A Word from the Word

Restored Appreciation

Psalm 137:4–6

How can we sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land? If I forget you, O Jerusalem, may my right hand forget her skill. May my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth, if I do not remember you, if I do not exalt Jerusalem above my chief joy.     NASB

This is the plaintive cry of God’s people, captives and exiles in an alien land. They have no song, they’ve hung their harps on the willow trees and they are remembering the joy and the beauty of the city and the land of which they have been deprived.

You see, God sometimes has to deprive us of our blessings before we truly appreciate them. I believe that out of the Babylonian captivity those Jews who returned, returned with a far greater devotion and commitment to Zion than they had ever had before. I believe the same will be true of the regathering of the Jewish people in this day. When they are fully restored they will appreciate more than ever before all that they lost through their disobedience and their rebellion in the long years of exile. And we need to remember that God sometimes has to deal with us.

If you today feel like a captive, an alien, longing for blessings that you’ve lost through disobedience and backsliding, God is permitting that to happen so that when He restores those blessings to you, you’ll appreciate them as you never appreciated them before. God knows when you’ve learned your lesson and when you’ve really learned to appreciate what He’s done for you, then He’s ready to restore you.