A Reason For Weeping

Psalm 137:1-2

    There were times when God's people in the Old Testament dispensation sang lustily and enthusiastically.   Just read Exodus 15 and note how they sang after God brought them safely across the Red Sea and destroyed all of Egypt's army.

    But there also were times when there was bitter weeping among these children of God. Listen to what we read in Psalm 137:1, 2: "By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion. We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof."  They were no longer in the land God promised them. They were in the bondage of Babylon and remembered the blessings they enjoyed in Canaan, and their ready access to God's temple which now was in ruins.

    Not for one minute should we find fault with them for this sorrow.  In fact their sorrow ought to be ours today. We have every reason for singing today:

    By Babel's streams we sat and wept,
    For mem'ry still to Zion clung;
    The winds alone our harpstrings swept,
    That on the drooping willows hung.    If we only open our eyes and see the church's situation today, we have abundant reason to weep. Her bondage is not in the city of Babylon. She does not weep because her temple is in ruins and Jerusalem's walls are a pile of broken stones. But today so much of what is called the church of Christ is in the bondage of Satan. And although our church buildings are in good condition, the truth concerning Christ has been so greatly corrupted that we, remembering the truth God gave His church in ages gone by, have reason to weep bitterly. The faith once delivered to the saints is crumbling, the pillars of the truth are tumbling down in many churches.

    Does this fill you with sadness? Is your harp hanging on the willows because of the doctrines boldly and widely proclaimed that militate against that faith once delivered to the saints?

Read: Psalm 137 
Psalter versification: 379:1
 Meditations on the Heidelberg Catechism 

Song for Meditation: Psalter number 25
Why not sing along??

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Through the Bible in One Year
Read today:
 Daniel 9 ;  Daniel 10 ;  Daniel 11:1 
 1 John 2:18-22 ;  1 John 3:1-6 
 Psalm 121:1-8 
 Proverbs 28:27-28

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Quote for Reflection:

 "The whole gospel is contained in Christ." John Calvin