Post 144.
Often, I awaken and observe a watch in the night by studying the bible. Last night, I read Psalm 137, the beginning of which is known through the song, “Rivers of Babylon.” The psalms express the full range of human emotion—our full internal life. Good and bad. God knows it all—and there’s no reason to hide the truth of our thoughts. The psalm vividly takes us to Babylon, where in despair a musician reflects on the brutality his people have received from their Babylonian captors. Enslaved, the psalmist sorrows at being forced to sing cheerily for his slavers as they dance, eat, drink, and celebrate their victory over Jerusalem. “How could we sing a song of the Lord in a foreign land?” (Psalm 137:4).
The psalmist then promises to always remember Jerusalem and curses himself if he would dare forget. Then the psalm turns dark. Perhaps the darkest moment in scripture, as he prays for Babylon’s desolation, and blesses whoever pays back Babylon for its destruction of Jerusalem. He prays, “Blessed the one who seizes your children and smashes them against the rock.” (Psalm 137:9). What a horrible thing to wish for. It is horrible also when we do this—and God sees our darkest hopes in us.
How bizarre it is to hear the German Reggae/Disco group Boney M’s 1978 cover of “Rivers of Babylon” become popular on TikTok and YouTube Shorts. Repeating only the first part of Psalm 137, and to upbeat-cheery rhythms, Boney M’s hit fails to plummet into the depths of despair voiced by the psalmist. And yet, there’s something in the paradoxical nature of it, a bubbly song in the shallowest of short-form internet rubbish with a finger pointing to a moment of earnest despair, hopelessness and misery. It could easily be dismissed as just another moment of postmodern audio- brain rot, but like any expression of beauty, even miscarried ones, the finger pointing is pointing toward Beautying. The involuntary cheerfulness of the psalmist expressed in trite baloney. Relationships are never perfect because people are never perfect, and even at our worse, any attempts can reveal Beauty—in all Beauty’s horror, false joy, and feeling.
DS
Link to image: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boney_M.#/media/File:Boney_M._(1977_Atlantic_Records_publicity_photo).jpg
Often, I awaken and observe a watch in the night by studying the bible. Last night, I read Psalm 137, the beginning of which is known through the song, “Rivers of Babylon.” The psalms express the full range of human emotion—our full internal life. Good and bad. God knows it all—and there’s no reason to hide the truth of our thoughts. The psalm vividly takes us to Babylon, where in despair a musician reflects on the brutality his people have received from their Babylonian captors. Enslaved, the psalmist sorrows at being forced to sing cheerily for his slavers as they dance, eat, drink, and celebrate their victory over Jerusalem. “How could we sing a song of the Lord in a foreign land?” (Psalm 137:4).
The psalmist then promises to always remember Jerusalem and curses himself if he would dare forget. Then the psalm turns dark. Perhaps the darkest moment in scripture, as he prays for Babylon’s desolation, and blesses whoever pays back Babylon for its destruction of Jerusalem. He prays, “Blessed the one who seizes your children and smashes them against the rock.” (Psalm 137:9). What a horrible thing to wish for. It is horrible also when we do this—and God sees our darkest hopes in us.
How bizarre it is to hear the German Reggae/Disco group Boney M’s 1978 cover of “Rivers of Babylon” become popular on TikTok and YouTube Shorts. Repeating only the first part of Psalm 137, and to upbeat-cheery rhythms, Boney M’s hit fails to plummet into the depths of despair voiced by the psalmist. And yet, there’s something in the paradoxical nature of it, a bubbly song in the shallowest of short-form internet rubbish with a finger pointing to a moment of earnest despair, hopelessness and misery. It could easily be dismissed as just another moment of postmodern audio- brain rot, but like any expression of beauty, even miscarried ones, the finger pointing is pointing toward Beautying. The involuntary cheerfulness of the psalmist expressed in trite baloney. Relationships are never perfect because people are never perfect, and even at our worse, any attempts can reveal Beauty—in all Beauty’s horror, false joy, and feeling.
DS
Link to image: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boney_M.#/media/File:Boney_M._(1977_Atlantic_Records_publicity_photo).jpg
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