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[ Music ] ♪ Books ♪ ♪ The blood that Jesus ♪ ♪ Shed for me ♪

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♪ Way back on Calvary ♪ ♪ The blood that gives me strength ♪ ♪ From day to day ♪ ♪ It will never lose ♪

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♪ Its power ♪ ♪ It soothes my heart ♪ ♪ It soothes my doubts ♪ ♪ And calms my fears ♪

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♪ And it dries all my tears ♪ ♪ And it drives all my tears ♪ ♪ The blood that gives me strength ♪ ♪ From day to day ♪

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♪ It will never lose its power ♪ ♪ Because it reached ♪ ♪ To the highest mountain ♪ ♪ And it flowed ♪

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♪ To the lowest valley ♪ ♪ Oh, the blood ♪ ♪ That gives me strength ♪ ♪ From day to day ♪

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♪ It will never, never, never lose its power ♪ ♪ Oh, it reaches to the highest mountain ♪ ♪ To the highest mountain ♪ ♪ And it flows from the lowest valley to the lowest ♪

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♪ Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh ♪ ♪ Valley, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh ♪ ♪ The blood that gives me strength from day to day ♪ ♪ Day to day ♪

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♪ It will never ever, ever lose its power ♪ ♪ It will never, never lose ♪ ♪ Never lose its power ♪ ♪ It will never, never, never lose ♪

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♪ Its power ♪ - There we sat down. Yea, we wept. we remember Thine.

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This is a psalm of remembrance, reflection. When times are difficult, we like to refer to better times. to reflect on times that were meaningful and joyful. God must love rivers.

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He created the world, He made the heavens and the earth, And then he planted a garden eastward in Eden. In that garden, he placed a river.

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And that river came from the throne, the central part of the garden. And it ran down, spreading into three branches, so that those who were in the garden

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would have the benefit, the satisfaction of a river to refresh their spirit, to strengthen their soul, the river. This river is a symbol of the life of the people of God. He provided everything that we need.

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He provided that in the garden. But we did not always do according to his direction. And we moved from Eden to a journey onward and upward. We moved to a journey to Jerusalem.

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After being expelled from Eden, man engaged in the task of reaching that heavenly home. And so we went from dwellers in tents to become a worshiper in Jerusalem. and as we look at that we are

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considering a passage of scripture that has to do with exiles exiles by the rivers of Babylon

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there we sat down we wept. Time and time again I come back to this passage because here is a group that has been driven by circumstances

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out of their homes. They have been overwhelmed by the Babylonians And as they reflect on it, here they are down by the rivers of Babylon. Rivers of Babylon.

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It's one thing to have a river, but this passage underlines rivers of Babylon. many rivers. And down by this river they stop. And it seems so strange that many things come into our lives

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that we do not welcome. But they come. Rivers of Babylon The people of God didn't ask for the Babylonians to come. Babylonians came on their own and battered down the walls of the city,

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destroyed the temple, departed taking the most healthy men, women and children of the Jewish people. Babylonians did that on their own. And then they carried back to Babylon the most talented men, women, and children of the Jewish race.

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Now in this pilgrimage, the psalmist here tells us that as they made the journey from Jerusalem to Babylon, that they stopped down by the rivers of Babylon. Rivers, rivers.

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Rivers are a symbol of trouble. When it rains, we say, oftentimes the rain pours and the rain becomes a flood, and the flood pushes down the structures that are there and moves on. In fact, one person just said that you never look into a river to the same place twice.

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You're always on the move, river. By the rivers of Babylon, by the rivers of difficulty, there we sat down. By the rivers of disappointment, by the rivers of discouragement, by the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down. Yea, we went.

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Langston Hughes says that we as a people have known rivers. Listen to what he says. "I have known rivers ancient as the world and older than the flow of human blood and human veins. My soul has grown deep like the rivers.

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I bathed in the Euphrates when dawns were young. I built my hut near the Congo and it lulled me to sleep. I looked upon the Nile and raised the pyramids above it. I heard the singing of the Mississippi when O. E. Blinken went down to New Orleans.

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And I've seen the muddy bosom turn all golden in the sunset. I've known rivers, ancient, dusky rivers. My soul has grown deep like the rivers. Exiles down by the rivers of Babylon.

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They asked to sing by their captors a song of Zion. They came to them when they were at the depths of despair and said to them, "Sing us one of the songs of Zion." And they weren't able to sing. So depressed, so discouraged, so disappointed, they weren't able to sing the Lord's song.

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Exiles, exiles. What is an exile? An exile is one who is away from home. Whatever the reason may be, an exile is away from home. Now they're still assigning some words to us that are not appropriate. After we've been here before many of them ever arrived on this scene. we've been, we were here and they're still calling us refugees. Refugees. We're not refugees. We're citizens of this country. We have laid the foundation on which this country is built. We're not refugees. We're citizens.

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But these were considered exiles. Sing us the song. And exiles are ways, as a rule, placed in the position by their captors of being humiliated, of being ridiculed. Sing us one of the songs of Zion.

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We want to see what y'all sing like. You down here having problems. going to see what kind of faith you have to lift up your head in such a time as this. Sing us, sing us one of the songs of Zion. Well, the Hebrews refused to sing a song of Zion.

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They refused to bow to such ridicule. And they said we can't sing Zion's song here. songs we have are reserved for Jerusalem. In Jerusalem we sing our songs in the temple choir and we listen to the words of prophets in Jerusalem but not here

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in Babylon. We will not sing so they refuse to sing. When you find yourself in the position of an exile, how do you respond? Exiled, away from home.

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In so many ways we are exiled in the sense that we have not reached where we want to be. We haven't reached the kind of treatment that we want in this country.

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We are exiled in that sense. And this country has not reached the point where it needs to be. So in a sense all of us are not where we need to be and where we ought to be.

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All of us exiles. We can't sing. We cannot sing. So it's a long journey from Jerusalem to Babylon.

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I looked it up on the map once and I think it was around 7,700 miles. That's a long journey. Take all of your possessions, everything you have to Babylon.

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Babylon is still with us. Babylon is with us in the unemployment that we face. Babylon is with us in the diversity that we fail to properly acknowledge. Babylon is with us.

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Babylon is with us. Babylon is with us. And as we look at Babylon, we see this sort of treatment. Babylon is ruthless

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When you read this story read it all the way through take the book of Jeremiah what happened When they come to the end of the book of Jeremiah King Zedekiah Is there?

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And they took him Before his sons and Put out his eyes

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So that the last thing he saw was his son. Babylon is ruthless. But there is a journey

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that we are to take and that journey is from Eden to Jerusalem from Jerusalem to Babylon and from Babylon to Jerusalem.

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That's the journey. It's a long journey. But by the grace of God we can be prepared for it. By the grace of God we can be led to it. And there are many obstacles to keep us when you read the book of Revelation.

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There are many obstacles to keep us from succeeding. But God has promised us the victory. The prodigal son may leave home and go to a far country called Babylon, but by and by the Spirit comes to him and he decides to go home. Babylon is a long way from us. Babylon.

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John is on the isle of Patmos and they promise him that he will not survive but he stays there. They try to get rid of him. Tradition says they boiled him in oil and somehow he miraculously escaped. Tradition says that he was fed to lions and somehow he came out of it without losing his life. And he's placed out on an isle called Patonus, surrounded by water.

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And those people who are there are not his parishioners. He's facing strangers. And in the midst of it all, no deacons to support him to say amen when he preached. no choir in the midst of it all he's there in the worship service but he says

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I saw the Lord high and lifted up and God opened the windows of heaven and gave John a peep into eternity and he saw those elders gathered around the throne singing glory glory glory and honor be unto him that sitteth upon the throne and John said I I saw a heavenly city.

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A city not made with hands. I saw a city with 12 gates. I saw a river, a river coming down from the throne of God. down from the throne of God.

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(water flowing) The river of peace, peace flows like a river, no matter how Babylon may rain. There is a place where we have peace,

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and that peace is near to the heart of God. There is a place, I tell you, there is a place that God has provided for his children. [inaudible]

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John, giving to us a glimpse of that peace which will come. There are obstacles to it now. I close with this story. The story of a stream, a river,

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It flowed down through this little village, and the river flowed through the village. Thank you. [BLANK_AUDIO]