What is the context?
The prayer recalls Edom urging Jerusalem’s destruction and calls for Babylon to be repaid what it did. Its final blessing names the killing of infants against rocks.
The words are a horrific wish for violent repayment, not a harmless metaphor that removes the children. They reveal how the remembered devastation shapes the appeal.
The passage does not issue a command for readers to kill children. Its severe voice must be heard alongside the wider biblical directions governing the reader’s own treatment of enemies.
How is this passage commonly understood?
Wesley interprets the blessed avenger as an instrument of divine judgment. That is his reading of the appeal; the text does not make an infant personally responsible for the acts of an empire or appoint private readers as its executioners.
Where does this fit in God's plan?
Luke 6:27–36 directs Jesus’ followers to love enemies, do good, and show the Father’s mercy. Luke does not quote Psalm 137. The comparison gives explicit Christian instruction for conduct while allowing this lament’s unbearable grief and violent desire to be read without concealment.
What is our position?
We don't have a position on this passage yet. When our study reaches a conclusion the text supports, it will appear here.
Where can I study this further?
No deeper study linked yet.