By The Rivers Of Babylon
Devotional
Companion to the Psalter
A Devotional Guide to the Psalms
Object:
By the rivers of Babylon
there we sat down and there we wept
when we remembered Zion.
For there our captors
asked us for songs,
and our tormentors asked for mirth, saying,
"Sing us one of the songs of Zion!"
-- Psalm 137:1, 3
Theme: Song of the exiles
Outline
1-3 -- In exile we were weeping instead of singing.
4-6 -- How could we sing -- and forget Jerusalem?
7-9 -- Lord, bring vengeance upon Edom and Babylon.
Notes
• Lament
• Written before or soon after the close of the exile.
• Rivers = Babylon's many willow-lined canals and streams.
• Mirth = entertainment, not spiritual witness sought by their working gang leaders.
• Edom, neighbor to the east, descended from Esau, with age-long hostilities.
• The barbarous custom of Oriental warfare spared neither women nor children -- much like modern warfare (v. 9).
• An example of the "songs of Zion" is Psalm 46. Read it and see one reason why they could not sing it!
• A railroad runs through the desert today from Baghdad, passes a small watering station with an arrow pointing into the desert, "to Babylon." It is now a mound or tel in the desert.
For Reflection
• With the temple and city of Jerusalem in ruins, they must have asked, "Where was God? What about his promises? Are we no better off than the heathen with their helpless gods?" Yet they prayed and kept the faith! This is amazing.
• When our world falls apart, do we have faith to still trust the Lord? (See 1 Corinthians 15:19.)
• Instead of wanting vengeance, pray for the enemies, as Jesus said. Pray for God to restrain and convert them!
Prayer
Lord God, you have transferred us into the kingdom of your Son and made us citizens of heaven. We are now far from home, living truly in a familiar but very "strange" land. But we will sing your praises here in anticipation of the glorious day that is coming, and in hope that your Spirit will use us to bring others to praise you, too, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
there we sat down and there we wept
when we remembered Zion.
For there our captors
asked us for songs,
and our tormentors asked for mirth, saying,
"Sing us one of the songs of Zion!"
-- Psalm 137:1, 3
Theme: Song of the exiles
Outline
1-3 -- In exile we were weeping instead of singing.
4-6 -- How could we sing -- and forget Jerusalem?
7-9 -- Lord, bring vengeance upon Edom and Babylon.
Notes
• Lament
• Written before or soon after the close of the exile.
• Rivers = Babylon's many willow-lined canals and streams.
• Mirth = entertainment, not spiritual witness sought by their working gang leaders.
• Edom, neighbor to the east, descended from Esau, with age-long hostilities.
• The barbarous custom of Oriental warfare spared neither women nor children -- much like modern warfare (v. 9).
• An example of the "songs of Zion" is Psalm 46. Read it and see one reason why they could not sing it!
• A railroad runs through the desert today from Baghdad, passes a small watering station with an arrow pointing into the desert, "to Babylon." It is now a mound or tel in the desert.
For Reflection
• With the temple and city of Jerusalem in ruins, they must have asked, "Where was God? What about his promises? Are we no better off than the heathen with their helpless gods?" Yet they prayed and kept the faith! This is amazing.
• When our world falls apart, do we have faith to still trust the Lord? (See 1 Corinthians 15:19.)
• Instead of wanting vengeance, pray for the enemies, as Jesus said. Pray for God to restrain and convert them!
Prayer
Lord God, you have transferred us into the kingdom of your Son and made us citizens of heaven. We are now far from home, living truly in a familiar but very "strange" land. But we will sing your praises here in anticipation of the glorious day that is coming, and in hope that your Spirit will use us to bring others to praise you, too, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
