Title: Longing - Psalm 137:1-6
Contents
August 21, 2005 (Sun) 11:00 am Cheonan Salim Church
Title: longing
Text: Psalm 137:1-6
I have seen the sea. East Sea! It was on the way to Seorak-dong for a lecture. It wasn't the first time I'd seen the East Sea, but it was really 'crazy'. I felt like I wanted to park my car and walk on the beach. But I couldn't leave the car alone, so I had to stop a few times and look out to sea. I had to stop the car twice on the way to be captivated by the spectacular view of the East Sea that could not be overlooked.
I admired the exhilaration of the open sea of the East Sea, but it was not enough to just admire it. As I stared blankly, I even felt a sad feeling that I was about to cry. Looking at that cheerful and beautiful scenery, is it a fishy feeling? It felt like a kind of strange nostalgia welling up. Tears flow when you miss someone terribly. It felt like that. It must have been because of the memories of the East Sea, so don't expect any explanations about it!
The sea of indecision, but the reality of life that is so tightly woven in contrast to it, perhaps it was because of it. It was a path that I set out with the subject of my lecture, not work, but rest, and the virtue of laziness, not diligence. That probably made the contrast even more daunting. It was a story that passed by during the lecture, but I had no choice but to talk about the emotion. On the one hand, we admire and taste the joy in front of the magnificent scenery of the beautiful nature, but it seems the reality of our lives that the moment we taste the joy, we cannot help but feel a sense of sadness at the same time. So, the longing for a life that is different from the life we are currently bound to has soared while looking at the deserted sea. So I felt like I was going crazy and at the same time I felt a sense of sadness.
What kind of longing do we each live with in our hearts?
The psalm we saw together today sings of deep longing. A well-known psalm entitled "At the Rivers of Babylon". Today's psalm sings the story of the people of Israel being taken captive to Babylon and sitting by the rivers of Babylon, drawing up their hometowns and drowning in sorrow.
Those captured in Babylon shed tears as they remembered their hometown of Zion. They had to live as if they had forgotten all joy. For those who had lost their joy, the instruments they had were useless. People who have lost their songs, people who have lost their joy, hang their harps on willows by the river and are lost. However, the Babylonians, who have captured them, ironically ask them for a song from their homeland, a song from their homeland. The Babylonians invite the Jews to sing for their enjoyment.
But the Jews who lost their lives could not sing the Lord's song before their oppressors. "How can we sing the Lord's song in another land!" He said he would never sing a song that he had to sing because he couldn't overcome the pressure of the oppressors, not a song he sang with a heart to glorify God himself. It means that you cannot fall into clown play without enjoying yourself.
And the poet reaffirms his resolve as if he were to put a conditional curse on himself. “If I forget you, Jerusalem, my right hand will lose its lyre. It is a story that nothing will replace the longing for home. It's a story about what use is your dexterity and voice that makes music sound if that longing for you is gone. Did Kim So-wol sang “The name I will die while calling” (<First Marriage>)? Without longing, your very existence is useless. The poet sings of longing so desperately.
What on earth is 'Jerusalem' that the poet misses so desperately? Who doesn't miss their hometown? As they sing, "My hometown is a mountain where flowers bloom...", everyone misses the place where their life began. However, the hometown 'Jerusalem' here does not simply mean the old hometown as a place where they spent their childhood and youth. 'Jerusalem' not 'Babylon' refers to the difference in life beyond the simple difference of place. Life in Babylon is a life of captivity, a life where I am not the master of my life. On the other hand, life in Jerusalem is a life where I am the master. It is not a life of living reluctantly according to coercion, but a life of self-determination. It is truly a life worthy of praising God. The poet sings of longing for that life.
What longings do you have in your heart? If there is no longing in our hearts, is living really living? Perhaps, without any longing, he is already enjoying complete happiness, complete heaven, or, on the contrary, living a life of complete enslavement to something. Wouldn't it be great if you were already enjoying the perfect happiness and perfect heaven with nothing more to ask for? If there was no longing, then most of the time it would be a case of being completely enslaved to something. It's a life where you don't have to think about your own life, your own existence.
We all live with some longing. There are longings that make us feel that our existence becomes meaningless without longing, and longings that make us cry from moment to moment. What do you miss so much?
We do not intend to force each of us to reveal the longing we hold in our hearts. I'm just asking a question to remind myself of what it is. It is a beautiful feeling to miss something to be missed. That life is also beautiful. Longing may make us sick, but with that pain, life can become more beautiful. What more needs to be said?
I would like to end today's talk with just one more word. Do we really miss Jesus? If we do not have longing for Jesus as a being who we really need, rather than as a being to be evaluated, our faith may not be faith, but an absurd one. I hope that we will become those of us who seek and follow him with longing for the one we really look forward to, the one we want to meet, and the longing that his body will remain in my life and make my life beautiful.*