Psalm 126

English Standard Version Psalm 126

Restore Our Fortunes, O LORD

126 A SONG OF mASCENTS.

1  When the יהוהLORD srestored the fortunes of Zion,

we were like those who tdream.

2  Then our umouth was filled with laughter,

and our tongue with shouts of joy;

then they said among the nations,

v“The יהוהLORD has done great things for them.”

3  The יהוהLORD has done great things for us;

we are glad.

4  Restore our fortunes, O יהוהLORD,

like streams in the Negeb!

5  wThose who sow in tears

shall reap with shouts of joy!

6  He who goes out weeping,

bearing the seed for sowing,

shall come home with shouts of joy,

bringing his sheaves with him.

CHAPTER 126 Genevia Bible Notes

Verse 1

a.Their deliverance was as a thing incredible, and therefore toke awaie all excuse of ingratitude.

Verse 2

b.He sheweth how ye godlie oght to rejoyce, when God gathereth his Church or delivereth it.

c.If the infideles confesse Gods wonderful worke, the faithful cā never shewe thē selves sufficiētly thinkeful.

Verse 4

d.It is no more impossible to God to deliver his people, then to cause the rivers to runne to the wildernes and barren places.

Verse 6

e.That is, sede which was scarse & dere: meaning, that thei which trusted in Gods promes to returne, had their desire.

126:1–3. When the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion, we were like them that dream. . So overjoyed were the captives that the announcement of their release made them like them that dream. Their mouths were filled with laughter and … with singing because The LORD hath done great things for us. The captivity had been great; the deliverance was even greater. Great deliverance demanded great praise.

The return of God’s people is also signaled by a profound repentance. The people will truly desire God’s will and listen to his words. This turn around will not just be in the head, but in the heart as well. The return comes first of all in the land of captivity when one brings to mind the covenant with Yahweh and turns toward the Torah with all your heart and soul (Deut 30:6). Out of a loving response to God, the land itself will produce its fruits. Blessing will flourish (Deut 30:5; Jer 31:5, 12–14)

126:1 restored the fortunes. Compare vv. 5–6; Job 42:10; see also Ps. 14:7; Lam. 2:14.

like them that dream. The reference is to the waking in 2 Kings 19:35; Isa. 37:36. The illustration is in Luke 24:41; Acts 12:9 (603 B.C.).

B.Among the pagans (126:2): They acknowledge God’s care and amazing things he does for his people.

126:2–3 God’s intervention on Israel’s behalf testifies to His omnipotence and superiority (96:3; 113:4; Isa 61:9; 66:19; Jer 31:10; Eze 36:23). (v. 2). It also impressed the nations with God’s care for his people, and the people themselves took up the Gentiles’ cry: The LORD has done great things for us.

Key Word: Deliverance, v. 3.

Strong Verses: 3, 5, 6.

Striking Facts: The return out of captivity may be taken as typical of the sinner’s redemption by Christ. Surely He has done great things for us, whereof we should be glad and should give Him glory continually.

CSB Study Bible: Notes Psalm 126

126:4–6 In v. 1 the Lord restores Zion as the political and religious center, but vv. 4–6 focus on the productivity of the land. The watercourses in the Negev refer to seasonal streams or wadis, which occasionally blessed the land with a sudden overabundance of water. Along with providing sudden bounty like a wadi, God also made use of methodical processes and hard labor like agriculture. The person who remains humble before God will surely enjoy God’s blessings in the land.

126:4–6. Joy reclaimed

Memory, so far from slipping into nostalgia, now gives the impetus to hope. Verse 1 could have been echoed as a sigh; instead, it sets the tone and scope of confident intercession.

The two images of renewal (4b, 5–6) are not only striking: they are complementary. The first of them is all suddenness, a sheer gift from heaven; the second is slow and arduous, with man allotted a crucial part to play in it.

Sudden bounty has its perfect illustration here, since few places are more arid that the Negeb,68 and few transformations more dramatic than that of a dry gully into a torrent. Such can be the effect of a downpour, which can also turn the surrounding desert into a place of grass and flowers overnight.69

4. Turn again our captivity, O LORD, as the streams in the south. This prayer is that Jehovah will show His kindness to the multitudes of those yet remaining in Babylon as He had on the remnant already returned. The simile used to express this, as the streams in the south, is a reference to the torrents in the Negev region of southern Palestine. These wadis, stream beds, are dry eleven months out of the year; but when the rainy season comes, they are quickly filled and become torrential rivers (68:9; Josh 15:9; cf. Job 6:15). The point of the comparison is that the joy expressed at the reappearing of these raging torrents, so sorely missed for eleven months of the year, is akin to that of the anticipated return of all of Israel to her homeland.

5. They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. No metaphor is more frequently used in both Testaments than that of the farmer sowing and reaping. Thus, this verse is as much a proverb as a prayer; it suits all times and all situations. Our faithfulness in bearing the seed of the Word of God to the unsaved carries with it the promise of future harvests. “Winners of souls are first weepers for souls. As there is no burden without travail, so is there no spiritual harvest without painful tillage. When our own hearts are broken with grief at man’s transgression we shall break other men’s hearts”—Spurgeon.

6. He that goeth forth and weepeth … shall doubtless come again with rejoicing. The gerund construction in verse 6a (as in 2 Sam 3:16; 15:30; Jer 50:4) depicts the continual passing along. Israel was continually faithful in captivity, and thus God restored her to Zion. If the people of God today are equally faithful in scattering the precious seed of God’s Word, we are promised the faithfulness of God in bringing in the sheaves. The proverb is true in any application. God’s guarantee is: precious tears, precious seed, precious reward.

These pictures of restoration make clear that the prosperity for all is due to righteousness and justice flowing out from Zion. Whole-hearted adherence to the righteous and just demands of the covenant generates prosperity. Shivat signals a release from those who captured the people of God. The pasturing rest is not just from those who would attack the people of God with threatening armies (Isa 11:6–9; Ez 39:9–10), but even more so from those who impoverish the land through economic injustice.

So the psalm, speaking first to its own times, speaks still. Miracles of the past it bids us treat as measures of the future; dry places as potential rivers; hard toil and good seed as the certain prelude to harvest.

V 5–6: SOWING In that day, those who have sowed in tears shall reap in joy. This is true in history concerning the various returns of Israel from captivity. It is also a principle which applies to the sowing of gospel seed. When tears of compassion or affliction are in the eyes and heart of the sower of God’s word, he or she can be assured that great joy will come in the future as sinners trust in Christ and are saved eternally.

Believer’s Bible Commentary Psalm 126: Tearful Sowing, Joyful Reaping

Psalm 126: Tearful Sowing, Joyful Reaping

126:1 When the announcement reached the Jewish communities in exile, the people were electrified and ecstatic. The Persian King Cyrus had decreed that the captives could return to their land. It seemed almost too good to be true. During the long years in exile, many of them had wondered if they would ever see Jerusalem again. But now at last the news had come. As they gathered their few pitiful belongings together, they were like people walking around in a trance.

126:2 The excited gabble of a normally demonstrative and talkative people was even louder than usual. For the first time in about seventy years, they had something to bring keenest pleasure to them. Something to make them hilarious. They were going home. As their preparations moved into high gear, they laughed and sang—something new for them.

126:3 It was a tremendous testimony to the non-Jewish people. They seemed to sense that things happened for the Jews that could not be explained on the natural level. They acknowledged that the God of the Hebrews had intervened for them in miraculous ways. Above the other nations of the earth, Israel appeared to be the special object of Jehovah’s love and care.

And the grateful exiles joyfully concurred with the Gentiles in attributing their deliverance to the Lord alone.

The LORD has done great things for us, and we are glad.

126:4 But they were going back to the land a pathetic remnant with little more than the clothes they wore. They needed manpower, finances and protection. This accounts for their prayer:

Bring back our captivity, O LORD, as the streams in the South.

The South (Heb., Negev) was the desert in the south. Ordinarily it was arid and barren. But after heavy rains, the dry waterbeds became torrential streams that made the wilderness blossom. So the returning exiles pray that what is now only a trickle of people may become a multitude until all twelve tribes have been brought back. They pray that the Lord will provide them the means to rebuild and restore. And they ask for everything else that would be needed to make them a happy, fruitful people in the land.

126:5, 6 The first year after their return would be especially difficult. There would be no crops to harvest right away. They would have to make a fresh start by planting their crops and waiting for harvest time. It would be a period of austerity, of doling out the meager food supplies as frugally as possible.

There would be a certain sorrow or frustration about sowing the seed for that first crop. Here is a farmer whose barrel of grain is low. He can use the grain to feed his family now or he can sow most of it in hope of an abundant supply in days to come. He decides to sow it, but as he dips his hand into his apron and scatters the seed over the plowed land, his tears fall into the apron. He is thinking of his wife and children, of the skimpy bowls of porridge, of how sacrificially they will have to live in the days till harvest. He feels as if he is taking food out of their mouths.

But a cheering word goes out to the returned exiles:

He who continually goes forth weeping, bearing seed for sowing, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.

So they go forth and sow the seed. Their present anguish will be more than compensated by the joy of bringing their sheaves of ripened grain to the barn.

The principle applies also, of course, in the spiritual realm. Those who live sacrificially for the spread of the gospel may endure present privation, but what is that compared to the joy of seeing souls saved and in heaven worshiping the Lamb of God forever and forever?

It is true also in the matter of soul winning. Someone has wisely said, “Winners of souls are first weepers for souls.” So our prayer should be:

Let me look on the crowd as my Savior did,

Till my eyes with tears grow dim.

Let me view with pity the wandering sheep

And love them for love of Him.

Despite these relatively small uncertainties in later translation, this psalm has a rich reception history. For example, the rabbis read verse 4 (‘restore our fortunes, O Lord’) as about the need to subdue any intensity of celebration, ‘even at a wedding’: this verse in part inspired the custom of breaking a glass at a Jewish wedding as reminder of the need for some solemnity.531 Furthermore, the rabbis saw this psalm as marking Israel’s ascent from exile, contrasting it with Psalm 137 which was read as Israel’s earlier descent into the depths of exile: so Psalm 137 is recited prior to Birkat HaMazon (Grace after meals, on weekdays) to remind the people of the destruction of Temple even when they appear to be sated and well, whilst Psalm 126 is recited before Birkat HaMazon on Sabbaths and festivals, in order to give a glimpse of some future promise of a final release from captivity.532 ‘On the Sabbath, the sorrowful Psalm 137, which contains the traditional oath of allegiance to Jerusalem, is replaced by an optimistic and joyous one that looks forward to God’s salvation and redemption.’533

Psalm 126

Some students connect this psalm with the sudden deliverance of Jerusalem from the Assyrian siege during the reign of Hezekiah (Isa. 36–37). But the Hebrew verb translated “turned again” in v. 1 (KJV; “brought back,” NASB, NIV) and “turn again” or “restore” in verse 4, is also used to describe the return of the Jewish exiles from Babylon (Ezra 2:1; Neh. 7:6; Isa. 10:22; Jer. 22:10). Cyrus gave his decree in 537 B.C., an event prophesied by Isaiah (44:24–45:7). Isaiah also prophesied the joy of the people at their liberation (Isa. 48:20; 49:8–13; 51:11; 54:1; 55:10–12) and the witness of this remarkable event to the other nations (Isa. 43:10–21; 44:8, 23; 52:7–10). But once the exiles were back in their land, their joy began to subside, for life is not always easy when you are making a new beginning after a time of discipline. But life is so arranged that we must often make new beginnings, and the Lord helps us by giving us special encouragements.

.

Matching this is the other picture of revival, in terms of farming at its most heart-breaking; all its joys hard-won (cf. 2 Cor. 9:6) and long-awaited (Gal. 6:7–10; Jas 5:7f.). But whatever the uncertainties of literal farming, the psalmist is as sure of this harvest—God’s blessing of seed sown,70 and his visiting of his people—as are the apostles. The modern translations tend to omit the extra words of emphasis in the final verse, which are partly preserved in AV, PBV. Both the going forth and the coming home are stressed by a doubling of the verb, and might be translated, ‘He that surely goes forth weeping … will surely come home with shouts of joy.’

COMMENTARY

Perhaps we can all look back to days that were like a dream come true, days that were filled with joy and laughter because of a marvelous reversal of circumstances. Tears and grief were replaced with gladness and joy when the Lord intervened to bring restoration, whether that restoration was of a broken relationship, a sick body, or a tormented mind. Psalm 126:1–3 remembers with joy this restoration experience. The joy of those past days may not, however, characterize our present situation because of some new adversity we are experiencing. Prayer for restoration may now be the cry of our heart, as is the case in 126:4–6. The Holy Spirit teaches us through Psalm 126 how to overcome present adversity by remembering the past and praying for the future.

Remembering Restoration. “When the LORD restored” is the theme of 126:1–3. This restoration was no small matter, as can be seen from the people’s response. They were elated. It was like a dream come true. Laughter filled their mouths, and joy filled their songs. The restoration in view was probably that of the return from the Babylonian captivity, given that this restoration was known about in nations outside of Israel. And this restoration was not just known about on the international scene; it was celebrated there, as well. People in other nations marveled at what the God of Israel had done in restoring his people. “What amazing things the LORD has done for them” was what the nations said in amazement. Whereas in other psalms the nations join the chorus sung by Israel (e.g., Ps 47), here Israel chimes in to agree with the joyful song of the nations: “Yes, the LORD has done amazing things for us! What joy!” (126:3).

When facing adversity in the present, it does the soul good to learn from the past. By remembering the ecstasy we tasted when the Lord restored us in the past, we experience renewal to live in the present, with hope and courage and confidence that the God who restored us from adversity back then will do so again.

Praying for Restoration. The prayer in the present is quite simple and echoes the remembrance of the past: “Restore our fortunes, LORD.” “Do for us now what you did for us back then” is what we find ourselves praying at times. This simple prayer is then amplified with an agrarian image. The image begins with the onset of the rainy season as the first winter rains fall. These rains convert the waterless wadis into rushing rivers that renew the parched land and make plowing and planting possible (see commentary on 65:9–10). Planting with tears could be because of the potential for failure that confronted the farmer. Too much rain after planting could wash the seed away. Too little rain could mean the death of the newly sprouted seed.

This language may best be interpreted literally. Soon after the return from captivity, the people of God faced numerous adverse circumstances in the land. Among those adversities were poor harvests because of drought due to the people’s misplaced priorities (see Hag 1:7–11). Psalm 126 fits this situation quite well. However, the agrarian imagery could have been figurative for some other set of circumstances, and we may certainly use this prayer regardless of the nature of the adversity we may be facing.

No matter what kind of setback we may have experienced, we can pray with confidence to the Lord to “restore our fortunes.” As in the days of Haggai, we may need to realign ourselves with God’s priorities as we pray. As we do, we pray with hope and confidence that the God who restored our fortunes in the past will do so again in the present. We pray with hope and confidence because the ultimate restoration of fortunes has already taken place in the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. He who was rich became poor for our sake and was restored to his exalted status that we might experience the restorative power of God now and forevermore (2 Cor 8:9). When we experience that restoration of fortunes, we return to Psalm 126:1–3 to celebrate with great joy the amazing things that God has done for us. It is “like a dream” come true! “What joy!”

126:4–6 The psalmist prayed for the restoration of the land to its fruitfulness; “watercourses in the Negev” could refer to irrigation that made agriculture possible in southern Judah. A foreign invasion would force all local residents into the fortified cities, and a siege might last for several years during which time the land could not be worked. This would also have been the case during the Babylonian exile when depopulation of Judah meant that much of its farmland lay fallow. Getting it back into productivity required great effort; the psalmist described the labor of sowing and reaping and the joy of a successful harvest. In the context of return from exile, by “sowing” the psalmist could mean the effort to convince people still in the East to return and join in God’s program to restore the community centered in Zion. “Reaping” would then refer to their response to this appeal. This figure of sowing and reaping was well known when Jesus used it in His parable of the sower, a picture of spreading the message of the kingdom (Mt 13:1–23). In many ways, Jesus was calling Israel back to the Lord from an “exile” of false religious hopes that centered on throwing off Roman domination.