How shall we sing the LORD'S song?

Xeno.of.athens

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By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion. Upon the willows in the midst thereof we hanged up our harps. For there they that led us captive required of us songs, 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?
Psalms 137:1-4 RV

War time brings forth this sentiment, the captives, the children deported, the women transported into their attacker's land weep and lose heart as the aggressors demand entertainment. How shall we sing the Lord's song in a strange land? Robbed of dignity, children stolen, propaganda blackening the men of our land who died to defend it, how shall we sing the Lord's song in this strange land?

Christians are in a strange land too, captives in it, propagandised by it, held captive even in the alleged freedom of democracy. How shall we sing the Lord's song in this land?
 

The Liturgist

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The Orthodox approach to worship, which has also been embraced by proponents of liturgical beauty in the Western churches, for example, New Liturgical Movement, is that the Church should be like a meeting place between Heaven and Earth. This obviously requires beautiful, reverent music, but extends to architecture, the use of incense, vestments, paraments, iconography, indeed all aspects of liturgy.
 
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Philip_B

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By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion. Upon the willows in the midst thereof we hanged up our harps. For there they that led us captive required of us songs, 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?
Psalms 137:1-4 RV

War time brings forth this sentiment, the captives, the children deported, the women transported into their attacker's land weep and lose heart as the aggressors demand entertainment. How shall we sing the Lord's song in a strange land? Robbed of dignity, children stolen, propaganda blackening the men of our land who died to defend it, how shall we sing the Lord's song in this strange land?

Christians are in a strange land too, captives in it, propagandised by it, held captive even in the alleged freedom of democracy. How shall we sing the Lord's song in this land?
I am not outright opposed to this view, however, I think we should be careful not to make it a cry-me-a-river kind of statement such as we hear from the Sussexes in defence of the privacy as ordinary people, (perhaps very ordinary sometimes). The people in refugee camps and or Ukrainians escaping the Russian advance may have a more legitimate read of these verses. I think trying to spiritualise this in the way you seem to have is awkward, and perhaps dishonours true suffering.

I think the Psalm would sound very different coming from the mouths of Ukrainian Children held hostage in Russia than it sounds from the comparatively healthy and freed folk in places like Australia and the United States of America and of course our close cousins the Canadians.

Of course, the Psalm continues:

Remember, O Lord, against the Edomites the day of Jerusalem :
how they said ‘Down with it, down with it, raze it to its foundations.’
O daughter of Babylon, you that lay waste :
happy shall he be who serves you as you have served us;
Happy shall he be who takes your little ones :
and dashes them against the stones.

Our challenge is to rise above this kind of response, in recognition of the universal sovereignty of God, and that we are all, including our enemies, made in the image and after the likeness of God.
 
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The Liturgist

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You know, it is extremely important we pray Ukrainians and at the same time also pray for Russians as well as the people of those cities in Ukraine, Donetsk and Luhansk, which back in 2015 expressed a desire to bena part of Russia, because Russian civillians are suffering, and the people of Donetsk and Luhansk are also suffering. The most important thing is to pray for peace and reconciliation between Russians and Ukrainians, who share a common religion, and are as closely related ethnically and culturally as the Belgians and the Dutch, or the Czechs and Slovaks, or the Germans and the Austrians, or indeed the Americans and Canadians.

Historically, this conflict is most reminscent of the military conflicts between the Danish and Swedish people, since Russia, Ukraine and Belarus are like Denmark, Norway and Sweden.
 
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Philip_B

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You know, it is extremely important we pray Ukrainians and at the same time also pray for Russians as well as the people of those cities in Ukraine, Donetsk and Luhansk, which back in 2015 expressed a desire to bena part of Russia, because Russian civillians are suffering, and the people of Donetsk and Luhansk are also suffering. The most important thing is to pray for peace and reconciliation between Russians and Ukrainians, who share a common religion, and are as closely related ethnically and culturally as the Belgians and the Dutch, or the Czechs and Slovaks, or the Germans and the Austrians, or indeed the Americans and Canadians.

Historically, this conflict is most reminscent of the military conflicts between the Danish and Swedish people, since Russia, Ukraine and Belarus are like Denmark, Norway and Sweden.
However, the Belgians are not trying to invade one part of The Netherlands. I have great compassion for the Russian people, however, they are as free as we are to have divergent political opinions. I am constantly exasperated by the lazy free(?) press of the west, but it still seems more reliable than The Soviet News Service.

Our congregation and I regularly pray for peace and for Ukrainians and Russians caught up in the conflict. However, that was not the point of my post, or of this thread.
 
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