"Even in a Strange Land, Keep Singing"

Psalm 137:1–6 ESV

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? If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget its skill! Let my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth, if I do not remember you, if I do not set Jerusalem above my highest joy!

Psalm 126:1–6 ESV

When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dream. Then our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongue with shouts of joy; then they said among the nations, “The Lord has done great things for them.” The Lord has done great things for us; we are glad. Restore our fortunes, O Lord, like streams in the Negeb! Those who sow in tears shall reap with shouts of joy! He who goes out weeping, bearing the seed for sowing, shall come home with shouts of joy, bringing his sheaves with him.

While I Have Breath

John Wesley was about 21 years of age when he went to Oxford University. He came from a Christian home, and he was gifted with a keen mind and good looks. Yet in those days he was a bit snobbish and sarcastic. One night, however, something happened that set in motion a change in Wesley's heart. While speaking with a porter, he discovered that the poor fellow had only one coat and lived in such impoverished conditions that he didn't even have a bed. Yet he was an unusually happy person , filled with gratitude to God. Wesley, being immature, thoughtlessly joked about the man's misfortunes. "And what else do you thank God for?" he said with a touch of sarcasm.  The porter smiled, and in the spirit of meekness replied with joy, "I thank Him that He has given me my life and being, a heart to love Him, and above all a constant desire to serve Him!" Deeply moved, Wesley recognized that this man knew the meaning of true thankfulness.

Many years later, in 1791, John Wesley lay on his deathbed at the age of 88. Those who gathered around him realized how well he had learned the lesson of praising God in every circumstance. Despite Wesley's extreme weakness, he began singing the hymn, "I'll Praise My Maker While I've Breath."

The Psalms in Context

We have here the daughter of Zion covered with a cloud, and dwelling with the daughter of Babylon; the people of God in tears. Again, God’s people are in captivity, but this time its different as the prophet tells them “make themselves comfortable” though false prophets said they would only be in Babylon for a couple of weeks, and to not believe Jeremiah. They were posted by the rivers of Babylon, in a strange land, a great way from their own country, whence they were brought as prisoners of war. The land of Babylon was now a house of bondage to that people, as Egypt had been in their beginning. Their conquerors quartered them by the rivers, with design to employ them there, and keep them to work in their galleys; or perhaps they chose it as the most melancholy place, and therefore most suitable to their sorrowful spirits. Jeremiah 29:4-9

Jeremiah 29:4–9 ESV

“Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their produce. Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease. But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare. For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Do not let your prophets and your diviners who are among you deceive you, and do not listen to the dreams that they dream, for it is a lie that they are prophesying to you in my name; I did not send them, declares the Lord.

1. Your Song is not for Everyone

Psalm 137:1–3 ESV

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!”

The statements made in the first two verses do not merely present us with imagery with whose help the poet’s imagination tries to depict in colourful language but quite generally the silent mourning of the exiles in the land of Babylon. On the contrary, they describe the precise features of an actual experience which the poet now recalls. His mind goes back to the agonizing hours when together with his compatriots he sat sadly far from his homeland, and when, with tearful eyes and homesick hearts, they began to accompany their songs of lament with the melancholy music of their harps. It may not have been only the suffering of homesickness with which their souls were eaten up; what probably pressed upon them even more heavily than their physical separation from their homeland was the feeling of separation from God, since they were deprived of the opportunity of becoming assured of his presence, as they had once been at the feasts celebrated at the Temple (cf. Ps. 42:2 ). Moreover, they were tormented by the uncertainty whether they had been rejected by God for ever or whether they still had access to him. What the prophets of Israel had continually foretold had now come true; they felt that the hand of the living God was upon them in punishment.

But they are not allowed to keep even their mourning exclusively to themselves. Their lament falls silent and they hang up their harps on the willows; for they hear their tormentors walking towards them. To make the prisoners aware of their power, the latter call upon them with cruel mockery to sing for them a merry song (cf. Judg. 16:25), one of the songs of Zion—we might think, for instance, of Psalms 46, 48, 84 and 122—for the entertainment of the Gentiles! [4] With holy indignation the men from Israel refuse to obey this demand, which they regard as monstrous. What they are able to say in reply does credit to their way of thinking and allows a deep insight into their attitude. The mockery affects not only themselves but even more the honour of their God. Not every place and hour, not every inward frame of mind and not every human environment, is suitable for sounding forth God’s praise. There are situations in which it would be wicked to praise God. Here men quite clearly perceive the inward falsehood and hypocrisy of which they would be guilty if they were to force their anguished hearts to sing a hymn to the glory of Yahweh, and, consequently, rebel against such a violation of their soul. But they do not simply feel that the sacred character of their grief is profaned; for more is involved here than personal humiliation. The holiness of God is affected when the Lord’s song is degraded to a means of entertainment for a heathen audience. The thought of the holy God lifts the souls of these prisoners to that pinnacle of reverent pride reminiscent of the saying of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 7:6): ‘Do not give dogs what is holy; and do not throw your pearls before swine’; and they courageously take their stand as champions of God’s holiness.

2. God will “turn the turning” in your favor

While the people of Israel were captives in Babylon their harps were hung upon the willow-trees, for then God called to weeping and mourning, then he mourned unto them and they lamented; but now that their captivity is turned they resume their harps; Providence pipes to them, and they dance. Thus must we accommodate ourselves to all the dispensations of Providence and be suitably affected with them. And the harps are never more melodiously tunable than after such a melancholy disuse. The long want of mercies greatly sweetens their return. Here is, 1. The deliverance God has wrought for them: He turned again the captivity of Zion. It is possible that Zion may be in captivity for the punishment of her degeneracy, but her captivity shall be turned again when the end is answered and the work designed by it is effected. Cyrus, for reasons of state, proclaimed liberty to God’s captives, and yet it was the Lord’s doing, according to his word many years before. God sent them into captivity, not as dross is put into the fire to be consumed, but as gold to be refined. Observe, The release of Israel is called the turning again of the captivity of Zion, the holy hill, where God’s tabernacle and dwelling-place were; for the restoring of their sacred interests, and the reviving of the public exercise of their religion, were the most valuable advantages of their return out of captivity. 2. The pleasing surprise that this was to them. They were amazed at it; it came so suddenly that at first they were in confusion, not knowing what to make of it, nor what it was tending to: “We thought ourselves like men that dream; we thought it too good news to be true, and began to question whether we were well awake or no, and whether it was not still” (as sometimes it had been to the prophets) “only a representation of it in vision,” as St. Peter for a while thought his deliverance was, Acts 12:9. Sometimes the people of God are thus prevented with the blessings of his goodness before they are aware. We were like those that are recovered to health (so Dr. Hammond reads it); “such a comfortable happy change it was to us, as life from the dead or sudden ease from exquisite pain; we thought ourselves in a new world.” And the surprise of it put them into such an ecstasy and transport of joy that they could scarcely contain themselves within the bounds of decency in the expressions of it: Our mouth was filled with laughter and our tongue with singing. Thus they gave vent to their joy, gave glory to their God, and gave notice to all about them what wonders God had wrought for them. Those that were laughed at now laugh and a new song is put into their mouths. It was a laughter of joy in God, not scorn of their enemies. 3. The notice which their neighbours took of it: They said among the heathen, Jehovah, the God of Israel, has done great things for that people, such as our gods cannot do for us. The heathen had observed their calamity and had triumphed in it, Jer. 22:8, 9; Ps. 137:7. Now they could not but observe their deliverance and admire that. It put a reputation upon those that had been scorned and despised, and made them look considerable; besides, it turned greatly to the honour of God, and extorted from those that set up other gods in competition with him an acknowledgment of his wisdom, power, and providence. 4. The acknowledgments which they themselves made of it, v. 3. The heathen were but spectators, and spoke of it only as matter of news; they had no part nor lot in the matter; but the people of God spoke of it as sharers in it, (1.) With application: “He has done great things for us, things that we are interested in and have advantage by.” Thus it is comfortable speaking of the redemption Christ has wrought out as wrought out for us. Who loved me, and gave himself for me. (2.) With affection: “Whereof we are glad. The heathen are amazed at it, and some of them angry, but we are glad.” While Israel went a whoring from their God joy was forbidden them (Hos. 9:1); but now that the iniquity of Jacob was purged by the captivity, and their sin taken away, now God makes them to rejoice. It is the repenting reforming people that are, and shall be, the rejoicing people. Observe here, [1.] God’s appearances for his people are to be looked upon as great things. [2.] God is to be eyed as the author of all the great things done for the church. [3.] It is good to observe how the church’s deliverances are for us, that we may rejoice in them.

3. God will turn your weeping to reaping

Psalm 126:4-6

Psalm 126:4–6 ESV

Restore our fortunes, O Lord, like streams in the Negeb! Those who sow in tears shall reap with shouts of joy! He who goes out weeping, bearing the seed for sowing, shall come home with shouts of joy, bringing his sheaves with him.

It is precisely against the background of this assurance that the religious profundity of the supplication to God, asking him to bring about a radical change in their fortunes, first becomes fully understandable. Without that absolute trust in God’s miraculous power, by which the prayer is sustained, it would be wicked presumptuousness to make such a request to him. For, as the addition of the simile ‘like rivers in the southern country’ shows, the congregation expect from their God nothing less than the absolute miracle—rivers in the sun-scorched desert in the south, an impossible thought indeed! But it is just this impossibility that faith trusts God to perform; he is capable of transforming the steppe, on which according to popular belief his curse rested, into watered fertile land, a deed which is worthy of him and which he alone is able to do Hosea 2:15. So may God now, in the same way, in gracious forgiveness take his curse from the people and lead them towards a new spring! In their humble recognition of that divine power and confident reliance on that mighty God (vv. 1, 3) lies the strength of faith which alone gives the community the spiritual authority to utter such a petition and so makes this prayer profoundly devout and humble. The community’s supplication (v. 4) is followed by the answer (vv. 5–6), which was probably uttered by the priest or a prophet. The promise is clothed in the proverbial image of the sowing in tears and reaping with shouts of joy. The motive for the choice of this is to be found in the festival cult, which among other things served the purpose of securing the blessing of fertility for the new year at a time when the Yahweh religion was taking over Canaanite agriculture and the cults connected with it. In order to understand this image, which does not simply speak of the periodical succession of sowing and reaping in the sense, for instance, of the proverbial phrase ‘The calm after the storm’, we must study it in the light of its contemporary background. It is a very common ancient idea, which is reflected in various customs of the nations, that the time of sowing was to be considered as a time of mourning. We know from Egyptian examples that sowing was accompanied by funeral hymns as a symbol of the burial of the god Osiris. At the root of this ceremony was the interpretation of the natural process as the dying and rising again of living things, a view which, as discoveries at Ras Shamra have confirmed, was also shared by the Canaanite cultic myth, and which has also found expression in the German proverb, ‘Do not laugh when you sow; otherwise you must weep when you reap’; it also underlies the biblical parable of the grain of wheat which must die in order to bear much fruit (John 12:24; 1 Cor. 15:36). It is only from this point of view that the phrases used in the psalm, ‘those who sow in tears’ and ‘they go along weeping’, become intelligible. The poet shows his artistic power in keeping to the metaphor of sowing and reaping and not adding an explanation. Of course he intends a reference to their present calamities; in present suffering and death he discerns not only the allusion to the future glory of a new life but, as in the case of the seedcorn planted in the earth, he sees already at work the mysterious power of God which creates new life out of death (cf. Ezek. 37). In the last analysis here, too, it is faith in the miraculous life-giving power of God which transfigures the sufferings of the present time and shows them to be the way willed by God which alone is able to lead men out of darkness into light. To that faith is revealed a hidden divine law: sowing in tears and reaping in joy are inseparable. To the eye of faith temporal suffering is a necessary stage on the way to joy in God’s glory. Suffering and death, too, are part of God’s work of redemption. They are a divine seed which sprouts in secret and ripens for God’s blessed harvest.

Hosea 2:15 ESV

And there I will give her her vineyards and make the Valley of Achor a door of hope. And there she shall answer as in the days of her youth, as at the time when she came out of the land of Egypt.