[46][47] Charles Gounod set "Près du fleuve étranger", a French paraphrase of the psalm, in 1861.[48][49] In 1866 this setting was published with Henry Farnie's text version, as "By Babylon's wave: Psalm CXXXVII".[50][51]

In 1863, Gabriel Fauré wrote a Super Flumina Babylonis for mixed chorus and orchestra. Peter Cornelius based the music of his paraphrase of Psalm 137, "An Babels Wasserflüssen", Op. 13 No. 2 (1872), on the "Sarabande" of Bach's third English Suite.[52][53] Czech composer Antonín Dvořák (1841–1904) set verses 1–5 to music as No. 7 of his Biblical Songs (1894).[54][55]

20th and 21st-century settings based on, or referring to, Psalm 137 include:

• Super flumina Babylonis (1916) for mixed choir and organ, by Jules Van Nuffel.[56]
• In William Walton's Belshazzar's Feast, a 1931 cantata, a version of the opening section is set to music, as if sung by the Israelite captives in Babylon.[57]
• The second of the Two Psalms by Harry Partch (1901–1974) is "By the Rivers of Babylon", which he recorded in 1942 in a version for voice, chromelodeon and adapted viola.[58]
• An English setting ("By the Rivers of Babylon") by David Amram (b. 1930), for solo soprano and SSAA choir (1969).[59][60][61]
• "Rivers of Babylon", in part based on the opening verses of the Psalm, is a Rastafarian song written and recorded by Brent Dowe and Trevor McNaughton of the Jamaican reggae group The Melodians in 1970. It is featured in the 1972 film The Harder They Come and well known through its hit single 1978 rendition by Boney M. In 1992, the rock/reggae group Sublime released a live cover of the song on their 40oz. to Freedom album.[62]
• The psalm was set, as On the Willows, in the Stephen Schwartz Broadway musical Godspell (1971).[63]
• Don McLean covered Hayes's round as 'Babylon', which was the final track on his 1971 album American Pie. Another cover of the round was featured at the end of the episode Babylon during the first season of Mad Men.[64]
• Estonian composer Arvo Pärt composed An den Wassern zu Babel saßen wir und weinten in 1976 (revised 1984).[65]
• In 1981, Herbert Sumsion composed In Exile, a motet for double choir on verses 1–6, premiered at the Gloucester Cathedral.[66]
• It was the inspiration for Leonard Cohen's "By the Rivers Dark" on his 2001 album Ten New Songs.[67]
• Psalm 137:5–6 is the basis for the chorus of Matisyahu's single "Jerusalem" (2006).[68]
• Psalm 137 is the central text of John Tavener's "Lament for Jerusalem – a mystical love song".[69][70]
• The artist Fernando Ortega based the song "City of Sorrows" on Psalm 137.
• "I Hung My Harp Upon the Willows" is a song by The Trashcan Sinatras about poet Robert Burns.
• It is referenced in The Mountain Goats' "September 15th 1983" off of Heretic Pride.