MOUTHS FILLED WITH LAUGHTER

MOUTHS FILLED WITH LAUGHTER Psalm 126 With grateful acknowledgement of these sources of direction and inspiration: the Holy Spirit; the Word of God; Leslie Allen, Psalms, Word Biblical Commentary; Mike Breen and Walt Kallestad, A Passionate Life; N. Glueck, Rivers in the Desert; Eugene Peterson, A Long Obedience in the Same Direction; Scott Walker, “What Creates Happiness?”; Warren Wiersbe, Meet Yourself in the Psalms June 5, 2005 Given by: Pastor Rich Bersett [Index of Past Messages] Introduction In her book entitled Happiness, Helen Keller wrote, “no matter how dull or mean, or how wise a man is, he feels that happiness is his indisputable right.” Despite her calamitous handicaps, Helen Keller claimed her right to happiness. She determined she would not remain a defeated and tormented woman conquered by her physical challenges, but rose above them to become a popular writer, speaker and internationally beloved figure. She knew as most of us come to understand that there is a universal striving among men and women to experience happiness. Most people would echo the most popular answer to the question of what they want out of life: “I just want to be happy.” Personally, I believe there is in every person a deep longing for the fully satisfying existence we were intended for in the Garden of Eden, and which awaits the faithful in heaven. But in this world, happiness is elusive. Even when we stumble into it, and we get a momentary taste of it, it soon evaporates and is gone. John Stuart Mill wrote, “Ask yourself if you are happy, and you will cease to be so.” Children who are told that the pot of gold is at the end of the rainbow soon realize that the rainbow isn’t a tangible reality, but a combination of certain atmospheric conditions that result in color, beauty and God’s visible promise. Likewise, happiness is the result of certain spiritual conditions coalescing in our lives. One never attains happiness and joy by seeking it, just as finding the end of the rainbow and its promised reward never works. The scripture amply reminds us that joy is not our goal, but it is the byproduct of living for the Lord. Because we know that this world is filled with disappointments and sorrow, we understand that our earthly lives are not yet the ideal environment for permanent joy. We must wait until heaven for that. In the meantime, though, the Bible teaches that joy is one of the authentic life experiences of those who have such hope. Joy is characteristic of the Christian’s life. Paul said, The fruit of the Spirit is love, JOY . . . [webmasters note Galatians 5:22] You know it’s important when it ranks second in a list like that! And that joy is the God-kind of joy--the kind of joy that goes beyond momentary titillation at buying a winning lottery ticket or finding a good deal at T. J. Maxx. Why is that joy better? Because it comes exclusively from God, from being in relationship with Him. British theologian C.S. Lewis described happiness 50 years ago in terms that make even more sense today in our commuter-driven society: A car is made to run on petrol [gasoline], and it would not run properly on anything else. Now God designed the human machine to run on himself. He himself is the fuel our spirits were designed to burn, or the food our spirits were designed to feed on. There is no other. That is why it is just no good asking God to make us happy in our own way without bothering about religion. God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing. Joy is not a requirement of Christian discipleship; it is a consequence. It is not a permanent and uninterrupted experience; it comes and goes (it actually remains, but our capacity to experience it fluctuates). We experience joy as a gift of God. Paul could encourage the Philippian believers to rejoice in the Lord (Philippians 4:4) and Nehemiah’s cogent comment is instructive: the joy of the Lord is your strength (Nehemiah 8:10). The world will find joy in chance eruptions of fortuitous events, but believers rejoice in their relationship with the Giver of joy. Furthermore, while worldly happiness comes in brief, staccato seasons, and only lasts a while, the joy of the Lord goes on until eternity and only gets better. We Christians can’t really “plan” joy, except that we may anticipate the fullness of joy in heaven. But here in this life, if you try to create joy or make it come to you, you miss it every time. Joy arrives in the mail like an unexpected check while we are busy serving Christ. It is always in surprise fashion that God fills our mouths with laughter. With that understanding, let’s read, study and apply Psalm 126 When the Lord brought back the captives to Zion, we were like dreamers who dreamed. Our mouths were filled with laughter, our tongues with songs of joy. Then it was said among the nations, “The Lord has done great things for them.” The Lord has done great things for us, and we are filled with joy. Restore our fortunes, O Lord like streams in the Negev. Those who sow in tears will reap with songs of joy. He who goes out weeping, carrying seed to sow, will return with songs of joy, carrying sheaves with him. There probably are a dozen ways this psalm could be organized for study, but I chose a very simple one, as I noticed three time categories in it: Past, Present and Future. First off, there is joy for the believer in past deliverance. Past Deliverance You might have already noticed that the middle line of this psalm at the end of verse 3 says, we are filled with joy. Verses 4-5 follow with future statements including a prayer for the restoration of fortunes, and statements of promise that those who will faithfully hang in there will eventually find their reward. The first two verses, though, deal with the past. What is happening is the psalmist is rejoicing over what God has already done for His people. What was this event referred to in verse one? It says, when the Lord brought back the captives to Zion… It sounds like the return of the captives after the seventy years of Babylonian captivity. The books of Ezra and Nehemiah record the story of this joyful homecoming to Jerusalem. ‘Trouble is, this psalm was written probably 300+ years before that captivity took place. So, either this remembrance of deliverance was about another event of returning from captivity (like the deliverance from Egypt under Moses, or maybe more specifically crossing the Jordan into the promised land under Joshua), OR David was writing prophetically of the events yet to happen. I tend to believe this is the case. Many think it must be another historic deliverance because, frankly, they can’t believe in predictive prophecy. These are the same crowd who have naturalistic interpretations of the Red Sea experience and who have trouble believing the Bible’s record of miracles, including the bodily resurrection of Jesus. That’s a study for another time. But look at the emotion of that time: we were like dreamers who dreamed. The joy of their long-awaited return was so great they could hardly believe it was happening. Seventy years of sojourn under the heel of the Babylonian kings and suddenly Cyrus inexplicably gives the Jews their freedom to return to Jerusalem! They were thrilled! You saw the faces of the Iraqi citizens the day Baghdad came under the control of UN forces and the statue of Saddam Hussein was brought down. Decades of ruthless oppression by that psychotic tyrant were coming to an end. Pure, unbridled joy—that’s what you feel when you finally see the answer to the prayers you’ve prayed for years. Verse 2 describes it: Our mouths were filled with laughter, our tongues with songs of joy. The deliverance that God brings to each of us at our own conversion means so much to us that trying to explain it is impossible. I can remember witnessing one young man, one of the original “surfer dudes” in 1970, as he was baptized into Christ at the Kaimuki Christian Church in Honolulu. Getting ready for his baptism after the service was no problem—he had come to worship in cutoffs and sandals. After he confessed his faith in Christ, he was lowered under water. When he came up with a broad smile on his suntanned face, he leapt straight up in the air, raised a jubilant fist and irreverently shouted, “Yaahoooo!” His mouth was filled with laughter, his tongue with shouts of joy. Brothers and sisters, it is a good thing to bring to remembrance the deliverance of the Lord. By God’s grace, through the free gift of Jesus’ redeeming love, you who once were a stranger to the promises of God became a child of God. You who were dead in your trespasses and sins were made alive again! Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God. Once you had not received mercy—now you have received mercy! Christians, once you were in darkness, without hope and without God in the world, but now you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a people belonging to God! Sure your mouths are filled with laughter and songs of joy! Every time you remember what God has done for you you rekindle your joy. Every time you sing songs of worship to your Redeemer you reclaim your salvation. Every time you share the Lord’s Supper you refresh your joy through the one who saved you by His awesome grace. But please notice, it is not only for our own salvation that we rejoice. We also rejoice at the salvation of others. David believed that the sending out of the report of God’s deliverance of people would glorify Him and draw others to Himself. The end of verse 2 reads: Then it was said among the nations, “The Lord has done great things for them.” We rejoice not only at our own salvation, but at the prospect of the salvation of millions of others. We rejoice that the gospel is being broadcast around the world. Some of you have been praying for the salvation of dear friends or family members for years. You even filled out a harvest prayer card and placed it in our harvest basket and invited others to stand with you in faithful intercession. Twenty-four of you in the past 2.5 years have seen your prayers answered as the one you’ve prayed for came to faith in Christ. How does that make you feel? I prayed for thirty years that my mother would give her life to Christ. About four years ago we baptized her in my sister’s pool. I guess Joni expressed it best when she said, “Yes!” But all of us experienced a joy beyond words as we celebrated her new birth at age 77. It was a surreal moment—we were like dreamers who dreamed. A year and a half ago she died and her faith in Christ took on a whole new meaning as we shared in a memorial service in this room. We Christians have great joy over past deliverance. But there is reason to rejoice concerning our present situation as well. Present Experience Look again at verse three: The Lord has done great things for us, and we are filled with joy. There is a very real joy available to the believer right now. And the first way we begin to experience that joy is to remember the blessings of God in our lives and be grateful. Gratitude toward God stirs joy in our hearts. If we will be a thankful people we will be a joyful people. William Law wrote, If anyone would tell you the shortest, surest way to happiness and all perfection, he must tell you to make it a rule to yourself to thank and praise God for everything that happens to you. For it is certain that whatever seeming calamity happens to you, if you thank and praise God for it, you turn it into a blessing. And Vance Havner said it well: Our biggest problem in the church today is this vast majority of Sunday morning Christians who claim to have known the Master's cure and who return not [at other times] to thank Him by presence, prayer, testimony and support of His church. In fact, the whole Christian life is one big "Thank You," the living expression of our gratitude to God for His goodness. But we take Him for granted and what we take for granted we never take seriously. On June 6, 1981, Doug Whitt and his bride, Sylvia, were escorted to their hotel's fancy bridal suite in the wee hours of the morning. In the suite they saw a sofa, chairs, and table, but where was the bed? Then they discovered the sofa was a hide-a-bed, with a lumpy mattress and sagging springs. They spent a fitful night and woke up in the morning with sore backs. The new husband went to the hotel desk to give the management a tongue-lashing. "Did you open the door in the room?" asked the clerk. Doug went back to the room. He opened the door they had thought was a closet. There, complete with fruit baskets and chocolates, was a beautiful bedroom! Opening all the doors in a honeymoon suite is like obeying all the words of Jesus. Discipleship is the door to happiness. If you would live in the joy of the Lord, you need to open the door of gratitude. Make it a habit of thanking Him day in and day out, moment by moment. The other door we need to prop open is the door of trust. We need to learn to trust Him in our daily walk because, frankly, not every experience in life prompts joy in us. We find it difficult sometimes to reconcile the joy we experience with the other kinds of emotions we experience. It’s a little hard to hold onto joy while watching a loved one die, or going through physical pain or loneliness or grief. We are tempted to think to ourselves, “Well I couldn’t maintain my joy through that trial, so I guess I’m not a good Christian.” The Bible validates that the full range of emotions is ours in this life—the good and the bad. What do we do when we lose sight of the obvious reasons to rejoice? Trust Him. You know, it’s really pretty easy to trust God when things are going pretty well. Looking back over our shoulder to see the Egyptian soldiers drowning in the Sea while we are standing on dry ground is a lot easier than stepping into the Sea. I’d go so far as to say that fair weather trust isn’t really trust at all. Trust happens when I choose to believe and rely on God during difficult times. What exactly do we need to believe and trust during the difficult days of joylessness? Trust that God will remain true to His promises. There are three promises that come to mind if you are His: 1) you will be with Him for eternity. 2) you do not endure any trial alone. 3) He is working out everything for your good. 1. If you are His you will be with Him for eternity. There is coming a day when you will leave all this earth’s mess behind. Beginning on that day, and continuing unendingly, you will have no more tears, sorrow, pain or death. That’s God’s promise. If you believe Him and trust He will keep that promise, what kind of difference will that make in your life right now? Think about it, knowing that you have paradise forever, how bad can it be if your favorite contestant doesn’t become the American idol, or they’ve torn up your street and you have to drive around the block to get home, or your taxes went up 15%? Paul said, I reckon the sufferings of this present time are not even worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed… [webmasters note Romans 8:18] 2. If you are His you are not enduring any trial alone. In everything you face, the Lord is there to strengthen and encourage you. I will never leave you; I will never forsake you. I [webmasters note Hebrews 13:5] often quote Warren Wiersbe on this topic. He said, “When God allows His children to go through the fire, His eye is on the clock and His hand in on the thermostat.” Never too long,; never too much. 3. If you are His, He is working out everything you experience for your own good. That’s the promise of Romans 8:28. It doesn’t matter how bad the circumstances you face seem to you, if you are His child, you can be sure of this: He knows what He’s doing, and the present painful experience will actually work out for your good. From tragic disappointment to terminal disease to chronic pain. One author wrote, “Lived fully, the experience of illness can free you from the curse of perfectionism that makes happiness conditional on having everything just right.” Sometimes it takes a painful experience to make us change our ways. (Proverbs 20:30) Several years ago over in Indiana, there was a Norfolk and Southern train going down the tracks at 24 MPH. The conductor’s name was Robert Moore; the engineer was Rod Linley. They looked ahead on the tracks, and they saw something. They thought it was a dog, and as they got closer, Robert Moore screamed, “It's a baby." 19-month-old Emily Marshall had wandered out of the backyard while her mother was planting flowers and had walked right out onto that track. Those two experienced railroad men knew there was no way they could stoop that train. Linley hit the brake, but they knew it wasn't going to stop in time. Robert Moore knew he didn't have time to jump and run ahead of the train to reach the little girl. So he jumped out the side door of the engine, went down the steps and around the front of the engine holding on for his life to the grill of the train. As that train got to the girl, with precision timing, he took his foot and kicked the little girl. Kicked her hard. Right out of the path of the train. And it hurt! Once the train slowed a little more, Moore jumped off and ran to pick her up. She was crying, her face was cut, her lip was bleeding, but she was OKAY! I'm sure what happened hurt. But because of that kick she now has a chance to live and grow. God knows what He's doing. He's always about what's good for you, even when it seems bad. Knowing that God is in charge of everything that happens to us, it doesn’t really matter what we face, we can do what James says, Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of you faith develops perseverance. [webmasters note James 1:2-3] Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, no lacking anything. As God’s children, we are privileged to rejoice over our past deliverance, and we can even rejoice in our present experiences. Lastly, verses 4-5 teach us that joy is ours also as we anticipate our future reward. Future Reward There’s a bit of a hidden reason for rejoicing in verse four. There the psalmist records a prayer—a desperate prayer—for help in a time of drought. Restore our fortunes, O Lord, like streams in the Negev. The Negev was a hostile terrain. It is the stretch of desert south of Israel. There are wadies cut into the soil by wind and rain erosion. Most of the year they are baked dry by the hot sun. But a sudden rain decorates the desert with many blossoms. Sometimes our spiritual lives just seem to dry up under the baking of negative experiences and even our own sin. But, the child of God can pray at any time this prayer for God to heal. The word he uses for streams is really the word for a gushing river or even a geyser. James 5:13 challenges us: Is any of you in trouble? He should pray. It should bring us joy just to know that prayer is available to us at any time. And God answers prayer. We are privileged to be able to pray and fully expect God to bring us relief from our suffering. Prayer is our pathway from trouble to restored joy. You will never be sorry you turned to prayer—never. As we labor for the Lord in this life, we are laying up for ourselves treasure in the next life for eternity. David pictures the experience of the final reward as like a farmer who works hard sowing his crop, even with tears. That farmer does not actually enjoy all the work, blood, sweat and tears he suffers for his crop, but he knows the reward of the harvest will be worth it all. Those who sow in tears will reap with songs of joy. He who goes out weeping, carrying seed to sow, will return with songs of joy, carrying sheaves with him. You know, all that we do for the Lord in our lives on earth will result in His approval. If we will be faithful in serving Him, sharing His gospel with others as we have opportunity and growing in our faith, no matter how hard it may be, we can be assured of a life of joy. But then, the great reward—our “blessed hope” will be given to us on that day. Won’t heaven be awesome? Won’t it be a wonderful experience to live the perfect existence, free from sorrow, pain and death? I was sent this story from another pastor. He wrote: One morning at breakfast, I decided to teach my nearly four-year-old Caleb his first Bible verse--(John 3:16). I slowly enunciated the words: "For God so loved the world he gave his one and only Son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life." The second time I said the verse even slower, encouraging Caleb to fill in certain words. When I got to "... shall not perish but have everlasting [blank]," Caleb proudly answered, "fun!" I couldn't have said it better myself. That’s the time when, more than ever, we say, we were like dreamers who dreamed. Our mouths were filled with laughter, our tongues with songs of joy. In the meantime, remember that you will never get happiness by striving for it. Strive to know and please God and the joy of the Lord will be your strength.   [Back to Top]