“By the Waters of Babylon,” TFBF 67
By the waters of Babylon
where we sat down,
and there we wept
when we remembered Zion.
For the wicked carried us away,
Captivity required from us a song.
How can we sing our holy song in a strange land?
So let the words of my mouth
and the meditations of my heart
Be acceptable in your sight, O God.
Devotion
I once served a congregation that celebrated 50-60 baptisms annually. We gathered parents and godparents monthly to talk about the functions of the water and the words of promise. Water sustains life, washes, brings chaos through flood and drowns. It provides recreation and buoys us up. In baptism, we are all brought through a water experience on our way to the promise.
Those same years, in the role of foster parent for unaccompanied refugee children, I observed the loss, grief and despair that exiles experience. Consequently, I can imagine exiles in this song remembering their home by the Babylonian waters. Was God only in a far-away place? Or was God in their present place?
How do we sing to God when we are captive to strange ideas in places where God is not trusted or strange gods are trusted? But sing we do, because God is here.
Prayer
O God, help us to sing. Amen.