16 Jul
Don’t Hang Up Your Harp—Sing!
How can we sing the Lord’s song on foreign soil? Psalm 137:4
When the psalmist wrote these words, he was with the exiled Israelites in a strange and hostile culture. In his grief, he had hung up his harp, sat down, and was weeping along the banks of the “rivers of Babylon.” In painful honesty, he cried out, “How can I sing, Lord?” Do you ever feel the same? Beaten down, oppressed, discouraged? I do, and let me tell you, the last thing I feel like doing is singing. But (and I bet you knew this was coming) when I do sing, I am amazed by what God can do with my broken heart. As I lift my voice, He lifts my head and gives me a new song to sing to Him (Ps. 33:3), one that isn’t dependent on my circumstances but rather comes from deep within.
An awesome example of choosing to sing despite the circumstances is found in Acts 16. Paul and Silas had been severely flogged and thrown into prison. Their jailor “put them into the inner prison and secured their feet in the stocks” to make certain they would not escape. Can you imagine their dire situation? Bleeding, aching, locked into an uncomfortable position in the darkness of a dungeon cell. It really couldn’t get much worse. No one would have blamed them for “hanging up their harps” and weeping with their fellow prisoners.
Yet, that is the very opposite of what Paul and Silas chose to do. “About midnight,” the darkest hour of their dreadful night, “Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God.” It was weird! It was unexpected. It was a choice, and it caused others to take notice. Verse 25 tells us that “the other prisoners were listening to them.” I don’t know what their reactions were, but I can imagine that some mocked them, some were encouraged by them, and some probably even gave their lives to the God who could inspire and deserve praise in such a dark and terrible place.
How are your choices affecting the people around you? Are your “fellow prisoners” more likely to hear crying and complaining coming from your lips or have you made a choice to “pray and sing hymns to God?”
Sing to the Lord a new song, sing to the Lord, all the earth. Sing to the Lord, praise His name; Proclaim His salvation from day to day. Ps. 96:122
Why? Because He is worthy. Why? Because others are listening. Why? Because it’s the best choice!
Father, may I choose to praise You in the gardens as well as in the dungeons of life. Let my voice be a joyful noise to Your ears and to the ears of those around me. Use me as a harp to accompany those who do not yet know how to sing in a foreign land, and let all of creation sing to the Lord! Amen.
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Filed in: Crisis, Responding to God, Worship
