When Babylon conquered Israel in battle, the year was around 588 B.C., thousands of Jews were deported 500 miles east as slaves. In their captivity they carried their knowledge of God with them. And many a Gentile thus learned of the Lord.

Psalm 137 was written during this exile. Hear their lament as Jewish slaves living in a pagan land. "By the waters of Babylon, there we sat down and wept, when we remembered thee, Zion. On the willows we hung up our lyres. For there our captors required of us songs ... how shall we sing …