Psalm 126
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.
Here’s the flow of this psalm: VV 1-3 form the first half and look back into history to a time when God changed things for the better in pronounced ways. Out of this recollection comes v. 4, a prayer: God, do for us again what you’ve done in the past for our ancestors. The second half, vv. 5-6, though it doesn’t mention God, uses the image of a harvest to imagine what it would look for that prayer for restoration to be answered.
The first half of this psalm is a remembering when God helped his people in a manner so unmistakable that those who lived nearby were in awe by the supernaturalness. They say, the Lord has done great things for [Zion]. This turn of circumstances could only have been from God.
When God acted so powerfully, we were like those who dream. Things turned so better from how gloomy they’d been that it felt unreal. The things we had lost were regained. What we had longed for but doubted could ever take place had arrived. Pinch me, am I dreaming?
Then, our mouth was filled with laughter. Not the kind of laughter at hearing something funny, but the kind rising out of a joy and contentment and optimism that has come to settle over spirits. How long has it been since you laughed like that?
That basic line at the end of the first half says it all: after God righted what had gone wrong, the simplest way of summarizing everything is: we are glad.
We are glad. Imagine the Wall Street Journal summarizing the status and mood of this country with a big headline: We are glad.
Imagine opening your Christmas letter family update with the line, we are glad… and you’re not just trying to put on a brave face or being trite or enhancing something that’s actually not the case… but imagine it’s what is the state of your family.
Smack in the middle of this psalm is a prayer that explains why the psalmist has been recollecting God’s past work: He wants God to act again. Zion – the people among whom God dwells – are currently not glad…they’re in a bad state. So, they’re recalling God’s former rescues and restorations to both encourage themselves and then to argue with God. As you’ve done before, God!
In his prayer he uses a metaphor of a dry gully. Even though these waterways have long been dry, we remember when water brimmed the bank, flowing strongly. But then, before then, we recall days of dryness before those channels were full. So, fill up our lives again! Not simply, bring us back to the good ol’ days but bring us back to the good ol’ days that came after the bad ol’ days.
The brief psalm concludes with a couple of maxims, some general assurances that provide encouragement and a little direction to those who looking to God to restore as he’s done before. Those who sow in tears shall reap with shouts of joy. First sowing, then reaping. Joy follows tears. Tears are not a settled state.
But then, tears by themselves don’t automatically turn into exclamations of joy. The harvest isn’t automatic. It’s when the farmer chooses to get out of bed and put on his overalls and head out the front door to plant his seed, even when conditions are miserable, just wait a few months and he’ll be returning with his arms full of the harvest.
Given some precious seed, a crying sower turns into a happy and abundant reaper. Shoot, we could say that the tears watered the seed! So, the implied advice is: keep investing even when things look doubtful, even when they look bleak.
So that’s the psalm.
A few theological observations will help us hear God’s word properly:
Notice this is a psalm about God’s work – His restoring work – 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 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 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 Christ, ratified by his blood.
I bring that up because I want to train us in not first interpreting God’s word individualistically: God, help me not to be down. Most of God’s word is addressed to the people of God as the people of God. The individual application trickles out of messages addressed to the community. A growing spiritual maturity shows itself in not just caring about yourself but caring about your people, especially your people in Christ.
Another theological observation is that the psalm’s first half and the second half are referencing the same thing: RESTORATION OF FORTUNE. In the first half we have God as the chief actor, to the point where the nations say, Isreal’s restoral could only have been through Israel’s God. But in the second half, who is the chief actor in restoring the fortune? Zion. It will be while the people of God dig in even as they grieve and work and pray that the harvest will come.
So, who is behind Zion’s restoration? God or man? How do you reconcile God’s work and man’s work? And I’ll answer that with a riposte from an old minister on another matter: Why should you need to reconcile friends? While we wait for God to do what only he can do, we do what we can do. And afterwards, if we understand ourselves and the conditions and God properly, we’ll say: The Lord has done great things for us.
Another overall affirmation that comes from this psalm is that God regularly makes things better in answer to our prayers and after our work. Look back through the history of Israel and the inspired history of the Church in Acts and you will find dozens of such instances. Just think about the book of Judges when repeatedly Israel gets herself into trouble, calls on God for help, and then he helps. He restores Israel’s fortune. This is what God does.
Think about the rather surprising number of references to prayers and even a few recorded answers to prayer in the short history of the early church that we have in Acts. Peter released from prison. Cornelius being sent gospel witnesses.
And then – if you know of any – think of such prayers and ensuing restorations throughout the history of the church. And if you’re not familiar with any, isn’t this psalm (and many others do the same thing) spurring us to know the history of God with Zion… if only to fuel our prayers for God’s help now?
The English church praying before the Battle of Dunkirk and God sends mist that gives England advantage. The church in Eastern Europe praying for the fall of communism. Against all odds Hudson Taylor praying in the middle 1800s for the establishment of a mission in China and that mission continues today.
I read this this week from a minister:
A father of two young children tragically lost his wife, and our congregation walked through that with him. One night the father, John, swept up his little boy and girl into his arms as they sat weeping on the bathroom floor, longing for their wife and mommy. After years of juggling a difficult schedule on his own, John stood up at one of our monthly congregational prayer meetings with tears in his eyes and hope in his heart and asked us to please pray that God would provide him a wife and his children a mom. One month later, he met Claudia, a godly widow who came to our church with children of her own. Six months later, I was closing a series on Ruth, when God provides a husband for Ruth amidst her suffering. I closed the sermon by asking John to share a testimony of crying out to God with us at that prayer meeting for a wife, and he closed by dropping to a knee and asking [Claudia] to be his wife. They’ve been happily married for three years and continue to rejoice in God’s provision.—Josh Vincent | Trinity Bible Church | Phoenix, Arizona (9 Marks Website)
In your own experience are their instances of God’s bringing you from tears to laughter?
But someone says: well, sure, things temporarily get better, but – for instance – one day John’s children will be mourning the loss of their dad and new mom. Communism – incredibly to some older folks – is raising its head again. Point being: doesn’t this psalm have something naïve about it? Why get so excited about restorations when they’re temporary… things will just go back to being bad again?
And that ultimate challenge brings us to the heart of the Christian story, what is called the Gospel. 2000 years ago, in the body of Jesus, at his violent death there was made a decisive, deathly strike against evil in every time and every place. All that is sad, corrupt, wasteful, deceitful, rebellious, missing the point – which had its grip on the human race including you – was dealt a fatal blow. Evil is on its way out.
And then three days later – again in the body of Jesus – a great permanent renewal – let’s call it a restoration of fortunes ++ – began. The endless life of Jesus – Christ crucified in our place and raised unto our justification – the resurrected life of Jesus is the cornerstone of something that will continually be built up, is the vine that will forever pulse out endless life to all that’s connected to it, is the good and great basis of our eternal hope and then our joy.
So, because of the gospel, Psalm 126 is absolutely true: Zion will, in fact, be finally restored. The joy we receive throughout our lives from God’s temporary restorations isn’t empty or misleading, but a signpost on the way to the true and final victory of Zion in Christ. Any present tears (and there aresometimes, though not always, tears) will one day be considered a historical anomaly, the background – the necessary background! – to the everlasting joyful harvest.
To double down on that: the one who cares, who cries out to and puts his hope in the God who worked through Jesus Christ to eradicate evil from the creation and restore all things – that sometimes grieving man or woman having invested herself in that gospel will one day shout for joy at all that has come out of Christ’s work! That day we will say – The Lord has done great things for us, and we are glad.
Now, Psalm 126 applications for mothers:
Keep going out bearing precious seed. Keep putting in the work of investing into the hope of the gospel. Pray for your kids. Learn the scripture to know what to pray for your kids. Become a better theologian for the sake of your family…work at this. Build a clear trail between your family and the church. Deliberately for the sake of Christ work hard to create atmospheres of order and beauty. Deliberately for the sake of Christ strategize on how to inculcate in your children ambition to know the world that God has made…and operate skillfully/ productively in it.
The flip side of this is: get off your phone. Say “no” to the waste of airing your grievances and feeling sorry for yourself and arguing your various points into social media world. Say “no” to an entertainment-centric life, even if that entertainment is in the form of news and youtube videos.
Even during gloomy seasons, even when it appears that the work is in vain, keep being obedient to the gospel, be diligent in the work of the Kingdom.
Mothers and grandmothers, don’t not cry. Sometimes it’s a time for weeping. When your daughter is foolish and shallow, when your son is confused and listless, when your husband is dispirited, when your grandchildren are heading the wrong way, when your hometown is ignorant, when your country is faithless… these are not the occasions to reach for the Instagram filters and pretend like all is well. Look at how beautiful my family is and how happy all of us are. NO! The appropriate response then isn’t to mope around, but it is to go into your closet and weep before God. Not tears of self-pity, but of sadness emerging from a realism about how thing should be and how they actually are.
Mothers and grandmothers, pray for Zion. I’m a big believer in women being ambitious to be mothers and then grandmothers, and if and when they become mothers and grandmothers having their focus be on their homes (though not on themselves or their mental health!). However, in a worldview that rightly exalts the home and family, it is easy for a provincialism, an in-grown-ness to creep in so that everything becomes about my kids and what’s good for my family. You talk with some mothers, and you sense there’s no concern for the wider world except as it impinges on their family. Any reading of theirs is either self-help (including religious self-help) or entertainment.
No, mothers. Let your kids through you have a concern for the capital “C” Church. Be informed about and pray for and weep over the Church in Nigeria, France, Brazil. When missionaries come through be at the front of the line to invite them into your home. Keep up with the ideas that are swirling around in the culture that are influencing the Church. Get to know the history of the Spirit’s work in your region. Pray and weep not just for your family but for church and for your region and for national concerns.
When your children remember you, let them say: my mom showed us a big, interesting Church in a big interesting world in which, yes, we are important and loved.
Mothers and grandmothers, along these lines, become a historian of instances of God restoring the fortunes of Zion. Collect stories of answered prayers, of God’s work of pronounced, positive change. Imagine this: you die and your children/grandchildren are going through your stuff, and they come upon a collection of notebooks all entitled “Psalm 126 Stuff.” And upon opening the notebooks they find entry after entry of answered prayers you had come upon during your life: answered prayers from your own life, from people in your church, from people in other churches, from people throughout history. And perhaps a note about the celebrations! Anytime you saw an event that was connected to prayers you went home and entered it. An amateur historian of answered prayer.
So that you and now your children could readily say “When God restored the fortune of Zion, we were like those who dream…”. You pray expectantly because you have on record God’s ableness and willingness to answer prayer.
A woman who lives with her eyes open, a woman who cares enough to sometimes cry, a woman who fully enters into celebrations of answered prayer with mouth full of laughter… Mothers and grandmothers, pray and invest into the gospel of the Kingdom and cry to God expectantly, even in the gloomiest of scenes – God has made a long habit of restoring fortunes. God’s habit? – no, His very name is Savior! And the one time God acted most decisively in the world it was to bring out of trouble, to call forth a new creation. YOU HAVE EVERY GOOD REASON TO EXPECT GOD TO ANSWER YOUR PRAYERS, TO RAISE UP A HARVEST FROM YOUR OBEDIENCE TO THE GOSPEL, TO BRING YOU INTO A SCENE OF JOY AND CELEBRATION.
Let mothers be convinced from God’s word: I know that my labors in the Lord aren’t in vain. I know that God is hearing and answering my prayers even if in the moment it feels like they’re hitting a bronze sky. I fully expect my tears to be turned to laughter. Because the earth is the Lord’s and all the fullness thereof, and he has promised to dwell with his people.
AMEN
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