You can practice this week’s singing here (to Morning Song, the tune of “My Soul Gives Glory”)

From the ESV Study Bible

This community lament remembers the Babylonian captivity, and provides words by which the returned exiles can express their loyalty to Jerusalem and pray that God would pay out his just punishment on those who gloat over its destruction. This psalm is notable for the ferocity of its final wish (v. 9). This is a vivid application of the principle of talion, the principle that punishment should match the crime (Gen. 9:6; Ex. 21:23–24). It is a prayer that the Babylonians, who had smashed Israelite infants, should be punished appropriately. Three additional comments may be made. First, even though Babylon was the Lord’s tool for disciplining his people, they apparently went about their work with cruel glee (cf. Isa. 47:6; cf. the Assyrians, Isa. 10:5–7). Second, the vile practice of destroying the infants of a conquered people is well-attested in the ancient world (e.g., 2 Kings 8:12; Hos. 10:14; 13:16; Nah. 3:10; Homer’s Iliad 22.63), and was therefore foretold of the fall of Babylon (Isa. 13:16). Further, the Babylonians had apparently done this to the Judeans (as the connection with Ps. 137:8 suggests), and the prophets led the people to await God’s justice (Isa. 47:1–9; Jer. 51:24). In this light, the psalm is not endorsing the action in itself but is instead seeing the conquerors of Babylon as carrying out God’s just sentence (even unwittingly). Neither Israelites nor Christians are permitted to indulge personal hatred and vengeance (cf. Lev. 19:17–18; Matt. 5:44); generally speaking, the repentance of those who hate God’s people is preferred (see note on Ps. 83:9–18), and yet, failing that, any prayer for God’s justice (and for Christ’s return) will involve punishment for those who have oppressed his people (cf. Rev. 6:9–10).

… The songs of Zion would be sacred songs (such as the psalms), and apparently the captors wanted the Judeans to sing them for entertainment (and perhaps gloating) rather than for worship. …

… The recollection of these hurtful taunts leads to a prayer that God will remember (see note on 25:6–7) the deeds of his people’s enemies; he selects the Edomites (a conventional representative of all those who hate God’s people, as in Obadiah) as well as the daughter of Babylon (the personified city). The Edomites took great delight in destroying Jerusalem utterly (cf. Obad. 11–14), while the Babylonians had carried out excessive violence against the helpless in Jerusalem. (On Ps. 137:9, see note on Psalm 137.)

From Eugene Peterson, Answering God

It is easy to be honest before God with our hallelujah; it is somewhat more difficult to be honest in our hurts; it is nearly impossible to be honest before God in the dark emotions of our hate. So we commonly suppress our negative emotions(unless, neurotically , we advertise them). Or, when we do express the, we do it far from the presence, or what we think is the presence, of God, ashamed or embarrassed to be seen in these curse stained bib overalls. But when we pray the psalms, these classic prayers of God’s people, we find that will not do. We must pray who we actually are, not who we think we should be. In prayer, all is not sweetness and light. The way of prayer is not to cover our unlovely emotions so that they will appear respectable, but expose them so that they can be enlisted in the work of the kingdom. “It is an act of profound faith to entrust one’s most precious hatred to God, knowing that they will be taken seriously.” Hate, prayed, takes our lives to bedrock where the foundations of justice are being laid.

From Walter Brueggemann, The Message of the Psalms

We may note this much in the psalm: the speaker does not take action. The speaker does not, in fact, crush the heads of babes against rocks. It is prayer, a wish, a hope, a yearning. But even the venom is left in God’s hands. Perhaps there is a division of labor here to be celebrated: Israel hopes; Yahweh avenges as he choses. The capacity to leave vengeance to God may free Israel for its primary vocation, which is the tenacious hope that prevents sell-out. Indeed, one may speculate that if Israel could not boldly leave vengeance to God and had worried about vengeance on its own, Israel might have had no energy or freedom to hope. Perhaps it is precisely the capacity to turn that over to God which leaves Israel free to hope for the new Jerusalem.

From the Gospel Transformation Study Bible

This psalm gives expression to the longing of God’s people, now in exile in Babylon, for the restoration of their beloved Jerusalem and the vindication of God’s justice against their oppressors. In 586 BC, Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonian army destroyed Jerusalem, its temple and wall, and took most of its residents captive in Babylon. The psalm portrays the ways their captors mock them by demanding that they sing songs of Zion by the waters of Babylon (vv. 1–6). These godly Israelites long for justice; they long for God to vindicate his holy name and bring vengeance upon those who have destroyed the city of God, its temple, and families—killing wives, husbands, and children. The Edomites (descendants of Esau), on the east side of the Dead Sea, joined the Babylonians in the destruction of Jerusalem, so the psalm calls for vengeance also on Edom (v. 7). …

The cry of Psalm 137:9 is the cry for justice to be served upon those who have abused and killed the children of Israel. Still, the words calling for retributive execution of children shock us. The words may simply reflect the idioms of warfare language from ancient times, or may be the expression of unrepressed anger and agony from the heart of one who has been victimized by such cruelty. Yet before we would ever utter such words, we should take careful notice that this verse comes in the context of an appeal for God to bring about a just sentence upon Israel’s oppressors (see v. 8). As Jesus, who “when he was reviled, . . . did not revile in return; when he suffered, . . . did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly” (1 Pet. 2:23), so God’s people may call upon God to enact the justice he knows is right. But we leave this in his hands to enact, in his way, in his time, and by authorities of his appointment.

Some Songs to Listen To