Psalm 137: Happy Is He Who Dashes Your Infants Against the Rocks

Psalm 137 begins as a meditation on exile: 'By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept when we remembered Zion.' Their captors demand a song. 'How can we sing the songs of the Lord while in a foreign land?' The psalm ends with a prayer for vengeance against Babylon that no prayer book includes: 'Daughter Babylon, doomed to destruction, happy is the one who repays you according to what you have done to us. Happy is the one who seizes your infants and dashes them against the rocks.' The psalm moves from weeping exile to genocidal rage in eight verses. Both are honest.