Today's Scripture Reading (August 1, 2023): Psalm 137
Psalm
137 is, at times, hauntingly beautiful and yet filled with desperation and
loss. It is a psalm that protests against the song or the Psalm. Maybe, Psalm
137 is a new music genre poured out like salve on hurting and desperate people.
It is a protest by people who are too sad to dance to all those around them who
want them to make merry. And the Psalm, in its final breath, becomes a
problematic cry for revenge instead of love.
Peter
Rollins is an Irish Philosopher who believes that every good band needs a
breakup song. Every good band needs a song that deals with the pain and
confusion that we know that life brings. Rollins even suggests that every good
Worship Team needs to know at least one breakup song that makes sense of their
music. It started me wondering what the breakup song of the musicians that I
enjoy playing with might be. It is a little ironic that the writings of a
songwriter proclaiming that there can be no song in Babylon really became the
breakup song of the exiles in Babylon; it became a song sung in the night when
the darkness closes in, and there is no room for hope. For Israel, Psalm 137
was the required breakup song.
But
in Psalm 137, the darkness finally defeats the song. With the last breath of
his song, the pain won out over compassion, and the author curses his enemies. Often
this is the natural order. But in problematic passages like these, it is often
good to remember that Jesus bore his own scars of the night on his body yet
found a way to bless even his enemies.
Many years ago, I was asked to
write a song for a convention that was taking place in Central Alberta, Canada.
And I was given the theme of the conference, which was hope, and the key bible
verse for the weekend, Jeremiah 29:11. Now, Psalm 137, "By the rivers of
Babylon we sat and wept when we remembered Zion" (Psalm 137:1), and
the writings of Jeremiah are really cousins. Both were written at about the
same time and speak about the same thing, the exile of Israel and a time when
darkness reigned for the children of God. But I think Jeremiah 29:11 belongs
with a group of the most abused scriptures because we like to remove the verse
from its context. This is what Jeremiah 29:11 says. "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans
to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future"
(Jeremiah 29:11). But this was not a short time
prophecy. Too often, I think that we believe that this verse is speaking of a
short-term hope, maybe a hope for next month, next year, or the year after
that. But the words of Jeremiah were being spoken to a generation of Israelites
who were in darkness now and would die amid that same darkness. There was a
plan, Israel would be restored, and the Messiah would come, but they would not
see any of that happen.
None of that
was essential. What was important was that God promised he would still be there
even in the darkness. And his song would shine out in the night. I know that
God can do miracles in the darkness. But maybe one of the biggest miracles is
that he sustains us during the long, dark night.
I don't know
what you are going through, but I know that God can change your reality.
Jeremiah was right. God's plan is that he will give us hope and a future. But
for Israel, as they met by the rivers of Babylon, that meant that he would
actively sustain them and place his song inside them throughout the long night
ahead. Babylon was doomed for destruction, but it wouldn't be Israel or God
that would send them there. Babylon would do that to herself.
The song I
wrote for that conference all those years ago was entitled "You Have
Destined Good" and had a prayer for the chorus.
So, let your holy wind blow across
my path
Let your fire from heaven fall on me
I know that trials will come, but
you will lift me up
Because you have destined good for
me (You Have Destined Good, Garry Mullen, 2002).
God is still the one who gives us a song in the night. Some
experts think that maybe Jeremiah wrote Psalm 137, but I lean toward Ezekiel.
And I think Ezekiel gives us a clue to the authorship of Psalm 137 in his
prophetic book.
The Spirit then lifted me up and took me away, and
I went in bitterness and in the anger of my spirit, with the strong hand of
the Lord on me. I came to the exiles who lived at Tel Abib near the Kebar
River. And there, where they were living, I sat among them for seven
days—deeply distressed" (Ezekiel 3:14-15).
Maybe we can add to Ezekiel's
comments – and it was in the night that God gave me a song.
Tomorrow's
Scripture Reading: Jeremiah 50
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