How can I sing at a time like this? s30e51 Psalm 137

What will I do as I am wallowing in the righteous consequences of my own decisions? How can I SING at a time like this? When I am in a soup of unpleasantness, that I caused, what am I going to do now?

Well, Israel is in it as we find them in Psalm 137. Let's watch them respond to the disciplining of God. 

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Transcript

How can I sing at a time like this? s30e51 Psalm 137

The people of God have rejected God.  It is about 580 BC give or take. They have been conquered and captured by the nasty Babyonians. Now God has not fallen off the throne. God is USING the Babyolians to punish, inflict pain upon Israel. WHY?: get the attention of His chosen people

This psalm finds us smack dab in the middle of the punishment, but more importantly in the middle of the re-considerations of the disciplined people.

It starts by weeping: 

137 By the waters of Babylon, 

there we sat down and wept, 

when we remembered Zion. 

2    On the willows there 

we hung up our lyres. 

3    For there our captors

required of us songs, 

       and our tormentors, mirth, saying, 

“Sing us one of the songs of Zion!”

4    How shall we sing the Lord’s song

in a foreign land? GREAT QUESITIONS OF SCRIPTURE. HOW CAN I SING AT A TIME LIKE THIS. WILL I SING AT A TIME LIKE THIS? Will I REORIENT MYSELF TO THE LORD. Here is the light bulb starting: 

5    If I forget you, O Jerusalem, 

let my right hand forget its skill! 

6    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 137 
How can I sing at a time like this?

The Israelites are in one of the worst moments in their history. They have been exiled to Babylon. First captivity was to Assyria in 722bc for the northern tribes of Israel, Known as Israel. Why? Faithlessness. Rebellion. Not treasuring the Lord.

Second captivity, for the rest of the People of God. now after the Babylonians were in charge of that area of Mesopotamia was  the exile, captivity, slavery of southern Israel, known as Judah in 586BC.

Obviously this is the worst of situations.

Pagan adversaries were being utilized by the disciplining hand of the One true God to punish and realign the attention of His chosen people.

None of this was easy. Let’s ask the question: How can I sing at a time like this?

         How can I sing when I know that I am under the punishment of the Lord?

GREAT QUESITIONS OF SCRIPTURE. HOW CAN I SING AT A TIME LIKE THIS. WILL I SING AT A TIME LIKE THIS? Will I REORIENT MYSELF TO THE LORD.

         Worse, maybe they just felt correction, and had not yet come to the realization that this was to purify the nation, to restore relationship with Him, 

The Lord’s plan is to put them BACK in His good graces exactly by taking them OUT of His good graces

So the Lord’s thumb,puts Israel and Judah,

under the thumb of Babylon and Edom

Have you ever experienced the discipline of the Lord? Was it for a good reason?

Have you lived through the unpleasant consequences of behaviors unfitting ?

Though sin always looks attractive on the front end, it unleashes unpleasant unintended consequences on the back end. I think everybody has experienced this. 

What do I do when I am smack dab in the middle of those corrective, painful consequences.?

I’m thinking of the 3 year old’s time out. When a three year old is punished with a time out or some other discipline, The parent wishes two things: 

1.                             It is what guides them into #2 Desire of parents.

2.                            REPENTANCE:. I really should not hit my sister. The Pain is to guide them into repentance. The pain is for a reason. The dislocation from my regular life is done with a purpose.

Lord is calling out: Come back to me! Stop your rebellion. This punishment is for the good of our relationship. Yes, I know that it is very very very painful right now.  SomeOne in this relationship has been perfectly faithful. Guess who has NOT been faithful? Is a lightbulb of repentance coming on?

Israel: find ourselves 1000 miles from home. Dislocated geographically. Dislocatedspiritually. Enslaved. Captured. Abused in real time by the Babylonians. Here we have weeping, willows, weariness, and the irony of the pagans wanting some peppy songs. They have everything they want at the moment. They are requiring MIRTH, when the last thing on earth we want to do is sing joyful songs.

Ironically, what the Babylonians are calling for is what the Lord is calling for: Restoration of relationshiop, and verbalization, songs that reflect it. Will I remember Jerusalem? Will I remember the LAND and then the LORD?  

Will I want to be back in the house of the Lord, in the land of the Lord, with the people of the Lord?

Conclusions: Some listeners will find themselves dislocated from the Lord in the unpleasant land of righteous consequences. The point here is NOW WHAT. What are you going to do now? Double down on rebellion? Wallow? Give God your Back? Or, turn to Him, turn back to Jerusalem, reestablish a relationship, a conversation and ultimately worship Him.

Then, the songs of Mirth that the bad guys are mocking you by asking for, will be the stepping stones back to the right relationship with God himself.

Will I remember the LAND and then the LORD?  

to put them BACK in His good graces exactly by taking them OUT of His good graces