Setting
By the streams of Babylon
Free Church of Scotland psalter · 7 7 7 7
The words
By the streams of Babylon We remembered Zion’s hill. There we sat and wept in grief; On the trees our harps lay still.
For our captors asked for songs; Our tormentors called for mirth: “Sing us one of Zion’s songs From the land that gave you birth.”
How can we sing to the LORD, Exiles in a foreign land? If Jerus’lem I forget, Skill depart from my right hand!
May my tongue cling to my mouth If of Zion I lose sight, If I prize Jerusalem Less than my supreme delight.
LORD, remember Edom’s sin, When Jerus’lem met its fate. “Tear it down!” their voices cried, “Tear down every wall and gate!”
Babylon, for all our pain At your door destruction knocks. Happy he who pays you back, Throws your children on the rocks.
Source & provenance
Free Church of Scotland psalter · psalter
An unedited transcription of the Sing Psalms (Free Church of Scotland, 2003) edition.
Full provenance & rights
- Base edition
- Sing Psalms (Free Church of Scotland, 2003)
- Editor
- Psalmody Committee of the Free Church of Scotland
- Editing
- unedited transcription
Rights
- Copyright
- rights-verified (display held); FCS terms recorded 2026-10-08 — verbatim text in a notated setting with independent tune MIDI is within terms (text free, FCS attribution displayed); copy/print/offline not granted; no audio derivatives
- Access
- free
- Display
- permitted
Tunes it can be sung to
2 tunes
Heinlein
curated well-matched7.7.7.7
Lewknor
curated well-matched7.7.7.7
How is this list ordered?
Curated pairings come first — a tune a curator recorded against this text, with the fitness they recorded. A tune that merely shares the meter is listed as a tune in the same meter and never as a pairing.
Nothing here is ranked by popularity or use. The page reports what a curator recorded, not a verdict of its own.