"A plaintive song of the exile--of one who has recently returned from Babylon but in whose soul there lingers the bitter memory of the years in a foreign land and of the cruel events that led to that enforced stay. Here speaks the same deep love of Zion as that found in Ps 42-43; 46; 48; 84; 122; 126. The 12 poetic lines of the Hebrew song divide symmetrically into three stanzas of four lines each: the remembered sorrow and torment (vv. 1-3), an oath of total commitment to Jerusalem (vv. 4-6), a call for retribution on Edom and Babylon (vv. 7-9)." (THE NIV STUDY BIBLE NOTES, Psalm 137)
