Daily Meditations

Psalm 137:2 The sound of silence. What a strange verse! I live in a village that is renowned for its poplars! Apparently, a wealthy landowner from the past decided to line the roads with these trees and they have been tended and planted ever since. Poplars are fast growing and can reach up to 40 meters in height (that’s 130 feet). These trees can also live for up to 400 years, presumably they were “popular” in Babylon. (Excuse the pun.) The Psalm now adds a strange fact; it was on the poplar trees that the exiled Jews hung their harps! Isaiah writes of the Tribulation of the last days, and he uses these words,  “The joyful timbrels are stilled, the noise of the revellers has stopped, the joyful harp is silent.”  Isaiah 24:8. Job writes as follows, “ My lyre is tuned to mourning, and my pipe to the sound of wailing.”  Job 30:31. I am a very amateur musician, but I do know that minor keys, especially D minor, are associated with sadness and melancholy. It seems that the Bab...

Psalm 137:1 By the rivers of Babylon The notes in my Study Bible introduce this Psalm as follows: - “A plaintive song of the exile – of one who has recently returned from Babylon but in whose soul there lingers the bitter memories of the years in a foreign land and of the cruel events that led to that enforced stay.” Previous Psalms have described the love that the Israelites had for Zion and the Temple of God and its feasts and ceremonies that accompanied their faith. This Psalm also reflects those sentiments and the pain of being separated from the City of God.  Boney M turned these words into an international hit song in 1978, these are the lyrics they sang. By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down Ye-eah we wept, when we remembered Zion By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down Ye-eah we wept, when we remembered Zion When the wicked Carried us away in captivity Required from us a song Now how shall we sing the Lord's song in a strange land When the wicked Carried us away i...

Psalm 136:26 His love endures forever! What a Psalm this has turned out to be! At first sight it appeared to present a number of well-known Biblical events and then follow them up with a repetitive slogan that promotes God’s enduring love. Perhaps we’ve all skimmed over these words and failed to grasp the deep lessons that underly them. The final verse is similar to verse 1, an injunction to give thanks to the Lord, plus a reminder of who He is. But note, whilst preceding verses have described God’s creative powers and His interaction with the earth, this last verse takes us to a different place, beyond the stratosphere, to a spiritual world that all of us have yet to enter. Why end in this way? It’s because the Lord wants to remind us that His enduring love is not just earthbound, but it exists in a world beyond this earth, and it is here that love will accompany us forever. In other words, God will continue to love us just as much when we leave this planet as He does while we are her...

Psalm 136:25 The Creator's intricate designs It has become almost a daily occurrence now, that my attention is drawn to some wonder or object of God’s creative genius; a fact about a bird or a plant, the sight of a butterfly on the wing, the awe-inspiring pillars of cloud on the horizon, I could go on and on. On every occasion, I find myself asking the question, “How could anyone believe that all of this came together by accident rather than design? How could intelligent people miss the complexity, beauty and creative design that is evident all around us?” Paul states succinctly, in Romans 1:18-23, that the truth about God is plain, it can be seen in all that He has made, there is no excuse for people’s ignorance. But rather than acknowledge God, men dream up alternative theories as to how the heavens and the earth came into being and then they parade their so-called knowledge as wisdom, a wisdom that, in their view, far outshines the pathetic notions and ignorance of the “God-fear...

Psalm 136:23-24 When will it end? There were many occasions when the fortunes of Israel hit rock bottom. They ran out of food and water in the wilderness. They faced the perils of the Red Sea, as we saw in v13-14. There were endless occasions when they confronted overwhelming enemy forces, and it seemed that their fate was sealed. The ultimate ignominy was being crushed by all-powerful empires such as the Assyrians and Babylonians and later of course, the Romans. The existence of that nation has been a flickering flame against the backdrop of human history and at times the flame has almost been completely snuffed out.  Modern history is no different, today’s headline news (23/07/2025) has to do with accusations of genocide aimed at Israel because of their treatment of the Palestinians in Gaza. The Jews would argue that they suffered far worse in the holocaust and for centuries before, wherever they went in the world. They might also argue that they are surrounded by Muslim nations ...

Psalm 136:21-22 The land of Israel is an inheritance Remember those Scriptures that we have quoted on several occasions? God first promised the ancient land of Canaan to Abraham,   “I am the Lord, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to take possession of it.”   Genesis 15:7. Jacob heard a similar pronouncement from heaven when he dreamed of a stairway with angels ascending and descending, the Lord spoke to him with these words,   “I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are lying.”   Genesis 28:13. Moses had similar instructions when God told him, at the burning bush, that he intended to bring the Israelites out of Egypt   “into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey – the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites.”   Exodus 3:8 But note also the words of the Lord as He announces that t...