Injurious Retrospection
W. E. Barnes, D. D. Psalm 137:1-9 By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yes, we wept, when we remembered Zion.… The psalm opens with words of which the melancholy sweetness blinds us from seeing the evil tendencies which lie hid in them. "By the rivers of Babylon," etc. Are the words so sweet? Is there not suppressed bitterness in them? What right had these exiles to sit down and weep, when it was God who had brought them to Babylon? What right had they to fold their hands and hang up their harps when God had told them by His prophet Jeremiah to build houses, and seek the peace of the city to which they were led captive (Jeremiah 29:5-7)? God sends trouble to make men look forward, not backward. Living back in an irrevocable past is worse than mere waste of time. So it proved with the captives by the waters of Babylon. They thought upon the wrongs, but not upon the wrongful dealings of Zion. Zedekiah's broken oath to the king of Babylon (Ezekiel 17:16), and their own intrigues with the enemies of Nebuchadnezzar were forgotten; the destruction of Jerusalem and the joys of their neighbours on the day of destruction were remembered too well. (W. E. Barnes, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion. WEB: By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down. Yes, we wept, when we remembered Zion.