Where Can I Go?

“By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept when we remembered Zion. There on the poplars we hung our harps, for there our captors asked us for songs, our tormentors demanded songs of joy…How can we sing the songs of the LORD while in a foreign land?” Psalm 137:1-4

As I remember “a time in Zion,” that is a time absent of grief I remember the sweet music of life. I remember the constant ebb and flow of the life void of absence and loss. I remember singing the songs of insignificance and light heartedness as I faced each day. But grief captivated me and moved me into a foreign land, a land that had unstable footing and whose rivers of sadness would sometimes overtake me. Life in the foreign land would still command my attention and request things of me that I felt too weary to accomplish.

Just as I was reaching for that harp again to play the sweet music of life and to bid the land farewell, I was called to live in that land again for the next year as we face the end of my dad’s life. I must hang around in this land some more although its landscapes are no longer foreign to me. I know from my previous stay I will survive this extended stay and will feed off the land again as God will provide the nourishment.

We all travel into foreign lands in this life warranting new behavior, new anxieties and new challenges. The one constant anchor is the love and peace God can provide no matter where we go. When thinking of the next few months I will sing my song of Psalm 139:7-10 which is one of my favorite passages in the Bible. As a matter of fact, I think I will write it down on my pocket calendar and carry it with me each day so the music may always be heard.

“Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.”

Our foreign lands are God’s holy hills where He shows provision, comfort and singing in the storm.