You Will Sing Again!

 

Some days… more days than not… God absolutely blows my mind with something I see in scripture.
Some days I am brought to tears by the revelation of His words.
This day was no different.

Psalm 137.
A Psalm of Asaph.
And one that could be read with sad weeping if we didn’t choose to take a closer look.

In response to the pain of being exiled, the Psalmist weeps as he remembers Jerusalem.
In response to the aching he feels within his soul, Asaph sits beside the rivers of Babylon, weeping at the thought of his beloved city.
Better days they had left behind.
A former sense of glory in God’s country.

What once upon a time were songs of praise, now became tears that seemed to mirror the waters they now sat next to… as though they were also mourning the loss they felt.

Scripture tells us that they, “put away” their harps, “hanging them on poplar trees.”  (verse 2)
And when their captors demanded a song, maybe out of cruel mockery, or perhaps in honest interest, they communicate despondently, “how can we sing the songs of the Lord while in a pagan land?”

And truth be told, those feelings echo my own heart’s cry - from time to time.

Because this here… is not my home.
It’s not my permanent place of residence.

And some times living in a foreign land is hard.

When I first moved over 2 hours away from my hometown with my family just over a year ago, it was hard.  It still is in many ways.
And most days I feel as though I am, indeed, living, “in a foreign land.”

My heart sank when I read a little further.  
“If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget how to play the harp.”  (verse 5)

It was the condition the Psalmist was placing upon his own memory.
In other words, “You are my forever home… the place I long for, yearn for… the place in which my soul belongs… and if I forget you, may my songs forever be silenced.”

But take a look back at verse 2:
“We put our harps away, hanging them on the branches of poplar trees.”
So good.
Such hope.
Why?
Because it doesn’t tell us that Asaph sold his harp, nor does it say he destroyed his device altogether.  
He simply, “put it away” for a bit, “hanging it in branches of a tree.”

 

I don’t know what season of loneliness you’re going through at the moment.
In a crazy year filled with political upheaval, pandemic panic, and loads of uncertainty, it’s easy to see why there’s so much anxiety, fear, and concern.
But it’s equally as understandable as to why it’s heightened for the Jesus people.

Because this is not our home.
This is not the place our soul belongs.
And so as long as we are living here - in a foreign land - we will always feel a bit unsettled.
It’s normal.
It’s perfectly normal.

You may have, too, hung your harp up temporarily, but there’s music still to make!
There’s a joyful noise still waiting to be fashioned from your now idle instrument.
Why?
Because the best is still to come for those who know Christ, and have Him for themselves.

May our vision forever be set upon heaven - our ultimate destination.
I am only a visitor passing through.

You will play again - and the music will be beautiful!