By the Waters of Babylon

Loving God, we know that you are there for us in good times and bad. Help us today to acknowledge the pain in our lives and give it to you. Amen.


By the waters of Babylon we sat down and wept.
Sometimes life sucks.
There are days when nothing goes right.

As for our harps, we hung them up.
It is hard to rejoice when those we love are sick or dying.

How shall we sing the Lord’s song upon an alien soil?
How can we make ourselves sing when our hearts are breaking?
Sometimes the Lord’s song is a lament.
Sometimes what we have to say to God is full of despair.
Sometimes what we have to say to God is angry.

If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget its skill.
Those days when we feel like staying home, staying in bed, being entirely alone – those are the days when we truly need God.
When we feel the most alone, that is when we need to remember that God is always with us.

Remember the day of Jerusalem, O Lord, against the people of Edom, who said, “Down with it! down with it! even to the ground!”
Forgiveness is not the same as forgetting.
If we forget what has been done to us, we are fooling ourselves.
To forgive, we need to let it go.
We need to give it to God.

O Daughter of Babylon, doomed to destruction, happy the one who pays you back for what you have done to us!
It is okay to be angry.
It is right to give our anger to God.

Happy shall he be who takes your little ones, and dashes them against the rock!
Our true feelings can be ugly.
There is no safer place to share our feelings and our anger.
God is listening.
God hears us.
God shares in our pain.



Psalm 137

By the waters of Babylon we sat down and wept, *
  when we remembered you, O Zion.
As for our harps, we hung them up *
  on the trees in the midst of that land.

For those who led us away captive asked us for a song,
and our oppressors called for mirth: *
  ”Sing us one of the songs of Zion.”
How shall we sing the Lord’s song *
  upon an alien soil?

If I forget you, O Jerusalem, *
  let my right hand forget its skill.
Let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth
if I do not remember you, *
  if I do not set Jerusalem above my highest joy.

Remember the day of Jerusalem, O Lord,
against the people of Edom, *
  who said, ”Down with it! down with it!
  even to the ground!”
O Daughter of Babylon, doomed to destruction, *
  happy the one who pays you back
  for what you have done to us!

Happy shall he be who takes your little ones, *
  and dashes them against the rock!


Please keep your copy of the psalm at hand during today’s meditation. Refer to it as often as you wish, particularly during the third song (psalm 137 as found in the Czech-language Bible of Kralice.)


By the Waters of Babylon – David Drury (Russian)
By the Waters of Babylon I Drove My Car – Dudley Saunders
Ten Biblical Songs, Op. 99: No. 7 – Antonin Dvorak