The Musicians were "Wasted"

The Musicians were Wasted

Psalm 137:3 states, “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.”

       Verse two of this chapter records the feelings of the musicians who were carried away captive into Babylon.  They pouted and hung their harps on branches of the willow trees while they pouted about their condition.  Today we are looking at verse three and the result of their self-pity.  They did not feel like praising Jehovah with their musical instruments.

       You may feel like you have been taken by the enemy, abandoned by the Lord, and held captive in the little town of Smirgley Junction.  You may be far away from home during this Christmas season.  There may be strange people who want you to be happy and show it by playing “happy music”.   

       These musicians were far away from their home land in the strange atmosphere of Babylon.  These musicians felt that they had been “wasted’, exhausted, and nearly destroyed emotionally by those around them in this strange land.  Do you as a Christian musician feel used up by the organization where you minister?  Do you feel that these Christians have wrung you out like a wet dish rag and are still requiring of you a song?  Worse yet, they may be requiring “mirth”. 

       The Hebrew word simchah (8056), translated mirth, meant gladness, joy, or rejoicing.  When musicians are burnt out and depressed, they often find it hard to perform praise music.   The sad fact is that these musicians’ captors in Babylon were asking them to do the very thing that could have been a means of grace to these captive musicians.  They were simply asked to “sing us one of the songs of Zion” but they refused and hung their instruments up on the branches of the willow trees.