By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept when we remembered Zion.By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down. Yes, we wept, when we remembered Zion.By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion.By the rivers of Babylon, There we sat down, yea, we wept, When we remembered Zion.
3 sermons cite this verse
… dirge kind of theme. 137 begins by the rivers of Babylon there we sat down and wept. When we remembered Zion upon the willows in the midst of it we hung our harps for there our captors demanded of us songs and our tormentors mirth saying, sing us one of those songs of Zion. Can you just hear the sarcasm? Break out one of those great songs you love to sing. Sing for us now. They were as silent as you're sitting at this moment. And he adds, how can we sing the Lord's song in a foreign land. It's as if you and I were taken captive this next week and marching toward the place where we will be imprisoned. One of our captors said, sing us one of those church songs. Harmonize, blessed assurance. Jesus is mine. Let's hear that one. How about, and can it be that I should gain an interest in the Savior's blood? Sing that one written by Wesley. Sing that song. and a mighty fortress is our God. …
… and that was why Psalm 139 describes the circumstances where they said by the rivers of Babylon there we sat down and we wept and we hanged our harps as it were on the willow trees looking to one another and saying how can we sing the songs of Zion in this strange place and indeed it's recorded that the captors taunted them saying, why don't you sing some of your songs? Well, it would seem so incongruous, wouldn't it? Incidentally, and in passing, disobedience and heartfelt song singing and praise do not sleep in the same bed. I have discovered that in the journey of my life, when I am disobedient to the clear instructions of God's word, when I am tempted to try it on my own way. If my friends were to come to me and say, why don't you sing some of those songs like how deep the Father's love for you? Why don't you sing about these things? Well, my disobedience has silenced my tongue. …
POOR Israel, as a nation, had its ups and downs. It was sometimes in captivity and soon it experienced a deliverance. At one time it was diminished and brought low through affliction, persecution, or sorrow. At another, it was multiplied and increased exceedingly. It was the deliverance from one of these evil seasons that Jeremiah was commissioned to announce by the promise that the Lord's people would come again to their own land. Let us consider, for a few minutes, the circumstances of these Israelites. It must have been a sorrowful thing for them to dwell in a land that was not their own, to hear a language they didn't understood, to see the fierce inhabitants, their enemies, and the idolatrous worship of the heathen gods. We can well conceive of their mournful spirit and the feeling with which they gave utterance to their plaintive song, "By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yes, we wept when we remembered Zion. We hung our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof. For there they that carried us away captive required of us a song; and they that wasted us required of us mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion. How shall we sing the Lord's song in a strange land?" But God sent among them Prophets who told them that they would be restored and herein lay the glory of the promise—that it included all the captive people of God—whatever might be their rank or position! The blind, the halt and the lame would all come back. The hoary-headed man with his staff, equally with the young and vigorous—the lame as well as he who could run like the rabbit—all would come to the Mountain of the Lord! Nor should even women be left behind—"The blind and the lame, the woman with child and she that travails with child together: a great company shall return there." Had the Prophet not said that the blind and the lame would come, that their faces should be turned towards the holy city—had he not said that they would enter into the Temple of the Lord—they might have thought that being poor and blind, they would never be allowed to come unto the holy mountain, even Zion. …