Psalm 126
126:1. Being in trouble, the gracious pilgrims remember for their comfort times of national woe which were succeeded by remarkable deliverances. Then sorrow was gone like a dream, and the joy which followed was so great that it seemed too good to be true, and they feared that it must be the vision of an idle brain. So sudden and so overwhelming was their joy that they felt like people in a trance. It was not the freedom of an individual which the Lord in mercy had wrought, but of all Zion, of the whole nation; and this was reason enough for overflowing gladness. Let us look to the prison-houses from which we have been set free. At our conversion what a turning again of captivity we experienced. Since then, from multiplied troubles, from depression of spirit, from miserable backsliding, from grievous doubt, we have been emancipated, and we are not able to describe the bliss which followed each emancipation. This verse will have a higher fulfillment in the day of the final overthrow of the powers of darkness when the Lord comes forth for the salvation and glorification of his redeemed. Then in a fuller sense than even at Pentecost our old men will see visions, and our young men will dream dreams: all things will be so wonderful, so far beyond all expectation, that those who behold them will ask themselves whether it be not all a dream. The past is ever a sure preview of the future; we shall again and again find ourselves amazed at the wonderful goodness of the Lord. Let our hearts gratefully remember the former lovingkindnesses of the Lord: we were sadly low, sorely distressed, and completely past hope, but when Jehovah appeared he did not merely lift us out of despondency, he raised us into wondering happiness. He turns exile into ecstasy, and banishment into bliss.
126:2. Then was our mouth filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing. So full were they of joy that they could not contain themselves. They must express their joy and yet they could not find expression for it. Irrepressible mirth could do no other than laugh, for speech was far too dull a thing for it. The mercy was so unexpected, so amazing, so singular that they could not do less than laugh; and they laughed much, so that their mouths were full of it, and that because their hearts were full too. When at last the tongue could move articulately, it could not be content simply to talk, but it must sing; and sing heartily too, for it was full of singing. God’s when is our then. At the moment when he turns our captivity, the heart turns from its sorrow; when he fills us with grace we are filled with gratitude.
Then said they among the heathen, The LORD hath done great things for them. The heathen heard the songs of Israel, and the better sort among them soon guessed the cause of their joy. Jehovah was known to be their God, and to him the other nations ascribed the emancipation of his people, reckoning it to be no small thing which the Lord had thus done; for those who carried away the nations had never in any other instance restored a people to their ancient dwelling-place. These foreigners were no dreamers; though they were only lookers-on, and not partakers in the surprising mercy, they plainly saw what had been done, and rightly ascribed it to the great Giver of all good. It is a blessed thing when saints set sinners talking about the lovingkindness of the Lord, and it is equally blessed when the saints who are hidden away in the world hear of what the Lord has done for his church, and themselves resolve to come out from their captivity and unite with the Lord’s people.
126:3. The LORD hath done great things for us; whereof we are glad. They did not deny the statement which reflected so much glory upon Jehovah; with exultation they admitted and repeated the statement of Jehovah’s notable dealings with them. To themselves they appropriated the joyful assertion; they said, The LORD hath done great things for us, and they declared their gladness at the fact. It is a poor modesty which is ashamed to own its joy in the Lord. Call it rather a robbery of God. There is so little of happiness abroad that if we possess a full share of it we ought not to hide our light under a bushel, but let it shine on all that are in the house. Let us avow our joy, and the reason of it, stating the whereof as well as the fact. None are so happy as those who are newly turned and returned from captivity; none can more promptly and satisfactorily give a reason for the gladness that is in them. The Lord himself has blessed us, blessed us greatly, blessed us individually, blessed us assuredly; and because of this we sing unto his name. I heard one say the other day in prayer, “whereof we desire to be glad.” Strange dilution and defilement of Scriptural language! Surely if God has done great things for us we are glad, and cannot be otherwise. No doubt such language is meant to be lowly, but in truth it is loathsome.
126:4. Turn again our captivity, O LORD. Remembering the former joy of a past rescue they cry to Jehovah for a repetition of it. When we pray for the turning of our captivity, it is wise to recall former instances thereof: nothing strengthens faith more effectually than the memory of a previous experience. The text shows us how wise it is to resort anew to the Lord who in former times has been so good to us. Where else should we go but to him who has done such great things for us? Who can turn again our captivity but he who turned it before?
As the streams in the south. Even as the Lord sends floods down the dry beds of southern torrents after long droughts, so can he fill our wasted and wearied spirits with floods of holy delight. This the Lord can do for any of us, and he can do it at once, for nothing is too hard for the Lord. Do not let us forget the past, but in the presence of our present difficulty let us resort unto the Lord, and beseech him to do that for us which we cannot possibly do for ourselves—that which no other power can perform on our behalf. Israel did return from the captivity in Babylon. Suddenly and plenteously the people filled again the temple courts.
126:5. They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. Hence, present distress must not be viewed as if it would last forever: it is not the end, by any means, but only a means to the end. Sorrow is our sowing; rejoicing will be our reaping. Workers, waiters, and weepers, in due season they shall reap. It is not every sowing which is thus insured against all danger, and guaranteed a harvest; but the promise specially belongs to sowing in tears. When someone’s heart is so stirred that he weeps over the sins of others, he is elect to usefulness. Winners of souls are first weepers for souls. As there is no birth without travail, so is there no spiritual harvest without painful tillage. When our own hearts are broken with grief at man’s transgression we shall break other people’s hearts; tears of earnestness beget tears of repentance.
126:6. He. The general assurance is applied to each one in particular. That which is spoken in the previous verse in the plural—“they”—is here repeated in the singular—he. He leaves his couch to go forth into the frosty air and tread the heavy soil; and as he goes he weeps because of past failures, or because the ground is so sterile, or the weather so unseasonable, or his corn so scarce, and his enemies so plentiful and so eager to rob him of his reward. You will gather sheaves from your sowing. This is a figurative description of that which was literally described in the first three verses. It is the turning of the worker’s captivity, when, instead of seed buried beneath black earth, he sees the waving crops inviting him to a golden harvest. It is somewhat singular to find this promise of fruitfulness in close contact with return from captivity; and yet it is so in our own experience, for when our own soul is revived the souls of others are blessed by our labors. If any of us, having been once lonesome and lingering captives, have now returned home, and have become longing and laboring sowers, may the Lord, who has already delivered us, soon transform us into glad-hearted reapers, and to him shall be praise forever and ever. Amen.
The Treasury of David by Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834-1892)
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