By the Rivers of BabylonSample

Defiant Hope 

The lyres were used in the worship of God in the temple. However, in exile, without a temple wherein the people might worship, there was no need for lyres. So, they hang them up on the willows. They do not break and burn their lyres but rather hang them up for another day. Even in their desperate misery, they hope that one day they can dust the cobwebs off and praise God in His sanctuary with the harp and lyre (Psalm 150:3). Even in their rivers of tears, they hope defiantly for they know that their God is faithful to His covenant and He will never abandon His children. He did not give up on them in Egypt and neither will he give up on them in Babylon. 

The Babylonian captors required the people of God to sing the songs of Zion. These are the holy hymns sung in the temple. These are no ordinary songs but the LORD’s songs! How can such sacred songs be sung for the amusement and revelry of the captors? The mere request itself was a torment. It was a reminder of what the Lord’s people had lost in their sinful rebellion. They had lost fellowship with God and are unable to even sing the praises He is due! They are so unworthy that God in His anger has removed them from His presence in Zion. Only they who have clean hands and a pure heart which does not trust in an idol or swear deceitfully may ascend Zion’s hill (Psalm 24:4). The people in exile knew their hands were defiled with blood and lips with lies (Isaiah 59:3). The requests of their captors only accentuated their misery.

Yet even in such wretchedness, tormented by the Babylonians, the people of God remain defiant. They will not let the holy hymns of God be profaned by singing it for the drunken entertainment of a pagan people. They refuse to as Jesus would later say, “give dogs what is holy, and throw pearls before pigs (Matthew 7:6).” Even in exile, amidst incredible pressure, the remnant keeps their faith. They preserve what is holy against the demands of culture. They persist as a people set apart even in a foreign land for, they knew that though they are sinners, they are God’s elect people. This truth fuelled their defiant hope.