Thoughts for the Day

By the rivers of Babylon
there we sat down and there we wept
when we remembered Zion.
On the willows there
we hung up our harps.
for there our captors
asked us for songs,
and our tormentors asked for mirth, saying,
‘Sing us one of the songs of Zion!’

How could we sing the Lord’s song
in a foreign land?
If I forget you, O Jerusalem,
let my right hand wither!
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.

(Lectionary, New Revised Standard Version)

Thoughts

Month after month television and online broadcasters record disasters - the most recent being Hurricane Melissa that hit the island of Jamaica, and then the dreadful massacre of hundreds of civilians in El Fasher in Sudan’s western Darfur region (which despite almost apocalyptic descriptions got little attention). In the west we find it hard to comprehend such scenes but continue to bicker about rising numbers of refugees with little understanding of what many of these migrants have faced. With the exception of the covid pandemic we have not faced a disaster on such a scale, so it can be hard to put ourselves into the mindset of the writer of Psalm 137. But if we try to imagine living in one of the current disaster zones perhaps we might understand the lament made so famous by the group 'Boney M' in the 1970s: "By the waters of Babylon".

Almost 600 years before Jesus, Jerusalem was destroyed. The first Temple and the city was razed to the ground by the Babylonians and its people were killed or taken in captivity to Babylon. The event was seared into the mind of its people and has never been forgotten. Psalm 137, written after the exile, is riven with pain that builds throughout its verses. But this is not just caused by the horror of what has happened. Far worse is the fact that the psalmist is not completely sure that Yahweh is still with them in this strange land, and even if He is, how is it that He has allowed this disaster to happen? Yet despite this the writer swears he will not forget God.

When we too are at rock bottom, when our world has collapsed around us, and when we cannot see the purposes of God then we must also simply hold fast to our Heavenly Father, believing that there is hope beyond the chaos, and that His purposes will prevail.

Lord God,
we pray for all caught up in war,
or by the chaos caused by nature's disasters.
When they feel at rock bottom,
and have nowhere else to turn,
may they remember that You are there
ready to offer comfort and help.
Help us to remember to pray
for those in need,
and to help in any way that we can.
Amen.