Psalm 137:5 If I forget you, O Jerusalem, may my right hand forget its skill.
Psalm 137 is a mournful and imprecatory psalm from the peiod of the exile that has become very popular, no doubt because of the way that it strikes an emotional chord with every exile or alienated soul. Written in Babylon, in the midst of a pagan culture utterly inimical to the way of truth, one of its concerns is to bolster faith in God and to urge commitment to the Promised Land where Messiah was still yet to be born. In verse 5 the psalmist speaks to himself (always a healthy sign) and recognises the danger of forgetting Jerusalem, the Holy City, where the Temple worship had been. He says to himself that if he forgets Jerusalem then may my right hand forget its skill. That is a paraphrase. Literally, it is very concise indeed, something like - If I forget Jerusalem, forget my right side. The parallel of verse 6 (May my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth if I do not remember you, if I do not consider Jerusalem my highest joy) shows that it should be understood as saying "may my right side be paralysed, if I forget Jerusalem". Perhaps the reference is to playing the harp or lyre. It explains why the psalmist cannot sing songs of joy ... the songs of Zion ... the songs of the LORD while in a foreign land. He is afraid of forgetting Jerusalem. Believers today face the danger of forgetting New Jerusalem. Heaven can become remote to us in this foreign land. We must do all we can to maintain our devotion to the world to come, knowing that just as the exile came to an end and there was a return (something the psalmist surely anticipates here) so we will one day be in that place. So even if the world thinks us a little dull and unentertaining, we must maintian our commitment to another place and see this as a foreign land.
Psalm 137 is a mournful and imprecatory psalm from the peiod of the exile that has become very popular, no doubt because of the way that it strikes an emotional chord with every exile or alienated soul. Written in Babylon, in the midst of a pagan culture utterly inimical to the way of truth, one of its concerns is to bolster faith in God and to urge commitment to the Promised Land where Messiah was still yet to be born. In verse 5 the psalmist speaks to himself (always a healthy sign) and recognises the danger of forgetting Jerusalem, the Holy City, where the Temple worship had been. He says to himself that if he forgets Jerusalem then may my right hand forget its skill. That is a paraphrase. Literally, it is very concise indeed, something like - If I forget Jerusalem, forget my right side. The parallel of verse 6 (May my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth if I do not remember you, if I do not consider Jerusalem my highest joy) shows that it should be understood as saying "may my right side be paralysed, if I forget Jerusalem". Perhaps the reference is to playing the harp or lyre. It explains why the psalmist cannot sing songs of joy ... the songs of Zion ... the songs of the LORD while in a foreign land. He is afraid of forgetting Jerusalem. Believers today face the danger of forgetting New Jerusalem. Heaven can become remote to us in this foreign land. We must do all we can to maintain our devotion to the world to come, knowing that just as the exile came to an end and there was a return (something the psalmist surely anticipates here) so we will one day be in that place. So even if the world thinks us a little dull and unentertaining, we must maintian our commitment to another place and see this as a foreign land.
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