Xanthe Hancox

When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dreamed. Our mouths were filled with laughter, our tongues with songs of joy. Then it was said among the nations, The Lord has done great things for them.’ The Lord has done great things for us, and we are filled with joy.Restore our fortunes, Lord, like streams in the Negev. Those who sow with tears will reap with songs of joy. Those who go out weeping, carrying seed to sow, will return with songs of joy, carrying sheaves with them.  Psalm 126

Psalm 126 is so wonderfully hopeful and joyful (and short enough!) that I thought I’d include the full text this morning. The psalm is a song that looks back to when the captives returned to Jerusalem following their long exile in Babylon. They had suffered so much, and now they suddenly found themselves back in their homeland, back in Jerusalem, back in the beloved city of God.

This first stanza encourages us to marvel at how God has helped us in the past and the second tells us to trust God to do it all again.

Although the Israelites were free and back in Jerusalem, there was still much work to be done. They needed to rebuild the temple and rebuild the walls. They faced discouragement from within and opposition from without. God had worked a great deliverance for them in the past. Now they needed to trust him to do it again.

God’s deliverance can sometimes be swift and unexpected, the way rains can suddenly send water rushing through the Negev desert, with grass and flowers appearing quite literally overnight. But often, God’s way of working is much slower – the hard work of sowing and reaping.

After sowing with tears, a ­farmer might well despair of seeing any harvest at all, let alone a joyful harvest. But in the metaphor of this psalm, the sowers return with songs of joy, carrying sheaves of grain.

Our hope in Jesus Christ is that God has been faithful to his promises to save his people. Our tears will turn into songs of joy because of our hope of salvation through God’s love for us in Christ. “We shall come rejoicing, bringing in the sheaves.”

Prayer: God of promise, thank you for all the times you have helped me in the past. Forgive me when I have been impatient, expecting instant deliverance. Teach me to trust you more each day. Amen