How shall we sing the LORD’s song in a strange land?
Parallel translations
- WEB How can we sing Yahweh’s song in a foreign land?
- BSB How can we sing a song of the LORD in a foreign land?
- NKJV How shall we sing the Lord’s song In a foreign land?
- NASB ¶How can we sing the Lord’s song In a foreign land?
- NLT But how can we sing the songs of the Lord while in a pagan land?
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
The exiles ask how they could sing Yahweh's song in a foreign land.
Overview
This anguished question expresses the impossibility of joyful worship under captivity and mockery. The songs of Zion were bound up with God's presence and His city, not to be sung lightly in exile. The longing here points to the day when God's people will sing freely in His presence, a hope secured in Christ.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 6
- Isa 22:12And in that day did the Lord GOD of hosts call to weeping, and to mourning, and to baldness, and to girding with sackcloth:
- Amos 8:3And the songs of the temple shall be howlings in that day, saith the Lord GOD: there shall be many dead bodies in every place; they shall cast them forth with silence.
- Hos 9:4They shall not offer wine offerings to the LORD, neither shall they be pleasing unto him: their sacrifices shall be unto them as the bread of mourners; all that eat thereof shall be polluted: for their bread for their soul shall not come into the house of the LORD.
- Lam 5:14–15The elders have ceased from the gate, the young men from their musick.
- Isa 49:21Then shalt thou say in thine heart, Who hath begotten me these, seeing I have lost my children, and am desolate, a captive, and removing to and fro? and who hath brought up these? Behold, I was left alone; these, where had they been?
- Eccl 3:4A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
The Psalms are Christ's own prayer book and a gallery of his portraits — the suffering one of Psalm 22, the risen Lord of Psalm 16, the priest-king of Psalm 110, the Son to whom the nations are given.
How Psalms 137:4 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.