Sermon Tone Analysis
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INTRO
Recently Hannah and I joined with our next door neighbors, the Baileys to plant a large garden.
There is a bit of an unknown to planting, really your hoping for right amount of sun, rain, so many specific factors for a harvest.
Reading this Psalm brought me to read about prayer meetings in the 1930s in what become known as the dust bowl.
For 11 years there was a severe drought from Texas up to Nebraska.
There’s footage showing the devastation.
Cracked earth, dried out crops, and dying cattle.
It was horrible.
Churches would gather and plead for rain.
Drought is familiar for us even now as the western part of America is going through an increasingly difficult drought.
This Psalm was written in a day when there was a similar moment of drought.
This was a moment of spiritual drought and famine.
We’ve been going through the Psalms of Ascent, Psalms that ancient Jews would sing on their pilgrimage to Jerusalem.
Today we get to a Psalm that is a cry in the midst of hard moments.
But what makes this Psalm so very helpful is that while there is a petition this Psalm does so with confidence.
Confidence.
This is a song that looks back, makes a request, and then looks ahead.
While in the midst of dry and hard days, this Psalm calls us to be like those who look out over their desolate life and pray for rain, but to do so with confidence
Because God's covenant faithfulness has proved true in the past we must have confident expectation he will bring renewal again.
The ambition of this Psalm is to plead for God to pour out his faithfulness like water in a desert place.
This is a prayer for renewal, revival.
Let’s go to this Psalm and see first, Past Renewal
TRANSITION
I. Past Renewal
Psalm 126:1–2 (ESV)
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.”
This Psalm like many of the Psalms of Ascent can fit a myriad of situations.
This is a Psalm that speaks to God’s past covenant faithfulness.
We see God’s faithfulness over and over throughout Israel’s history.
Whether it be redeeming his people from Egypt, or returning them once again from Exile.
God has been in the business of renewal and restoration.
What was the result?
Joy.
Not just any kind of joy, a joy that results in a deep belly laugh.
My absolute favorite part of having a toddler right now is his joy.
He will be bowled over in laughter at the slightest thing.
When was the last time you laughed so hard you cried?
There is something to that kind of joy.
That is what God brought Israel.
His restoration was so great that they thought they must be dreaming, but no they were living the dream!
Their mouths were filled with shouts of joy.
This is akin to songs shouted at the top of your lungs at a game.
Something I love about soccer by the way is the rich chant singing of each club.
It is a euphoric joy, a communal joy.
Here’s the thing, this was such a powerful working of God that others took notice.
Verse 2:
English Standard Version (Psalm 126)
then they said among the nations,“The LORD has done great things for them .”
Has that ever happened for you?
Has God worked so powerfully in your life that others begin to take notice and interest?
Something is different about you?
“You have this joy and hope in life…I want that!”
That’s what happened here.
Joy is not a requirement of Christian discipleship, it is a consequence.
It is not what we have to acquire in order to experience life in Christ; it is what comes to us when we are walking in the way of faith and obedience.
_Eugene Peterson
Joy is a theme that we see coursing through the scriptures.
I’ve said it before that we should be the happiest, most celebratory people on the planet.
Joy is about being restored, that is, brought back to who you were designed to be.
We who were once far off from God, we have been brought near!
When it comes to looking back each of us could look back to see God’s kindness at work in our lives.
1 Corinthians 6:11 (ESV)
And such were some of you.
But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
There is much to say about looking to our past with full hearts and fondness for that resurrection joy.
I think of a video I saw of tribal peoples watching the Jesus film.
They wept as Jesus was crucified but then erupted in smiles and laughter when Jesus rises.
Resurrection joy is the best joy!
Do you feel that joy in your life?
Maybe that joy feels like a distant memory.
Maybe instead you feel more in common with the saints praying for rain.
Your life has felt dry.
The last couple years have worn on your soul.
You are weary.
It feels like there is always something to doom scroll, something that pulls your attention away from the hope and joy of the gospel.
With that this Psalm can relate.
That is where we see second, the request
TRANSITION
II.
The Request (v4)
Psalm 126:4 (ESV)
Restore our fortunes, O Lord,
like streams in the Negeb!
This is a heartfelt petition for God to work in power.
To bring renewal.
The Negeb was the arid desertlike land to the south of Israel.
When rain did come it would gush down the stream beds.
That’s what this prayer is asking for…
The Psalmist feels like the Negeb....dry, parched and cracked.
He wants God to send rain that will overflow and soak the land.
God’s renewal will be like a revival rushing through a barren land.
Maybe today you find yourself in a Spiritual drought.
You’re not experiencing the presence and joy of God.
What are the causes of this?
Well we see a few in scripture.
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