I imagine your heart is breaking like mine over so many things in the mix of our day – Covid-19, months of sheltering in place, death, confusion, online church, loneliness, to mask or not to mask, the senseless death of George Floyd, and now the senseless violence and destruction drowning out necessary peaceful protest.
The heaviness of our day is on me and I know many of you feel it as well. The immensity of matters our nation is carrying in its collective soul is overwhelming at the moment. We need help in the most desperate way from Jesus and we need Eternal truth to guide our way, not the weakness of man’s wisdom! These current days led me to think on a song written during some of the most devastating days in Judah’s history.
After so much rebellion marking the nation’s history over the centuries, God tells the nation through a number of prophets of His pending coming judgment upon them for their rejection of His Ways! The punishment came by the hand of Babylon, and when the siege of Jerusalem is finished, almost an entire nation is carried away from the land of Judah to Babylon for 70 long years.
While Biblical Jewish history is marked by some really devastating and sad moments, this one may be one of the saddest moments and their initial perspective on life in Babylon is recorded in a song found in Psalm 137. As you read it, you can feel the heaviness of heart, regret, pain, uncertainty, doubt, and hope as they sit on the banks of the Euphrates in Babylon and ponder their lives. Let’s read the Words…
Psalm 137:1 By the waters of Babylon, there we sat down and wept, when we remembered Zion. 2 On the willows there we hung up our lyres. 3 For there our captors required of us songs, and our tormentors, mirth, saying, “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!” 4 How shall we sing the Lord's song in a foreign land? 5 If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget its skill! 6 Let my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth, if I do not remember you, if I do not set Jerusalem above my highest joy!
The writer of this song is reflecting back upon the time in Babylon during their captivity. Once, joy had been in their hearts in freedom, but now it was only the oppression of living as slaves and oppressed people that filled their minds.
Rather than living in the blessings of God, they were living in the fruit of their rebellion by carrying some of the strongest burdens of their lives and they did not know what to do. The burdens led to a great brokenness and hopelessness as they begin to live out their captivity.
As we have stated, they were overthrown and carried away not because of weakness, but for their embracing of wickedness.
Their rejection of God led Him to raise up Nebuchadnezzar to come and break down the walls of Zion.
Since they would not bow to God, then He would force them to this posture by a powerful pagan king, in hopes that under his thumb, they might look up again and repent of their sin and return to Yahweh.
We need this return to Christ so desperately in these days. Jesus, please help us!
Our nation has in many ways become & embraced the worldly life and mindset of Babylon. In Ancient Days and during the days of the Tribulation, Babylon is a reference and picture of the ways of the World that rejects God and truth – a world of immorality and a place where living for self dominates our culture.
Here is what happens always in Babylon – barrenness comes, that leads to a bitterness & that results in a brokenness.
One could almost say that the only ones who like Babylon are Babylonians.
But not all who live in Babylon become like Babylon as there are those who remain faithful to God, yet they still feel strongly the burdens of life in Babylon. The tension is real, but Christ is Ruler over All!
Again, Babylon is a depiction of the sin and the idolatry of a world that rejects Christ, and life in Babylon can still be one where joy is known when one walks with Christ. If we are not careful, living in this world, even for those who love Christ can get a bit confusing. This is why intimacy with Him is of such a necessity to navigate the confusion.
Babylon’s Name
Babylon means confusion and the source of its origin goes all the way back to Genesis 11. Now centuries and centuries after its origin, God’s broken people found themselves on the banks of the River in a foreign land, attempting to make sense of the confusing land in which they lived as “aliens and strangers”.
How do we live in the days of Babylon?
1. Allow our Hearts to be Broken in Babylon as We Set our Mind on our Real Home
Psalm 137:1 By the waters of Babylon, there we sat down and wept, when we remembered Zion.
The Jews were in Babylon, yet their hearts were in Zion. This condition led them to sit down and weep of over what was, what could have been and what could the future hold.
· They wept as they could not get Zion out of their minds.
· They wept over the death of so many loved ones
· They wept over the loss of almost everything they owned.
· They wept over the destroyed city of Jerusalem and her great temple.
· They wept over the agony of a forced march from Judea to Babylon
· They wept over the cruelty of their captors.
· They wept over the loss of such a pleasant and blessed past.
· They wept over the forced captivity of their present.
· They wept over the bleak nature of their future.
· They wept over their sin that invited such judgment from God.
A Shining Light and Perspective in Babylon
We know from Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach & Abednego, that they found an avenue to be an influence in Babylon and thrive, just as we can. They shined greatly for the glory of God in a pagan secular culture.
Zion
This is a specific reference to Jerusalem and it means “City of Peace”. There are two towering cities in the Bible – Zion and Babylon and they are completely opposite of one another.
Zion is the home of God’s people, joy is found in the city, it is marked by holiness and peace, & represents the presence of God
God’s people’s citizenship belongs to Zion, yet until we fully get to our ultimate home, we live our days living for God and making a difference in a world with the most twisted values. Here by the “Waters of our Culture”, we as His people feel the overwhelming weight of this life in Babylon and we feel the weight of the lies and twisted values of the world we reside in. As they sat, they longed for the hope and peace of Zion. It likely seemed as if it would never be tasted again – just a thing of the past.
I sense that so many of us are “sitting by the waters” and longing for the Peace of Zion to fall upon our land and bring the healing we desperately need. Is it possible to things to change? Yes!
For the Jews, as they sat there weeping, a sadness they could not get rid of filled their hearts as they set their minds on Zion. The sadness was so strong, they could not even sing their songs so they did this under the weeping willows…2 On the willows there we hung up our lyres.
Large willow trees grew on the shores of the great river, and because there were no songs left in these captives, they hung their harps on those willow trees for another day. This stoppage is not what is needed, but it reveals the overwhelming nature that can dominate the at times senseless confusion of Babylon’s ways.
These exiled people found in the moment the difficulty of singing the songs of their homeland, but we should also see that they did not throw away or break their instruments, they simply hung them up for the moment until a new day. Sometimes a break is needed to reflect and get ready for a new season, but the break should not be in the pursuing of Christ. Everyone needs to process the hard moments of life, but as we process, it should be done in light of Scripture not the ways of the world.
We Should Think of Zion
We should note this…There is something wrong in the citizen of Zion’s heart if there is never a thinking of our home in Zion (Heaven) and there is something wrong if we never sit and weep over what has been lost because of sin. Our hearts should break over the sin in our culture – every injustice and every act that belittles the name of Jesus.
If Zion fades from our minds and we no longer feel the heaviness of a sin-soaked culture, then we have lost our way or one was never truly a follower of Christ. “Zion” should dominate our thoughts as we pray “your Kingdom come, Your Will be done on earth as it is in heaven”.
Babylon Can’t Satisfy
In such broken days, it has been my prayer that God’s true children would remember why we can never be happy “embracing Babylon” – for the blessedness of tasting salvation in Jesus is so far more satisfying than any food Babylon offers us.
Though the Jews now in Babylon had previously been filled with the sweet taste of Zion, the bitter flavors of their shame in Babylon would remind them of the desire to seek the glory of God wherever one finds themselves.
This should mark us right now as well.
2. There is a Song that is Difficult to Get Out – 137:3-4
Psalm 137:3 For there our captors required of us songs, and our tormentors, mirth, saying, “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!” 4 How shall we sing the Lord's song in a foreign land? 5 If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget its skill!
This verse points to the reality that at times in our lives, the overwhelming nature of circumstances makes it difficult to sing in Babylon. We are mocked and misunderstood as we live here in a world that hates us and we are not genuinely of it (John 17:14-16). We are often seen as not having any solid answers and if we were to sing our song, they would not understand it anyway. Their oppressors wanted them to entertain them in their great pain and in our day, people are often entertained at our Scriptural stance on matters.
Why is it difficult to get our song out? Bondage ties up everything!
The Babylonians requested songs for entertainment, but the song just was not there at the moment in the hearts of the exiles. Here is why…
The songs of God’s people’s lives are to be more than some performance;
they are to come from their relational heart of love for Christ.
When they do live and sing again in freedom, they are powerful and beautiful.
It is only when we are free, that our tongues are loosed to sing in spite of the darkness of the day.
The 1st recorded song in the Bible is written by Moses (Exodus 15) after the people were saved by crossing the Red Sea safely by God’s power. So many life songs flow from the place of found freedom from a place of anguish. A great sorrow can steal the song from our heart, but it can also be the catalyst for great faith as we have seen throughout church history.
Babylon does not have to crush us and this is likely the best example of this in the bible form the life of Paul and Silas…Acts 16:23 And when they had inflicted many blows upon them, they threw them into prison, ordering the jailer to keep them safely. 24 Having received this order, he put them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks. 25 About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them,
Even in the midst of trouble, as His redeemed people, God will put a song in our hearts and they will know He is the greater treasure always.
3. Determine that We will Remember Christ as our Highest Joy – 137:6
Psalm 137:6 Let my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth, if I do not remember you, if I do not set Jerusalem above my highest joy!
A troubled world like Babylon should not rob us of our joy. As I wrote earlier, my heart is heavy with what we are seeing on all sides of the issues & what we are experiencing that stems from the devastation found in Babylon.
I needed this text’s perspective, as the troubles of this life have weighed me down a bit over the last several days.
We must not let Babylon take our faith, voice, & songs!
Hope remains ours because of Christ!
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