Reggae Psalmist

As we looked at Psalm 137 in class, I recalled that Matisyahu had written a song based on it. Alter tells us that "This psalm was almost certainly composed shortly after the deportation of the Judeans by the Babylonians in 586 BCE - the experience of exile is fresh and acutely painful." (Alter, p. 473).

 

Here are the lyrics, with verses from Psalm 137 and some comments:

 

[Chorus]: Jerusalem, if I forget you, fire not gonna come from me tongue. Jerusalem, if I forget you, let my right hand forget what it's supposed to do. In the ancient days, we will return with no delay Picking up the bounty and the spoils on our way We've been traveling from state to state And them don't understand what they say 3,000 years with no place to be And they want me to give up my milk and honey Don't you see, it's not about the land or the sea Not the country but the dwelling of his majesty [chorus] Rebuild the temple and the crown of glory Years gone by, about sixty Burn in the oven in this century And the gas tried to choke, but it couldn't choke me I will not lie down, I will not fall asleep They come overseas, yes they're trying to be free Erase the demons out of our memory Change your name and your identity Afraid of the truth and our dark history Why is everybody always chasing we Cut off the roots of your family tree Don't you know that's not the way to be [chorus] Caught up in these ways, and the worlds gone craze Don't you know it's just a phase Case of the Simon says If I forget the truth then my words won't penetrate Babylon burning in the place, can't see through the haze Chop down all of them dirty ways, That's the price that you pay for selling lies to the youth No way, not ok, oh no way, not ok, hey Aint no one gonna break my stride Aint no one gonna hold me down Oh no, I got to keep on moving Stay alive [chorus]

v. 5,6: Should I forget you, Jerusalem, may my right hand wither. May my tongue cleave to my palate if I do not recall you, if I do not set Jerusalem above my chief joy. The chorus is almost identical to these verses; clearly they were the inspiration. v.4: How can we sing a song of the Lord on foreign soil? The roughly 3000 years since the Babylonian captivity show that Matisyahu understands the historical context of the Psalm. We see here references to the rebuilding of the temple, an important promise the Jewish people are waiting for. The oven and gas are specific references to the Holocaust, which are then expanded into a general statement about antisemitism, "our dark history". v. 8: Daughter of Babylon the despoiler, happy who pays you back in kind, for what you did to us.

Obviously, not all the verses line up perfectly, and there is a lot added in Matisyahu's song that is nowhere to be found in the Psalm. He is taking the central elements of the Psalm and putting them in a framework that shows their relevance today, just like many translations (such as the Bay Psalm book) strive to do: The Captivity is expanded to today in some senses, particularly in respect to antisemitism; the longing for Jerusalem goes beyond a geographical or political intent, it is a desire for unity, for God's presence, and for the rebuilding of the temple.

Thus, we can see how even without Christianity, just within Judaism, the Psalms can be understood in a larger context and applied to modern situations. The original authors never could have foreseen these expansion of the meaning, though they probably anticipated reuse of their words in some form.