On Sunday Morning I was thinking about Psalm 137 and the question 'How can we sing the Lord's song in a strange land?' The times are strange right now, we have to do everything differently. My thoughts on the psalm resonated with the situation we are in, so I thought I'd share them with you.
Psalm 137 (vs 1-4)
By the waters of Babylon,
there we sat down and wept,
when we remembered Zion.
On the willows there
we hung up our lyres.
For there our captors
required of us songs,
and our tormentors, mirth, saying,
“Sing us one of the songs of Zion!”
How shall we sing the Lord's song
in a foreign land?
The Jews, victims of a forced migration, find themselves as captives in a strange (foreign) land. They cannot worship in the temple in Jerusalem – where the focus of their worship has always been. Jerusalem (Zion) symbolises the Lord’s presence; for the Jews, it is where he dwells and where he rules. The temple in Jerusalem has been destroyed. So they ask – what are they to do now they’re in exile?
The answer to the question given in the psalm is that they will not forget – they can’t sing songs of joy but they will express their faith – by remembering God.
They kept using their liturgies even though they weren’t in the right place and they didn't have the building they were used to.
Their focus was probably more on psalms of lament than joy.
Worship had to be disciplined, not just when they felt like it, and in the face of mockery by the Babylonians, their captors.
In a foreign place their faith was expressed by tears and prayers. Probably both at the same time!
The catastrophe that had befallen them caused them to re-evaluate their faith, not abandon it.
They found new ways of meeting together,
they learned to meditate on God’s word;
they looked again at their scriptures (which at this time were various collections of writings and oral tradition).
They saw how God had spoken to them and led them in the past; the example of Moses leading God’s people out of Egypt became a motif of their own exile and gave them hope.
Prophets spoke God’s word into their situation and these prophecies too were written down.
So began the work of putting together what would become the Hebrew bible – the bible Jesus knew.
The Jews came out of their exile with a new way of living out their faith which was that of Jesus’ time and today.
There is another response in the psalm – one of bitter anger against those that caused their current predicament. The fact that this is retained in scripture shows that God allows us to express these feelings to him, even if he doesn’t condone them. In our current situation blaming might release frustration, but doesn’t help us – we need to look forward with hope not look back in anger.
Let us like the Jewish exiles in a strange land, re-evaluate how we worship, and find new ways of meeting God and each other.
Let us pray to come out of our ‘exile’ with a stronger, purer faith as we re-discover God’s word.
Let us remember God reigns – the Jews realised God was not just in Jerusalem but with his people.
Let us remember God lives in our hearts by His Spirit and ask him to give us a fresh reminder of this.
Lord our God you are our hope. Thank you that you promise to live with us in our hearts. Holy Spirit we ask that you will fill us afresh right now. Drive out our fears by your perfect love. Enable us to find fresh ways of worshipping you; may we know your presence in our captivity – the ‘lockdown’. Lord will you speak to us through Christians on the television and internet. Holy Spirit guide as we read your Word, may we see Jesus anew. In His name, Amen.
Message written by Rosemary Sandbach
A prayer for the suffering world:
Gracious Father, on the cross your son prayed, "My God, my God, why did you abandon me?" I want to pray for all the people around the world who find themselves feeling abandoned by you, by their fellow human beings, by family who can't see them. Father, in the name of your son Jesus and in the power of his Spirit, will you come and be with them, be with your suffering world at this time. Give us fresh resources of courage, faith and hope. Give our leaders worldwide the scientific wisdom, the faith that they need to say the right things to encourage people. We pray specially for the doctors and nurses and all the medical professionals and researchers looking for vaccines. We pray that ways forward may be found that unnecessary deaths may be stopped, and the proper care given to those who are now dying. We pray for all those who are seriously ill right now, finding breathing difficult. Gracious Lord, be near them, be with them, bring good out of this trouble. And Father, as you have promised that one day the earth shall be full of the knowledge and glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea. Give us even in the present time, a foretaste, a glimpse of that, and help us to live by that glimpse, to live in hope and to become, in our time, people of hope to your wounded and waiting world. We pray this in Jesus name and for his sake. Amen.
Closing prayer from Tom Wright, New Testament scholar and former bishop of Durham.