Sometimes reining my head in to focus during worship is really hard. I often feel like I’ve only just got my mind off me and my eyes onto Jesus when it’s time to sit back down. What a waste. Sometimes it’s the busyness of the day or week that is in my own way, sometimes my mind is stuck in problems in need of solutions or sorrows that weigh me down. Whatever the reason – they result in distraction – and is something I purpose to conquor deliberately instead of passively waiting for the music to take me there.
I have been thinking lately on the ways in which we become distracted… the hooks our hearts harbour that Satan tugs on… and the ‘how?‘ of turning our attention to it’s rightful place. I’m working my way to writing about those hooks, and on recognising them when they’re being tweaked but tonight a question of ‘how to worship?’ popped up at me in Psalm 137 – delivered in it’s own 70’s melody – “How do we sing the Lord’s song in a strange land?”
Imagine your country is raided, defeated, demolished and of those that remain, you are taken captive into another land – and ordered there by your murderous captors – to sing the happiest songs you know. How would you be able to do it?
That would have been a somewhat bigger impediment to worshipping than anything I’ve ever let get in the way, and it was exactly the situation and question in Psalm 137 – verse 4 which asks “How can we sing the songs of the Lord while in a foreign land?”
The remainder of the Psalm does NOT answer the question. It actually creates more questions in the minds of readers – so much so that the question of verse 4 is long forgotten.
But the answers to the question of verse 4 are found by the examples laid out in the very next chapter.
Psalm 137 storms, laments and vents.
Psalm 138 soothes.
How do we sing the Lords song when we’re in an agony? – a sorrow? – a time of trauma? – a time of disappointment, distress or just simple distraction?
Here’s a model.
Verse 1:
I will praise you, LORD,
with all my heart;
before the “gods” I will sing your praise.
- By will choice
- With all my heart (and attention)
- In spite of opposition, idolatry, unpopularity and of being against the grain or flow of the culture
- I will sing
Verse 2
I will bow down
toward your holy temple
and will praise your name
for your unfailing love and your faithfulness,
for
you have so exalted your solemn decree
that it surpasses your fame.
- With my body, mind and mouth
- Directionally. Purposely shifting my focus away from – and toward the place of His presence
- Because of His love and faithfulness
- And I will remember both His love and faithfulness
Verse 3
When I called,
you answered me;
you greatly emboldened me.
- I call
- He answers
- He encourages and helps me be bold
Verse 4
May all the kings of the earth praise you, LORD,
when they hear what you have decreed.
- He is worthy of praise from the highest of earthy powers
Verse 5
May they sing of the ways of the LORD,
for the glory of the LORD is great.
- May they sing
- Of His ways – as I do in song
- FOR HE IS GREAT
Verse 6
Though the LORD is exalted,
He looks kindly on the lowly;
though lofty, he sees them from afar.
- He is high – we are low
- He is kind
- He SEES me, notices me
Verse 7
Though I walk
in the midst of trouble,
you preserve my life.
You stretch out your hand
against the anger of my foes;
with your right hand you save me.
- Though I am in trouble – He saves me
- He works against the anger of my enemies with one hand
- He helps me
- He saves me by His other hand
Verse 8
The LORD will vindicate me;
your love, LORD, endures forever—
do not abandon the works of your hands.
- He will vindicate me; from trouble; from foes
- I will remember that His love endures forever – in all and through all.
- My plea oh Lord – for I am lowly and still so frail – for even as I remember all your wonders and provisions, I need your assurance again that You will not abandon me. I am only clay. But I am in your hands.
How do we sing the Lords stong in a strange land? Amid pain? Or in defiance of distraction?
On purpose. By will. Whole heartedly. With remembrance and expectation. In vulnerability. And His strength.