Singing The Lord's Song In A Strange Land!

I was talking with a friend this morning, and in our conversation, out of the blue, this thought came to my mind about “singing the Lord’s song in a strange land.” Often, and more than not, we find ourselves in circumstances that we have no control over, and we will “beat” ourselves up over the fact that “we couldn’t do anything” about the situation. In the midst of the difficulty, we tend to stop “singing.”

Psalm 137:1-4 (AMP)
1 By the rivers of Babylon, there we [captives] sat down, yes, we wept when we [earnestly] remembered Zion [the city of our God imprinted on our hearts].
2 On the willow trees in the midst of [Babylon] we hung our harps.
3 For there they who led us captive required of us a song with words, and our tormentors and they who wasted us required of us mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion.
4 How shall we sing the Lord's song in a strange land?

Reading through the Book of Psalms is like driving on a divided highway through some lovely section of the countryside. We pass through new and beautiful scenery with a spectacular landscape on each side.

The beginning of each psalm is like coming to an intersection. We casually observe the highway marker, but we proceed at the same speed, and we have the feeling of sameness. On each side of the highway marker the view is very much the same. That is true especially after we leave Psalm 119. As we are traveling along the highway, all of a sudden we come to Psalm 137. When we come to this psalm we begin to slow down because we see down the highway that three flares have been thrown down. In fact, these three flares are telling us to Stop -- Look -- Listen. Psalm 137 is a “judgement Psalm!

So, why were the Israelites there by the rivers of Babylon? They had sinned, grievously, against a Holy God. Sin will keep us from singing “a song to the Lord.”

They have no heart for singing. They have quit singing now. They will not have a choir there. There won't be any song service there. They are wailing instead of singing. They have put their harps upon the willows; they won't be needing them anymore. They couldn't sing the songs of Zion by the rivers of Babylon! It was yonder at the temple in Jerusalem where they went to sing praises to God. Now by the rivers of Babylon they hanged up their harps. These instruments of praise they put up on the willow trees -- weeping willows.

Today there are multitudes of Christians who have put their harps on the weeping willow trees. They have lost their song. They have no harp, but they are harping just the same about this and that.

Have you lost your song? Maybe you can remember the joy you had when you first came to Christ. Have you lost your song today?

Now there are reasons for people losing their song.

First of all, there is the natural tendency; that is, the psychological factor. Psychologists tell us that some folk are sanguine in their nature. That is, they are smiling, joyful all the time regardless of the circumstances. Other people are the opposite. They are filled with melancholy. As you look around, many people today don't look joyful. Some of us don't feel like smiling all the time. We're not made that way. 

The second factor is that discouragement and disappointment come to a great many Christians. Life buffets some people more than it buffets others. You know some Christians that seem to have more trouble than anyone else. Shakespeare calls it "the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune." Some people seem to get more of the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune. The discouragements of life sometimes beat in upon even children of God, and they lose their song.

Then there is the third reason. Sometimes folk lose their song because of sin. You remember that David in his great confession, recorded in Psalm 51:12, cried, "Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation." David never did lose his salvation, but he certainly lost the joy of it. That is what he asked God to restore. And in Psalm 32 he spoke of that awful, oppressive period when his sin was unconfessed. He said that his bones ached and he could not sleep. What a picture!

It was said of the Lord Jesus Christ that He was a Man of Sorrows and acquainted with grief. But before you make Him out a sad person -- for He was not -- note that Isaiah makes it very clear that He bore our griefs and carried our sorrows (Isa. 53:4). When all the sorrow and all the grief of your sin and my sin was put upon Him, He was a Man of Sorrows. But He had none of His own, for He had no sin of His own. He was made sin for us, and He was made our sin offering, completely identified with your sin and mine.

Why are these people by the rivers of Babylon? I can answer it now. They have sinned. Why have they lost their song? They sinned, and sin will rob you of your song.

I believe many times, we loose our “song” because we have “quit” trusting in God’s provisions. We have taken our eyes off of the master and are looking at the circumstances that surround us. This is “sin.” No question about it.