Psalms 137:5,6 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Psalms 137:5-6. If I forget thee, O Jerusalem If I do not retain a deep and sorrowful sense of thy desolations, though never so far removed from thee; or if I indulge myself in mirth and jollity, as if I had forgotten thee; let my right hand The hand chiefly used in playing on musical instruments, and in all other actions; forget her cunning That is, lose its skill of playing. In the Hebrew it is only, Let my right hand forget, without expressing what, to intimate the extent and generality of this wish; let it forget, or be disabled for every action, in which it was formerly used. If I do not remember thee With affection and sympathy, so as to damp my joys; let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth Become incapable of singing, speaking, or moving; if I prefer not Jerusalem, &c. If I do not value and desire Jerusalem's prosperity more than all other delights, and consequently, if Jerusalem's misery do not so deeply affect me as to hinder my delighting in any other thing. Hebrew, אם לא אלעה, literally, If I advance not Jerusalem in the beginning, or at the head, (as על ראשׁ properly signifies,) of my joy; that is, “if I again sing any such festive song till that joyful day shall come, when I shall see Jerusalem and her holy solemnities restored.” “The whole nation,” says Dr. Horne, “may be supposed, in these words, to declare as one man, that neither the afflictions nor the allurements of Babylon should efface from their minds the remembrance of Jerusalem, or prevent their looking forward to her future glorious restoration. If any temptation should induce them to employ their tongues and their hands in the service of Babel rather than that of Sion, they wish to lose the use of the former, and the skill of the latter.” Thus, “the thoughts and affections of true penitents, both in prosperity and adversity, are fixed upon their heavenly country and city: they had rather be deprived of their powers and faculties than of the will to use them aright; and the hope of glory hereafter to be revealed in the church is the flower and crown of their joy.”