How Can We Possibly Sing?

Dear Worship Leaders, 

In the spring of 2020, I was having a hard time worshipping. The angry, grief-infused words of the psalmist lingered with me: “How could we sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land?” (Psalm 137:4). And yet, it is our calling as worship leaders to offer people songs of praise and, like Miriam, pack a tambourine while fleeing into the unknown. It is our job to help God’s people worship in whatever circumstance we find ourselves. It is hard work. So, I offer you this scripture reflection based on Psalm 137. 

By the rivers of Babylon, under the majestic tree,
we* rested our guitars, hung up our harps, cried on our keyboards, and packed up our horns.
For how could we sing our beloved’s song in this foreign, bitter land?

How could we sing glorious hallelujahs in our unfinished basements and our messy bedrooms?
How could we share our heart’s language to muted moving pictures on a screen? 
How could we sing, knowing that some of us could not breathe?
In this foreign, bitter, and reckless land,
the requests kept coming and our anger grew:
Sing us songs from back in the day.
Sing us songs from packed churches.
Sing us songs of resistance, struggle, and liberation.
Go find another form of entertainment, we wept, the language of our hearts is sacred.
We will not sing to help you pass the time!
Our hearts were troubled. 
Come then, our beloved responded,
come then, let us sing a song of lament.

And that song of lament became a song of mourning.
And that song of mourning became a song of comfort.
And that song of comfort became a song of hope.
And that song of hope became a muted song of praise.

Slowly we gathered by the tree, picking up our instruments.
Our hearts still troubled, in this foreign, bitter, and reckless land.
And still, our beloved, who is always beside us, offers the sacred invitation: 

Come then, let us sing a new song. 

Thank you, dear worship leaders, for faithfully providing creative, awe-inspiring, hope-filled, and ever-adaptive ways to sing a new song in this never-to-be-repeated time.

Sincerely,
Alydia 

Alydia Smith, Program Coordinator, Worship, Music, and Spirituality 

*By we, I mean me.