Psalm 137:1: “By the rivers of Babylon, / There we sat down, yea, we wept / When we remembered Zion.”

May 22nd, 2024 by Pastor Ed in devotional

“The rivers of Babylon” still exist: the Tigris and Euphrates, which surround modern day Iraq. This psalm was probably written toward the end of the 70-year-long Babylonian exile, when the children of Israel were sent away captives to Babylon because they had rebelled against God. This psalm tells us that the Babylonians required the Jews to sing of their once beautiful, but now destroyed, Mount Zion.

These words became a pop reggae hit in 1970, the lyrics of the song being taken almost word for word from the Psalter. Some believe the Jamaicans were singing of the Atlantic Ocean as the rivers and Africa as Zion. Everyone who has been saved from their sins by surrendering to Jesus Christ, can relate to these words. We were all held captive by our sins, unable to escape on our own. And if it was not for the hand of God, we would still be slaves in exile, forced to sing.

“Thank You, LORD, for saving our souls and setting these captives free to serve You today.”