When The LORD Restored The Fortress Of Zion
Devotional
Companion to the Psalter
A Devotional Guide to the Psalms
Object:
Those who go out weeping,
bearing the seed for sowing,
shall come home with shouts of joy
carrying their sheaves.
-- Psalm 126:6
Theme: Song of the returning exiles
Outline
1-3 -- Joy at the incredible marvel of Israel restored to its own land.
4-6 -- However feeble our efforts seem now, we pray with confidence for the fulfillment of the hope God has given us.
Notes
• Liturgy
• One of the Song of Ascents (Psalms 120-134).
• Read with Psalm 85.
• In 586 BC, Jerusalem fell to the Babylonian Empire, and many Israelites were deported to Babylon. In 539, Cyrus of Persia overcame Babylon practically overnight and in a few years began to allow the exiles to return to their homeland. It was an unforeseen miracle and seemed like a dream to the astonished and overjoyed exiles who began trekking home. Years later, trying to rebuild amid the ruins and finding it difficult, they pray in hope for a prosperity they can only remember.
• "Watercourses of the Negeb" -- an arid region south of Judah, with brooks dried up in summer but rushing with water in autumn rains. The psalmist suggests they are only experiencing a trickle yet.
• "Sow in tears" -- an ancient near-Eastern custom of weeping when sowing was thought to ensure fertility and a good harvest. Here it is applied to their hope for a more fulfilling restoration.
For Reflection
• When life is difficult, troubles mount, and successes are small if at all, is one to conclude that the gospel has lost its power, or that God has changed toward us? Jesus' greatest work was done with tears and bloody sweat. Saint Paul wrote of his travails to the triumphalist Corinthians, "our bodies had no rest, but we were afflicted in every way -- disputes without and fears within. But God, who consoles the downcast, consoled us ..." (2 Corinthians 7:5-6) "... in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, hungry and thirsty, often without food, cold and naked, and, besides other things, I am under daily pressure because of my anxiety for all the churches. Who is weak and I am not weak? Who is made to stumble, and I am not indignant?" (2 Corinthians 11:27-29).
• Charles Spurgeon wrote: "Weeping times are suitable for sowing ... Instead of stopping our sowing because of our weeping, let us redouble our efforts because the season is propitious."1
Prayer
"Come and help us, Lord Jesus. A vision of your face will brighten us, but to feel your Spirit touching us will make us vigorous. Oh! for the leaping and walking of the man born lame. May we today dance with holy joy, like David before the ark of God. May a holy exhilaration take possession of every part of us; may we be glad in the Lord; may our mouth be filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing, 'for the Lord hath done great things for us whereof we are glad.' "2
____________
1. Charles Spurgeon, Faith's Checkbook (Chicago: Moody Publishers, 1987), p. 184.
2. Charles Spurgeon, quoted in Horton Davies, The Communion of Saints (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Eerdmans, 1990), p. 79.
bearing the seed for sowing,
shall come home with shouts of joy
carrying their sheaves.
-- Psalm 126:6
Theme: Song of the returning exiles
Outline
1-3 -- Joy at the incredible marvel of Israel restored to its own land.
4-6 -- However feeble our efforts seem now, we pray with confidence for the fulfillment of the hope God has given us.
Notes
• Liturgy
• One of the Song of Ascents (Psalms 120-134).
• Read with Psalm 85.
• In 586 BC, Jerusalem fell to the Babylonian Empire, and many Israelites were deported to Babylon. In 539, Cyrus of Persia overcame Babylon practically overnight and in a few years began to allow the exiles to return to their homeland. It was an unforeseen miracle and seemed like a dream to the astonished and overjoyed exiles who began trekking home. Years later, trying to rebuild amid the ruins and finding it difficult, they pray in hope for a prosperity they can only remember.
• "Watercourses of the Negeb" -- an arid region south of Judah, with brooks dried up in summer but rushing with water in autumn rains. The psalmist suggests they are only experiencing a trickle yet.
• "Sow in tears" -- an ancient near-Eastern custom of weeping when sowing was thought to ensure fertility and a good harvest. Here it is applied to their hope for a more fulfilling restoration.
For Reflection
• When life is difficult, troubles mount, and successes are small if at all, is one to conclude that the gospel has lost its power, or that God has changed toward us? Jesus' greatest work was done with tears and bloody sweat. Saint Paul wrote of his travails to the triumphalist Corinthians, "our bodies had no rest, but we were afflicted in every way -- disputes without and fears within. But God, who consoles the downcast, consoled us ..." (2 Corinthians 7:5-6) "... in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, hungry and thirsty, often without food, cold and naked, and, besides other things, I am under daily pressure because of my anxiety for all the churches. Who is weak and I am not weak? Who is made to stumble, and I am not indignant?" (2 Corinthians 11:27-29).
• Charles Spurgeon wrote: "Weeping times are suitable for sowing ... Instead of stopping our sowing because of our weeping, let us redouble our efforts because the season is propitious."1
Prayer
"Come and help us, Lord Jesus. A vision of your face will brighten us, but to feel your Spirit touching us will make us vigorous. Oh! for the leaping and walking of the man born lame. May we today dance with holy joy, like David before the ark of God. May a holy exhilaration take possession of every part of us; may we be glad in the Lord; may our mouth be filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing, 'for the Lord hath done great things for us whereof we are glad.' "2
____________
1. Charles Spurgeon, Faith's Checkbook (Chicago: Moody Publishers, 1987), p. 184.
2. Charles Spurgeon, quoted in Horton Davies, The Communion of Saints (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Eerdmans, 1990), p. 79.
