NOTES for Psa 126

¹When the LORD turned again the captivity of Zion, we were like them that dream.

²Then was our mouth filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing: then said they among the heathen, The LORD hath done great things for them.

³The LORD hath done great things for us; whereof we are glad.

⁴Turn again our captivity, O LORD, as the streams in the south.

⁵They that sow in tears shall reap in joy.

⁶He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.

It is a good thing to remember past joy, prolonging the joy itself and softening the bitterness of sorrowful days. Yet joyful memories can also become a pledge of the future triumph of those who suffer today. This is not only because those who mourn have been promised that they will be comforted, but also because in the pages of the Bible we can see numerous testimonies born of experience to a joy that came, in spite of everything, after many immense and innumerable hardships.

It is no accident at all that our faith is historical. Those who seek only commandments and recommendations in divinely inspired texts may not immediately notice how God reveals Himself in history. Sacred history itself is not a collection of barren memories or a neurotic chewing over of the past, but a body of events whose remembrance we need both today and in the future, within the perspective of humanity's continuing journey. At the same time, it is confirmation that the Lord is with us today just as He was with His faithful throughout all the centuries that have passed.

Other notes

For Psa 126:1-5

¹When the LORD turned again the captivity of Zion, we were like them that dream.

²Then was our mouth filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing: then said they among the heathen, The LORD hath done great things for them.

³The LORD hath done great things for us; whereof we are glad.

⁴Turn again our captivity, O LORD, as the streams in the south.

⁵They that sow in tears shall reap in joy.

If all labor is in vain without the Lord's participation, what follows from this? The words about the sleep... Read more

If all labor is in vain without the Lord's participation, what follows from this? It would be tempting to reinterpret the words about the sleep He gives His beloved as meaning that one who trusts in Him may live like Emelya idling on the stove. Why devote oneself to vain earthly affairs? Would it not be better to recline spiritually and cast every care upon God?

But the Lord blesses neither laziness nor apathy. If our labor is done before His face, and our earthly service becomes service to Him, then such labor can be neither vain nor meaningless. Of course, it can be difficult to discern God's participation in our work; usually we notice only its human component. But this is not surprising, for what is most important and decisive is often imperceptible and may look entirely natural.

This is why the psalmist names as the Lord's chief reward something both so natural and so mysterious: children, the pledge that the life He created will continue and cannot be eradicated.

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NOTES for Psa 126

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