The interpretation timeline

Ps 136:4

How this passage has been read — the sources, oldest to newest.

From the early Church Fathers to now.

2 Patristic · 1 Catholic

Ps 136:4 · Douay-Rheims
“How shall we sing the song of the Lord in a strange land?”
Patristic before A.D. 750
389
A.D.
A.D. 329–390
“Certainly not, friends and brethren—I still call you "brethren," though your attitude is not brotherly—do not let us accept such a view. We must not be like fiery, unruly horses, throwing reason our rider and spitting out the bit of discretion that so usefully restrains us, and running wide of the turning post. Let us conduct our debates within our frontiers and not be carried away to Egypt or dragged off to Assyria. Let us not "sing the song of the Lord in a foreign land," by which I mean before any and every audience, heathen or Christian, friend or foe, sympathetic or hostile: these keep all too close a watch on us, and they would wish that the spark of our dissensions might become a conflagration; they kindle it, they fan it, by means of its own draught they raise it to the skies, and without our knowing what they are up to, they make it higher than the flames of Babylon that blazed all around. Having no strength in their own teaching, they hunt for it in our weakness, and for this reason like flies settling on wounds, they settle on our misfortune—or should I say our mistakes? Let us be blind to our doings no longer, and let us not neglect the proprieties in these matters. If we cannot resolve our disputes outright, let us at least make this mutual concession, to utter spiritual truths with the restraint due to them, to discuss holy things in a holy manner and not be broadcast to profane hearing what is not to be divulged.”
Source
430
A.D.
Augustine of Hippo Patristic
A.D. 354–430
“"Those" then "who have led us captive," the devil and his angels, when have they spoken unto us: "Sing us one of the songs of Sion"? What answer we? Babylon beareth thee, Babylon containeth thee, Babylon nourisheth thee, Babylon speaks by thy mouth, thou knowest not to take in save what glitters for the present, thou knowest not how to meditate on things of eternity, thou takest not in what thou askest. "How shall we sing the Lord's song in a strange land?" [Psalm 137:4]. Truly, brethren, so it is. Begin to wish to preach the truth in such measure as ye know it, and see how needful it is for you to endure such mockers, persecutors of the truth, full of falsehood. Reply to them, when they ask of you what they cannot take in, and say in full confidence of your holy song, "How shall we sing the Lord's song in a strange land!"”
Source
1,419 years pass — nothing from this stretch is hosted yet
Post-Reformation c. 1650 – 1900
1849
A.D.
1774–1849
“Land. They were oppressed with grief, (Ecclesiasticus xxii. 6.) and unwilling to expose sacred things to profanation, though there was no prohibition for them to sing out of Judea, for their mutual comfort. (Calmet) — They excuse themselves on both accounts.”
Modern · 1953 →

The in-app commentary runs from the Fathers to the early-modern record, then stops — that's where the public-domain sources end, not where the reading does. For the modern reading, follow the sources directly.