Jonathan Koefoed is Associate Professor of History and Director of the Honors Program at Belhaven University, where he teaches courses in American history and the history of thought. He is particularly interested in the dynamic relationship between ideas, their historical context, and the way that any historical idea or author can illuminate the ubiquitous human quest for a good life. His previous intellectual journey involved postdoctoral work at the University of Texas at Austin, a PhD in History from Boston University, an MA in Historical Theology from Saint Louis University, and a BA in Philosophy and History from Arizona State University. His scholarly research focuses on transatlantic intellectual history, particularly the romantic movement and its influence on US thought and culture. His articles have appeared in Symbiosis: A Journal of Anglo-American Literary Relations and Religions, and his reviews have appeared in such journals as the Journal of Transatlantic Studies and American Nineteenth Century History.

By The Rivers of Babylon

by Matthew Clark

The endless voices whisper,

all our hopes are only dreams

No Deliverer is coming,

that we are blind in our belief 

but in the land where we all sojourn,

with its beauty and its ash

I will sing still for the Kingdom

and a King who’s coming back 

CHORUS

by the rivers of Babylon 

we will sing a gospel song in a foreign land

While the nations all are raging,

hear the Lord in heaven laugh 

we will stand upon his promise,

the ways of men will never last, 

and like a seed is to a tree,

in the twinkling of an eye 

we will see the heavens open,

we will meet him in the sky

CHORUS

BRIDGE

there will be no word for lonely

In the Kingdom Jesus brings

Every fear shall be forgotten 

and all will be made clean

all the merciful will know him 

The pure will touch his face

See the children bear his banner 

and the slandered share his name

Soon the river of our exile 

Will become a holy spring 

While the bent tree with its bitter fruit 

It will never grow again 

Now, the face that showed us kindness 

Met our thirst by Jacob’s well 

He will clothe us in his garments 

He will marry us himself

©2023 Matthew Clark, Path in the Pines Music (ASCAP)