Pray the Word with David Platt is a resource from radical.net.

Psalm chapter 137, verse 4.

How shall we sing the Lord's song in a foreign land?

Let me say that again.

How shall we sing the Lord's song in a foreign land? So the context here,

this is such a powerful verse. The context here is God's people in Babylonian exile.

The whole psalm starts by the waters of Babylon.

So they've been taken from their homes.

They've been taken from all their comforts.

They've been taken from family.

They've been taken from Jerusalem,

the center of worship life for the people of God, from the temple, where the glory of God dwelt among these people.

They've been taken from there to Babylon.

It says, by the waters of Babylon, there we sat down and wept when we remembered Zion.

When we remembered Jerusalem, when we remembered, when we were in the promised land,

before we were scattered into this foreign land.

And the whole Psalm is a longing to get back to normal in a very real sense.

Normal in the Old Testament was in the promised land where God had settled his people

with the temple in the middle of his people, surrounded by the walls of Jerusalem,

where they dwelt in God's presence continually, and they are longing for that when

they're in exile.

Now, that's the unique context that Psalm 137 takes place in.

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