Joy Is Upward, Not Outward

“We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof. For there they that carried us away captive required of us a song; and they that wasted us required of us mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion. How shall we sing the LORD’S song in a strange land?” (Ps 137:2-4 AV)

We do not know who wrote this psalm, but we are certain of its historical placement.  This psalm was written for the children of Israel taken and held captive in the land of Babylon.  The captives that required a song of mirth are the Babylonians.  The Chaldeans could not even understand how a captive wouldn’t have any joy.  The reason for their sadness was the memory of Jerusalem in general and the temple in particular.  Both had been destroyed.  The question this psalm poses is:  how can the children of Israel express any joy while they remember their heritage and definition going up in smoke?  How can they have any joy when the most important of all that defines them has been destroyed.  To understand the application for us today, let us consider another verse.  “And ye now therefore have sorrow: but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you.” (Joh 16:22 AV)  And still another.  “And these things write we unto you, that your joy may be full.” (1Jo 1:4 AV)  It would seem that joy is something we can have without interruption, yet the children of God had none.  It might be what they chose to have as their focus of joy.

We live in uncertain times.  It is interesting how this present generation does not see how troublesome times these are.  My wife and I are getting to the age when the music we grew up on is now the golden oldies offered on late-night television.  She and I will watch a bit of TV before slumbering off to la la land.  We are watching the shows which we had seen four decades ago.  Those were simpler times.  Things like the Andy Griffeth Show or Davey and Goliath.  Life was much simpler back then and it seemed our culture was, for the most part, a happy culture.  We had problems.  Sure.  Every country does.  But not like we do today.  The sixties ushered in the influence of discontent and hatred.  Violence was, for the first time, accepted as a means of legitimate expression of opinion.  Fast-forward to today, and things are a whole lot worse.  Even holidays of joy are changed.  There seems to be no joy left.  Everything we used to hold dear as an expression of goodwill and happy times has been changed to one big expression of anger and hate.  How is the child of God supposed to have joy in such circumstances as these?  When the future looks bleak and there seems to be no end in sight of the discord, disease, and distrust, how can our nation or the people of God every live in peace again?  That which we treasured has been destroyed.  Or, at the very least, is in the process of being destroyed.  Like Israel, we sit at the banks of the river with our eyes cast at what used to be, knowing it will never be that way again, and struggle to find any source of joy.

The key is where we cast our eyes.  The children of Israel cast their eyes back towards Jerusalem.  They looked beyond the horizon with the eyes of imagination and remembered the glory that once was the kingdom of Israel.  They regretted all they had done to cause the present circumstances.  They neglected the law.  They went after other gods.  They allowed sodomy to reign in their land.  They shed innocent blood.  They did all those things which God hates and now sit in captivity to the nations they once intreated.  No joy because their eyes were in the wrong place.  Their hope was in this world.  Their object of joy was a temporal one.  Their eyes should not have been outward, but upward.  We live in a sin-sick world.  Until the LORD returns, nothing will change that.  It is getting worse every day.  But our hope is not in this life.  Our home is in heaven.  All these things on which we cast our eyes will be burned up.  The present world system will be destroyed.  The LORD will recreate it all in holiness and true righteousness.  Our source of joy is eternal.  It is not temporary.  And no man can take that from us.  So, as things go more and more down the tubes, remember, our joy is not here.  It is up there!