Psalm 137 Bible study: By the rivers of Babylon

Remember is the word this psalm turns on (tap remember). It comes three times, and each time a different one remembers. First the captives: "By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down. Yes, we wept, when we remembered Zion" (137:1). Then the psalmist, in a vow, with its opposite twice before it: "If I forget you, Jerusalem, let my right hand forget its skill" (137:5) (tap forget), and "Let my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth if I don’t remember you, if I don’t prefer Jerusalem above my chief joy" (137:6). Then he asks it of the LORD: "Remember, LORD, against the children of Edom" (137:7). In Hebrew all three are the verb zakhar, and both forgets are shakhach. Here is what almost everyone misses: the psalm starts with we (137:1-4), turns to I for the vow, "If I forget you" (137:5), and comes back to us in 137:8: "as you have done to us" (137:8).

זָכַרzakharsay za-KHAR

Brown-Driver-Briggs: "remember, recall, call to mind". Strong's: "properly, to mark (so as to be recognized), i.e. to remember". The psalm has it three times, and each time a different one remembers. The captives: "Yes, we wept, when we remembered Zion" (137:1). The psalmist, in his vow: "if I don’t remember you" (137:6). And the LORD, in the one verse the psalm speaks to him: "Remember, LORD, against the children of Edom" (137:7). Between them come two forgets (137:5) (tap forget). Psalm 74 asks the LORD to remember an enemy's words too: "Remember this, that the enemy has mocked you, LORD" (Psalm 74:18).