This psalm speaks from exile beside the rivers of Babylon, where the people sit weeping as they remember Zion and refuse to turn their songs into entertainment for their captors. It then swears never to forget Jerusalem, asks the LORD to remember Edom's violence at the city's fall, and ends by naming Babylon for judgment in the same measure of devastation it has dealt out.
After the great litany of enduring love in Psalm 136, Psalm 137 gives voice to what that same covenant memory sounds like in loss and humiliation. It fits Book V by refusing both forgetfulness and easy resolution, holding together grief, loyalty to Jerusalem, and the unresolved cry for remembered justice after catastrophe.
A continuous BSB reading flow. Turn on the guide when you want authored orientation; leave it off when you simply want the text.
B1y the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept 2There on the willows 3for there our captors requested a song; 4How can we sing a song of the LORD
5If I forget you, O Jerusalem, 6May my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth
7Remember, O LORD, 8O Daughter of Babylon, 9Blessed is he who seizes your infants
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