How can we sing the Lord’s song on foreign soil? —Psalm 137:4
Psalm 137 was written shortly after the Jews returned to Jerusalem after seventy years of captivity in Babylon. However, they couldn’t forget what they had been through. Even as the Israelites rejoiced in God’s goodness, they hadn’t forgotten their painful past.
God didn’t expect His people to forget their pain— the years in exile, the devastation their enemies had caused to Jerusalem, the disobedience that had led them into this exile. It was all part of the redemptive story God was writing in their lives.
God is always writing a story in your life, too. It’s for you. And it’s for the person sitting next to you, for your family, and for the next generation. God doesn’t want you to forget your pain, even as you celebrate His goodness and grace.
If you’re a Christian, your pain—whether in the distant past or in the immediate present—leads you to a grand and glorious future. A time where the Lord will be magnified as the great redeeming God who makes all things new and all wrongs right.
Make it Personal
How can the pain you experience be a reminder of where your hope is ultimately found?