Fathers

Psalms 137

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By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down. Yes, we wept, when we remembered Zion. On the willows in that land, we hung up our harps. For there, those who led us captive asked us for songs. Those who tormented us demanded songs of joy: “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!” How can we sing Yahweh’s song in a foreign land? If I forget you, Jerusalem, let my right hand forget its skill. 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. Remember, Yahweh, against the children of Edom in the day of Jerusalem, who said, “Raze it! Raze it even to its foundation!” Daughter of Babylon, doomed to destruction, he will be happy who repays you, as you have done to us. Happy shall he be, who takes and dashes your little ones against the rock.

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What the Fathers say

Psalms 137:1

Eastern Fathers

Methodius of Olympus

But not to pass away from our subject, come, let us take in our hands and examine this psalm, which the pure and stainless souls sing to God, saying: "By the rivers of Babylon there we sat down; yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion. We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof," clearly giving the name of harps to their bodies which they hung upon the branches of chastity, fastening them to the wood that they might not be snatched away and dragged along again by the stream of incontinence. …

Symposium Or The Banquet Of The Ten Virgins 3:3 ↗

Western Saints

Augustine of Hippo

Observe "the waters of Babylon." "The waters of Babylon" are all things which here are loved, and pass away. ...But then other citizens of the holy Jerusalem, understanding their captivity, mark how the natural wishes and the various lusts of men hurry and drag them hither and thither, and drive them into the sea; they see this, and they throw not themselves into the waters of Babylon, but "sit down and weep," either for those who are being carried away by them, or themselves whose deserts have placed them in Babylon, but sitting, …

Exposition on Psalm 137 ↗

Jerome

By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down and wept, when we remembered Sion. If someone is not sick, he does not know how much health is worth. And again, a lame man does not know how much he is worth who is sound of foot. Likewise the blind man does not know the one who sees. All this has been said because the psalm says: "By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down and wept, when we remembered Sion." Babylon is interpreted as "confusion": therefore Babylon is this world. …

Homily 48, on Psalm 136 ↗