By the rivers of Babylon -- there we sat down and there we wept when we remembered Zion. On the willows there we hung up our harps. For there our captors asked us for songs, and our tormentors asked for mirth, saying, "Sing us one of the songs of Zion!" How could we sing the Lord's song in a foreign land? (Psalm 137:1-4).

The rivers of Babylon were the bitter waters of exile, the devastating waters of the diaspora. The Israelites were far from home, far from the holy mountain, far from the temple, the heart of their life, the sacred center of their existence. They were defeated, demoralized, depressed. The best they could do was to refuse to accept the vision of reality proffered by the Babylonians and cling to their own identity through memory.

How could we sing the Lord's song in a for…