Psalm 126
When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion,
we were like those who dream.
Then our mouth was filled with laughter,
and our tongue with shouts of joy;
then they said among the nations,
“The Lord has done great things for them.”
The Lord has done great things for us;
we are glad.
Restore our fortunes, O Lord,
like streams in the Negeb!
Those who sow in tears
shall reap with shouts of joy!
He who goes out weeping,
bearing the seed for sowing,
shall come home with shouts of joy,
bringing his sheaves with him.
Welcome to Getting ready for Sunday, a podcast of first Lutheran Church. Each week I introduced the readings for the upcoming Sunday with some notes and explanation so you can be ready for worship when you arrive. I look at the Old Testament, song, epistle and Gospel reading for the upcoming Sunday and offer a few notes and explanation. The psalm for Sunday, December 17, is Psalm 126. A song of a sense. When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dream. Then our mouth was filled with laughter in our tongue with shouts of joy. Then they said among the nations, the Lord has done great things for them. The Lord has done great things for us. We are glad restore our fortunes, oh Lord, like streams in the Negev, those who sow in tears shall reap with shouts of joy. He who goes out weeping, baring the seed for sowing, shall come home with shouts of joy, bringing his sheaves with him. Here ends the reading. Psalm 26 begins with the title, a song of a sense, the song of a sense, or a series of psalms that were likely to be prayed, as people were ascending the road towards Jerusalem. So wherever you are in Israel, you would always go up to Jerusalem because it was on the top of, of a hill, they called it Mount Zion. And so as you were taking a pilgrimage, going towards the temple for worship, there were all of these psalms that you could say along the way, the psalm of a sense, similar psalm of a sense is, my eyes, look up to the hills, from where does my help come, My help comes from the Lord who made heaven and earth. And you can imagine them going up and looking to Jerusalem, where, where the temple was where God's presence was, and you say, My help comes from the Lord as you look up at the city. So here we have another song of a sense. And it begins with the remembrance. When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dream that our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongueless shouts of joy. They said, among the nations, the Lord has done great things for them. The Lord has done great things for us, we are glad. Now, this psalm shows a generic description of restoring the fortunes of Zion. You could say this has happened any number of times since the building of the temple. And it's when God defends his people from invaders. Anytime God had brought about some sort of punishment due to their idolatry, he could also bring about a restoration of the fortunes of Zion. And so the idea here was that the Lord God, Yahweh, the God of Israel, would defend his people. And when he does that, people would have shouts of joy. For me, I'm thinking especially of the story with Hezekiah Hezekiah, surrounded by a Syria, and the armies are outside and they are so overwhelming, and what happens? A plague strikes them. And hundreds and 1000s of people die in the night. And Israel saved. And you can imagine people want on the morning, the day before looking out on this, this mighty army surrounding the city of Jerusalem, knowing there is no way regular spears and swords was going to take care of this army, Jerusalem was doomed. And then you look out the next day, and they're all dead. The enemy defeated. It would be like, we were like those who dream. Our mouth was filled with laughter and our tongue was shouts of joy. The psalm recalls the promises that God had given those people. And it then turns and says, now restore our fortunes. Oh Lord, like the streams. And the Negev says people are looking up to Jerusalem. It says, restore our fortunes have us who are now sowing in tears reap with shouts of joy, we who are now weeping, burying the seeds for sowing, she'll come home with shouts of joy bringing his sheaves to him. This is a reminder that when we come to the Lord, we who are maybe when things are terrible, when you're mourning when you've lost a loved one, especially as we're heading into the Christmas season, and there's an empty chair around your table, or the family isn't what you hoped it would be, or, you know, something has changed and you're mourning that loss. We can turn to the Lord with our weeping and he can give us joy, not always by fixing everything that doesn't happen. But by giving us Christ and the promise of the resurrection, so that when he returns we can have that Fold joy as we look up to heaven not to Mount Zion but to heaven and ask for our God to give us his good and gracious well that's all I have for today we'll see you on Sunday bye
Transcribed by https://otter.ai