Lent 4
Preaching
Aids To The Psalms
Exploring The Message
By the rivers of Babylon --
there we sat down and there we wept when we remembered Zion.
On the willows there
we hung up our harps.
For there our captors asked us for songs,
and our tormentors asked for mirth, saying,
"Sing us one of the songs of Zion!"
How could we sing the Lord's song
in a foreign land?
If I forget you, O Jerusalem,
let my right hand wither!
Let my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth,
if I do not remember you,
if I do not set Jerusalem above my highest joy.
Alternate Image
Enslaved in a foreign land. The Singer had traveled to a alien
nation to provide solace for prisoners there; political prisoners
unjustly imprisoned. And then the Singer is incarcerated himself
and forced to work with the others in dirty, disease-infested
sewers. They had worked hard that day and at their lunch break
their jailer looked at the Singer, laughed and said, "Sing us a
song. A cheerful, happy, do-gooder folk song." How is it possible
to sing a happy song when all one feels is sorrow? "I hate my
captors; I wish for them horrible reprisals," thinks the Singer.
"And the news the captors share from the homeland is all bad. Is
that the key? Concentrate on the homeland, the hometown, remember
the goodness
there in the land and town of faith. Remember God and God's
covenant with us. God is with us even here. Now I will sing! May
my words and tune scorch the ears of my captors."
Reflection
When people treat us badly it is difficult not to seek
vengeance; to respond in kind to what they have done to us. We
are quick to think of "an eye for an eye and a tooth for a
tooth." But does that really make us feel better? Does
retribution break our chains or just tighten them around our
souls? The question is, who has the superior position? Do the
persecutors, the victimizers, really have the upper hand or are
they their greatest victims? When we remember who we are, God's
chosen people; those with whom God has established an unbreakable
covenant, how can we feel inferior to anyone? Recalling who and
whose we are we can sing in the midst of anything. And our songs
may well indeed heap coals upon the heads of those who would do
us harm.
there we sat down and there we wept when we remembered Zion.
On the willows there
we hung up our harps.
For there our captors asked us for songs,
and our tormentors asked for mirth, saying,
"Sing us one of the songs of Zion!"
How could we sing the Lord's song
in a foreign land?
If I forget you, O Jerusalem,
let my right hand wither!
Let my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth,
if I do not remember you,
if I do not set Jerusalem above my highest joy.
Alternate Image
Enslaved in a foreign land. The Singer had traveled to a alien
nation to provide solace for prisoners there; political prisoners
unjustly imprisoned. And then the Singer is incarcerated himself
and forced to work with the others in dirty, disease-infested
sewers. They had worked hard that day and at their lunch break
their jailer looked at the Singer, laughed and said, "Sing us a
song. A cheerful, happy, do-gooder folk song." How is it possible
to sing a happy song when all one feels is sorrow? "I hate my
captors; I wish for them horrible reprisals," thinks the Singer.
"And the news the captors share from the homeland is all bad. Is
that the key? Concentrate on the homeland, the hometown, remember
the goodness
there in the land and town of faith. Remember God and God's
covenant with us. God is with us even here. Now I will sing! May
my words and tune scorch the ears of my captors."
Reflection
When people treat us badly it is difficult not to seek
vengeance; to respond in kind to what they have done to us. We
are quick to think of "an eye for an eye and a tooth for a
tooth." But does that really make us feel better? Does
retribution break our chains or just tighten them around our
souls? The question is, who has the superior position? Do the
persecutors, the victimizers, really have the upper hand or are
they their greatest victims? When we remember who we are, God's
chosen people; those with whom God has established an unbreakable
covenant, how can we feel inferior to anyone? Recalling who and
whose we are we can sing in the midst of anything. And our songs
may well indeed heap coals upon the heads of those who would do
us harm.
