Dino Chronicles: Separation

Sunday, August 8, 2021

Separation

By the rivers of Babylon we sat down;

there we wept when we remembered Zion.

On the willows near by

we hung up our harps.

Those who captured us told us to sing;

they told us to entertain them:

“Sing us a song about Zion.”

How can we sing a song to the Lord

in a foreign land?

May I never be able to play the harp again

if I forget you, Jerusalem!

May I never be able to sing again

if I do not remember you,

if I do not think of you as my greatest joy!

(Psalm 137:1-6, Good News Translation)

Way back in April, I started sharing some of the songs from the musical “Godspell.” This is one of the most moving songs in the movie, but I’ve been putting off writing about it. There is a long story behind these verses from Psalms, and I thought you’d need to know the whole history of the Israel people, their capture and exile in Babylon, and I didn’t want to write that much.

I did run across one explanation of these verses, though, which put it in perspective for me.

Psalm 137 is a song the Israelites sang when they were separated from God. They’d been taken away, physically, from their homes, their temple, and the rest of their people. They didn’t know how to pray anymore, and they didn’t know how they could sing to God when they were so far from home.

In the movie “Godspell,” when these verses are put to haunting music, Jesus is saying goodbye to His followers. They aren’t sure what this means, why Jesus is so somber, but they begin to feel His sorrow.

The true meaning in both of these cases, for me at least, is that there is nothing as horrible, as gut-wrenchingly sad as being separated from God. The Good News is that we don’t have to be. No matter what situation we might find ourselves in, no matter how much despair we might feel, we need to remember that God will never leave us or forsake us. We need only turn to our Redeemer, Jesus Christ.

Thank You, Lord Jesus