Psalm 126

 126 (Biblical text in italics)

1 When Yahweh returned the captive ones of Zion,  God is the one who returned the exiles to Jerusalem, not Cyrus or any other king.
We were like those who dream. They couldn’t believe what was happening.  It seemed like a dream that they were finally going home.

2 Then our mouth was filled with laughter
And our tongue with shouts of joy;   They have great joy at the freedom and restoration God has given them to be His and to return home.
Then they said among the nations,
“Yahweh has done great things for them.”

3 Yahweh has done great things for us; They acknowledge that God is good and He has done so much for them, and they are grateful.  This is especially important considering these are exiles that were removed to Babylon (and elsewhere) when Jerusalem was destroyed.  These Israelites recognize that they need to be grateful to God, even though they have been through so much, because He is not only restoring them to Jerusalem, but most of all, He is restoring them to Himself.
We are glad.


4 Restore our captivity, O Yahweh, This is a prayer for renewed restoration and the return of the rest of the exiles.  Many translations use the word “fortunes” rather than “captivity.”  The ESV Study Bible has a note translating the idea to be “show us mercy now as you have done in the past.”  The psalmist continues with illustrations of what restoration looks like - renewed fruitfulness.
As the streams in the Negev.

5 Those who sow in tears shall reap with shouts of joy.

6 He who goes to and fro weeping, carrying his bag of seed,
Shall indeed come again with a shout of joy, carrying his sheaves with him.  There is a time when things are hard, but God can use that hardship for amazing things.  The Lord can restore and redeem any situation, no matter how hopeless it looks to human eyes.  The Lord is sovereign and will do whatever is needed to bring glory to Himself.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

I am not . . .

OK, it has been a while since I blogged, but today I am feeling a little inspired. I am struggling mightily, again. Guilt. All the mistakes of the past. All the mistakes of the present. Guilt. I was listening to some music this morning, trying to focus on praise, when a song came on talking about how much I was forgiven. And grace washed over me, again. I am forgiven. Right there in the laundry room, while folding to mountains of clothes, I said it, out loud - "Go away, Satan, and take your guilt with you! I am forgiven, and that is all there is to it!" Peace. Followed quickly by my usual need to find a friend of my childhood. I do some googling, again. Maybe success this time, maybe not. But why do I have this terrible need to keep looking to people of my past? What am I clinging to? What am I running from? This week is a restful break. Don't get me wrong, there is still work to do. But instead of having school, we are just going to do some cleaning and relax a little. Y
Read more

Book Review - The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane

  Book Review - The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane The Red Badge of Courage is different from most of the books I read.  It is like an impressionist painting.  Where the painting uses light, color, and brush strokes to evoke the feeling of the moment rather than an exact image of the scene, this novel uses imagery to evoke the feelings of the battle while not really describing the battle as a whole.  It is more realistic than the romantic renderings of battle usually given.  Whereas is many “war” novels soldiers are seen as heroes and the battle as something great and glorious, this novel describes the horror, the fear, the stress and strain, as well as the feelings of heroism and victory.  While I would read this first before I let my kids read it as it is somewhat graphic, I think high schoolers should be able to handle it and would do well to work through it in a group or class.  This is a great companion to any study of the Civil War.  
Read more

Beauty in the hard times

  I live in the woods.   There is a ring of grass around my house and then woods, including lots of weeds.   There are cacti around, which seems odd based on the climate and makes me wonder if someone dumped them out at one time.   There are also some weeds that have weird silvery leaves with spikes on the edges.   Today, I looked out of my window and one of the cacti has a beautiful yellow flower on top.   The spiky weed just a few feet away has a lovely purple bloom.   Isn’t it amazing how something so harsh, even painful, can have beauty come from it?   I am reading a book of Charles Spurgeon’s sermons from the book of Job (I’ll get to a book review on it when I finish).  Job suffered a lot and not because of anything he did or didn’t do.  Sometimes life is just hard.  Sometimes, God allows us to suffer so that we will have all the extra and unnecessary stuff stripped away and He can bless us with better.   That’s what I think of when I see these difficult “weeds” crowned wi
Read more