Jerusalem, if I forget you,
    let my right hand go limp.
Let my tongue stick
    to the roof of my mouth,
    if I don’t think about you
    above all else (Psalm 137:5-6, CEV).

Greenery growing on the rampart walls of Jerusalem — photo courtesy of Lois Morrow

Reflection

This week’s I Love the Psalms theme is the tongue.

Today’s verse from the Psalms highlights the psalmist’s love for Jerusalem. While in captivity in Babylon, he longs to return to Jerusalem.

Jerusalem, if I forget you, let my right hand go limp. Let my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth, if I don’t think about you above all else (Psalm 137:5-6, CEV).

In this verse the psalmist was expressing his deep-felt desire to return home. We all have a homeland and that desire for home never leaves us. We may grow up and move a thousand miles from home, but that desire to return home—and the imprint of that place of belonging remains with us for a lifetime.

On the spiritual level, we too have a homeland and it’s not defined by national borders. Our true homeland is within the Kingdom of God, which is both here and now, and far beyond and forever.

May I never forget that place of spiritual rebirth—that place of belonging near to the heart of God.

Response: LORD God, my real and forever home is with you. I never want to forget that truth. With my tongue I affirm my citizenship is in your eternal Kingdom. Amen.

Your Turn: Are you a citizen of the New Jerusalem? How do you define your citizenship?