Filling Dry Riverbeds

In the past few weeks we have not had a problem with being dry. Due to the leftovers of Hurricane Ida swept across our area and brought devastating rain and flooding. Last Thursday morning we woke up to 20’’ of water in our basement! The streams and creeks in our area are once again running swiftly and water levels are back up- all good things, right?

But do you remember just over 6 weeks ago or so? We were praying for rain. Everything was brown and plants were not growing. Many farmers and those of us with gardens were not expecting crop production. We needed rain, and we prayed for rain and God was faithful.

Psalm 126 is a Psalm, that like us a few weeks ago, is caught between drought and plenty. As many of you know, we have been focusing on the theme of prayer throughout 2021, and today we are going to look at how Psalm 126 teaches us to pray between drought and plenty.

Let’s face it, our lives are often lives in this very place. We wax and wane, push and pull, and fluctuate from having plenty of joy, purpose, and faith in our lives and feeling depressed, anxious, and faithless. So, much of our walk with Christ is defined with how we handle the in-between seasons of life.

So, what can we learn from this Psalm? Well, let’s break this chapter in 3 parts and take it piece by piece today.

V1-3 Recalling God’s Faithfulness.

The first 3 verses of this Psalm are written in past tense. The writer is looking backwards in time to a time when God had shown his blessing to the people. Historically, it makes sense that the Psalmist is most likely recalling the return of Israel from exile in 539BC. We do not know that for sure, but it makes sense in this context.

No matter what the event was the author remembers it vividly and encourages those joining with him to remember when “the Lord did great things for them”

There are many times when the fuel of our faith is memories of God’s faithfulness. When we want to have faith to see how God will carry us forward, we often need to look backwards and see how he has gotten us this far!

This is the power of declaration. When we speak declarations over our lives we are unleashing a great power. Steve Backland’s teaching on declaration begins with this statement “Declarations direct our lives toward what we speak.”

Have you ever been out in a big group of people and a loud noise goes off in the distance, and everyone immediately turns their attention to the noise? That is the power in declaring God’s faithfulness in the midst of trouble- we redirect our attention from our circumstance to God’s ability.

Many times the power we need is not to change the circumstance, but to change our perception. This is what the Psalmist is doing for the people- he is calling them to chance their perception. How? By declaring truths- not opinions or ideas- he is recalling specific and concrete instances in time when God showed up and rescued them!

We too are well served to do the same- recall specific times in our lives when we saw God show up for us.

v4- The Present Request.

And its in verse 4 we get the prayer of the Psalmist- that God would restore their fortunes like streams in the Negeb.

Now, it is important to understand 2 things in this verse to properly understand the prayer- the what and the how.

First, the what. We read the request to be restore the fortunes of Israel. Most people probably automatically think the psalmist is asking for riches or gold, material wealth to be returned, but that falls short in translation. The original Hebrew word is shb (sh-bee) which was a word used for anything that was captured in battle.

Anything captured in battle- have you lost something in the battle against Satan and sin? Have you you lost your joy? Your faith? Have you lost a relationship? Have you lost your way? Then this prayer is for you today- restore my fortunes God- the things that the enemy has taken from me!

The second important part is the how- like streams in the Negeb. The Negeb is a desert in the southern part of Israel. This area is known for its beauty, but it is a dry desert with little to no vegetation. In fact, the word “Negev” means parched.

But in this dry and parched land there are moments in time when rains come in and water the mountains, and when they do water rushes into the dry riverbeds and create flowing rivers once again. That which was once dry and lifeless now flows with water and life! What an image!

Notice the faith here- the psalmist is not asking for a drop, not asking for a sprinkle, not asking for a trickle- but a river to come back through the riverbed. Bring it back with power and might, God!

You see, when we look back it gives us power to pray with great expectancy; and we should pray with expectancy! James 1 tells us “But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.”

v5-6 Move Forward in Hope

When we look back and then pray with great expectancy it gives us courage to look forward in faith