http://biblebitbybit.blogspot.com/2016/01/psalms-137-v-3.html
Posted by Psalms on Wednesday, 27 January 2016
Psalms 137:3
For there they that carried us away captive required of us a song; and they that wasted us required of us mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion.
137:3. For there they that carried us away captive required of us a song. What cruelty to make a people sigh, and then require them to sing! It is indeed “woe to the conquered” when they are forced to sing to increase the triumph of their conquerors.
And they that wasted us required of us mirth. The captives must not only sing but smile, and add merriment to their music. This was wormwood and gall to the true lovers of God and his chosen land.
Saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion. Nothing would serve their turn but a holy hymn, and a tune sacred to the worship of Jehovah. Nothing will content the Babylonian mockers but one of Israel’s psalms when in her happiest days she sang unto the Lord whose mercy endureth forever: this would make rare fun for their persecutors, who would deride their worship and ridicule their faith in Jehovah. In this demand there was an insult to their God as well as a mockery of themselves, and this made it the more intensely cruel. These wanton persecutors had followed the captives into their retirement, and had remarked upon their sorrowful appearance, and there and then they bade the mourners make mirth for them.
The Treasury of David by Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834-1892)
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