How can we sing the songs of the LORD while in a foreign land?  PSALM 137:4


When you are in a situation that makes you want to hang up your harp,
     you may wonder how in the world you can ever celebrate again.
Where is that toe-tapping rhythm, that spring in your step?

You are on alien soil in the ungodly world.
No wonder antagonists poke fun at your hymns of praise.
The world is “not a friend to grace to help you on to God” (Isaac Watts).
I am the One “who makes the woeful heart to sing” (Anonymous hymn).

When Paul wrote Philippians, he was not in a Statler Hilton luxury suite.
     Yet he published a message of joy advising believers to rejoice.
Hope can sing—heaven’s music echoes in listening hearts.
Faith can dance—heaven’s message encourages trusting souls.
Joy can celebrate—heaven’s mirth is in inner-stances, not circumstances.
Love can rejoice—heaven’s melody inspires invulnerable joy.

Horatio Spafford experienced this joy—even after his daughters died.
That ship collision in the Atlantic took their lives, but not his peace.
Sorrows like sea billows rolled over him, but it was well with his soul.

Richard Wurmbrand experienced this joy—even after 14 years in prison.
Brutally tortured until he could find relief only on his elbows and knees,
     he still sang a song a fellow prisoner wrote about Jesus.

Joni Eareckson Tada experienced this joy—even as a quadriplegic.
Confined to a wheelchair, painting with her mouth,
     she sang from her heart a song of trusting faith.

Betsie ten Boom experienced this joy—even in a concentration camp.
She knew they would be free, and she told her sister to tell everyone
     there is no pit so deep that God is not deeper still.

You can also experience this joy.
Though you feel like sighing, your Greatest Friend can teach you a song.
By My grace, you can sing—even when you do not feel like it.
    
                               

                          (c) Pastor Johnny R. Almond

                 Day 246, Gentle Whispers from Eternity