Songs of Ascent;- Psalm 126

Cards on the table. The Psalms are not really my thing. Even in poetry, I prefer narrative to lyric. So while I’m looking at this group of Psalms, I won’t rely entirely on my own conclusions. I’ll separate out my own observations (in this first post) from what I find in commentaries and add in the later posts..

Psalm 126

This psalm is in two parts. They cover two different versions of “restoring the fortunes of Zion”, one relating to gratitude for the past, and the other relating to prayer for the future. The best explanation is that the phrase has two different meanings, being used in word-play.

First part- vv1-3

“When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dream… then they said among the nations ‘The Lord has done great things for them.”
If the event is so great that “the nations” can recognise it, then this can be nothing less than the event celebrated in Isaiah ch40. Babylon has fallen. Cyrus has given permission for the exiles to go back to Jerusalem and rebuild the nation. The nation was near death, and has come back to life.

So it is not surprising that “our mouths were filled with laughter, and our tongue with shouts of joy… we are glad.”

Second part- vv4-6

So what kind of restoration do they need now?
The event would be “like the watercourses in the Negeb”. The Negeb is a dry area in the south of Judah, and the watercourses would frequently be dried up. I imagine that water would return in fresh floods, not so much from local rain as from rain in the hills. The restoration would be like that.

An alternative image is the “harvesting” image. We are given this image twice, in v5 as a prayer and in v6 as a prophecy. Firstly, “may” those who sow in tears reap with shouts of joy. Then those who go out weeping, carrying their seed, “will” come home with shouts of joy bringing their harvested sheaves.


Water and harvest are both images of fresh life. I think I have it. The desired “restoration of fortunes” is about the need for children. When the Jews came home from Babylon, they came home as a small population. That was the nation’s weakness. The community would not be viable in the long-term without population growth.

And the next two psalms are also about the need for children, so that it becomes a running theme.
The first restoration was about bringing the nation back from the dead.
The second restoration will be about filling the nation with true vitality.

The above are my own independent thoughts on the psalm. Having got that far, I will now open up Weiser’s commentary bought a couple of years ago, discover (probably) a number of insights which haven’t occurred to me, and add them here.

The past tense used in the first verse “suggests the view that at the root of the community’s hope are reminiscences of the divine restoration of the fortunes of Zion which are part of the cultic tradition.”
“Restore” translates a phrase which literally means “to turn a turning”, and is used as a formula for the cultic-eschatological realisation of salvation. It implies also the thought that man has to account to God for the sin he has committed, and for that reason only God can deliver him from his guilt by a new act of his grace. It is freedom from sin that turns tears into happy laughter.

But the revelation of salvation to Israel also entails the revelation of God to other nations.

He thinks that the idea of rivers in the southern desert implies an absolute miracle. [But the atlas shows blue dotted lines, so there must be water intermittently.] God in his gracious forgiveness can take his curse from the people, just as he can take his curse from the land.

The image of sowing and harvesting comes from the festival cult. It is a very common ancient idea that the time of sowing was to be considered as a time of mourning. So in Egypt sowing was accompanied by funeral hymns as a symbol of the burial of Osiris. The idea is reflected in the German proverb “Do not laugh when you sow; otherwise you must weep when you reap.”

“It is faith in the miraculous life-giving power of God which transfigures the sufferings of the present time and shows them to be the way willed by God which alone is able to lead men out of darkness into light.” There is a hidden divine law. Sowing in tears and weeping in joy are inseparable. “Suffering and death, too, are part of God’s work of redemption. They are a divine seed which sprouts in secret and ripens for God’s blessed harvest.”

+++

What about Matthew Henry?

He takes the first three verses as I do, as relating to the release of Israel from captivity in Babylon. At first they did not know what to make of the sudden change. They were like “men that dream”. They could “scarcely contain themselves within the bounds of decency” in the expression of their surprise and joy.

But he thinks the future restoration relates to those who remain in Babylon. “The beginnings of mercy are encouragements to us to pray for the completing of it.”

Weeping must not hinder sowing, but helps it, just as the ground is prepared by the rain. “There are tears which are themselves the seed which we must sow, tears of sorrow for sin… tears of sympathy with the afflicted church, and tears of tenderness in prayer… Those that sow in the tears of godly sorrow shall reap in the joy of a sealed pardon and a settled peace.”

Except for the last few sentences of the second post these posts are exactly the same.

I think thee needeth a new hobby.

a reply to: ChesterJohn
You have just proved that you never read beyond the first sentence in any of them.

But it's always been evident that you have limited reading skills.

a reply to: DISRAELI

I have, they are not word for word but they say the SAME THING OVER AND OVER AGAIN IN HOW MANY THREADS AS OF LATE? 3 at least. IT IS RIDICULOUS.

a reply to: ChesterJohn
I am working through a set of psalms. Each thread is describing what the relevant psalm says. Any similarities of message come from the similarity between psalms. If you don't like that, blame the psalm writer.
Nobody is forcing you to read them, so what have you got to complain about?

a reply to: DISRAELI

I think you should just stop for a while and give your brain a break, so you can see a little more clearly. You are not getting the readership with this set since you started so best to stop and try something else.

May I suggest Knitting.