Psalms 137

The nature of the gangrene is to run from one joint to another, from the toe to the foot, from the foot to the leg, from the leg to the thigh, till it has wasted and destroyed the life of the body: so give any sin but an entrance, and it will soon overspread the whole man: and i…

Our first and principal joy must be, that we are in God's favor, reconciled to God by Christ (Luke 10:20). In David, the head of his joy, was the good estate of the church (Psalm 137:6). And all other lesser joys must flow from this, and be suitable to it.

In the meantime however it was the Prophet's meaning to comprehend other judgments of God also which threatened the Babylonians, and came to pass long time after this first calamity: yet is it not without reason, neither from the purpose that he describes the manners of barbarou…

We have told you in the 5th Chapter, why the Prophet composed these and the like songs in verse; to wit, that every one might the better remember them by daily recording of them. Although they wept then in Babylon, and were almost overwhelmed with sorrow, as these words show, Ho…

In calling it a city of solemnities, he shows wherein the restoration of Zion did chiefly consist; to wit, because the people flocked there to hear the law, to renew their covenant with God, to call upon his name, and to offer sacrifices: for when they were deprived of these thi…

But herewith Isaiah summons us to a common and general rejoicing, when the Church is received again into God's favor: for questionless, if there be any spark of true godliness in us, we ought to be exceedingly moved at her happiness, and to laugh and sing for joy when she flouri…

And besides, they exasperated the rage of other enemies against the Jews; manifesting to all what great pleasure they took in the ruin of this poor people, as it appears by their egging on of the Babylonians. Remember O Lord, says the Church (Psalm 137:7), the children of Edom,…

There are two sorts of Comforts, Natural and Sensitive, Divine and Spiritual. There is a time when it becomes Christians to exercise both; so Hest. 9:22 And there is a time when the former is to be suspended and laid by, Psalm 137:2 But there is no season, wherein spiritual joy…

Blessed be you that look through the deep, and sit upon the Cherubim. And also David (Psalm 137): Though the LORD be high, yet has he respect to the lowly: as for the proud he beholds him afar off. Item (Psalm 111): Who is like to the LORD our God, that has his dwelling so high,…

And another prophet found it so, whose serious word of the necessity, of precept upon precept was turned into an idle song (as Grotius understands it, Isaiah 28:13): the word of the Lord was to them precept upon precept — very likely it was done by the drunkards of Ephraim, spok…

Indeed, Verse 18. God appropriates it as a peculiar work of his; He causeth [His wind to hlow.] Hence, He is said in Scripture, to bring them forth of his treasury, Psalm 137:7. There they are locked up and reserved, not a gust can break forth, till he command and call for it to…

And his heart broken all to pieces, yet the very pieces cry no less for the building of Jerusalem's walls, than for the binding up and healing of itself, and in that Psalm that seems to be the expression of his joy being exalted to the throne, and sitting peaceably on it, yet he…

So had David when he was exposed to continual wanderings, without any fixed habitation. Indeed the children of God in Babylon say (Psalm 137:4) How shall we sing the Lord's song in a strange land? The meaning is not to exclude their own spiritual delight and solace, but they wou…

The saints are members of the body mystical as well as political, therefore they must be sensible of the injuries of God's Church. Psalm 137:1: we wept when we remembered Zion. The people of Israel, being debarred from the place of public worship, sat by the rivers weeping.

Assurance is very sweet; this wine of paradise cheers the heart. For lack of this knowledge — that Christ is ours — we often hang our harps on the willows and sit weeping (Psalm 137:1-2). A man who has a rich mine of gold in his field, yet if he does not know it is there, cannot…

And in the New Testament, Matthew 6:27-28, 33, 1 Timothy 4:8, Hebrews 13:5-6, which were nothing if our Heavenly Father provides bread, protection, safety, dwelling in the land, and our houses, to the fathers, but the children had no charter but to beggary, to the sword, to be d…

4. Quoad conatum: A godly man does in the strength of Christ resolve and strive against all rancor, and virulency of spirit: This is in a Gospel-sense to love our Enemies; a wicked man cannot do this, his malice boils up to revenge. 7. A godly man lays to heart the miseries of t…

See here a heavy temptation, but his faith digs deeper, to the first experience of God's goodness: verse 9, But you are he that took me out of the womb, etc. As the Church mocked with this, Sing us one of the songs of Zion (Psalm 137), raises a higher esteem of Zion, because Zio…

The Chaldeans did no more than the Lord said they should do; You shall have no pity, no mercy upon them; So that what the King of Babylon did against the people, it was but as a staff in God's hand, yet you have laid a heavy yoke upon them, and have not spared neither young nor…

And what a great blessing is pronounced on Jael, the wife of Heber, the Kenite, for her appearing on the Lord's side, and for what she did to promote this work (verse 24) — which was no less than the curse pronounced in the preceding verse against Meroz for lying still: 'Blessed…

Let his mind be occupied upon it, looking in the passion of Christ. So says he, in Psalm 137. O city of Babel, worthy to be destroyed — blessed be he that shall take your young babes, and throw them against the stones — that is to say, when the heart is infected with evil though…