This is the last of three sermons I prepared and delivered in the summer of 2024.
It was a pleasure to preach on the Psalms, and I liked the way the three that I chose fit together loosely, almost like there was a plan I was not aware of.
The video is here. It starts with a short prayer, then a longer prayer, then a reading of the scripture, If you enjoy hearing me talk and be awkward in front of other people, tune in for all of it. The scripture reading starts at minute 31, the sermon a couple of minutes after that.
Psalm 126: God’s Future
August 11th, 2024 Ttangeut Church, Holy Joy English Service
1 When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion,
we were like those who dream.
2 Then our mouth was filled with laughter
and our tongue with shouts of joy;
then it was said among the nations,
“The Lord has done great things for them.”
3 The Lord has done great things for us,
and we rejoiced.
4 Restore our fortunes, O Lord,
like the watercourses in the Negeb.
5 May those who sow in tears
reap with shouts of joy.
6 Those who go out weeping,
bearing the seed for sowing,
shall come home with shouts of joy,
carrying their sheaves.
Introduction
Welcome to my last sermon of the summer. Back when Frank and I decided to do a series on Psalms, number 126 was not on my radar. Like Psalm 82, it appeared in my daily devotionals, and caught my attention, but not quite the same way: I didn’t see a puzzle that I wanted to help us solve together. Instead, I saw a beautiful little gem of a poem that just needed to be appreciated. Not just the fantastic imagery, but the deeper beauty of Truth. Psalm 126 is a reflection of the nature of God’s universe, reminding us of the path we are on.
Okay, it does have a little puzzle, and a bit of weird cultural stuff.
As an added bonus, by the time I had all three of my psalm choices next to each other, I noticed that they also made a clever pattern of past, present and future. I also had some personal connections with this psalm, which I will share with you later.
Truth
Let’s start with the Truth. On my first reading of Psalm 126, I noticed immediately that verse 1 talks about how The LORD restored the fortunes of Zion, or Israel. But then halfway through, in verse 4, the psalmist is asking The LORD to restore their fortunes again. The first half has laughter, the second half has tears. Tears, but also that request, to bring back joy. There is a deep truth in Psalm 126. It is so important to see it, and to recognize it: the Truth is that we will not always be happy. The Way to the Kingdom of Heaven has sadness, weeping, anger and loss, as well as rejoicing and laughter, peace and comfort. Just look at the story of the Exodus:
When God’s people were slaves in Egypt, God heard their cries and led them out! They messed up bad in the desert, but God did not destroy them! God led them to the promised land! They were afraid to go in and take it, and they suffered for that, but God delivered them into Canaan! We saw in Psalm 78 that God never gave up on Israel, no matter how many times they turned away, and we see that in our past as well!
Why does suffering always come? Whenever we become comfortable, humans set up little gods, as we saw in Psalm 82. It is part of our sinful nature. Those little gods stumble around in the dark, shaking the foundations of the world. That’s when we realize that we need The Real God, The LORD. That’s when we call on The LORD, just like the psalmist, “Restore our fortunes, Oh LORD! Arise and take your place! We will not forget the lessons of our ancestors!”
Psalm 126 is so beautiful because it is both a cry for the gospel, and an affirmation that the gospel is real. The first half says that God made it all good, and the second half asks God to come and make it all good again. “The LORD restored our fortunes! Restore our fortunes again, O LORD!”
I want to be clear: this cycle of fortunes lost and restored is not creation being stuck in one place! Every restoration in the Old Testament pointed toward Jesus, and Jesus told us that the Kingdom of Heaven was at hand! Our little gods want us to look down and believe that the world is going to hell. They don’t want us to see that the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand, that The LORD will restore our fortunes and more!
That is the beautiful truth of Psalm 126. The Psalmist can call on God, because God is near. God hears. God cares. God will respond.
And of course, there will be an ultimate bringing in of sheaves, when there are no more tears of sadness, but only tears of joy. When there is laughter and shouts of joy, as well as content silence, but no more pain.
The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. Both near and far. Sometimes right in our midst.
Sentiment
I will be honest with you. The main reason that I chose Psalm 126 was the last line, about bringing in sheaves with shouts of joy. My mind immediately went back to my childhood, singing, “We shall come rejoicing, bringing in the sheaves!” It took me back to First Christian Church of Leavenworth, KS, when I was a child. The memories are mostly happy, but tinged with sadness. I grew up with so many church grandparents, aunts and uncles, brothers and sisters. People who taught me about the love and grace of Jesus by loving me and accepting me. Many of them are still there, but many are gone. I have missed funerals, weddings, and children growing up. When I visit my home church, it is mostly happy, but sad, because it is no longer my home.
The song we sang earlier, “Bringing in the Sheaves,” was comforting for me then, and it still is:
Going forth with weeping, sowing for the Master,
Though the loss sustained our spirit often grieves;
When our weeping’s over, He will bid us welcome,
We shall come rejoicing, bringing in the sheaves.
I used to think that my sadness came from living so far from home, in a foreign country. I considered my sadness to be mostly the result of my choices. Then I moved back to America in 2007, and lived there with my family for four years. The sadness followed me there. I found that even if you stay in the same town your whole life, you are still constantly moving: into the future, leaving people and things behind. “Bringing in the Sheaves” reminds us that sadness will come, but then the chorus reminds us of the truth:
Bringing in the sheaves, bringing in the sheaves,
We shall come rejoicing, bringing in the sheaves;
Bringing in the sheaves, bringing in the sheaves,
We shall come rejoicing, bringing in the sheaves.
Rejoicing, I understood. Sheaves, not so much.
Culture
So here are the puzzling parts of Psalm 126: First, vocabulary. “Sheaves” was kind of a strange word that did not connect with me when I was young, even after learning what they were: bundles of grain, usually wheat, sometimes corn or barley. A sheaf is a normal farming tool. Of course bringing them in would be a happy time, because that meant that you had food. But why would sowing seeds be a sad thing?
One reason could be that when a farmer is sowing their fields, they are literally throwing away grain. Grain is food. When we decide to plant a seed, that is grain that we cannot eat. Or feed to our family. It is an immediate loss. The very action of sowing looks a lot like throwing something away. Trusting it to the earth, that the earth will return more than it has taken. When we love, when we give, it feels like the same kind of risk: throwing away something that may never come back.
Now, if we read this poem with Old Testament eyes, we imagine these rich, beautiful, precious seeds. Scattered. Thrown out in all directions. Maybe we think of Babylon, or Syria, scattering the people and resources of Israel. Or maybe we think of Babel, the people scattered to the ends of the Earth. It is a poem, after all, and images can mean many things.
Personal Connection
In the past few weeks I have been blessed by an even more personal connection to this psalm. Frankly, it is the kind of blessing that I would rather avoid. This coming Wednesday my family is moving to a new home. Sometimes moving is an exciting, fresh start, but it’s always a lot of work. We have had our share of those moves, but this time is different. We are moving in with my wife’s parents because we can’t afford to stay where we live now. To an American, such as myself, moving in with parents feels like failure. Defeat. As our moving date has gotten closer, I have been praying to God, “Restore our fortunes, O LORD! Do great things for us! Now please!” I have been unwilling to accept this change. Psalm 126 came along at the right time to remind me that God has restored the fortune of my family before, so many times, in so many ways. But I’ve had trouble remembering.
As our family has decided which things to keep and which to give or throw away, my wife has led the way to rejoicing. She has found people who need so many of our things, and we have made people happy by giving our stuff away. Sometimes reaping with joy is more about your attitude in giving than actually receiving something. We must choose to ignore the little god, who tells you that the more stuff you have, the better you are.
Thank you to my wife, for leading by example, and teaching me an important lesson about Psalm 126. I had been studying it for weeks, but I needed her story to remind me that God’s reality is THE reality!
Application
The stories we tell ourselves matter. We come here to share stories like Psalm 126 because when God’s stories are on our mind, we see the world, and other people, the way that God sees them: with love and compassion. That includes compassion for ourselves! I am not quite ready to rejoice at this family move, but I am closer. Psalm 126 reminds me that the weeping is natural, but that rejoicing will come. So I take hope. And I am confident that the story of the Sack Family moving in with their grandparents will become a story of God’s goodness and love for all of us. We will be bringing in the sheaves before we know it.
Conclusion
Once again we have a beautiful song poem from thousands of years ago that still sheds light on our path today, just as it has for all those years. The Psalmist reminds us that here on earth we will not always be happy, because that is not how God created the universe. Fortunes will always be lost and restored.
We can take comfort in times of misfortune, knowing that God has given and that God will continue to give. But more importantly, in times of fortune, we know that it will not last forever. The world tells us that our current fortune is a reflection of who we are: the rich deserve to be rich, and the poor deserve to be poor. But Jesus tells us, “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.”
The little gods, the ones we created, are wrong. We know that our value is not based on our possessions or power. Our value comes from God, from being created in the image of God. So we tell each other and ourselves the story of how God will turn weeping to laughter.
Rather than seeing ourselves as a reflection of our circumstances, we see ourselves as images of God. And like God, we can be willing to sow, to give up part of ourselves. To die to ourselves, because we know that water will come to the desert again. Life will bloom and flourish and explode into a space that seems to be dead.
Let us pray: Lord, give us the wisdom to truly hear your stories. Restore our fortunes, as you always have, as you always will. Amen.
Bringing in the Sheaves
Sowing in the morning, sowing seeds of kindness,
Sowing in the noontide and the dewy eve;
Waiting for the harvest, and the time of reaping,
We shall come rejoicing, bringing in the sheaves.
Refrain:
Bringing in the sheaves, bringing in the sheaves,
We shall come rejoicing, bringing in the sheaves;
Bringing in the sheaves, bringing in the sheaves,
We shall come rejoicing, bringing in the sheaves.
Sowing in the sunshine, sowing in the shadows,
Fearing neither clouds nor winter’s chilling breeze;
By and by the harvest, and the labor ended,
We shall come rejoicing, bringing in the sheaves.
Going forth with weeping, sowing for the Master,
Though the loss sustained our spirit often grieves;
When our weeping’s over, He will bid us welcome,
We shall come rejoicing, bringing in the sheaves.
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