Psalm 137:1-4
By the Rivers of Babylon: Music, Lament, and Human Experience
The exiles could not sing the songs of Zion in a strange land. Yet the act of remembering, of refusing to sing for their captors, and of holding hope—all of it is preserved in a song.
By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept when we remembered Zion. There on the poplars we hung our harps, for there our captors asked us for songs, our tormentors demanded songs of joy; they said, "Sing us one of the songs of Zion!" How can we sing the songs of the LORD while in a foreign land?
— Psalm 137:1-4
Psalm 137 is one of Scripture's rawest moments. The exiles sit by the rivers of Babylon. They hang their harps on the poplars. They refuse to sing "the songs of Zion" for their captors. The song itself becomes a form of resistance—and of lament.
What this psalm reveals is that music is bound up with human experience: grief, displacement, memory, hope. The exiles are not in a temple. They are in a foreign land. Their music—or their refusal to sing—is a response to real life. God does not dismiss this. He includes it in the canon. Lament is valid. Suffering is real. And music can hold both.
This undercuts the idea that God only works through upbeat, "positive" worship music. Psalm 137 is dark. It ends in a cry for vengeance. Yet it is Scripture. It teaches us that God meets people in the full range of human experience—including despair. Music that gives voice to pain, that helps people name their suffering, that creates solidarity in grief—such music can be a conduit for the Spirit. God is not afraid of lament. He invites it (see the book of Job; Lamentations; many psalms).
The contrast: Not all music leads to wellness. Scripture is clear about false prophets and destructive influences (Deuteronomy 13:1-5; 2 Peter 2:1-3). Music that glamorizes addiction, that romanticizes despair without offering a path forward, that reinforces isolation and nihilism—such music can bear bad fruit. People have testified to songs that fueled their spiral into drugs or depression. The fruit test applies: does this music lead toward connection, healing, and hope—or toward despair and dissolution?
Opposing the restrictors: Some traditions forbid any music that is not explicitly "God," claiming that secular music invites demonic influence. But Psalm 137—and the whole Psalter—includes songs of rage, doubt, and grief. God includes them in His Word. He meets people where they are. Music that meets someone in the pit of despair and, over time, opens a path toward hope—through a lyric that sparks recognition, a melody that creates space for breath—bears good fruit. The Spirit works through the whole of human experience.