song of ascents

I Will Sing of My Redeemer

/ kdmiller55 / Leave a comment

1 By the waters of Babylon,
there we sat down and wept,
when we remembered Zion.
2 On the willows there
we hung up our lyres.
3 For there our captors
required of us songs,
and our tormentors, mirth, saying,
“Sing us one of the songs of Zion!”

4 How shall we sing the Lord‘s song
in a foreign land?
5 If I forget you, O Jerusalem,
let my right hand forget its skill!
6 Let my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth,
if I do not remember you,
if I do not set Jerusalem
above my highest joy!

7 Remember, O Lord, against the Edomites
the day of Jerusalem,
how they said, “Lay it bare, lay it bare,
down to its foundations!”
8 O daughter of Babylon, doomed to be destroyed,
blessed shall he be who repays you
with what you have done to us!
9 Blessed shall he be who takes your little ones
and dashes them against the rock. – Psalm 137:1-9 ESV

This psalm is a song of lament, written sometime after the fall of Jerusalem to Babylonian invaders in 587 B.C.. After a 30-month-long siege, the city’s inhabitants were on the brink of starvation, a fact that the prophet Jeremiah describes in great detail in the Book of Lamentations.

See how the precious children of Jerusalem,
worth their weight in fine gold,
are now treated like pots of clay
made by a common potter.

Even the jackals feed their young,
but not my people Israel.
They ignore their children’s cries,
like ostriches in the desert.

The parched tongues of their little ones
stick to the roofs of their mouths in thirst.
The children cry for bread,
but no one has any to give them.

The people who once ate the richest foods
now beg in the streets for anything they can get.
Those who once wore the finest clothes
now search the garbage dumps for food.

The guilt of my people
is greater than that of Sodom,
where utter disaster struck in a moment
and no hand offered help.

Our princes once glowed with health—
brighter than snow, whiter than milk.
Their faces were as ruddy as rubies,
their appearance like fine jewels.

But now their faces are blacker than soot.
No one recognizes them in the streets.
Their skin sticks to their bones;
it is as dry and hard as wood.

Those killed by the sword are better off
than those who die of hunger.
Starving, they waste away
for lack of food from the fields.– Lamentations 4:2-9 NLT

Eventually, the Babylonians breached the city’s walls.

By July 18 in the eleventh year of Zedekiah’s reign, the famine in the city had become very severe, and the last of the food was entirely gone.Then a section of the city wall was broken down. Since the city was surrounded by the Babylonians… 2 Kings 25:3-4 NLT

After a slight delay, Nebuchadnezzar ordered the wanton destruction of Jerusalem and the capture of many of its citizens, who were taken back to Babylon as slaves.

On August 14 of that year,which was the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar’s reign, Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard and an official of the Babylonian king, arrived in Jerusalem. He burned down the Temple of the Lord, the royal palace, and all the houses of Jerusalem. He destroyed all the important buildings in the city. Then he supervised the entire Babylonian army as they tore down the walls of Jerusalem on every side. Then Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, took as exiles the rest of the people who remained in the city, the defectors who had declared their allegiance to the king of Babylon, and the rest of the population. But the captain of the guard allowed some of the poorest people to stay behind to care for the vineyards and fields.– 2 Kings 25:8-12 NLT

The psalmist picks up the story sometime after the exiles arrived in Babylon. He describes them as weeping beside the rivers of Babylon, as they considered the full weight of their devastating circumstances. The depth of their sorrow is reflected in their decision to ban all music.

We put away our harps,
hanging them on the branches of poplar trees.
For our captors demanded a song from us.– Psalm 137:2-3 NLT

Mocked relentlessly by their Babylonian overlords, the exiles mourned and wept in silence, refusing to assuage their grief with songs. This sad state of affairs should not have been a surprise to them, because Yahweh had warned it would happen.

“And now the Lord of Heaven’s Armies says: Because you have not listened to me, I will gather together all the armies of the north under King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, whom I have appointed as my deputy. I will bring them all against this land and its people and against the surrounding nations. I will completely destroy you and make you an object of horror and contempt and a ruin forever. I will take away your happy singing and laughter. The joyful voices of bridegrooms and brides will no longer be heard. Your millstones will fall silent, and the lights in your homes will go out.This entire land will become a desolate wasteland. Israel and her neighboring lands will serve the king of Babylon for seventy years.” – Ezekiel 25:8-11 NLT

The former citizens of Jerusalem justified their actions, saying, “How can we sing the songs of the LORD while in a pagan land?” (Psalm 137:4 NLT). From their perspective, they had no reason to sing. Their city had been destroyed, their homes burned, the Temple plundered and reduced to rubble, and they had been chained and forced-marched all the way to Babylon, where they would spend the next seven decades as slaves. Even if Yahweh’s promise was true, and they would return to Jerusalem after 70 years, many of them knew they would never live long enough to see that day. 

Yet, the psalmist refused to give up. He couldn’t bring himself to give up and give in to despair. He wasn’t minimizing their situation; he was simply attempting to remind himself and his fellow exiles that they still had reason to hope.

If I forget you, O Jerusalem,
let my right hand forget how to play the harp.
May my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth
if I fail to remember you,
if I don’t make Jerusalem my greatest joy.– Psalm 137:5-6 NLT

When the Babylonians shouted, “Sing us one of those songs of Jerusalem!” (Psalm 137:3 NLT), they were mocking the Israelites’ practice of singing the songs of ascent as they made their annual pilgrimages to Jerusalem during the feast days. The psalms were designed to remind the Israelites of the unique status of Jerusalem, not just as their national capital, but as the home of the Temple, considered to be Yahweh’s earthly dwelling place. As they made their way up the paths to Mount Zion, they could see the glorious Temple, which stood as a reminder that they served a holy, all-powerful, and covenant-keeping God.

I look up to the mountains—
does my help come from there?
My help comes from the LORD,
who made heaven and earth!– Psalm 121:1-2 NLT

The LORD keeps you from all harm
and watches over your life.
The LORD keeps watch over you as you come and go,
both now and forever.– Psalm 121:7-8 NLT

What if the LORD had not been on our side?
Let all Israel repeat:
What if the LORDhad not been on our side
when people attacked us?
They would have swallowed us alive
in their burning anger.
The waters would have engulfed us;
a torrent would have overwhelmed us.
Yes, the raging waters of their fury
would have overwhelmed our very lives.– Psalm 124:1-5 NLT

But now, they sat by the rivers of Babylon, engulfed and overwhelmed by the reality that their God had not saved them. He had not been on their side. As they had walked away from Jerusalem in chains, their minds were seared with the parting image of their once-glorious Temple in ruins and their impregnable city reduced to rubble.

But the psalmist wanted to remember Jerusalem as it had been before the Babylonians arrived. He longed to relish the halcyon days when Yahweh’s Shekinah glory dwelled above the Mercy Seat in the Holy of Holies. He still held out hope that their God had not completely abandoned them. While their circumstances were bleak and their chances for survival seemed slim, he believed that Yahweh was still on His throne and would remain faithful to His covenant promises. He offered up a prayer to the LORD, begging Him to remember what the Edomites said as they gleefully witnessed the fall of Jerusalem.

O LORD, remember what the Edomites did
on the day the armies of Babylon captured Jerusalem.
“Destroy it!” they yelled.
“Level it to the ground!” – Psalm 137:7 NLT

The Edomites were descendants of Esau, the brother of Jacob, and thus blood relatives of the Israelites. But the Edomites held a long-standing grudge against Jacob’s progeny, and rejoiced in their destruction. The sight of Jerusalem being invaded by Babylonian troops spurred the Edomites to demand its complete destruction. They wanted the Israelites and their capital city wiped off the face of the earth.

The psalmist called on Yahweh to act. Surely, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob would not stand back and allow His chosen people to suffer permanent extinction. He had heard the cries of the prophets, warning the Israelites to repent of their sins or face God’s judgment, and he had lived to experience it firsthand. But he had also heard the prophets speak of God’s promise to redeem and restore them.

This is what the LORD says: “You will be in Babylon for seventy years. But then I will come and do for you all the good things I have promised, and I will bring you home again. For I know the plans I have for you,” says the LORD. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. In those days when you pray, I will listen. If you look for me wholeheartedly, you will find me. I will be found by you,” says the LORD. “I will end your captivity and restore your fortunes. I will gather you out of the nations where I sent you and will bring you home again to your own land.” – Jeremiah 29:10-14 NLT

He might not live to see that day, but he was willing to trust that the LORD would bring it about. With the words of the prophet Jeremiah ringing in his ears, the psalmist expressed his belief that Yahweh would do what He promised to do.

“Listen to this message from the LORD,
    you nations of the world;
    proclaim it in distant coastlands:
The LORD, who scattered his people,
    will gather them and watch over them
    as a shepherd does his flock.
For the LORD has redeemed Israel
    from those too strong for them.
They will come home and sing songs of joy on the heights of Jerusalem.” – Jeremiah 31:10-12 NLT

Notice the emphasis on songs of joy. While the Babylonians mocked the Israelites’ songs of ascent, the psalmist focused on the day when singing would be renewed because of God’s faithfulness. The highways and byways surrounding Jerusalem would once again ring with joyful praise as the Israelites made their way to a restored city and a rebuilt Temple, where they would enjoy a renewed relationship with their God. This news, coupled with Jeremiah’s prediction of Babylon’s eventual fall, produced hope in the heart of the psalmist.

“How Babylon is fallen—
great Babylon, praised throughout the earth!
Now she has become an object of horror
among the nations.
The sea has risen over Babylon;
she is covered by its crashing waves.
Her cities now lie in ruins;
she is a dry wasteland
where no one lives or even passes by. – Jeremiah 51:41-43 NLT

The tables will be turned, and the fortunes of Israel and Babylon will be reversed, which led the psalmist to end his song with an exuberant, if not macabre, refrain of praise and rejoicing.

O Babylon, you will be destroyed.
    Happy is the one who pays you back
    for what you have done to us.
Happy is the one who takes your babies
    and smashes them against the rocks! – Psalm 137:8-9 NLT

Father, when times get tough, it can be difficult to sing Your praises. Suffering seems to cause short-term memory loss, leaving us unable to recall Your many acts of grace, mercy, kindness, and love. Dark days can produce a cloudy recollection of Your power and providential provision of all our needs. We can find ourselves sitting by our “rivers of Babylon,” whining about our lot in life rather than singing about Your glory and goodness. Help me keep a song on my lips at all times because You are forever faithful, all-powerful, never unaware of my circumstances, and . always ready to act on my behalf. I have plenty of reasons to sing Your praises even when I can’t sense Your presence. Amen

English Standard Version (ESV) The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Permanent Text Edition® (2016). Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

New Living Translation (NLT) Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Unseen, But Far From Unappreciated

/ kdmiller55 / Leave a comment

A Song of Ascents.  

1 Come, bless the LORD, all you servants of the LORD,
    who stand by night in the house of the LORD!
2 Lift up your hands to the holy place
    and bless the LORD!

3 May the Lord bless you from Zion,
    he who made heaven and earth! – Psalm 134:1-3 ESV

Just three verses long, this psalm seems to be a short, simple conclusion or benediction to the Song of Ascents, the hymnbook used by pilgrims on their way to Jerusalem to celebrate the annual feasts of Passover, Pentecost, and Booths. The songs of ascent included Psalms 120-134. In this final song, the unidentified psalmist turns his emphasis toward those who serve God in the Temple at night.

Care for the Temple and its courtyard was an around-the-clock affair. While the people slept, the priests were busy protecting, cleaning, purifying, and preparing the Temple for the following day’s activities. According to the Book of 1 Chronicles, there was a group of the Levites assigned to perform some of the more mundane and less-than-glamorous responsibilities associated with the Temple.

The duty of the Levites was to help Aaron’s descendants in the service of the temple of the LORD: to be in charge of the courtyards, the side rooms, the purification of all sacred things and the performance of other duties at the house of God. They were in charge of the bread set out on the table, the flour for the grain offerings, the unleavened wafers, the baking and the mixing, and all measurements of quantity and size.  They were also to stand every morning to thank and praise the LORD. They were to do the same in the evening, and whenever burnt offerings were presented to the LORD on Sabbaths and at New Moon festivals and at appointed feasts. They were to serve before the LORD regularly in the proper number and in the way prescribed for them. – 1 Chronicles 23:28-31 NLT

This psalm was meant to be an expression of encouragement to those who served the LORD at night, in relative obscurity. They were to do so joyfully, offering Him praise even while performing their unseen and unappreciated nightly duties. It was a reminder to the pilgrims and the priests that the role these priests played was far from unimportant. While no one witnessed their nocturnal activities, Yahweh was watching. Their duties were just as essential as those of the priests who offered up the sacrifices in the courtyard. Without their careful purification of the utensils and objects used in the sacrificial system, the offerings made to Yahweh would have been considered unclean and unacceptable. One can only imagine the cleanup job required after a full day of sacrifices, with the Temple grounds and courtyard covered in the blood of thousands of sacrificed animals. Everything had to be cleaned and purified. These men played a critical role in the sacrificial system of Israel, and their efforts were a blessing to Yahweh and, far too often, an unrecognized and underappreciated benefit to the people of God.

What a reminder to us that there are those who serve the body of Christ in obscurity, doing roles that many of us would think are unglamorous and even unimportant. I think of the countless men and women who serve each Sunday in churches all across the world. Their names are unknown, and the tasks they perform are often taken for granted. Some, tasked with the responsibility of leading God’s people in worship, arrive long before the average congregant is awake, so they can practice the music they will play so that our worship is rich and meaningful. Others serve in the nursery and children’s ministries of their local church, faithfully imparting the Word of God to children who are not their own but whom they love and care for as if they were.

There are volunteers who assist with everything from overseeing the flow of cars on and off our parking lots to brewing coffee and preparing rooms for Sunday School classes and services to be held. Without their efforts, the chaos that would ensue would be unbearable. Yet many don’t even notice that these people exist. Hundreds of Sunday School teachers and volunteers serve each and every week throughout the year, and we tend to take them for granted. We come to church knowing they will be there to provide our children a safe environment in which to learn and grow in their knowledge of God and His Word. What about the maintenance staff who work all throughout the week, caring for the buildings and grounds, ensuring they are clean and that everything works correctly? They operate behind the scenes, invisible and unknown to most of us. But consider how their efforts enhance our worship of God on Sunday.

The psalmist was grateful for all the behind-the-scenes efforts that went into making the Temple a well-run and worshipful atmosphere for every congregant. But he not only wanted these unsung heroes to know that their work was appreciated, he wanted them to do their jobs with the proper mindset, “as to the LORD” (Colossians 3:23-24).

Lift your hands toward the sanctuary,
    and praise the LORD. – Psalm 134:2 NLT

They were serving Yahweh by making His house a holy and hospitable place where His presence was welcome and His worship was unhindered. But the psalmist wanted them to never lose sight of the sacredness of their work, no matter how mundane it may have felt. Even in serving as night guards on the Temple grounds, they could turn their job into an act of worship to Yahweh. While some priests had the privilege of serving as God’s intermediaries, offering sacrifices on behalf of the people, others were tasked with cleaning up the aftermath of their efforts. But the psalmist wanted these men to see their roles as sacred. In his book, The Practice of the Presence of God, Brother Lawrence, a 17th-century French Carmelite monk, spoke of the necessity of serving God with joy and out of worship, regardless of the perceived worthiness of the task.

“We ought not to be weary of doing little things for the love of God, who regards not the greatness of the work, but the love with which it is performed.”
“We can do little things for GOD; I turn the cake that is frying on the pan for love of Him, and that done, if there is nothing else to call me, I prostrate myself in worship before Him, Who has given me grace to work; afterwards I rise happier than a king. It is enough for me to pick up but a straw from the ground for the love of GOD.” ― Brother Lawrence, The Practice of the Presence of God

This mindset of selfless service to God is as needed today as ever before. Each child of God needs to learn to practice His presence and conduct their lives in such a way that their every action is done for His glory. No matter how mundane the task may seem, if done for His glory, it will ultimately be for our good.

From those who design and print the worship folders each Sunday to those who brew the coffee and turn on the lights, countless individuals serve behind the scenes to make our worship of God as comfortable and hassle-free as possible. May God bless them for their efforts, and may we learn to thank them for all that they do. If we happen to be one of those faithful servants of God, may we do our work as unto Him, giving him the glory He is due and rejoicing in the privilege we have to serve Him.

Father, thank You for reminding me of all those who serve You selflessly each week. Create in me a heart of gratitude, expressing my thanks to them for all that they do to enhance our worship experience each week. May You bless them Father for their willingness to serve in ways that many would deem beneath them or unworthy of their talents. Help me have a more sacrificial and selfless attitude toward all that I do, so that You are honored as much by my attitude as by my actions. Amen

English Standard Version (ESV) The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Permanent Text Edition® (2016). Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

New Living Translation (NLT) Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.