Be Still And Know

Psalm 137:3-4 This is an agonising psalm. The people are in exile far from their homes. Sitting by the rivers of Babylon, they were about 1,000 miles from their beloved Jerusalem. In their misery, they couldn’t bring themselves to make music, so they hung their harps on the branches of poplar trees. However, the local people were insistent: they wanted to hear a happy song. But the exiles could think of nothing worse. In despair they cried out: “How can we sing the songs of the Lord while in a pagan land?” The pain and awkwardness of living in exile is the experience of every Christian. We are here on earth on a very temporary basis. As the apostle Paul put it: “we are citizens of heaven, where the Lord Jesus Christ lives” (Philippians 3:20). In his first letter, Peter told his readers that this should shape the way in which they lived. He wrote: “Dear friends, I warn you as ‘temporary residents and foreigners’ to keep away from worldly desires that wage war against your very souls” (1 Peter 2:11). It is