Psalm 137 is striking in skill, content, and beauty. The community lament remembers the Babylonian captivity: “By the waters, there we sat down and wept, when we remembered Zion. On the willows there we hung up our lyres. For there our captors required of us songs, and our tormentors, mirth, saying “Sing us one of those songs of Zion!” The community is asking, “How can we sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land?”

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God’s people find themselves under forced labor, the blessing of God’s freedom removed. This evoked the taunts of their captors. In a cruel glee, the Babylonians demand that the oppressed Israelites to sing in their misery. The setting is near oppressive waters, which were most likely, the irrigation canals where they toiled in a foreign city. This backdrop is contrasted with what they once knew; life lived in Zion, flowing with blessing from the LORD. They are alienated from the abundant life. Their enemies are gloating that their God is not rescuing Israel and that Jerusalem is in a state of ruins. Some commentators also believe their spot among the willows was a pagan site for worship, the worst possible place to praise the God of Zion.

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The Hebrew word, zekor, is central to the psalm, which means, “to remember.” When used as a command by the Babylonians, their intent was to humiliate. For the exile the action of remembering meant grieving over what was lost and existing under pagan rule. Their captors shout, “Sing us one of those songs of Zion!” The tension builds, and the rhetorical question is powerful when God’s people place it before God: “How can we sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land?” The psalmist is brave and truthful in his relationship with the God of Zion.

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Viewing this from a higher register of truth, Yahweh knows that remembering Him will serve ironically as the antidote to fear (Nehemiah 4:14; cf. Deut 7:18). There is beautiful, poetic wit displayed, as God is using the torment for great, refining power. This is a truth throughout Scripture. Nehemiah admonished the rebuilders of the wall: “Remember what the LORD your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt, the great trials that your eyes saw, the signs, the wonders, the mighty hand, and the outstretched arm, by which the LORD your God brought you out.” To remember Zion means to remember God; one didn’t think of one apart from the other. Remembering God breeds’ gratitude. Remembering God leads to obedience, as the Israelites wrestle with, “how did this happen in the first place?” God used the Babylonians to discipline His people. There is a two-way remembering. The wayward exiles wanted God to remember His covenant, and God wanted them to remember His faithfulness.

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Later in verse 7, the tormented ones now ask the LORD to do the remembering: “Remember, O LORD, the sons of Edom on the day of Jerusalem when they were saying: “Strip, strip to the foundation” against her. Edom represented all who hate God. Their solace came from the importance of a God who remembers. The imperative verb suggests that they are commanding God to remember—their only assurance of preservation in the midst of foreign captivity. In other words, “Do something! They not only hate us, they hate you, Lord!” Their cry is for justice and all the gamut of emotions are safe under the covering of prayer. Bravely, the messiness of vengeful feelings, disappoint, and sorrow are brought to the throne of God.

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This psalm allows us to wrestle with the exile experience. Life can cause us to feel imprisoned, hopeless, and depressed for all sorts of reasons. Paul reminds us, “our citizenship is in heaven.” Peter refers to the Christians in Asia as “sojourners and pilgrims.” We are all exiles. We are not home yet, and something within us knows this full well. The enemy bullies us in the dark, saying, “God doesn’t care. Don’t bother talking to him about it.” Our only hope comes from submission to God in prayer, bringing the whole truth of our lives before Him. This is where faith increases, and the foundation of our soul is revived. The Lord knows all sides of the war going on. It’s hard to look at God when you’re battling deep disappointments, not to mention the onlookers who are scoffing at your faith. But we have an ethical charge from Almighty God: “Remember Me. I am the only Faithful One. My right hand delivers.”

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“Lord, give us courage and strength to remember you. Let us sing songs of Zion all the way home. Amen.”