Ps 137 (Pt. 2; curse of forgetfulness)

If I forget you / Jerusalem

                May my right hand wither

May my tongue / stick to the roof of my mouth

                If I do not remember you

If I do not / set Jerusalem

                Above my highest joy

In this section, the psalmist calls down a curse upon himself if he “forgets Jerusalem.” The withering of the right hand likely refers to him becoming physically incapacitated, unable to perform meaningful work and, moreover, to become visibly deranged. It also, I believe, refers back to the harp that he “hung on Babylonian poplars”. He would be unable to play this liturgical instrument any longer. In addition, he would be physically shamed.

The second curse, the cleaving of the tongue to the roof of the mouth, is similar. In a culture that is primarily verbal, his inability to speak would be devastating. And it would be known, like his withered hand. More deeply is the fact that his memory of Zion now compels him to a type of liturgical silence. If he were to forget Jerusalem, though, he calls upon himself a curse of permanent silence—he would be unable to express anything at all. Like the withered hand that cannot play a liturgical instrument, so too now the tongue of liturgy would be silenced.

In all of this we see something profound—that the liturgical silence of suffering is to be maintained until redemption occurs. To abandon that silence, to ‘forget Jerusalem’, the psalmist declares should lead to an utter and totalizing deformity. We should recall here an echo of the idols made by human hands, and that those who worship them become like them—deaf and lifeless.