The Songs of Zion–Singing the Lord’s Song In A Time of Torment

In Psalm 137, the Psalmist remembers the tormenting voices that maligned Zion during the Jewish exile to Babylon:

“By the waters of Babylon, there we sat down and wept when we remembered Zion. On the willows there, we hung up our harps. For there our captors required of us songs, and our tormentors, mirth, saying, ‘Sing us one of the songs of Zion!’”

The Psalmist then asks a question of Jews being harassed for their hope to return to Zion: “How shall we sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land?” Zionism—that centuries-old longing of the Jewish people to return to their homeland—is still being maligned. So, how shall we sing the songs of Zion? How shall we communicate our hope for the continued existence of a Jewish homeland when the world persecutes us for the very idea?

Zionism—that idea mocked and scorned by hateful schemers lusting for their pound of Jewish flesh—in its truest sense is a moral virtue every Jew and non-Jew alike should remember and celebrate. There are many reasons Zionism is a value the world should cherish, but for brevity’s sake, here is my shortlist gleaned from the Bible:

I am a Zionist because I love what God loves.

Deuteronomy 7:6-7 says: “The Lord your G-d has chosen you to be a people for His treasured possession out of all the peoples on the face of the earth. It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set His love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but it is because the LORD LOVES YOU and is keeping the oath that He swore to your fathers…”.

Israel was not chosen because she was the greatest nation but because she was the least, and G-d, in His loving mercy, set His love upon this infinitesimal people. To show contempt for those G-d loves is to despise the G-d who declares His love for Israel is everlasting (Isaiah 54:10). To despise Israel and the Jewish people is to call into question the essence of G-d’s character and quality, which is overflowing with a steadfast love for Israel.

2. I am a Zionist because I honor the covenant G-d made with Abraham and his blood descendants through Issac.

In Genesis 12:1-3 G-d makes a covenant with Abraham:

“Now the Lord said to Abram, ‘Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land I will show you. And I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who curses you, I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.’”

This five-part covenant is the foundation of Zionism:

A promise of land.
A promise of nationhood.
A promise of peoplehood.
A promise of blessing.
A promise of purpose—“In you, all the families of the earth will be blessed.”

There is no place in the Bible where G-d walks back the Abrahamic covenant or—G-d forbid—breaks it. In verse 3 of Genesis chapter 12, there is a profoundly significant line in the covenant: “Whoever curses you, I will curse.” Here, G-d uses two different Hebrew words for curse. The first is “Kalel,” meaning “to curse, show contempt, despise, revile, or humiliate.” The second word for curse is “Arar,” meaning “to cause to become fruitless and powerless—to wither.” History is littered with persons and nations who have shown contempt for G-d’s covenant with Abraham, the land and nation of Israel, and the Jewish people.

3. I am a Zionist because I respect G-d’s distinct choice of Israel.

G-d does not play favorites (Deuteronomy 10:17), but He does make distinctions. He has made a distinction between light and darkness, the holy and the common, the Sabbath and the other six days of the week, righteousness and unrighteousness. He has also made a distinction between Israel and all the other nations on the earth.

Just as G-d chose the tribe of Levi to be the servant priest tribe to the other eleven tribes of Israel, Israel was chosen by G-d to be the servant priest nation to all the other nations of the earth. To Israel, G-d says: “You shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (Exodus 19:6). It was through Israel that the world received G-d’s law and commandments, and Isaiah 2:3 declares: “For out of Zion shall go the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.” Because of this distinct choice of Israel to bring G-d’s moral law into our world, the Jewish people have been despised by those who either reject the moral justice of G-d or are jealous of His choice of Israel as His treasured possession.

4. I am a Zionist because I appreciate the blessing Israel brings to all the families of the earth.

Whether persons or nations appreciate it or not, all people on earth are supernaturally connected to Israel. Noah saw this prophetically when he said: “Blessed be the Lord, the G-d of Shem…May G-d enlarge Japheth and let him dwell in the tents of Shem” (Genesis 9:26-27). Through Shem came the Jews, and through Japeth, the Gentiles. Noah perceived a dynamic spiritual connection Shem and his descendants would have with G-d—“Blessed be the Lord, the G-d of Shem”—and foresaw the Gentile nations would find their spiritual connection to G-d only under the “tents of Shem”—a Jewish spiritual covering.

Other passages in the Bible refer to this unique connection of all nations to Israel: “When the Most High gave to the nations their inheritance when He divided mankind, he fixed the borders of the peoples according to the number of the sons of Israel” Deuteronomy 32:8; “Thus says the Lord G-d: ‘This is Jerusalem, I have set her in the center of the nations, with countries all around her’” (Ezekiel 5:5). In Psalm 122 we are instructed to “Pray for the peace of Jerusalem! May they be secure who love you!” Security comes to people and nations who affirm Israel’s peace. Israel is at the center of the nations, and when she is troubled, the world is troubled.

5. I am a Zionist because all of civilization is completely and entirely dependent upon the existence of the nation of Israel. Without Zionism, there would be no Israel, and therefore, the world itself would cease to exist. That is a tall claim but is a truth spoken by G-d Himself:

“Thus says the Lord, who gives the sun for light by day and the fixed order of the moon and the stars for light by night, who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar—the Lord of hosts is His name: ‘If this fixed order departs from before Me, declares the Lord, then shall the offspring of Israel cease from being a nation before Me forever’” (Jeremiah 31:35-36).

Does the Psalmist answer the above mentioned question from Psalm 137:4: ’How shall we sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land? Yes, he does: “If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget its skill! Let my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth, If I do not remember you, If I do not set Jerusalem above my highest joy! (Pslam 137:5-6).

For those who love Zion—both Jews and Gentiles the world over—if you have hung your harps on the willows because of the fear of torment from the haters of Israel and ceased from communicating your remembrance of Zion, it is time to sing the songs of Zion again, and “set Jerusalem above your highest joy.” The Psalmist beautifully informs us that the song of Zion is “the Lord’s song,” which forever reminds us that He—the Lord—is the songwriter who first penned the melody of Zionism.