HUNG UP THEIR HARPS
A BIBLICAL TOOL FOR THE MINISTER IN TIMES OF CRISIS

Psalms 137:1-2 “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 ourharps.”

The experience of exile had a profound impact on God’s people. Seventy years of captivity represented a hard blow to their morality and dignity, that can be explained by stages linked one to the other. The loss of their national independence was an enormous trauma for the Hebrews.

"At that time the servants of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up to Jerusalem, and the city was besieged…. And he carried away all Jerusalem, and all the princes, and all the mighty men of valor, even ten thousand captives, and all the craftsmen and the smiths; none remained, save the poorest sort of the people of the land…. And the king of Babylon made Mattaniah, Jehoiachin's father's brother, king is his stead, and changed his name to Zedekiah." 2 Kings 24:10-17.

This verse will help us to contextualize the magnitude of the deportation or exile to Babylon and its effects on the emotional and religious stages. In addition to inflicting a heavy blow to the identity of the people of God, time was needed to process the reasons, motives, and the purpose of this event. We are bringing this historic example, since it leaves us with considerable teachings on how to confront obstacles so that we can be tested and approved when we exit the storm.

There are stages that can be listed in this process of exile and deportation, which were intended to purify the people of God despite the fact that they did not understand the purpose of it, they saw all this as a contradictory experience in every sense. The hand of God is always behind a critical experience, although we do not see it, perfecting His people.

The first stage we can define it as "confusion" for a people called to be a light to the nations.

The second stage was the "adaptation" to a new way of life, to a new culture, in another environment. The environment was a pagan and therefore hostile. The adaptation to the
unknown, is what causes the most fear in us, everything is new, everything is different and this generates a rejection that arises spontaneously. The complex is that there could not go out, it was something like a spiritual prison. That is how trials are, a kind of jail cell where the key to liberation is in the hands of God and from those prisons, only God can liberate us.

The third stage was the "disconnection” with the physical places of worship. For all Hebrews, Babylon is not the same as Jerusalem, nor the Euphrates River or the Tigris to the Jordan River. Nothing Babylon’s majestic could replace the attachment to Jerusalem and its temple. This can be seen when we pause in the Psalms to prove how important the temple as the worship center, shelter and comfort was. In that temple, God heard the prayer of Ana, "the sterile" and blessed her with many children. In that temple, God would manifest Himself in a supernatural manner and this invigorated his priests.

The fourth stage, was the "nostalgia" so well expressed in Psalms 137. The Hebrew people marked with fire by their origins and divine destiny, remembered from a distance, with sadness and pain, the gratifying moments that they lived in the promised land. What nation could convey the greatness of a God who opens the sea for his people so that they may cross it dry? Or that his prophets ascend into heaven in a chariot of fire? How can we forget his father Abraham, Jacob, Moses, and all the men that God raised up with the power to make them a powerful nation? In exile that was their worry, will we return to our land, will the Lord restore us as in the beginning of our days?

The fifth stage we can define it as the stage of “discouragement”, which comes with a loss of motivation and hopelessness. At this stage, perhaps one of the most critical (since the exile was prolonged), the people began losing the enthusiasm to praise God and "hung up their harps". It was not their loss of faith, rather it was a stage of great discouragement and despair because the future was uncertain.

And the sixth stage is to recover “hope”. God does not abandon us, nor leave us orphans. In the exile and deportation were many processes, but God took care to keep hope alive, that item which some say is the last thing to lose, and that we must never lose. Psalms 126:1-2 gives us a clear and vivid picture of the experience of restoration, because it is God who turns our sadness into joy "1. When the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion, we were like them that dream. 2. Then was our mouth filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing: then said they among the heathen, The Lord hath done great things for them.". If something I learned over the years, is that human nature is the same in any period and nation. The human being has the same deficiencies, needs and limitations, despite the fact that the world has sophisticated itself, the heart of man is the same. The man has an inner emptiness that only God can satisfy.

Today we are living a similar experience in a certain aspect, we feel like in an exile that can affect us spiritually and emotionally. It has become more difficult to take up our harps
and worship with the same enthusiasm and motivation than when we did it in the Jerusalem of our temples, sharing with joy with each other.

Perhaps we have already gone through some stages experienced by the people of Israel:

1) Confusion, it is enough to look in the social media, the tangle of contrasting interpretations to clearly define the time that we are living. I have noticed that despite the years that we have been in the path of the Lord, we are observing with some amazement and surprise, something that the Word of God warned us about in several passages. Trials bring their dose of confusion and we have to proceed as "Asaph" to the sanctuary of prayer to understand clearly what purpose of all this has, because "the world, its fullness and those who live in it are the property of the Lord".

2) Adaptation, as believers we had to make a special effort to adapt to this tsunami that did not spare rich or poor, young or old, nor Christians and pagans. The change was abrupt and sudden. Changes when they are not favorable, are hard to digest; sometimes they are a bitter drink to swallow as that cup that "our Lord had to drink because it was the will of the Father". We could ask ourselves if we are willing to drink it, it is not pleasant, but it is the cup of obedience, the cup that teaches us that we must submit to the sovereignty of God, even though it is not to our taste. In order to drink this cup and face this adversity that resembles nothing known, we will have to enter the garden of the surrender of our comfort and convenience and say how Paul said: " for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therein to be content.". In order to reach this statement, surely Paul had to bend his knees a lot, but he learned the lesson. Perhaps today more than ever, where  we have nothing on this earth to cling to as a means of escape, we must strongly cling to the rock of our salvation and this is what teaches us to rely exclusively on God as neither man nor science we can offer the security and confidence that we find in the upper room. This will leave us with a lesson "The quality of a Christian is measured in the face of adversity".

3) Disconnecting, as well as in the third stage the Hebrew people became disconnected from its center of worship in Jerusalem, today we yearn for the day when we will be able to return to our meetings, but above all we are discovering how much we need each other, and how important is the house of the Lord. Someone said that "things are valued when you lose them," there is some truth in this assertion. There is something that I am listening to frequently and it is also my own experience, the value of each brother regardless of his rank, each one brings something valuable that I need, that edifies me. We now understand the importance of the church as the "body of Christ" where each ember has their value, their talent, their gifts, their spirit of service.

4) Nostalgia, we are in our homes, but somehow physically disconnected and yearn for that familial encounter, we are a family of faith. Nostalgia is in some way the memory, accompanied by sadness, for those things that were once ours, but today they are beyond the reach of our hands. We are in the exile of our homes, we see at the distance the temple, our family of faith with which we would gather to honor God. We yearn for the hug that today we cannot give or receive, the handshake. It is the lack of these affects, to a large extent, that make this hour of testing, the lack of something that we all desire. If there is anything good that we can learn in this adversity, is the value of that time where we met to share our joys and sorrows, our victories and our defeats, where the congregation surrounded us with its arms of support and comfort to proceed forward.

5) Discouragement, lastly, we are going to stop in this fifth stage that the people of Israel lived and experienced while in exile, the discouragement and hopelessness that led them to "hang their harps." At a determined moment, it became difficult to sing songs of Zion in a strange land, and in a time of deep sadness "They hung up their harps." There are periods in our life so strange and incomprehensible that we  are tempted to "hang up our gloves". We surrender in the face of this situation; we feel that it overwhelms us and we lose the spirit to fight. Brother, do not be afraid, this is not new. God’s servants have already lived this and it is embodied in the Word. 

The circumstances beat their emotions so hard that they decided to leave their activities and even their ministry, as was the case with Moses, and more explicitly Elijah, among others. Elijah went into exile in the cave of grief. But from there, the Lord pulled him out and gave him bread and water and strengthened by that food, he walked forty days and forty nights until reaching the God’s mountain. The circumstances change, there are dark days, nights without stars. But there are things that never change. First, God does not change nor is controlled or imprisoned by any circumstance that occurs on this earth; second, the Word of God does not change, and third, Jesus is the same today, yesterday, and forever. And that is what we are experiencing in our exile, that the light continues to shine, that God is still present, that the Word is still our food and the best is yet to come. Jesus said, "in the world you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world". Our faith is being tested in this difficult time. It is being tested to be purified like gold. 1 Peter 1:7 "That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ:". Are we in the oven? Definitely, and it is necessary that we be in it, there is rubbish that we do not see, but that God has to eradicate from our life, with the aim that we transform into vessels of honor.

6) Hope. We cannot deny that sometimes we do not see the light at the end of the tunnel. There are circumstances that not only rob us of our energies, but also do not allow us to look to the future with enthusiasm. It comes to mind those disheartened disciples who walked toward the village of Emmaus. For them the death of Christ represented failure, disappointment, disillusion. If we do not understand God's plans and his eternal purposes, we run the risk of losing hope. Hope was recovered when Jesus approached them on the way to the village and He opened the Scriptures and their comprehension so that they understood the Scriptures. Today the Scriptures remain our source of inspiration and the tool of understanding that the Holy Spirit uses to maintain us firm in the hope of the gospel. A question we need to ask ourselves in these times is: How much do I know the Word? What do we read it methodically or do we dust it off just to carry it to our services? Brother, do not forget that the Word has the answers to your questions, she enlightens our minds and is the sword of the Holy Spirit, useful for everything that contributes to our growth and spiritual health and emotional wellbeing. The Word also contains promises that rekindle hope, affirm us in the faith and arrange our thoughts. Let us take these tools that God has placed at our disposal and cross this valley of the shadow of death without fear because the rod and the staff of the Lord will comfort me. Brother, fellow minister, "Don't hang up your harp", take encouragement and begin to praise the great and powerful God and you will receive strength from above.

"And as he entered into a certain village, there met him ten men that were lepers, which stood afar off: And they lifted up their voices, and said, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us. And when he saw them, he said unto them, Go shew yourselves unto the priests. And it came to pass, that, as they went, they were cleansed. And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, and with a loud voice glorified God,” Luke 17:12- 15.

The simplest definition of Crisis is this: "a difficult situation of a person or thing".

We do not find this term in the Bible, but we do see in the biblical text difficult moments lived by different characters. The most logical reaction before a crisis is to drown in negative feelings. Our mind wanders in a misty sea of doubts, fears and questions.

But there must be a massive difference between those who have their "eyes on Jesus", and those who do not know him. For those who have "built upon the Rock " the Lord says that: "Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man,…". This means that crises can strengthen our spiritual muscles, contribute to our growth and lead us to make decisions that were unthinkable.

Crises are opportunities that life gives us to bring out the capacities and resources which we have accumulated through reading, studying, meditating and keeping the word of God.

"My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge... " Hosea 4:6.

Definitely, the crisis helps us know how to position ourselves in front of our own and others, and realize what is our relationship with God. In moments of crisis, the strengths and weaknesses of the human being emerge.

Today we have a countless number of recipes, opinions, new revelations (we believe that God speaks throughout time), but it is important to know that: "And we have the word of prophecy made more sure..." (2 Peter 1:19).

In these days there have been so many of these recipes, opinions and revelations, that the people have arrived at superstition, including biblically controversial “visions” and home remedies, that by doing them you would receive healing.

Others do not believe in the reality of the pandemic, nor fear it, because they are protected. It is true that "God is our refuge and strength...", but "whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s...".

The instructions that we find in the Old Testament given by the Lord, we think that just met as rules for spiritual cleansing, but we find in the Scriptures that God also cared for the physical health of His people, that is why we find a public health ordinance that today, many villages are still taking into account. Deuteronomy 23:13, tells us: "And you shall have a paddle or shovel among your weapons, and when you sit down outside [to relieve yourself], you shall dig a hole with it and turn back and cover up what has come from you."

The portion of the Bible, with which we began this brief study, shows us a situation that goes back to Leviticus chapter 13, because it corresponded to the priests to certify, after complying with certain protocolary measures.

hose who have skin conditions should be presented to the priest, who had the authority to determine if the condition was or not leprosy. First, he had to examine the patient and if he showed symptoms of the disease, the person would be locked up for 7 days (quarantine), at the end of the period of confinement the priest would conduct a rigorous examination, if he still could not determine if there was a disease or not, he would lock up the person for another period, and at the end of this period, he again would examine him, if the plague had spread, he was declared unclean and therefore expelled from the community for the purpose that he would not contaminate another.

It is for this reason that the Lord, upon hearing the loud cry of the ten lepers, who kept their "social distance", as demanded by law, 100 feet of separation, which Christ did not violate, but ordered the 10 lepers to present themselves to the priest who was the person who had the authority to declare a leper healed.

In other words, we are not exempt from fulfilling our responsibility of observing the provisions of the competent bodies. Publio Terencio Africano said "I am man, nothing human is alien to me...".

It is up to us Christians to continue to understand that in times of crisis: "I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help?” (Psalms 121:1). Our confidence is placed in the Lord and we will continue to stand firm on the principles of God's Word.