Lament: When anger is our highest creed
Our news invariably seems to have images of war. For those who grieve, on whatever ‘side’, Psalm 137 may give them, or us, voice. It is often missing from our worship. Some may remember ‘By the rivers of Babylon’ by Boney M. Halfway through the song they change to Psalm 19: ‘May he words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight…’. Perhaps Psalm 137 is seen as too violent, not Christian. But when we have suffered at the hands of others, when we grieve, lament is legitimate. Then it is understandable to use Psalm 137 in its entirety. And so I want to sing in solidarity with people in places of war and degradation…these words were inspired by the spirit of that Psalm.
1 When anger is our highest creed,
revenge the motivating force;
God, understand our depth of hurt,
our need for action, not just thought.
2 Ejected from what makes us safe,
familiar ground and well-known names,
we sicken for the things we've seen,
all sense of hope and courage drains.
3 We cannot celebrate our faith,
and faith lacks meaning, all is lost;
for nothing is as it once was,
we cannot ever bear the cost.
4 So, God, what should we do or say?
What is there left of love or life?
What mitigating cause or plea
will rid us of this pain of strife?
5 Amid our sense of grief and loss
where nothing now can be the same,
stand in the midst of shattered faith;
rebuild, renew, and raise again.
Andrew E Pratt (born 1948)
© 2001 Stainer & Bell Ltd
Words © 2001 Stainer & Bell Ltd, London, England copyright@stainer.co.uk. Please include any reproduction for local church use on your CCL Licence returns. All wider and any commercial use requires prior application to Stainer & Bell Ltd.
Metre: LM
Tune: PLAISTOW
hymnsandbooks 
But can anything justify repeating the last two verses of Psalm 137 as “
Holy Scripture”? If we were to use this in a churh service, what would we think of the reader who ended with:
O daughter Babylon, you devastator!
Happy shall they be who pay you back
what you have done to us!
Happy shall they be who take your little ones
and dash them against the rock!
This is the Word of the Lord.
Would anyone respond, “Thanks be to God”?
LikeLike
This is more a question of how we see scripture and how we contextualise it in worship. To ignore it or remove it from sequential readings diminishes our value of scripture. To conclude any scripture reading with ‘This is the word of the Lord’ immediately evaluates it without justifying exegesis and ignores the original and present context.
LikeLike