HEBREW WORD STUDY – A LOVE SONG – SUR  שׁור  

Psalm 137:4:  “How shall we sing the LORD’S song in a strange land?”

This Psalm is attributed to David but this was at least 500 years before the Babylonian captivity. Some say it was a prophecy given by David to express the sorrow that would one day befall Israel.  Most scholars believe it was written at the time of captivity by someone who expressed the heart of David.  What David would feel if he were alive at that time and found himself in captivity. 

The Babylonians demanded the Jews sing a song. We are not sure if the demand was meant to mock the Jews for having been taken into captivity or that the Babylonians were curious.  I think they were curious.  They had heard that the music in Israel in their Temple was special, it had a special joy and warmth as if their God was really personal unlike the cold, aloof gods that they served.

The word for song used here is sur which is a religious song like a hymn but one that expresses the joy and love of and for God.  Although one can worship God in any situation, circumstance or place, there was something special about worshipping God in the land that He gave them, specifically the City of David, Jerusalem.  Yet, the Jews bemoaned that even if they sang their songs, it would not have that joy and warmth that they felt and was famous for because they could not sing it in their special place.

As Christians we all have a special place we can go to worship God, whether we realize it or not. I remember one particular time in my life when I was going through a very difficult time.  I was offered the opportunity to have access to a warehouse at night.  I was asked to just clean their offices and I could spend as much time praying and worshipping God in that warehouse as long into the night that I wished.  Here I would be undisturbed for  hours where I could just walk around the warehouse praying and worshipping God.  I recall a particular spot in that warehouse by the loading docks. It was almost like a portal for as I would cross a certain point it was like I entered into the very presence of God.  I would pray and worship God in the rest of the warehouse but I was always drawn back to that special spot where I felt the presence of God in a special way.  Many times I was so distressed that I could not pray or worship but when I crossed over that certain spot, always I was met with that special presence  of God.  I could sing a sur, a love song a song of joy to God  and it was as if He would sing a sur, a love song and a song of joy back to me.  No matter how sorrowful my situation I could always find a song of love and joy as I passed over that special spot.  I believe that is what the Babylonians were so curious about and they wished to experience such a thing for themselves.

I suppose this is what the Jews felt in captivity. They were going through a very sorrowful and difficult time and they could not sing their sur nor hear God sing His sur to them for they were in a foreign land.  A foreign land in Hebrew is ‘adamath nekar.   This is a physical place, a place that is not home to you.  It is a place filled with foreign gods and habits and the noise of all that paganism just drowned out God’s sur to them.  It could be a new job, a new location.  When I was forced to move, I had to leave behind my special warehouse. I wondered how I could worship God again, how I could sing my sur to Him and He sing His sur to me.

Before long, however, I realized that God missed singing His sur to me as much as I missed singing my sur to Him and soon I found a new place, a special place where once again I could sing my sur to God and He could sing His sur to me.  I can worship and sing to God any time, any place but God can only sing his sur to me in a special place, a quiet place, far from a rapid moving sin filled race outside our special place.  When I emerge from that special place I am able to face that that rapid, moving sin filled race with God’s sur, love song, upon my lips and His joy upon my face.