Scripture Text (NRSV)
Psalm 137
137:1 By the rivers of Babylon-- there we sat down and there we
wept when we remembered Zion.
137:2 On the willows there we hung up our harps. 137:3 For there
our captors asked us for songs, and our tormentors asked for mirth,
saying, "Sing us one of the songs of Zion!"
137:4 How could we sing the Lord's song in a foreign land?
137:5 If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand wither!
137:6 Let my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth, if I do not
remember you, if I do not set Jerusalem above my highest joy.
137:7 Remember, O LORD, against the Edomites the day of Jerusalem's
fall, how they said, "Tear it down! Tear it down! Down to its
foundations!"
137:8 O daughter Babylon, you devastator! Happy shall they be who
pay you back what you have done to us!
(Please consider omitting this Verse as it is
highly offensive, gruesome, and inhumane)
137:9 Happy shall they be who take your little ones and dash
them against the rock!
Comments:
This psalm is associated with a terrible period in the history of
Israel, the Babylonian exile. Any individual or community with
experiences of grief can relate to the sorrow, the weeping, in this
lament. More than likely, any who have grieved can also understand the
anger expressed in the gruesome image of the final verses. Who can say
if those who first sang this song by the rivers of Babylon truly
wished such harm on their captors. Certainly, they wished God to know
how deep was their suffering and how passionate was their faith.
*Gosh* despite the gruesome end, I'm glad I didn't ignore the Psalm
this week ...
First off, I always recall the Don McLean song "Babylon" - I don't
think I have a tape of it any more, or I'd play it during the
offertory.
Next, both churches in my church (the merged church) are singing the
Lord's song in a foreign land - and one of the churches hasn't even
left the premises. We might question whether the song we insist on
singing really is the Lord's song or is it our own song that mentions
the Lord.
Maybe I'm too tempted to get preachy rather than pastoral.
Sally
On second thought, it could go well on World Communion Sunday ... and
be a nice change from the "we've got to get going and do ministry in
the community" theme I usually give.
Sally
There is a lovely rendition of this in Godspell.
I'm working on a connection with world communion. The mourning and
grief reminds us of the grief of Good Friday. Yet the alternate psalm,
Lam 3:19-26 is one of hope, "great is thy faithfulness, O Lord"
reminding us of the promise of the resurrection.
We are still in exile, "poor wayfaring strangers traveling thru this
world of woe," disconnected from our ultimate home and the Lord we
love.
shalom, Larry cny
Hmmm... I wonder ... it seems to me there are times when it is
especially appropriate to go into a foreign land just to sing the
Lord's song. Not in spite of being a foreigner, but especially to
become a foreigner. To bring the Lord's song TO the foreign land.
It makes me consider some of the Lord's songs ... those songs that
seem to be somehow rooted in our faith, or to which our faith is
rooted. "Oh, You Must Have that True Religion," or "Old Time
Religion," ... well, what is "Old" time religion? How old is old? the
2nd century? the 1930's?
How can we bring that old time religion into 2004. How can we bring
our worship - in a "white' church style, with 20th century Southern
white gospel, into a neighborhood with a "black" church milieu and not
end up "insisting on our own way." How do we bring what's meaningful
to us to people who are different from us without yielding to the
temptation to encourage them (whoever the "them" is in our contexts)
to become like us?
Sally in GA
