Remembrance Sunday – Psalm 137 – Rev Dave Stedman

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“By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept when we remembered Zion. There on the poplars we hung our harps, for there our captors asked us for songs, our tormentors demanded songs of joy; they said, “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!” How can we sing the songs of the Lord while in a foreign land?” (Psalm 137:1-4)

Psalm 137 was written during the Babylonian Exile by an oppressed people who experienced separation, loss, sorrow, mockery, defiance and rage. Although their anger is expressed in vicious terms fuelled by a longing for revenge, there is within it a cry for justice and plea for God to change circumstances. As we experience our own form of pandemic exile, we too might be asking “how can we sing the Lord’s song”? Psalm 137 does not provide an easy answer but it does give us permission to express raw emotion, lament and pray for God to act decisively.