Psalm 126: An unfinished journey to liberation



 1 When the Lord brought back the captivity of Zion,
We were like those who dream.

2 Then our mouth was filled with laughter,
And our tongue with singing.
Then they said among the nations,
“The Lord has done great things for them.”

3 The Lord has done great things for us,
And we are glad.

4 Bring back our captivity, O Lord,
As the streams in the South.

5 Those who sow in tears
Shall reap in joy.

6 He who continually goes forth weeping,
Bearing seed for sowing,
Shall doubtless come again with rejoicing,
Bringing his sheaves with him.


The NKJV translation of this is horribly unhelpful!  It reads as "yay! bring back captivity" as in "bring back hanging" or " bring back corporal punishment"!  Bringing back our captivity does not sound like good grounds for celebration!

Here, "bring back" is much better translated as "reverse" - "When the Lord reversed the captivity of Zion", i.e. God set his people free.

The long history of the people of Israel is complex and is marked by devastating periods of captivity and oppression (Egypt, Babylon, Nazi Germany) and also by foundational experiences of being set free (The Exodus, and the return from Babylon.)  This psalm is reliving the joy of freedom from Babylonian captivity - praising the liberating God.

But it is more than simply remembering history with joy, it is a retelling of the story and a proclamation that God's intended liberation (whatever our situation might be NOW) is a pattern of God's behaviour - it is what we can expect from God.

5 Those who sow in tears
Shall reap in joy.

6 He who continually goes forth weeping,
Bearing seed for sowing,
Shall doubtless come again with rejoicing,
Bringing his sheaves with him.

"Sowing in tears" suggests any number of traumatic situations...

  • You might be sowing the last of your grain - you may now starve because you have bet your last grain on a future harvest.

  • You might be sowing in a long drought, knowing that it is very unlikely that this seed will ever germinate.

  • You might be sowing as conflict brews, knowing it is likely that you will have been driven from the land before a harvest comes, and someone else will be reaping the rewards.

On this journey, this psalm would have been sung as well as Psalm 125
- and the sowing in tears might for them mean living under Roman occupation where all their profit might be taxed, or it might be taken more metaphorically to mean any situation where doing the right thing - the hopeful thing - just seems pointless when you live in the stinking toxic fishwater of oppression.

But the psalmist insists that it doesn't end there - that God always acts as a liverator, one who sets free - and they may now be sowing in tears, but  - BELIEVE - you WILL one day be reaping with joy again - remember how God brought us back from Babylon.

Remembering who God is, based on what God has done for us in the past is a constant theme of the psalms in general and is often the point in a psalm when a handbrake turn is made - from weeeping to joy, from despair to hope, from despondency to praise.  I'm not sure that, in general, us 21st century westerners are very good at that.  Maybe we are too used to the investment adverts which always has in the smallprint (or soken very quickly at the end) "past performance is no indicator of future returns".

Well, says the Psalmist...  past performance is the ground of all our hope - and in that we can put our trust.


A prayer

God of turning tides and open futures,
you have reversed despair before,
you have brought freedom where chains once rattled.
Do it again, Lord.
Where we sow in tears,
let hope take root;
where our hands are empty,
fill them with joy.
Past faithfulness is our anchor,
and in you, our future is secure.
Amen.

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