The Rivers of Babylon Matt Maher

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Artist Reflection

I was sound-checking before an XLT event and started playing what is now the intro to "Rivers" — and the verses from Psalm 137 came to mind. So I just started singing " . . . by the rivers of Babylon . . . I sat and wept as I remembered Zion . . ." And then I just kind of started humming the melody out.

That night, after XLT, I got home and was up until 2:00am trying to finish what had started as a new song. I looked at the psalm and started thinking about how I was really inspired to write a song about being captive in the world, as the world looks at us and says "Hey, you're good. Entertain us!" But how could I, one of the captives of this world, be asked to sing a song of worship about God while being held captive? Just like the captives mentioned in the psalm, they struggled with how to sing in a foreign land.

Sometimes I wrestle with the same thing. As you gain more notoriety, whether personally or in your vocation, the world starts to notice you even more. You're almost viewed under a microscope. When you're feeling like a nobody, or just a number, perhaps that is not as much of a struggle. But if you realize that God has called you to minister publicly to a large number of his people, the world starts to notice, and starts to want you for it's pleasure.

But that is not why we're here. We're here to intercede for the world in our prayer, as strangers and sojourners — strangers in a strange land — sometimes feeling as if held captive by the world and its ways. However, we beg for the mercy of God to not forget us. That's where the heart and lyrics of the finalized song came from, "The Rivers of Babylon."

- Matt Maher