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Psalm 137

Lament over the Destruction of Jerusalem

¹ By the rivers of Babylon—
   there we sat down and there we wept
   when we remembered Zion.
² On the willows^* there
   we hung up our harps.
³ For there our captors
   asked us for songs,
and our tormentors asked for mirth, saying,
   ‘Sing us one of the songs of Zion!’

⁴ How could we sing the Lord’s song
   in a foreign land?
⁵ If I forget you, O Jerusalem,
   let my right hand wither!
⁶ Let my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth,
   if I do not remember you,
if I do not set Jerusalem
   above my highest joy.

⁷ Remember, O Lord, against the Edomites
   the day of Jerusalem’s fall,
how they said, ‘Tear it down! Tear it down!
   Down to its foundations!’
⁸ O daughter Babylon, you devastator!^*
   Happy shall they be who pay you back
   what you have done to us!
⁹ Happy shall they be who take your little ones
   and dash them against the rock!

Psalm 144

Prayer for National Deliverance and Security

Of David.
¹ Blessed be the Lord, my rock,
   who trains my hands for war, and my fingers for battle;
² my rock^* and my fortress,
   my stronghold and my deliverer,
my shield, in whom I take refuge,
   who subdues the peoples^* under me.

³ O Lord, what are human beings that you regard them,
   or mortals that you think of them?
⁴ They are like a breath;
   their days are like a passing shadow.

⁵ Bow your heavens, O Lord, and come down;
   touch the mountains so that they smoke.
⁶ Make the lightning flash and scatter them;
   send out your arrows and rout them.
⁷ Stretch out your hand from on high;
   set me free and rescue me from the mighty waters,
   from the hand of aliens,
⁸ whose mouths speak lies,
   and whose right hands are false.

⁹ I will sing a new song to you, O God;
   upon a ten-stringed harp I will play to you,
¹⁰ the one who gives victory to kings,
   who rescues his servant David.
¹¹ Rescue me from the cruel sword,
   and deliver me from the hand of aliens,
whose mouths speak lies,
   and whose right hands are false.

¹² May our sons in their youth
   be like plants full grown,
our daughters like corner pillars,
   cut for the building of a palace.
¹³ May our barns be filled
   with produce of every kind;
may our sheep increase by thousands,
   by tens of thousands in our fields,
¹⁴   and may our cattle be heavy with young.
May there be no breach in the walls,^* no exile,
   and no cry of distress in our streets.

¹⁵ Happy are the people to whom such blessings fall;
   happy are the people whose God is the Lord.