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There are divers psalms which are thought to have been penned in the latter days of the Jewish church, when prophecy was near expiring and the canon of the Old Testament ready to be closed up, but none of them appears so plainly to be of a late date as this, which was penned when the people of God were captives in Babylon, and there insulted over by these proud oppressors; probably it was towards the latter end of their captivity; for now they saw the destruction of Babylon hastening on apace (Ps 137:8), which would be their discharge. It is a mournful psalm, a lamentation; and the Septuagint makes it one of the lamentations of Jeremiah, naming him for the author of it. Here I. The melancholy captives cannot enjoy themselves, Ps 137:1,2. II. They cannot humour their proud oppressors, Ps 137:3,4. III. They cannot forget Jerusalem, Ps 137:5,6. IV. They cannot forgive Edom and Babylon, Ps 137:7-9. In singing this psalm we must be much affected with the concernments of the church, especially that part of it that is in affliction, laying the sorrows of God's people near our hearts, comforting ourselves in the prospect of the deliverance of the church and the ruin of its enemies, in due time, but carefully avoiding all personal animosities, and not mixing the leaven of malice with our sacrifices.
1-6
The Sorrows of Captivity
简体中文
被掳的忧愁
¹ 我们曾在巴比伦的河边坐下，一追想锡安就哭了。
² 我们把琴挂在那里的柳树上。
³ 因为在那里，掳掠我们的人要我们唱歌；抢夺我们的人要我们欢乐，说，给我们唱一首锡安的歌吧。
⁴ 我们怎能在外邦唱耶和华的歌呢？
⁵ 耶路撒冷啊，我若忘记你，情愿我的右手忘记技巧。
⁶ 我若不记念你，若不看耶路撒冷过于我所最喜乐的，情愿我的舌头贴于上膛。
我们在此看到锡安的女儿被云遮蔽，与巴比伦的女儿同住；神的百姓流泪，却是流泪撒种。请注意：
一、他们的事务和心灵所处的悲伤光景。1. 他们被安置在「巴比伦的河边」，在异邦，远离自己的本国，他们如战俘被掳到那里。巴比伦之地如今对那百姓成了为奴之家，正如他们起初在埃及一样。征服者把他们分驻「河边」，意图在那里使用他们，并要他们在船上作苦工；或许他们也选这地作为最凄凉之处，因此最合乎他们忧伤的心灵。他们若要在那里建造房屋（耶29:5），也必不在城中——人群聚集之处——而在河边，孤寂之处，在那里他们可以将自己的眼泪与水流相混。我们看见有些人「在迦巴鲁河边」（结1:3），有些人「在乌莱河边」（但8:2）。2. 他们在那里「坐下」，纵情于忧愁，反复思索自己的苦境。耶利米曾教导他们在如此轭下「独坐无言」「以口亲尘」（哀3:28、29）。「我们坐下，如同那些预料要久住、并情愿如此的人——既然这是神的旨意。」3. 一想到锡安，眼泪便夺眶而出；这不是突然一阵哭泣——如有时因突如其来的祸患所致——而是经过思量的眼泪（我们「坐下……哭了」），带着思想的泪——我们「一追想锡安就哭了」，追想那建了圣殿的圣山。他们对神殿的爱慕吞没了对自家的关切。他们追想锡安昔日的荣耀，以及他们曾在锡安院宇中所得的满足（哀1:7）。「耶路撒冷在困苦的日子追想她从前一切可悦的财物」（诗42:4）。他们追想锡安如今荒凉的景象，「怜惜它的尘土」——这是神怜惜它的时候不远了的好兆头（诗102:13、14）。4. 他们收起了他们的乐器（诗137:2）：「我们把琴挂在那里的柳树上。」〔1〕他们为自己消遣娱乐所用的琴。这些他们搁置一旁，既因他们认为神既呼唤哭泣哀悼之时，便不当使用（赛22:12），又因他们的心灵如此忧伤，无心情使用；他们带了琴同来，本想借以减轻忧愁，但忧愁之大不能容此一试。音乐使一些人更加忧郁。「歌对忧伤的心，如醋倒在碱上。」〔2〕他们在敬拜神中所用的琴，即利未人的琴。这些他们没有扔掉，盼望将来还可能有机会使用；他们只是搁置一旁，因为暂时用不着；神已为他们安排别的工作——「使他们的节期变为悲哀，欢乐变为悲声」（摩8:10）。各样事物都有其时。他们没有把琴藏在丛林或磐石穴中，而是高高挂起，使它的看见可以使他们感受这可悲的变故。然而他们如此行也许是错的；因为赞美神永无不合时宜之时；他的旨意是我们要「凡事谢恩」（赛24:15、16）。
二、仇敌在他们如此忧伤之时所加的侮辱（诗137:3）。他们已经把他们从本国「掳掠」而去，又在被掳之地「抢夺」他们，夺去他们仅有的一点。但这还不够；为彻底使他们痛苦，他们还羞辱他们：他们「要我们欢乐……要我们唱歌」。这事：1. 这极其野蛮残忍；即使是仇敌在苦难中也当被怜悯，而不当被践踏。以从前的欢乐或眼前的忧愁来提醒困苦之人，或要求那明知不合心境的人欢乐，这显出卑鄙下贱的心灵。这是「使苦楚的人更加苦楚」。2. 这极不敬、近乎亵渎。任何歌都不合他们之意，非要「锡安的歌」不可——那是用来尊荣神的；因此他们这样的要求，实际上如同伯沙撒用圣殿的器皿饮酒一样，是冒犯神自己。他们的仇敌「讥诮他们的安息日」（哀1:7）。
三、他们忍受这些侮辱所存的忍耐（诗137:4）。他们已经收起了琴，不愿再取，即使是讨好那些掌管他们命运的人也不肯；他们不照愚昧人的愚妄话回答他。亵渎的讥诮者不当被迁就，也不可将珍珠丢在猪前。大卫审慎地在「恶人面前」「默然不语」——因他知道他们必会讥笑他所说的话（诗39:1、2）。他们所给的理由十分温和而敬虔：「我们怎能在外邦唱耶和华的歌呢？」他们不是说：「我们既如此忧愁，怎能唱呢？」若只是这样，他们也许可以勉强自己，使主人满意一首歌；但「这是『耶和华的歌』；这是圣物；它是圣殿事奉特有的，因此我们不敢在外人的地、在拜偶像的人中唱。」我们不能以那归神为圣之物服事世俗的欢乐——更不用说亵渎的欢乐；因为神有时借宗教的静默得尊荣，正如借宗教的发言一样。
四、他们虽身在巴比伦，对耶路撒冷——他们严肃聚会之城——所存的恒久爱慕。虽然仇敌因他们常常谈论耶路撒冷、甚至恋慕它而嘲笑他们，他们对它的爱毫不减少；这是他们可能被讥诮的事，却永不会因讥诮而放弃（诗137:5、6）。请注意：
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这些敬虔的被掳者对耶路撒冷的态度。〔1〕他们心中充满它。它常在他们心中；他们记念它，并不忘记，虽然久已远离；他们中许多人从未见过它，所知不过凭传闻和经上所记，然而它铭刻在他们掌上，它的废墟常在他们眼前——这是他们信它必将照应许恢复的好凭据。他们在每日祷告中开窗朝向耶路撒冷；那么他们怎能忘记它？〔2〕他们心中充满它。他们「看它过于」「所最喜乐的」，因此他们记念它，不能忘记。我们所爱的，我们就爱思想。那以神为乐的人，为他的缘故以耶路撒冷为乐，并看它过于那作为自己喜乐之首、今世最亲爱的一切。敬虔人必看公众的利益过于任何私人的满足或愉悦。
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他们如何坚决持守这爱慕——他们以庄严的自咒来表达：若让这爱慕衰落，便愿自己受害。「我若因忘记我祖国的宗教，以至于用我的歌和琴来讨好巴比伦的众子或赞美巴比伦的众神，就愿我永远不能弹琴唱诗。愿『我的右手忘记技巧』」——熟练乐师的手绝不会忘记，除非枯萎了；「不，愿『我的舌头贴于上膛』，若我无论在何处不能为耶路撒冷说一句好话。」他们虽不敢在巴比伦人中唱锡安的歌，却不能忘记它；一旦眼前的禁制解除，他们必如往昔那样欣然歌唱——尽管久已不用。
英文原文
The Sorrows of Captivity
¹ By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion.
² We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof.
³ For there they that carried us away captive required of us a song; and they that wasted us required of us mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion.
⁴ How shall we sing the LORD's song in a strange land?
⁵ If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning.
⁶ If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth; if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy.
We have here the daughter of Zion covered with a cloud, and dwelling with the daughter of Babylon; the people of God in tears, but sowing in tears. Observe,
I. The mournful posture they were in as to their affairs and as to their spirits. 1. They were posted by the rivers of Babylon, in a strange land, a great way from their own country, whence they were brought as prisoners of war. The land of Babylon was now a house of bondage to that people, as Egypt had been in their beginning. Their conquerors quartered them by the rivers, with design to employ them there, and keep them to work in their galleys; or perhaps they chose it as the most melancholy place, and therefore most suitable to their sorrowful spirits. If they must build houses there (Jer 29:5), it shall not be in the cities, the places of concourse, but by the rivers, the places of solitude, where they might mingle their tears with the streams. We find some of them by the river Chebar (Eze 1:3), others by the river Ulai, Da 8:2. 2. There they sat down to indulge their grief by poring on their miseries. Jeremiah had taught them under this yoke to sit alone, and keep silence, and put their mouths in the dust, La 3:28,29. "We sat down, as those that expected to stay, and were content, since it was the will of God that it must be so." 3. Thoughts of Zion drew tears from their eyes; and it was not a sudden passion of weeping, such as we are sometimes put into by a trouble that surprises us, but they were deliberate tears (we sat down and wept), tears with consideration—we wept when we remembered Zion, the holy hill on which the temple was built. Their affection to God's house swallowed up their concern for their own houses. They remembered Zion's former glory and the satisfaction they had had in Zion's courts, La 1:7. Jerusalem remembered, in the days of her misery, all her pleasant things which she had in the days of old, Ps 42:4. They remembered Zion's present desolations, and favoured the dust thereof, which was a good sign that the time for God to favour it was not far off, Ps 102:13,14. 4. They laid by their instruments of music (Ps 137:2): We hung our harps upon the willows. (1.) The harps they used for their own diversion and entertainment. These they laid aside, both because it was their judgment that they ought not to use them now that God called to weeping and mourning (Isa 22:12), and their spirits were so sad that they had no hearts to use them; they brought their harps with them, designing perhaps to use them for the alleviating of their grief, but it proved so great that it would not admit the experiment. Music makes some people melancholy. As vinegar upon nitre, so is he that sings songs to a heavy heart. (2.) The harps they used in God's worship, the Levites' harps. These they did not throw away, hoping they might yet again have occasion to use them, but they laid them aside because they had no present use for them; God had cut them out other work by turning their feasting into mourning and their songs into lamentations, Am 8:10. Every thing is beautiful in its season. They did not hide their harps in the bushes, or the hollows of the rocks; but hung them up in view, that the sight of them might affect them with this deplorable change. Yet perhaps they were faulty in doing this; for praising God is never out of season; it is his will that we should in every thing give thanks, Isa 24:15,16.
II. The abuses which their enemies put upon them when they were in this melancholy condition, Ps 137:3. They had carried them away captive from their own land and then wasted them in the land of their captivity, took what little they had from them. But this was not enough; to complete their woes they insulted over them: They required of us mirth and a song. Now, 1. This was very barbarous and inhuman; even an enemy, in misery, is to be pitied and not trampled upon. It argues a base and sordid spirit to upbraid those that are in distress either with their former joys or with their present griefs, or to challenge those to be merry who, we know, are out of tune for it. This is adding affliction to the afflicted. 2. It was very profane and impious. No songs would serve them but the songs of Zion, with which God had been honoured; so that in this demand they reflected upon God himself as Belshazzar, when he drank wine in temple-bowls. Their enemies mocked at their sabbaths, La 1:7.
III. The patience wherewith they bore these abuses, Ps 137:4. They had laid by their harps, and would not resume them, no, not to ingratiate themselves with those at whose mercy they lay; they would not answer those fools according to their folly. Profane scoffers are not to be humoured, nor pearls cast before swine. David prudently kept silence even from good when the wicked were before him, who, he knew, would ridicule what he said and make a jest of it, Ps 39:1,2. The reason they gave is very mild and pious: How shall we sing the Lord's song in a strange land? They do not say, "How shall we sing when we are so much in sorrow?" If that had been all, they might perhaps have put a force upon themselves so far as to oblige their masters with a song; but "It is the Lord's song; it is a sacred thing; it is peculiar to the temple-service, and therefore we dare not sing it in the land of a stranger, among idolaters." We must not serve common mirth, much less profane mirth, with any thing that is appropriated to God, who is sometimes to be honoured by a religious silence as well as by religious speaking.
IV. The constant affection they retained for Jerusalem, the city of their solemnities, even now that they were in Babylon. Though their enemies banter them for talking so much of Jerusalem, and even doting upon it, their love to it is not in the least abated; it is what they may be jeered for, but will never be jeered out of, Ps 137:5,6. Observe,
1. How these pious captives stood affected to Jerusalem. (1.) Their heads were full of it. It was always in their minds; they remembered it; they did not forget it, though they had been long absent from it; many of them had never seen it, nor knew any thing of it but by report, and by what they had read in the scripture, yet it was graven upon the palms of their hands, and even its ruins were continually before them, which was an evidence of their faith in the promise of its restoration in due time. In their daily prayers they opened their windows towards Jerusalem; and how then could they forget it? (2.) Their hearts were full of it. They preferred it above their chief joy, and therefore they remembered it and could not forget it. What we love we love to think of. Those that rejoice in God do, for his sake, make Jerusalem their joy, and prefer it before that, whatever it is, which is the head of their joy, which is dearest to them in this world. A godly man will prefer a public good before any private satisfaction or gratification whatsoever.
2. How stedfastly they resolved to keep up this affection, which they express by a solemn imprecation of mischief to themselves if they should let it fall: "Let me be for ever disabled either to sing or play on the harp if I so far forget the religion of my country as to make use of my songs and harps for the pleasing of Babylon's sons or the praising of Babylon's gods. Let my right hand forget her art" (which the hand of an expert musician never can, unless it be withered), "nay, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth, if I have not a good word to say for Jerusalem wherever I am." Though they dare not sing Zion's songs among the Babylonians, yet they cannot forget them, but, as soon as ever the present restraint is taken off, they will sing them as readily as ever, notwithstanding the long disuse.
7-9
The Sorrows of Captivity
简体中文
被掳之苦
⁷ 耶和华啊，求你记念这以东人在耶路撒冷遭难的日子，他们说：拆毁、拆毁，直拆到根基！
⁸ 将要被灭的巴比伦女子啊，凡用你所加于我们的暴行报复你的，他是有福的！
⁹ 拿你的婴孩摔在磐石上的，那人是有福的！
巴比伦中敬虔的犹太人既因思念耶路撒冷的荒凉而自卑，在此便以预见她那顽梗不悔、不肯罢休之仇敌的灭亡自慰；但这并非出于报复之念，而是出于为神的荣耀与他国度尊荣所发的圣洁热心。
一、以东人必定受审，一切与毁灭耶路撒冷有份、协同相助的人也是如此；他们「助长祸患」（亚一15）并在其中欢跃，在「耶路撒冷遭难的日子」，就是她受罚之日，说：「拆毁它，拆毁它直到根基；把它拆尽，把它拆尽，一块石头也不留在石头上。」他们 thus 使已经怒不可遏、无需再加激怒的迦勒底军兵愈发狂暴；他们 thus 使以色列蒙羞，因邻邦对他们如此怀恨，他们必被视为理当被剪除的民。这一切都是旧日以扫对雅各之仇恨的果子——因雅各夺去了长子名分与祝福；也是女人后裔与蛇后裔之间那更古老仇恨的一枝。诗人说：「主啊，求你记念他们」，这是向神的公义而发的申诉。我们断不可自己伸冤（纵或能力许可），而当交托给那位曾说「伸冤在我」的主。请注意：凡幸灾乐祸的，尤其是为耶路撒冷的灾祸欢乐的，必不免责；凡与逼迫圣徒者结盟、挑唆鼓动他们、并以其所行为乐的，到了那日必被究问，神必记念追讨。
二、巴比伦是元凶，轮到她的时候也必喝那震颤之杯，且要喝其中的渣滓（诗一三七8、9）：「巴比伦女子啊！」任你如何骄傲安逸，我们凭真理的圣经深知你「必被灭」，或如哈蒙德博士所译：「你这灭人的。」灭人的必被灭（启十三10）。也许正是因此，新约巴比伦之魁首——那大罪人——被称为「沉沦之子」（帖后二3）。巴比伦之灭既是必定的灭亡（你「必被灭」），圣经便如此论说：1. 这是公义的灭亡。她必以其人之道还治其身：「你怎样待我们，人也必照样待你」，受灭者怎样残暴，你也将同样受残暴（参启十八6）。掌权时不施怜悯的，休想得着怜悯。2. 这是彻底的灭亡。巴比伦被攻破、城中尽遭刀剑之时，连其中的婴孩也必被暴怒无怜悯的征服者摔碎。这些婴孩既灭，便无人逃脱；他们是下一代之种，若被剪除，这灭亡便不仅是全然如耶路撒冷之亡，更是终局。它如磨石沉于海中，永不再起。3. 这是使施行者得尊荣的灭亡。那行这事的有福了，因为他们正在成就神的谋略；故神称行这事的居鲁士为他的「仆人」、「牧人」、「受膏者」（赛四十四28，四十五1），又称服役其中的兵丁为他的「分别为圣的人」（赛十三3）。他们正为以色列的扩张开路，凡在什么方面有助于此事的有福了。新约巴比伦的倾倒，将是众圣徒的得胜（启十九1）。
英文原文
The Sorrows of Captivity
⁷ Remember, O LORD, the children of Edom in the day of Jerusalem; who said, Rase it, rase it, even to the foundation thereof.
⁸ O daughter of Babylon, who art to be destroyed; happy shall he be, that rewardeth thee as thou hast served us.
⁹ Happy shall he be, that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones.
The pious Jews in Babylon, having afflicted themselves with the thoughts of the ruins of Jerusalem, here please themselves with the prospect of the ruin of her impenitent implacable enemies; but this not from a spirit of revenge, but from a holy zeal for the glory of God and the honour of his kingdom.
I. The Edomites will certainly be reckoned with, and all others that were accessaries to the destruction of Jerusalem, that were aiding and abetting, that helped forward the affliction (Zec 1:15) and triumphed in it, that said, in the day of Jerusalem, the day of her judgment, "Rase it, rase it to the foundations; down with it, down with it; do not leave one stone upon another." Thus they made the Chaldean army more furious, who were already so enraged that they needed no spur. Thus they put shame upon Israel, who would be looked upon as a people worthy to be cut off when their next neighbours had such an ill-will to them. And all this was a fruit of the old enmity of Esau against Jacob, because he got the birthright and the blessing, and a branch of that more ancient enmity between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent: Lord, remember them, says the psalmist, which is an appeal to his justice against them. Far be it from us to avenge ourselves, if ever it should be in our power, but we will leave it to him who has said, Vengeance is mine. Note, Those that are glad at calamities, especially the calamities of Jerusalem, shall not go unpunished. Those that are confederate with the persecutors of good people, and stir them up, and set them on, and are pleased with what they do, shall certainly be called to an account for it against another day, and God will remember it against them.
II. Babylon is the principal, and it will come to her turn too to drink of the cup of tremblings, the very dregs of it (Ps 137:8,9): O daughter of Babylon! proud and secure as thou art, we know well, by the scriptures of truth, thou art to be destroyed, or (as Dr. Hammond reads it) who art the destroyer. The destroyers shall be destroyed, Re 13:10. And perhaps it is with reference to this that the man of sin, the head of the New-Testament Babylon, is called a son of perdition, 2Th 2:3. The destruction of Babylon being foreseen as a sure destruction (thou art to be destroyed), it is spoken of, 1. As a just destruction. She shall be paid in her own coin: "Thou shalt be served as thou hast served us, as barbarously used by the destroyers as we have been by thee," See Re 18:6. Let not those expect to find mercy who, when they had power, did not show mercy. 2. As an utter destruction. The very little ones of Babylon, when it is taken by storm, and all in it are put to the sword, shall be dashed to pieces by the enraged and merciless conqueror. None escape if these little ones perish. Those are the seed of another generation; so that, if they be cut off, the ruin will be not only total, as Jerusalem's was, but final. It is sunk like a millstone into the sea, never to rise. 3. As a destruction which should reflect honour upon the instruments of it. Happy shall those be that do it; for they are fulfilling God's counsels; and therefore he calls Cyrus, who did it, his servant, his shepherd, his anointed (Isa 44:28,45:1), and the soldiers that were employed in it his sanctified ones, Isa 13:3. They are making way for the enlargement of God's Israel, and happy are those who are in any way serviceable to that. The fall of the New-Testament Babylon will be the triumph of all the saints, Re 19:1.
有几篇诗被认为是犹太教会后期所写,那时预言将熄、旧约正典将闭,但无一篇明显如本篇那样晚期——本篇是当神的百姓被囚于巴比伦、在那里被那些骄傲的压迫者凌辱之时所写;大概是在他们被掳的后半期,因为此时他们看见巴比伦的毁灭正急速而来(诗137:8),那便是他们的释放。这是一首忧伤的诗,一首哀歌;七十士译本将其列为耶利米的哀歌之一,并以他为作者。本篇内容如下:一、忧愁的被掳者不能自乐(诗137:1,2);二、他们不能迎合那些骄傲的压迫者(诗137:3,4);三、他们不能忘记耶路撒冷(诗137:5,6);四、他们不能饶恕以东与巴比伦(诗137:7-9)。我们唱这首诗时,当深为教会的关切所感,尤其是其中受苦的那部分,将神百姓的忧愁贴近己心;又因预见教会最终必得解救、仇敌必适时灭亡而得安慰,却当小心避免一切个人的恩怨,不将恶毒的酵搀入我们的祭物之中。