Psalm 126 – Like An Anchor

Praise for God’s Goodness

The end isn’t the only part of Psalm 126, though. The first part talks about what happens after you get the harvest of joy that follows a season of weeping while sowing. Let’s take a look at those verses in a different translation this time to get a slightly different perspective on what the Psalmist is saying (since Hebrew is a very different type of language than English, reading multiple translations helps us understand the fullness of Old Testament verses).

When the Lord restored the well-being of Zion,
we thought we were dreaming.
At that time we laughed loudly
and shouted for joy.
At that time the nations said,
“The Lord has accomplished great things for these people.”
The Lord did indeed accomplish great things for us.
We were happy.
O Lord, restore our well-being,
just as the streams in the arid south are replenished.

Psalm 126:1-4, NET

God told ancient Israel that if they did not obey His commandments, they would be taken captive by their enemies. They disobeyed, and were punished exactly the way that God said. It was a season of weeping, but then God rescued them! He brought them back from captivity in Babylon to the land of Israel. It was so amazing that the people thought they were dreaming. The harvest of joy had arrived, and look what they did: “we laughed loudly and shouted for joy” and said “the Lord did indeed accomplish great things for us.”

When we make mistakes, God wants to restore a relationship with us. He wants to forgive us, keep us in covenant with Him, and give us eternal life. Psalm 126 is in many ways a picture of salvation: we strayed from God, He brought us back, and we ought to rejoice!

Living Changed Lives

Image of a man sitting on a beach at sunset, overlaid with blog's title text and the words, "Psalm 126 is in many ways a picture of salvation: we strayed from God, He brought us back, and we ought to rejoice!" — Image by Aaron Kitzo from Lightstock

I wonder sometimes if we take God’s forgiveness and the process of salvation for granted. It is so easy for us to ask God for forgiveness under the New Covenant. No need to travel to a physical temple, no need for animal sacrifices. We just need to go to Him in prayer through the name of Jesus Christ, who died for our sins.

Now this is the gospel message we have heard from him and announce to you: God is light, and in him there is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him and yet keep on walking in the darkness, we are lying and not practicing the truth. But if we walk in the light as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say we do not bear the guilt of sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. But if we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous, forgiving us our sins and cleansing us from all unrighteousness.

1 John 1:5-9, NET

It is so simple, yet so profound at the same time. We should be so grateful for this incredible gift that every renewed mercy makes us laugh, shout for joy, and proclaim the great things God has done for us. God’s great faithfulness gives us hope (Lam. 3:21-23) and that hope, alongside a recognition of His wonderful gifts, can help us cultivate joy. It should also change our entire lives.

Therefore, since we have been declared righteous by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have also obtained access into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in the hope of God’s glory.Not only this, but we also rejoice in sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance, character, and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

Romans 5:1-5 NET

Really wrapping our minds around God’s incredible gifts can make us rejoice even in suffering because that suffering (the sowing in tears) helps us grow and moves us forward toward our hope (the reaping in joy). There is “an inheritance imperishable, undefiled, and unfading … reserved in heaven for you!” (1 Pet. 1:4, NET). That is such good, good news that it “brings you great joy, although you may have to suffer for a short time”(1 Pet. 1:6, NET). We don’t see Jesus face to face yet, but we “believe in him, and so you rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy, because you are attaining the goal of your faith—the salvation of your souls” (1 Pet. 1:8-9, NET). With God’s wonderful plan of salvation playing out in our lives every day, we have so many reasons to sing His praises!

Featured image by Pearl from Lightstock

Last week, I’d stayed up later than usual and instead of reading a chapter in Acts before bed, I turned to the Psalms to find a short passage to read. I just happened to open the Bible (a Tree of Life Version that I keep in my nightstand) to Psalm 126. Something about this translation caught my eye, and it prompted today’s post. Here’s the full psalm to start us off:

¹When Adonai restored the captives of Zion,
it was as if we were dreaming.
²Then our mouth was filled with laughter,
and our tongue with a song of joy.
Then they said among the nations,
“Adonai has done great things for them.”
³Adonai has done great things for us
    —we are joyful!
⁴Restore us from captivity, Adonai,
like streams in the Negev.
⁵Those who sow in tears
will reap with a song of joy.
⁶Whoever keeps going out weeping,
    carrying his bag of seed,
will surely come back with a song of joy,
    carrying his sheaves.
Psalm 126, TLV

It’s that last verse that captured my attention: “Whoever keeps going out weeping, carrying his bag of seed, will surely come back with a song of joy, carrying his sheaves.” It might (if you’re at all familiar with American gospel songs and Protestant hymns) make you think of the 1874 hymn “Bringing in the Sheaves.” For me, the part that captured my attention is this “keeps going out” line.

Image of a field just after harvest overlaid with text from Psalm 126:5-6, NET version: "Those who shed tears as they plant will shout for joy when they reap the harvest. The one who weeps as he walks along, carrying his bag of seed, will certainly come in with a shout of joy, carrying his sheaves of grain." — Image by Artur Pawlak from Pixabay

Keeping Going Out

In Psalm 126:6, some translations simply say, “He who goes out weeping” (WEB) but the TLV and others like the NKJV include this sense of continuing to go out while you’re weeping. The setting for this psalm is restoration from captivity. Israel had gone into captivity, and now God delivered them and brought them back to the land. The psalmist is looking back on this and making an agricultural analogy.

Suppose you’re in the spring, ready to plant, but something happens. It’s a set back, a tragedy, a calamity, a grief-inducing event. It’s the sort of thing that would make you weep. At that point, you have a choice. You can “keep going out” and sowing into the future, or you could give up. But you know that if you want to reap a harvest, you need to plant seed. Similarly, the metaphorical future “harvest” that we get in our own lives is determined (at least in part) by what we “sow” now.

Do not be deceived. God will not be made a fool. For a person will reap what he sows, because the person who sows to his own flesh will reap corruption from the flesh, but the one who sows to the Spirit will reap eternal life from the Spirit. So we must not grow weary in doing good, for in due time we will reap, if we do not give up.
Galatians 6:7-9, NET

If the agricultural metaphor isn’t working for you, we can relate it to other things with a cause and effect. If you put a steady diet of unhealthy food into your body, you’ll get an unhealthy body; if you eat healthy foods, you’ll have a healthier body. Sowing (like how we eat and whether we exercise) is an investment in the future, for better or worse.

Notice that Paul says “we must not grow weary in doing good” and that we should “not give up.” Sowing is a long-term investment. It takes time for the seed to sprout, grow, and bear fruit. We might not see the results of it for quite some time. As Psalm 126 says we need to “keep going out” to sow, trusting that God will give us a good harvest.

Image of a field of newly sprouted grain overlaid with text from Galatians 6:7-9, WEB version: "Don’t be deceived. God is not mocked, for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. For he who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption. But he who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. Let’s not be weary in doing good, for we will reap in due season, if we don’t give up." — Image by H. Hach from Pixabay

Planting In Hope

The word “hope” isn’t used in the psalm that we’re looking at today, but it’s an essential ingredient for what we’re talking about here.

For it is written in the law of Moses, “Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain.” God is not concerned here about oxen, is he? Or is he not surely speaking for our benefit? It was written for us, because the one plowing and threshing ought to work in hope of enjoying the harvest.
1 Corinthians 9:9-10, NET (bold italics mark a quotation from Deut. 25:4)

Here, Paul is saying that teachers of the word have the right to make their living by preaching the gospel (1 Cor. 9). The basic principle is that if you put the work into something, you have a right to expect to enjoy the results of that labor. Hope in the Bible isn’t something nebulous. When hope is related to God, there’s a level of certainty to it. God provides a solid anchorage for our hope (Heb. 6:19), giving us good reason to confidently expect that if we keep going out sowing, we will eventually bring in a harvest with joy.

Not only this, but we ourselves also, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we eagerly await our adoption, the redemption of our bodies.For in hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope, because who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with endurance.
Romans 8:23-25, NET

Come Back Rejoicing

Image of a sheaf of grain standing in a field, overlaid with blog's title text and the words, "Scripture encourages us to look beyond our immediate circumstances with hope, trusting in the glorious future that God has planned for us." — Image by congerdesign from Pixabay

One of the things that we humans can find frustrating is that God is a long-term thinker. When He promises to give us the desires of our heart, for example (Ps. 37:6), we want that to happen immediately. I didn’t expect it to take 15+ years and a healthy dose of heartache before He answered my prayers to be a wife and mother, but then I found myself marrying a wonderful man and just over a year later having a beautiful daughter with him. I don’t think I’d be so blessed now if I hadn’t continued “sowing into” my life and my relationship with God during the season of weeping.

When we read, “all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose” (Rom. 8:28, NET), we often forget that Paul is talking on a cosmic timescale. Before the statement about all things working together for good, he says, “I consider that our present sufferings cannot even be compared to the coming glory that will be revealed to us” (Rom. 8:18, NET; see Rom. 8:18-30). Sometimes–even often–a harvest of joy happens now, in our human lives. But even if it doesn’t happen now, it will certainly happen at the end if we don’t give up.

My aim is to know him [Jesus Christ], to experience the power of his resurrection, to share in his sufferings, and to be like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.

Not that I have already attained this—that is, I have not already been perfected—but I strive to lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus also laid hold of me.Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself to have attained this. Instead I am single-minded: Forgetting the things that are behind and reaching out for the things that are ahead, with this goal in mind, I strive toward the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Therefore let those of us who are “perfect” embrace this point of view. If you think otherwise, God will reveal to you the error of your ways.
Philippians 3:10-15, NET

Scripture encourages us to look beyond our immediate circumstances with hope, trusting in the glorious future that God has planned for us. Long-term, if we’re going to “reap” the future God promises to His firstfruits, we need to keep pressing on toward the goal of eternal life. It’s this perspective that lets us “consider it nothing but joy when you fall into all sorts of trials, because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance” and endurance helps bring us to perfection (James 1:2-3, NET). You’ll reap blessings in this life as well (especially if you have a mindset that looks for and recognizes them), but the biggest blessings we have are the opportunity to become God’s children and the promise of eternal life forever with Him after He “harvests” us with great joy.

Featured image by vargazs from Pixabay

Song Recommendation: “Bringing In The Sheaves”

Tag: Psalm 126

Revisiting Psalm 126