THERE WE SAT; THERE WE WEPT
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Opening Prayer
Thank you, Father, for the freedom that is mine to gather with others and worship you. Forgive me for those times when I take that privilege for granted.
Read PSALM 137
For additional translations of the passage, use this link to Bible Gateway.
Psalm 137
1 By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept
when we remembered Zion.
2 There on the poplars
we hung our harps,
3 for there our captors asked us for songs,
our tormentors demanded songs of joy;
they said, “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!”
4 How can we sing the songs of the Lord
while in a foreign land?
5 If I forget you, Jerusalem,
may my right hand forget its skill.
6 May my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth
if I do not remember you,
if I do not consider Jerusalem
my highest joy.
7 Remember, Lord, what the Edomites did
on the day Jerusalem fell.
“Tear it down,” they cried,
“tear it down to its foundations!”
8 Daughter Babylon, doomed to destruction,
happy is the one who repays you
according to what you have done to us.
9 Happy is the one who seizes your infants
and dashes them against the rocks.
New International Version (NIV)Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Reflect
Grief and loss are inescapable human experiences. Today, recall the losses you have known: people, places, or companion animals; maybe the loss of opportunity or even freedom. Sit and weep before God.Lament is the soundtrack of grief, with an impressive playlist in the psalms. It is reckoned that 42 of the 150 psalms in the canon are in this genre. Almost a third of Israel’s songbook consists of songs of loss. And for many of us, that sounds about right. When I add up all the tears, bereavements, losses, disappointments, and regrets I’ve shared, a theme of lament is there in the background.
This psalm is one of the more memorable laments, in large measure because of the chart-topping version released by the German band Boney M in 1978: ‘By the Rivers of Babylon’ (v. 1). Strange that a song mourning the devastation of ancient Jerusalem in the sixth century BC should top the charts in the 1970s. And it’s the loss of a place that’s the emotional center of this psalm—Jerusalem, the city of David, the nation’s greatest king. Jerusalem, the place of the temple, God’s dwelling place, where heaven and earth came together. Jerusalem, home to a dispersed people, now a ruin. Jerusalem, the psalmist’s highest joy. All now destroyed.
Apply
Where are places dear to you, where you feel at home and close to God?
Closing prayer
Father of Compassion, God of All Comfort, the heartbreaks I have experienced (or even anticipate) have not gone unnoticed by you. Thank you that, when I grieve, you are with me, offering consolation.
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