Have you considered all the losses you, or folks like you, have experienced during this Covid-19 crisis? Have you understood or analyzed the impact all of those losses have had on your mood, your happiness, or even your hopes and dreams for the future? Today, Pastor John continues our series Living in Babylon by acknowledging the grief many of us are presently experiencing and God's plan for dealing with it in a healthy way.

Psalm 137

1 By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept when we remembered Zion. 2 There on the poplars we hung our harps, 3 for there our captors asked us for songs, our tormentors demanded songs of joy; they said, “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!” 4 How can we sing the songs of the Lord while in a foreign land? 5 If I forget you, Jerusalem, may my right hand forget its skill. 6 May my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth if I do not remember you, if I do not consider Jerusalem my highest joy. 7 Remember, Lord, what the Edomites did on the day Jerusalem fell. “Tear it down,” they cried, “tear it down to its foundations!” 8 Daughter Babylon, doomed to destruction, happy is the one who repays you according to what you have done to us. 9 Happy is the one who seizes your infant and dashes them against the rocks.

OUTLINE

Losing in Babylon

Change = Loss = Grief

Stages of Grief

• Denial
• Anger
• Bargaining
• Depression
• Acceptance

Hearing the Psalmist

• He Admits it to God
• He Gives it to God

Grieving with Hope
As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it and said, “If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace—but now it is hidden from your eyes. The days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment against you and encircle you and hem you in on every side. They will dash you to the ground, you and the children within your walls. They will not leave one stone on another, because you did not recognize the time of God’s coming to you.” (Luke 19:41-44 NIV)