Psalm 137

Lament of the Exiles

By the rivers of Babylon—
there we sat down and wept
when we remembered Zion.(A)
There we hung up our lyres
on the poplar trees,(B)
for our captors there asked us for songs,
and our tormentors, for rejoicing:
“Sing us one of the songs of Zion.”(C)

How can we sing the Lord’s song
on foreign soil?(D)
If I forget you, Jerusalem,
may my right hand forget its skill.(E)
May my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth
if I do not remember you,
if I do not exalt Jerusalem as my greatest joy!(F)

Remember, Lord, what the Edomites said
that day[a] at Jerusalem:
“Destroy it! Destroy it
down to its foundations!” (G)
Daughter Babylon, doomed to destruction,
happy is the one who pays you back
what you have done to us.(H)
Happy is he who takes your little ones
and dashes them against the rocks.(I)

Footnotes

  1. 137:7 The day Jerusalem fell to the Babylonians in 586 BC

Final Exhortations

13 Let brotherly love(A) continue. Don’t neglect to show hospitality, for by doing this some have welcomed angels as guests without knowing it.(B) Remember those in prison, as though you were in prison with them, and the mistreated,[a] as though you yourselves were suffering bodily.[b] Marriage is to be honored by all and the marriage bed kept undefiled, because God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterers.(C) Keep your life free from the love of money. Be satisfied with what you have, for he himself has said, I will never leave you or abandon you.[c](D) Therefore, we may boldly say,

The Lord is my helper;
I will not be afraid.
What can man do to me?[d](E)

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Footnotes

  1. 13:3 Or tortured
  2. 13:3 Or mistreated, since you are also in a body
  3. 13:5 Dt 31:6
  4. 13:6 Ps 118:6

Christian Liberty

23 “Everything is permissible,”[a] but not everything is beneficial. “Everything is permissible,”[b] but not everything builds up. 24 No one is to seek his own good, but the good of the other person.(A)

25 Eat everything that is sold in the meat market, without raising questions for the sake of conscience, 26 since the earth is the Lord’s,(B) and all that is in it.[c](C) 27 If any of the unbelievers invites you over and you want to go, eat everything that is set before you, without raising questions for the sake of conscience. 28 But if someone says to you, “This is food from a sacrifice,” do not eat it,(D) out of consideration for the one who told you, and for the sake of conscience.[d] 29 I do not mean your own conscience, but the other person’s. For why is my freedom judged(E) by another person’s conscience? 30 If I partake with thanksgiving,(F) why am I criticized because of something for which I give thanks?

31 So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do everything for the glory of God.(G) 32 Give no offense(H) to Jews or Greeks or the church of God, 33 just as I also try to please everyone in everything, not seeking my own benefit, but the benefit of many,(I) so that they may be saved.

11 Imitate me, as I also imitate Christ.(J)

Footnotes

  1. 10:23 Other mss add for me
  2. 10:23 Other mss add for me
  3. 10:26 Ps 24:1
  4. 10:28 Other mss add “For the earth is the Lord’s and all that is in it.”

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