Psalm 137:9


It's 7:12 PM Eastern on Monday and I am eager to get back into the music production side of the psalmody with Paul Rose on Psalm 6, but it looks like I need to deal with last Friday morning's Psalm 137:9 crisis of faith, instead, and it might take me the rest of this evening to do so. To be clear, I don't necessarily subscribe to the doctrine of the perspicuity of Scripture. Instead, I have articulated in my correspondence with Matthew King a belief in the controversiality of Scripture, which I define as follows: "The controversiality of the Bible means that the original authorship, date of composition, strict historical veracity, best contemporary translation, and most valid exegesis, if not absolute divinity, of each and every Old and New Testament passage, are subject to good argument by well-informed and well-meaning Church scholars, naturally leading to organic divisions within the body of Christ over the course of Church history, according to God's providence." I also believe the Bible is difficult if not impossible to perfectly understand in this lifetime. As Grudem puts it in Systematic Theology, "the Bible is written in such a way that it is able to be understood, but right understanding requires time, effort, the use of ordinary means, a willingness to obey, and the help of the Holy Spirit; and our understanding will remain imperfect in this lifetime" (p. 251).

Approaching Psalm 137:9 from this perspective, I really get what both Dan McClellan and Frank Turek have to say:



The question I am struggling with is how Jesus handled the chanting of this verse when he was here with us on Earth in the flesh, and if we should keep this verse in the repertoire, then how we should go about expressing it musically. I can see the case to footnote verse 137:9 out of my Psalter as too horrible to repeat. I can also see the case to keep it in, but only if it can be done melodic justice. Then there is the option to use a good bit of dynamic modern equivalence in the translation, e.g., "Blessed is the man who teaches your children the ways of mercy and justice." 

Let's see how this verse has been handled by various liturgical performers and by Catholic apologists.


I don't know that I should tell you which of the six renditions included above I favor most. You have to listen to all of them and make up your own mind. But I will say that the Sons of Korah handle the translation and expression of Psalm 137:9 very well.

As far as Catholic apologetics are concerned, I have read How to Refute the Claim ‘The Bible Teaches Evil’ | Catholic Answers Magazine by Trent Horn. Given my respect for Buddhist philosophy and ethics, I find it a bit unsatisfying. In any case, Google Gemini tells me that Psalm 137:9 is not in the Catholic Lectionary. It further adds this helpful bit of information:

The Church Fathers, like Origen and Augustine, have interpreted the difficult imagery of Psalm 137:9 in a symbolic way, seeing the "little ones of Babylon" as symbolizing sinful thoughts and desires that need to be overcome. They see "dashing them against the rock" as a metaphor for confronting these sins with the firmness of reason and the truth of Christ. 

Here is a link to Saint Augustine's Exposition on Psalm 137, and this is paragraph 12:

Happy shall he be that repays you, as you have served us. What repayment means he? Herewith the Psalm closes, Happy, that takes and dashes your little ones against the rock. Her he calls unhappy, but him happy who pays her as she has served us. Do we ask, what reward? This is the repayment. For what has that Babylon done to us? We have already sung in another Psalm, the words of the wicked have prevailed against us. For when we were born, the confusion of this world found us, and choked us while yet infants with the empty notions of various errors. The infant that is born destined to be a citizen of Jerusalem, and in God's predestination already a citizen, but meanwhile a prisoner for a time, when learns he to love ought, save what his parents have whispered into his ears? They teach him and train him in avarice, robbery, daily lying, the worship of various idols and devils, the unlawful remedies of enchantments and amulets. What shall one yet an infant do, a tender soul, observing what its elders do, save follow that which it sees them doing. Babylon then has persecuted us when little, but God has given us when grown up knowledge of ourselves, that we should not follow the errors of our parents....How shall they repay her? As she has served us. Let her little ones be choked in turn: yea let her little ones in turn be dashed, and die. What are the little ones of Babylon? Evil desires at their birth. For there are, who have to fight with inveterate lusts. When lust is born, before evil habit gives it strength against you, when lust is little, by no means let it gain the strength of evil habit; when it is little, dash it. But you fear, lest though dashed it die not; Dash it against the Rock; and that Rock is Christ.

At this point we may want to consider 1 Corinthians 10:3-4, which reads in the NIV:

They all ate the same spiritual food and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ.

A review of the Four Senses of Scripture in the Catechism of the Catholic Church (Part One Section One Article 3 Sacred Scripture III. The Holy Spirit, Interpreter of Scripture) and with Father Thomas Keating draws my thoughts on Psalm 137:9 to a close this evening:


Continue to send insight, Abba. May your Word help Israel and the Church grow in wisdom and compassion. "All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness." 2 Timothy 3:16 (NIV).

Shalom.

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