By the Rivers of Babylon
Image by Gemini AI One of the songs that I’ve listened to for decades is Boney-M’s By the Rivers of Babylon . Here’s the song , in case you’re interested. That song which is based on a biblical psalm [137] is a wonderful lesson on the nature of religious belief. Quite a lot of the Old Testament of the Bible was written when the Israeli Jews experienced a severe spiritual crisis. Their beloved temple in Jerusalem was burnt down by the Babylonians in 586 BCE. Destroying a place of worship is a powerful political tool. It demonstrates that even your God is powerless before our human might. The Babylonians didn’t just burn down the temple; they looted the sacred vessels and other treasures, adding insult to injury. And they exiled the Jews to Babylon. Sitting on the bank of the Euphrates, the psalmist sang: “How can we sing the Lord’s song in a strange land?” Not only the psalms, but a surprisingly large portion of the Old Testament was written as a response to the...
