Draw Near – 365 Guides to Greater Intimacy with GodSample

SONGS IN A STRANGE LAND Mocking Babylonian soldiers, drunk with victory, derided and taunted the captured Israelites by chanting: Sing us one of the songs of Zion! But the singing people of Jehovah had lost their song; their harps were hung on the willows. Psalm 137 describes how they sat weeping by the Euphrates River asking: How shall we sing the LORD's song in a foreign land? How different the circumstances centuries later when the light of Christ and the truth of eternity had pierced men's hearts. A group of men, descendants of those in Psalm 137, were also in captivity. They were in prison for their testimony. But this time things were different. Rather than weeping with harps hung on willows, the men were singing at midnight from their cold dungeon cells: And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God (Acts 16:25). These two very different reactions to similar circumstances point to the eternal truth of the empty heart versus the full heart. The Israelites in Psalm 137 were devoid of vital spiritual experience, while the apostles in prison were filled with joy because they had been with Jesus. When one is taken from the comfortable surroundings of home and thrust into a strange and confining environment, there are two possible reactions: frustration or fulfillment. The reaction one has depends on his experience with the living Christ. The true saint can and will sing songs of His Savior in a strange land.