Babylon Is Not Our Place — Psalm 137:1-6

**Base Text:** Psalm 137:1-6 | **Preached on:** April 26, 2026 — 1st Anniversary of Ebenezer Church

> _”By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept when we remembered Zion.”_
>
> — Psalm 137:1

Last Sunday we celebrated one year of Ebenezer Church. And as we celebrated this anniversary, our own name preached to us. **Ebenezer.** _”Thus far the Lord has helped us.”_ (1 Samuel 7:12)

Samuel raised a stone so that the people would never forget God’s faithfulness. That is what anniversaries are for: not just to celebrate what was, but to remember who brought us here — and to renew the commitment of where we are going.

Psalm 137 was written during the Babylonian exile, after the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 B.C. Far from their land, the temple, and the visible symbols of God’s presence, the Israelites wept by the rivers of Babylon, remembering Zion. The psalm expresses pain, longing, and humiliation, but also reveals a deep spiritual awareness: even in a strange land, the people refused to forget their identity and their covenant with God.

**Thesis: God’s faithfulness, which has brought us this far, calls us to live with Him even in a strange land.**

### 1. We Need to Remember Zion

_”We sat and wept when we remembered Zion…”_ (Psalm 137:1)

The exile did not destroy the people because the memory of the covenant remained alive. Zion represented God’s presence, worship, the promise, and the identity of the people. The weeping of the exiles was not just pain for the loss of the city — it was pain for having lost fellowship, for having despised the covenant, for having experienced the consequences of their own sin. They wept because they remembered. And this remembrance was, paradoxally, a sign of grace.

**A spiritually dead people do not miss Zion.** There is a holy lament that God uses to awaken restoration. The suffering of the exile produced awareness. Discipline produced memory. And memory rekindled hope.

Ebenezer is also memory. The stone said: _Thus far the Lord has helped us_. Zion said: _We still belong to the Lord_. One remembered past faithfulness. The other preserved future hope. A church only remains healthy when it preserves this spiritual memory — when it does not forget where God took it from, when it does not lose the awe of grace, when it does not trivialize God’s presence. And in the end, Zion pointed to Christ. Because in Jesus, God’s presence came to dwell with us.

### 2. We Need to Refuse to Belong to Babylon

_”How can we sing the songs of the Lord while in a foreign land?”_ (Psalm 137:4)

This question from the psalmist did not express contempt for praise. It expressed discernment. The oppressors wanted to turn worship into entertainment. They wanted songs torn from a broken people to amuse the dominators. But the people refused. Because **there are moments when resisting is also worshiping.**

The church today also lives surrounded by cultural Babylons: a culture that relativizes truth, that negotiates holiness, that offers comfort at the cost of faithfulness, that wants an admirable church, as long as it is not prophetic. **Babylon is not our place.**

The danger is not just in external persecution — it is in silent assimilation. When we start thinking like Babylon. Desiring like Babylon. Measuring success like Babylon. Daniel resisted in Babylon (Daniel 1:8; 6:10). Ezekiel prophesied in Babylon (Ezequiel 1:1-3). And God still preserves His Church amidst the pressures of this century. Because Christ also conquered Babylon.

### 3. We Need to Wait for Restoration

_”If I forget you, Jerusalem…”_ (Psalm 137:5)

This is not just longing. It is hope. Because God did not end His story with His people in exile. Seventy years later, there was a return. This is the difference between biblical lament and despair: despair closes the future, biblical lament waits for redemption.

**The hope of God’s people never rests on circumstances. It rests on the Lord’s promises.** A Church does not live only on memory, nor only on resistance — it lives on hope. Hope that God still builds, still purifies, still awakens, still restores.

And we still await the consummation — the New Jerusalem (Revelation 21:1-4). The city that will not be destroyed. The fellowship that will never be interrupted. The worship that will never be silenced again. Therefore, the Church walks looking forward. Not at ruins. But at the eternal city. Whoever believes in future restoration remains faithful in the present.

Today we raise our memorial stone again. **Ebenezer. Thus far the Lord has helped us.** And this help calls us to three commitments: Remember Zion. Refuse Babylon. Live by the hope of restoration. This is the path of a faithful Church.

> _”Ebenezer teaches us to remember God’s help; Zion teaches us to never forget where we belong.”_

_Message preached at the 1st anniversary celebration service of Ebenezer Church, on April 26, 2026._