Do we need to hang our harps?

I am back in Psalms this morning. Thinking how grateful I am there are 150 of them! The first verses of Psalm 137 surprised me today with these words that reflect so accurately our own current situation:

By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept
when we remembered Zion.
There on the poplars we hung our harps, for
there our captors asked us for songs,
our tormentors demanded songs of joy;
They said, "Sing us one of the songs of Zion!"

How can we sing the songs of the LORD
while in a foreign land?

I find myself, more and more, a stranger in a foreign land.

It isn't that the clash between biblical and anti-biblical worldviews is new to our generation. (Some people talk about our "non-biblical" culture. But I think it is worse than that. "Non-biblical" does not begin to describe it -- our culture is "anti-biblical!")

Christianity values human life -- from womb to tomb, as we used to say.
Modern culture does not.

It is almost like we are back in the Roman empire and struggling to survive.
The Romans, we are taught in school, are credited with strides in education, general prosperity, vigorous trade, the rule of law, and efficient government. But the dark side of their society reveals their rotten core: widespread slavery (30-40% of the population), brutality in controlling the provinces, reckless abortion and infanticide, gluttony, sexual perversions, violent entertainment.....

If a student were writing a paper on the causes of the fall of the Roman Empire, he could just say, "The Roman Empire fell because it wasn't worth saving!"

Is that where we are today? In that dark and cruel world controlled by Ancient Rome, a bright light appeared the night Jesus was born in that little manger in the backwater village of Bethlehem. And that light entered hearts and began to change people throughout the Empire. Just as it does today.

This is the challenge -- the mission -- we have. To be "Light" in this dark
culture.

So I find myself not just "listening to a different drummer," but playing in a completely different band. And I notice in the Psalm, as the Jews were taunted (as we are by our own culture) and tormented by their captors, they hung up their harps.

But they didn't throw their harps in the trash, or into the river, or destroy them. They hung them up, saving them for that later day when they would be back home and could sing a new song to their God.

I'm not ready to hang up my harp. Sometimes when I am out on various errands I feel a surge of joy and want to begin singing loudly God's praises. I wait until I am back in the car. As I wander down aisles of the grocery store praying, people
think I am talking to myself. Sometimes I tell them the truth: That it is a cold, lonely world we live in, and I am grateful I have a God who is with me.

On Sundays I can escape--retreat--from the world and rejoice with others
and enjoy His presence. It is safe to do this in the church.

And isn't that our purpose? To glorify God and enjoy Him forever