1-14-2024

Good Morning All,

          Psalm 137:1; “By the waters of Babylon, there we sat down and wept, when we remembered Zion.”

     I remember watching a special on the television about slavery in the United States prior to the Civil War.  It spent a portion of the time on the men and women who made their living chasing down runaway slaves and returning them to their rightful “owners”.  The narrator read from a diary of one of these men and he told how they rarely tried to track the runaways.  They simply headed to the ocean coast and waited.  It seems that the slaves would immediately head in an easterly direction trying to run home to Africa.  They would often be caught standing on the coastal front staring out at the ocean.  The slaves would soon realize that they wouldn’t get home.

    Our verse is a lot like that.  This was a Psalm that sings the lament of being held as a captive slave in a faraway land.  This was a Psalm that the Israelites sang while in Babylon after the Babylonians captured and destroyed Jerusalem and carried many off as slaves to Babylon.  It was a Psalm of great pain and sadness.  It was a Psalm sung by many who thought they would never return to their home.  They feared that they would die in a strange land, forgotten by God.

    Are there times when you feel like that?  Do you feel like you are being held captive in a faraway land with no hope of rescue?  Do you ever feel that God has abandoned you?  Many of us have at one time or another, perhaps even now.  Have you had a health setback or someone in your family?  Is there a relationship in your life that seems to be floundering?  Are you having job troubles or other financial strains?    It can feel like we are on the wrong side of the ocean looking toward home.

    This is one of the devil’s favorite tricks.  He wants you to think that there is an ocean of distance between you and God.  The devil wants you to think that distance is so great that God has forgotten you.  The devil wants you to sit on the shore, by the waters of Babylon and weep in sorrow, all alone and without hope.

    Yet we have hope.  When you sit there and feel all alone, look around; you will see many brothers and sisters in Christ waiting to comfort you, to offer you that holy consolation that God promises to bring us in our times of need.  It will come in the form of our family and friends; it will be in the form of someone we barely know but who has experienced what we are experiencing right now.  This comfort and consolation may take many different shapes and forms, but they are all God actively seeking to bring your comfort, to bring you hope, to rescue you from the bondage and the pain that you find yourself in.  Trust in God’s favor; it is with us at all times.

Father of all mercies, there are times when I feel like the waters of Babylon are keeping us apart.  Yet through Jesus, you have brought me through the waters to your protective arms.  Be with those who feel especially lost and hurt.  Heal them with your loving Spirit.  Guide me to be your hands in their life.  In the precious name of Jesus, we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret