When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion,
we were like those who dream.
2 Then our mouth was filled with laughter,
and our tongue with shouts of joy;
then they said among the nations,
“The Lord has done great things for them.”
3 The Lord has done great things for us;
we are glad.
4 Restore our fortunes, O Lord,
like streams in the Negeb!
5 Those who sow in tears
shall reap with shouts of joy!
6 He who goes out weeping,
bearing the seed for sowing,
shall come home with shouts of joy,
bringing his sheaves with him.
This is one of the psalms of ascents, Psalm 120-134, psalms sung during the thrice/year pilgrimages up to Jerusalem to celebrate feasts. These songs often refer to historical situations without identifying what event they’re referring to. Thus they’re more easily applied across the years.
The psalm is divided neatly into halves. The first half described a moment in the past when God restored the fortunes of Zion. Zion is a big word in the Bible that pertains to God’s dwelling place among humanity. God dwells in the highest heaven but, as our call to worship points out, he stoops low to visit even the lowly on the earth. In fact, he has chosen for his heavenly dwelling to overlap with the earth. The point of that overlap was… Zion. God being who he is, and man being who he is, that coming together of God’s space and man’s space is only possible through a covenant that’s been authorized by shed blood.
Under the old covenant instituted at Sinai, Zion referred to Israel, the people among whom God chose to dwell, and Jerusalem, their capitol city that housed the Temple…which was kinda the epicenter of God’s dwelling. Zion.
Today, under the new or renewed covenant, Zion – the overlap of heaven and earth – refers to the church, the dwelling place of God. This new covenant that expanded the dwelling of God throughout the peoples of the earth was cut open in the flesh of Jesus, ratified by his blood. The author of Hebrews contrasts the old covenant with the new, expanded Zion in chapter 12:
18 For you have not come to what may be touched, a blazing fire and darkness and gloom and a tempest 19 and the sound of a trumpet and a voice whose words made the hearers beg that no further messages be spoken to them. 20 For they could not endure the order that was given, “If even a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned.” 21 Indeed, so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, “I tremble with fear.” 22 But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, 23 and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, 24 and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.
You might think that Zion – the place where heaven and earth overlapped, the dwelling place of God – would be in a constant state of flourishing. You would be wrong. Why is Zionregularly struggling? Why does the church pass through periods where there are few signs of heaven’s presence, rather everything is dry and barren?
There are several answers to why Zion could possibly turn into a weary land, but the main one is that we are still vulnerable to sin, the bringer of death. Satan, in the role of Lucifer, prince of light, deceives the church, and as that serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, so our thoughts are led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ 2 Corinthians 11:3. Some novel ideas get planted into our heads, and we get a hankering for fast times, excitement, accreditation by the world, a different freedom than what God offers.
Before he left, our Lord warned Zion about two things: impatience and being duped by false teachers. False Christs that would either distort the Spirit’s authentic presentation of Jesus Christ… or who offer a whole new kind of Christ: the power of eroticism or entertainment etc. Zion is vulnerable.
Sure enough, the Church or a church can get – throughout her history has gotten – to the place where she is almost altogether ignorant of God’s will, driven by covetousness, having little resources of self-control, distracted, apathetic, unwise, fearful, timid, morally sagging, easily duped, annoyed or even repelled by what is good, shallow, uninterested in anything that’s not obviously exciting, indistinct from the world.
And this spiritual weakness often becomes reflected in Zion’s external circumstance. Many commentators believe that the psalms of ascent that weren’t written by David and Solomon were written by the post-exilic Israelites. Exilic comes from exile. Because of her spiritual unfaithfulness, Israel had been exiled, driven away from their land for many decades…and even when they returned they were still met with scenes of heartache. Even after coming home, life continued to be hard and dangerous. Inside of Zion – her spirit, and outside – her circumstance – together seemed pretty hopeless.
Well, this psalm was written in defiance of that grimness. The psalmist is saying: There have been times in Zion’s history when things were just as bad as they are now…yet God renewed us.
And truly, when you read the Old Testament there is this pattern of the nation falling into spiritual lethargy, then the inevitable economic and political decline, and then…restoration. The psalmist looks back to one of those times, for encouragement for today.
When we were restored, we – our forefathers – were like those who dream. The shift was unbelievable. Almost unreal: like a dream those burdens are lifted. You get used to feeling sad, broke, stressed…and then everything becomes better. “Everything that was sad becomes untrue.”
V. 2 – the whole atmosphere became one of joy – not the thin giggles like you get watching a comedian, but the deep hearty joy like unto attending the wedding of your child, and he’s marrying a great spouse, and you’re not paying for the ceremony!
Then they said among the nations, the LORD has done great things for them – this restoration of Zion wasn’t something subtle, but so obvious that even the world, who never pays much attention to Zion, had to notice.
I remember 3-4 times throughout the years when our family was out to eat at a restaurant, someone would come up to us and say something like, you’re children are so well-behaved. Good job. (And I’d always reply with ‘you ought to see the monsters behind closed doors at home.’) But that’s the tiniest microcosm of an example of what it looks like for Zion to be restored by God so that her flourishing – in her children, her disposition, her well-being, her character, her work – just take off and you can’t help but notice
You consider the beginning of the story of David, and Israel is beleaguered and poor and constantly overrun by invaders, especially the Philistines. And then, one generation later, here’s the summary: Judah and Israel were as many as the sand of the seas. They ate and drank and were happy. Solomon ruled over all the kingdoms from the Euphrates to the land of the Philistines and to the border of Egypt. They brought tribute and served Solomon all the days of his life 1 Kings 4:20, 21.
I love v. 3: The LORD has done great things for us; we are glad. The world noticed Zion’s success and attributed it to their God. But verse three is the same sentence spoken by Zion, now away from the admiring crowds, away from the excitement. Mom and dad are in the living room quietly reflecting on what has been going on in the hearts and lives of their kids, and they’re shaking their heads in awe. It’s incredible but true: The LORD has done great things for us – this isn’t small. No smokes and mirrors. We’ve been brought into a good place.
And then, in dazed wonder: We were so frustrated before…I can’t believe it. Now… We are glad.
We are glad.
VV. 1-3, as I said, look back in the history of Zion to times of restoration. That historical reflection becomes the fuel for the prayer in v. 4: Restore our fortunes, O LORD… As in the past, may you act once again to bring life back to Zion. Among the benefits of studying our history is hope for the present.
Note this: This is another example in the psalm of a simple prayer. Five words in English. God is not waiting for us to become eloquent!
Like streams in the Negeb – In the southern part of Judah were these watercourses, or wadis, as they’re called in the Arab world, that are dry throughout the year, except during the rainy season when they become a torrent of water that’s then diverted here and there for irrigation.
I imagine someone walking by those dry wadis on his way to work every day. After day 200 it becomes fixed in his mind that this is and has been and always will be simply a dry ditch. He can no longer imagine otherwise. Then, one day, he approaches it and hears a dull roar, and then as he stands over it – water cascading so powerfully that it’s white with foam.
I guess every year when that water showed up he’d stand there, transfixed. He was like one who dreams. He’d forgotten what was possible. This is unreal!
The psalmist is asking God to transform Zion (again), as he has in the past. Not a little trickle of improvement, but a vitality that runs, that roars down the various courses of life.
In the spirit of this psalm, we are asking God to renew Zion, to revitalize the church, to transform individuals within the church, to increase the population of Zion. And we do so, not when we see encouraging signs, but when it all looks doubtful, when change seems unlikely, when conversions feel impossible. We are to pray at the impossible times.
While ministering in Newton MA one Sunday morning a youngish woman from Iran came into the service. She was short and slight, dressed neatly, extremely polite while being quiet and overall rather guarded about her background. She kept returning to the services, and over the many weeks we got to know her better. She hailed from Iran, she was in the US on political asylum. Even though she was a lot of education, for some reason I can’t remember her immigration status prevented her from pursuing a career so she worked at the tanning salon close by the church.
She wasn’t a Christian but was very curious. Eventually she joined a Christianity 101 class. A few months later, in March, she was baptized in the name of the Triune God. I remember it especially, because when I entered the water to wait on her while she gave her statement of faith before the church, I realized that someone had forgotten to turn on the water. Did I mention it was March? It was freezing. After making eye contact with the guy that was supposed to turn on the water and giving him the most hateful looks I could, I waited, not listening to her testimony, thinking “we’re going to kill her.”
Anyway, a few years later this woman began dating a fellow who’d been part of our church for awhile, a Navy vet who had had his share of flailing around. Eventually they married and moved down south. Because I has known both of them in their weakness, I could never imagine them as anything but fragile, their situation as anything but tenuous.
Well, over the holidays Matt, the husband, called me. We caught up and my impression was – this is the best way I can think to say this – they are filled with God’s Spirit. God’s life was evident – not that he was saying all these deep or pious things. But I could tell the church was a big part of their life; he wanted me to listen to a sermon series his pastor was doing; they have kids and they’re thinking through their education in a God-fearing way; they’re doing good work that’s stretching them; taking care of their parents…
Afterwards he sent me this family photo. Folks, I love staring at this: I am like one who dreams. The woman who entered the church many years ago was alone, putting on a brave face but afraid, confused about how the world worked…just knew that what was happening in the Iranian government couldn’t be borne. She was stuck, away from God, not living her potential. Wadi-ish. And now… Amazing.
Do you believe that God can do, but also does, amazing, incredible things? Tremble, O earth, at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob, who turns the rock into a pool of water, the flint into a spring of water. Psalm 114: 7,8.
Restore our fortunes, O LORD. The restoration of individuals and Zion as a whole – back then and today – is always God’s restoration. God gave the growth 1 Corinthians 3:6. All glory to him.
V. 5 – Those who sow in tears shall reap with shouts of joy! And yet God does allow us to sow, to participate in the harvest. And not just go through the motions but to be part of the necessary process of life and growth. I planted, Apollos watered, God gave the growth.
In which way do we participate in the restoration of Zion, in God bringing life to the church? Well, by praying, as we’ve already seen the psalmist doing in v. 4. We said those prayers could be quite simple.
But one thing more about those prayers: those who sow in tears shall reap with shouts of joy. He who goes out weeping….
How do we participate in God’s reviving of Zion? This psalm wants to point out: specifically with prayers for God’s reviving that have been offered up in tears.
Why should at least a few of our prayers for Zion be with tears?
Because we stand in the middle of a history of passion and tears. I can’t say it better than A.W. Tozer does in his essay, “God Tells the Man Who Cares”:
It was to Moses, a trembling man, that God
spoke on the mount, and that same man later
saved the nation when he threw himself before
God with the offer to have himself blotted out of
God’s book for Israel’s sake. Daniel’s long season
of fasting and prayer brought Gabriel from
heaven to tell him the secret of the centuries.
When the beloved John wept much because no
one could be found worthy to open the
seven-sealed book, one of the elders comforted
him with the joyous news that the Lion of the
tribe of Judah had prevailed.
The psalmists often wrote in tears, the prophets
could hardly conceal their heavyheartedness,
and the apostle Paul in his otherwise joyous epistle to the Philippians broke into tears when he
thought of the many who were enemies of the
cross of Christ and whose end was destruction.
Those Christian leaders who shook the world
were one and all men [and women] of sorrows whose witness
to mankind welled out of heavy hearts. There is
no power in tears per se, but tears and power ever
lie close together in the Church of the First-born.
And we weep every once in a while because there are tragedies unfolding within Zion. Children who are being mishandled and misled by their parents… and will suffer for it throughout their lives. Folks sitting in pews week after week who’ve never been converted. Prayerless Christians. Christians who for years have been infantile in their knowledge of God’s word, yet who aren’t planning to do anything about it. Christians who are even now being played by Satan, tossed to and fro by every idea that gusts up.
We could consider weeping because we understand that the church is supposed to be the theater of God’s glory, where it’s clear that the Spirit is vanquishing the monsters of greed and lust and impatience. Where the peace of Messiah rules in so compelling a fashion that the dark principalities realize their time is running out. Where there is goodness ten layers deep and beauty ten stories high.
We weep because our eyes are open to how things actually are…and how things should be.
Have ever you cried while praying for Zion? I’m not talking about crying in self- pity – God, why is my life so bad? But zeal for God’s house is consuming you. You hunger and thirst for righteousness… that restored image bearers would live like restored image bearers and God’s name be hallowed.
What stops our tears? We are hardly ever alone, and you naturally don’t want to – shouldn’t want to – develop the reputation of weepiness. In order to weep you need privacy. Even when we do get off by ourselves, we’re still not alone, but with the entire world wide web. And even if we happen to take leave from that for a few minutes, our minds are muddled, disorganized by the amount and various streams of data, especially those rife with entertainment. Too full to cry.
I had to text a few friends a week ago: Hi Friends, please intercede a few times for me. I’ve got a stiff and settled case of acedia-sloth. Currently what’s especially easy for me is to fall into the rabbit hole of political/ cultural YouTube videos; what’s ESPECIALLY hard is to pray and do focused work.
Please ask the Lord to deliver me from the demons and renew my heart and mind.
Thanks in advance for your prayers, Colin
Have you considered: we are a product of tears? In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence.
And that Man of Sorrows has now come home to the Father with shouts of joy, and in his hands is the harvest of many sons and daughters he brought to glory. Thank you, Jesus, for not being a dilly dally, for keeping your heart raw and single-minded.
This is the way. Tears are the way. Phoning in your Christianity, double-mindedness, leadership by charm – this is not the way. Zeal is the way. Putting your heart into it is the way. Tearful prayer is the way our Master has laid out for us…on our way to joy!