How can we sing the songs of the LORD while in a foreign land? – Psalm 137:4

Today’s Scripture Reading (June 18, 2020): Psalm 137

I am one of many fans who has been entertained by impromptu performances, made on social media during the COVID-19 pandemic; performances made by some of the musicians that have influenced my life. A big thank you is extended to musicians like Burton Cummings (The Guess Who) and Tommy Shaw (Styx). Shaw’s performance was especially edifying, watching him struggle with the complex arrangement he was trying to reproduce somehow made him more human and the performance so much better. Both Cummings and Styx are on permanent rotation on my phone; I often listen to their music when I am out on a walk, or driving in a car. I have also enjoyed performances from people like Elton John. Somehow, during our time of isolation, they have made the experience a little more livable.

Psalm 137 is one of my favorite Psalms. The Psalm was made famous in the late ’70s by Euro-Caribbean vocal group “Boney M.” Rivers of Babylon asked the question “how can we sing the Lord’s song in a strange land,” and did so with a beat and tune that is hard not to dance to and sing along with. And so, sing we did.

Music has always been important to me, both in good and bad times. But there might be a difference between singing a song,  one that emerges out of our shared pain and being asked to sing out our personal pain in front of people who are not suffering. Part of what is incredibly encouraging about hearing Cummings, Shaw, and John sing, is the sure knowledge that they too were singing from their captivity, and lifting their voices from their places of COVID-19 forced exile into mine. They were experiencing their pain and, at the same time, validating the discomfort of everyone else caught in our self-imposed isolations. And so, we thank them for the song.

But, by the rivers of Babylon, the story was different. The song that was being demanded was not being shared within a community of sufferers. Those who had caused the pain were demanding a song from those who were in pain. The songs were not requested so that the prisoners could find a balm of healing in the music. Instead, the songs sung by the captives were required so that the captors, the ones who had caused the pain, could be entertained.

And the exiles were in no mood to but on a brave face and smile for the audience as they sang out their torment. They would save that for the times when they were alone, laying out their hearts for the ones that were suffering just like them. And then, maybe, they could find the healing that the song often brings, amid a pain that no words could express.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Jeremiah 48