Psalm 137: So Far from Home

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“So Far from Home” is a setting of Psalm 137, which includes the imprecation: “Blessed is he who dashes their babies against the rocks.” What is an imprecation if it’s not a curse? In this case, I decided to recast Psalm 137 in a modern context, replacing harps with guitars and the Psalms oppressors with the modern forces of human misery: slave traders, pimps, and wars.

This song is mentioned in Greg’s podcast, “Russians.

This leadsheet is a free download. If you sing this song in your church please report its use to OneLicense.

words and music by Greg Scheer
copyright 2015
CCLI #7190654
OneLicense #107068

1. We sat by the river and played our guitars,
Dreaming of better days.
If memories are fires, then songs are the spark,
But they’re both starting to fade. They are starting to fade.

How can we sing the songs of the Lord
Here on foreign ground?
How could we raise a song of joy
When we’re so far from home?

2. We sat under willows and taught them our songs;
The wind played the branches like harps.
Tears in our eyes, laments on our tongues,
And such sadness in our hearts. Only sadness in our hearts.

3. God ___ the slave traders, pimps, and the wars
that have taken our sons and our daughters.
God bless the children huddled for warmth,
cause the night is getting colder. Oh, the night’s getting colder.