Scripture Focus: Psalm 137.1
1 By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept 
when we remembered Zion.

Psalm 138.6-8
6 Though the Lord is exalted, he looks kindly on the lowly; 
though lofty, he sees them from afar. 
7 Though I walk in the midst of trouble, 
you preserve my life. 
You stretch out your hand against the anger of my foes; 
with your right hand you save me. 
8 The Lord will vindicate me; 
your love, Lord, endures forever— 
do not abandon the works of your hands.

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Reflection: Out of Place Praise
By Rachel Schuck

Have you ever been far away from home, yearning to be surrounded by the familiar people and places you love? Life loses some of its sparkle in the grueling years of waiting to return. Even beloved hobbies and means of expression, such as music, fall out of practice at the seat of dejection. Psalm 137 is a sorrowful hymn that expresses the Jews’ longing for Jerusalem during the Babylonian exile.

Psalm 137 has inspired many songs across genres and cultures that give voice to the sorrow and aching of laboring as strangers in a foreign land. Listen to Marion William’s “Mean Old World” as an example.

As God’s sons and daughters living in a broken world, we experience daily encounters with our out-of-placeness. (Hebrews 13.14-15; 1 Chronicles 29.15; Psalms 119:19; Matthew 5.13-16) However, Jesus’s sacrifice provides a wholeness beyond our grasp. Our yearning for this wholeness comes from an understanding of the complete righteousness of God and the ways our experiences on this earth fall short (Revelation 21.5; Matthew 5.17).

Paul expresses this yearning poignantly at the end of his first letter to the Corinthian church as he signs “Maranatha,” meaning “the Lord comes,” or more imperatively, “Come, Lord!” (1 Corinthians 16.21-24).

From Neo-Babylonian exile, to the early Church, to the trials of today, we are each implicated in the expansive biblical narrative of God’s plan for creation. We are characters in God’s story of salvation that continually points to the cross. It is right to grieve separation from and yearn to be united with God. So how do we respond in a productive way to this grief and yearning?The Lord, through David’s song of praise in Psalm 138, provides an answer: worship and song! David voices the reason for the hope that we have—hope that transcends our status as outsiders in this broken world.

God is unswervingly loving, faithful, and true to his word. He answers our cries for deliverance and empowers us in his name. His glory is worthy of praise from his children and their enemies alike. While it is important to grieve our lostness, it is even more powerful to praise God in the midst of our exile and worship despite it all. How will you turn your cries of out-of-placeness into songs of praise?

Divine Hours Prayer: The Request for Presence
But as for me, I am poor and needy; come to me speedily, O God. — Psalm 70.5

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summertime by Phyllis Tickle.


​Today’s Readings
Isaiah 62 (Listen 2:09)
Psalms 137-138 (Listen 2:13)

​This Weekend’s Readings
Isaiah 63 (Listen 3:25), Psalms 139 (Listen 2:26)
Isaiah 64 (Listen 2:01), Psalms 140-141 (Listen 2:44)

Read more about An Undefiled Heart
I’ve never heard of an “Ezekiel fast” but “Daniel fasts” have massive popularity…we’d prefer Daniel’s struggle to Ezekiel’s.

Read more about Resisting in Faith
Whatever we would resist, and whatever we would wish to change in our culture, we cannot do it using the worldly strategies that surround us.

Selected by reader, CJS
It is so hard in this world today to not see the injustices around us—every single day.  Some days I don’t even want to read the news feeds or listen to the TV.  Injustice is everywhere. This post helped me bring my own personal struggle with this entire topic into a spiritual zone.  It calmed me and helped me think more clearly about the whole subject. The title is so very appropriate!

The next time we think, “someone has to pay,” may we also hear the voice of Christ speak within us saying, “I will pay. It is finished. Forgive them. They know not what they do.”


Scripture Focus: Psalm 137.4-6
How can we sing the songs of the Lord
    while in a foreign land?
If I forget you, Jerusalem,
    may my right hand forget its skill.
May my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth
    if I do not remember you,
if I do not consider Jerusalem
    my highest joy.

Reflection: Our Least Favorite Commandment :: Readers’ Choice
Originally published July 5th, 2019
By John Tillman

When violence or injustice harms those close to us, we typically react with admirable compassion toward the victims. “Even sinners do that.”

What is more revealing of a heart shaped by Christ is how we act toward perpetrators. Down in the comment streams below fundraisers and bake sales, you will also find our baser instincts. You will find those vowing violence against the perpetrators. You will find those calling for merciless application of the fullest extent of the law’s punishment. You will find those wishing prison rape on the attackers.

All hearts shaped by our violent culture react this way. Even Christian communities react this way—sometimes when they have only been attacked with harsh words. There is, perhaps, no commandment of Jesus that we flout with more impunity than, “do good to those who hate you.”

Our first instinctive thought regarding injustice is, “someone has to pay.” And we prefer “justice” done by our own hands, in our own way. 

In scripture there are often violent men and calls for violent actions. Psalm 137 has long been struggled over by faithful believers as almost too terrible to exist in the same Bible with Psalm 139 that speaks tenderly of life in the womb. (Yet, even Psalm 139 calls for the death of the wicked.)

Speaking of this most violent of Psalms, Charles Spurgeon recognized that as bitter as the psalmist’s cry is, he still is relinquishing his own anger to be tempered by God into the sword of justice and administered by God at a time of his own choosing. 

“We may rest assured that every unrighteous power is doomed to destruction and that, from the throne of God, justice will be measured out to all whose law is force, whose rule is selfishness, and whose policy is oppression…shall despots crush virtue beneath their iron heel and never be punished? Time will show.” — Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Injustice is before us, behind us, beneath us, and above us. Yet we rest assured that Christ who is before us, behind us, beneath us, and above us sees it too. God has given judgment to the Son and he will carry it out. All “whose policy is oppression,” will answer to the judgment of Christ.

The next time we think, “someone has to pay,” may we also hear the voice of Christ speak within us saying, “I will pay. It is finished. Forgive them. They know not what they do.”

Divine Hours Prayer: The Greeting
I will give thanks for what you have done and declare the goodness of your Name in the presence of the godly. — Psalm 52.9

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summertime by Phyllis Tickle.

Today’s Readings
1 Samuel 5-6 (Listen – 6:03) 
Romans 5 (Listen – 3:53)

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Read more about Choosing Gentleness Over Violence
Our verbal hyperbole is being borne out in actions…online opinion, that leads to opposition, that leads to violence or threats of violence.