Day 244

How horrible it must have been for the Israelites to be exiled from their country.

Psalm 137 describes it like I have never heard it before. It is a musician speaking in this Psalm. In verse 3, he says, "For there our captors required of us songs...saying, 'Sing us one of the songs of Zion!'"

The musician's reply was that of sorrow and shame. He asks in verse 4, "How shall we sing the Lord's song in a foreign land?" To him it is like forgetting where he came from.

In verses 5 and 6 he continues, "If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget its skill! Let my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth..."

What sorrow they must have gone through for a musician to say for his had to forget how to play music, and his tongue to no longer be able to sing.

But the same could be true for me. Should I not be just as sorrowful when Satan pulls me away from my Lord? If I no longer am able to sing and to praise my Lord, should I be able to sing at all? Only the Lord deserves to be praised, and when the Devil turns me away from the Lord, it would be better not to sing.

Only my Lord is worthy of praise.