Singing Away from Home

June 11, 2020

This coming Sunday, I’ll be asking a centuries-old question. Israel had been carried off into captivity in Babylon, where they would remain for seventy long years. This was not their home; their hearts were back in Jerusalem while their bodies were held captive in this foreign and pagan land. Adding insult to injury, their captors mocked and taunted them with these words, recorded in Psalm 137: “For there those who carried us away captive asked of us a song, And those who plundered us requested mirth, Saying, “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!””

Their response was, “How can we sing the LORD’S songs in a foreign land?” It’s a question worth pondering today. The world as we have known it has been swept away. Here where I live, it hasn’t been as drastic as in the cities, but people walk around masked, stores have to post signs saying we are required to social distance and keep our faces covered, summer events have been cancelled, and you can protest, but not worship in crowds. Yes, it’s a different world. Where once Christian faith was assumed, it gradually became tolerated, then suspected, and now vilified. 

In the twenty-ninth chapter of the book that bears his name, Jeremiah told the captives to settle in for the long haul. This calamity that had befallen them wasn’t going to go away anytime soon. I’m sure that was pretty disheartening to many, just as it would be today. No one is saying how things will be in the next seventy years, but we’ve already seen the hospitality industry teetering on the brink of collapse, as well as movie theaters. Who knows what will happen to stadium sports such as baseball, football, and basketball? 

So how do we sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land? You’ll have to wait till Sunday to find out, but I’ll give you a clue: Psalm 24:1 lays out the boundaries of God’s land, which by definition also sets the boundaries of foreign lands. Only when we are outside of God’s land will we find it hard to sing. Whenever we are within God’s boundaries, we can sing. And sing, we will, with gratitude and joy.