The New Song of Zion

For there they that carried us away captive required of us a song; and they that wasted us required of us mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion. Psa 137:3  

Thoughts by the River Bank

Sometimes it is not just the water flowing under the bridge. Sometimes a river is a memory album.

It is a time capsule.

Conversations are fleeting.

Songs are hewn in the heart by the scythe of time.

They are the visceral cups we drink from.

“But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life” (Joh 4:14).  

By the Rivers of Babylon

First, this singer wasn't home.

He missed it. It wasn’t just the body which pined. Even his soul was famished.

God had given them the true drink once.

But they disdained it as they chased broken cisterns.

Babylon can never replace the true home, no matter how glamorous and chic it looks.

Sin always takes one far from home, and one never truly arrives. There is always another corner to turn; another bridge and river to cross.

But one never arrives.

God is Good all the Time

It wasn’t God who was bad.

It was their heart.

It wasn’t God who oppressed them.

It was sin.

So they wept.

When they remembered home.

Home carried the memory of the Father.

And that is always heavier.

“Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee, 

And am no more worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants.” 

They wept, because of memory.

Even a palace can begin to feel like a jail when the soul hasn’t got something hard to steady it against the currents.

Home was where songs held meaning.

Home is where God is, where daily prayer is, and where the harvest is. Home is where the fire never goes out.

Home is where even the ashes hold meaning.

“How shall we sing the LORD'S song in a strange land?” (Psa 137:4).  

 The Pilgrim Travels Light

A song has to come from the heart, it is vain to force it.

It is God who gives songs, the lasting songs.

I am the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Exo 20:2-3  

The soul craves stability, not uncertainty.

It requires stillness, not chaos.

It requires a fixed mark, a single life, and not numberless.

A single decision.

A single pursuit.

A single purpose.

Heaviness sets in in a purposeless life.

But we are not of Babylon, of many gods, many purposes, and many sorrows.

When Love Will Not Let Go

If sin oppresses, the love of God even more.

We shall not take their little ones and dash them against the stones.

But that was then.

Not so now.

Love beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. 

Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. 

But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. Mat 5:43-45  

Sin oppresses to kill.

Love oppresses, so it might save.

He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. 

Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. 

But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. Isa 53:3-5

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Joh 3:16  

He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? Rom 8:32 

Thank you, God, for Babylon.

Yes, if sin oppresses, the love of God even more.

Set me as a seal upon thine heart, as a seal upon thine arm: for love is strong as death; jealousy is cruel as the grave: the coals thereof are coals of fire, which hath a most vehement flame. 

Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it: if a man would give all the substance of his house for love, it would utterly be contemned. Son 8:6-7  

At home we can grow at ease.

We can be soaked in the familiar scent until we can smell nothing strange.

Babylon opens the eyes.

They did not just see God clearly, but (perhaps for the first time in their lives) they saw themselves much clearly. “And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart” (Jer 29:13).  

Babylon has a purpose.

River banks have a purpose.

We just have to sit there and see it.

And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; 

And hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth. Rev 5:9-10  

And I looked, and, lo, a Lamb stood on the mount Sion, and with him an hundred forty and four thousand, having his Father's name written in their foreheads. 

And I heard a voice from heaven, as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of a great thunder: and I heard the voice of harpers harping with their harps: 

And they sung as it were a new song before the throne, and before the four beasts, and the elders: and no man could learn that song but the hundred and forty and four thousand, which were redeemed from the earth. Rev 14:1-3  

Heaven is close now.

Let all the saints march in proudly carrying their banners.