A beautiful song from the musical "Godspell" is "On The Willows". Sung while the disciples are depicting their time together with Jesus in the Upper Room (in the outdoor urban setting adaptation), it's hauntingly beautiful melody carries the sense that this is a foreshadowing, sad, poignant moment, and that after this it will be challenging to remember the happiness they all shared without it being painful. The lyrics of the song are pulled directly from the first four verses of Psalm 137:

"1 By the rivers of Babylon—
   there we sat down and there we wept
   when we remembered Zion.
2 On the willows there
   we hung up our harps.
3 For there our captors
   asked us for songs,
and our tormentors asked for mirth, saying,
   ‘Sing us one of the songs of Zion!’

4 How could we sing the Lord’s song
in a foreign land?"

The Psalmist writes this as they have been taken from their homes and are in exile to Babylon, as Babylon has finally conquered their nation. Those who captured them are asking them to sing songs to them, accompanying themselves on their lyres (the modern-day equivalent would be singing while playing a guitar)--songs with "mirth"--happy songs, songs that were part of their celebration of their faith and their nation. But those captured just can't do it--and they hang their lyres on the willows, asking "How could we sing the Lord's song in a foreign land?" How could they sing joyous, celebratory songs, when they have been captured and taken away from their homes, their lives, all that they hold dear and sacred? It's hard to muster up joy in that situation; the joyous songs would make them sad.

Well, we're not in a situation where we are exiled. We are home. We have been self-quarantined at home. Many of us love our homes, but we don't love HAVING to be at home. And it's hard to sing the celebratory songs at home. We miss getting together for those celebrations--the weddings, the holidays, the graduations. As Jeremiah refers to it three times in the time before they are captured and taken away (the first three Scriptures we'll look at), what they missed, and what we've been missing, are "the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness"--those sounds that are a part of those celebrations. We know those sounds. The conversations at the cookie table at the wedding reception, the laughter at the toasts, the singing along with "Shout" when everyone is dancing--and at the wedding itself, the opportunity for the congregation to pledge "we will!" support the bride and the groom, and the spontaneous applause at the kiss. That same spontaneous applause as someone you know and are proud of receives their diploma at a graduation ceremony. "The voice of mirth and the voice of gladness"--we haven't been able to hear them, and we haven't been able to add our own voice to the collective mirth and gladness.

The other passage from Jeremiah also speaks of rejoicing and celebration. Jeremiah 33 proclaims that the exile is not the end; there will be a restoration, a return, to the streets that are empty and desolate. They will return AFTER the exile, and "there shall once more be heard the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the voices of those who sing, as they bring thank-offerings to the house of the Lord". GOD will restore; God will bring about the return from exile; God will be thanked and praised for bringing this about. God's faithfulness is still there, even as they're going through this awfulness, and God will make it right. The joyous celebrations will again be able to happen.

So for us. The graduations and weddings this year have been adjusted, and yet we have faith that it won't continue to be like this. We have faith that God is with us, and will restore us to joining TOGETHER in "the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness". We need to trust. God is faithful--God HAS BEEN faithful, throughout the Scriptures and in our own lives. Restoration is coming, in God's time (and the more we get that, the sooner it will be).

OLD TESTAMENT Jeremiah 7:34

34 And I will bring to an end the sound of mirth and gladness, the voice of the bride and bridegroom in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem; for the land shall become a waste.

OLD TESTAMENT Jeremiah 16:9

9 For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: I am going to banish from this place, in your days and before your eyes, the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride.

OLD TESTAMENT Jeremiah 25:10

10 And I will banish from them the sound of mirth and the sound of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the sound of the millstones and the light of the lamp.

OLD TESTAMENT Jeremiah 33:10-11

10 Thus says the Lord: In this place of which you say, ‘It is a waste without human beings or animals’, in the towns of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem that are desolate, without inhabitants, human or animal, there shall once more be heard 11 the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the voices of those who sing, as they bring thank-offerings to the house of the Lord:
‘Give thanks to the Lord of hosts,
for the Lord is good, for his steadfast love endures forever!’
For I will restore the fortunes of the land as at first, says the Lord.

GOSPEL Luke 15:32

32 "But we had to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead and has come to life; he was lost and has been found."