Psalm 137 stood out to me out of the other psalms we had to read for today’s class. Line 9 of psalm 137 is rather barbaric and cruel for a song in the Bible. The context of psalm 137 is the writer sings about the ones who plundered them mocking him to sing a song of their land. The song is very vengeful, the writer speaks about wanting to kill the children of his enemy and how it will be a joyous occasion.
The Melodians song, “Rivers of Babylon,” is an adaptation of psalm 137, and has a very different tone than reading the text without any music. The Melodians version has a somber and depressing tone to it while psalm 137 reads as a very aggressive and hateful passage. It’s ok for the Melodians to adapt and edit out parts of a psalm to make it their own, that’s part of their creative freedom.