What struck me about the Pope's recent visit to Poland was how in a few short days a whole nation was transformed from the gloom and darkness of living under martial law to freedom, joy and unity. The Pope's visit brought to the surface emotions that have been suppressed for years. Many Poles must have wondered, "Is this the time of new beginnings?"
But then I wondered what would be the aftermath of that visit. Last week's Time magazine addressed that question in this quote:
The seeds that John Paul sowed in the hearts and minds of Poles as he traveled across his native land will take months to mature. But, just as when he first returned as Pope in 1979, it was clear that something undefinable but palpable had changed. Whether that was good news or bad was another question. The first trip produced the optimism and euphoria that led to the creation of Solidarity, but it would be difficult to dare hope this time that anything but more frustration, hardship and agony lay in store for the long-suffering Polish nation.
Yesterday's dream fades as the Polish nation once again faces the harsh reality of martial law.
Discouragement has a tendency to erode the joy of new beginnings doesn't it? Browning said in the last century: ''Tis time new hopes should animate the world/New light should dawn from the new revealings, To a race, weighted down so long, forgotten so long.''
Have you ever felt like that? When God begins a new work in the Christian life, in creation or redemption, that beginning is invariably filled with ecstasy, joy and delight. I here is the joy of birth, when God creates a new life; there is the joy of a wedding, when God takes two and makes them one; there is the joy of a conversion, when all the angels in heaven rejoice; there is the joy of reconciliation, when parties who have been at odds for years come together and put aside their rights. However, when we move from times of new beginnings to the next plateau of growth we find that the miraculous becomes mundane. The sudden, dramatic changes that once occurred give way to long, arduous toil. The expressions, "The honeymoon is over,'' "Back to the salt mines,'' "Just wait until adolescence," all reflect this truth. As we step into the natural processes of growth, discouragement can easily erode our joy.
That is the context of Psalm 126. This pilgrims' psalm was written after the Babylonian exile, as the pilgrims recalled the joy they experienced immediately upon their return after seventy years of captivity. But after they were back in the land the "honeymoon" was over. The reality of scratching out an existence on a desolate land, in a broken-down forsaken city with no temple, began to set in. Discouragement reigned supreme. Thus in this psalm the pilgrims petitioned the Lord to restore the joy they had when they were first delivered.
When the Lord returned the captive ones of Zion,
We were like those who dream.
Then our mouths were filled with laughter,
Our tongues with shouts of joy;
Then they were saying among the nations,
"The Lord has done great things with these."
The Lord had done great things with us;
We were rejoicing.
O Lord, restore our captivity, [our fortunes]
Like the streams of the Negev.
He who sows in tears shall reap with joyful shouting.
He who goes back to and fro weeping, carrying his bag of seed,
Shall surely come with a shout of joy, carrying his sheaves.
The first half of the psalm recalls the pilgrims' joy, while the second half is a petition to the Lord to renew what they formerly had.
"When the Lord returned the captives of Zion we were like dreaming ones,'' the psalmist writes. That is somewhat confusing in the English translation. Some versions read, ''When the Lord restored our captivity''; while others have, "When the Lord restored our fortunes." The original is really a play on Hebrew words. Both the verb and the noun come from the same root "shub," which means, to turn. It is literally saying, ''When the Lord turned our turnings. " The word for captivity means "a turning." In other words, when Israel was taken from Canaan and placed in Babylon, her fortunes were turned 180 degrees. So when it says "the Lord turned their turnings," it means he turned them rightside up again; he restored them to their original state, is the idea. The pilgrim says when that happened they were like dreamers.
The exact historical account of this is given in the last verses of Chronicles:
Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia-- in order to fulfill the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah-- the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, so that he sent a proclamation throughout his kingdom, and also put it in writing, saying, "Thus says Cyrus king of Persia, "The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and He has appointed me to build Him a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whoever there is among you of all His people, may the Lord his God be with him, and let him go up!"
Imagine the captives' joy on being told, following seventy years of captivity, "Go home. You're free." Recall the joy we all felt when the hostages came home from Iran. The psalmist says that when they received that edict, "We were like those who dream." Their freedom broke upon them so suddenly it seemed to them like a beautiful dream. They were delirious with joy, dazed by the excitement of it. In the Old Testament, dreams are associated with a state of ecstasy. That was one mode of revelation which put one in the presence of God. Seventy years a slave, then one day they are free. What joy! Isn't that so like the Lord? Whenever he begins a new work and lays new foundations, he does it suddenly, without warning. To borrow an expression from C. S. Lewis, "You are surprised by joy."
Israel's first redemption happened that way. They were slaves for 400 years in Egypt, but in one day Pharaoh and all of Egypt crumbled and Israel was set free. Until the Messiah came the world had gone through 400 years of silence as far as revelation was concerned. Then suddenly the announcement was made to the shepherds in Bethlehem, " Behold. good news, today in the city of David is born a Savior. Christ the Lord!''
A number of years ago my wife and I had a Mother's Day luncheon with Eff and Patty Martin. It was a rather sad occasion. Emily's mother and Patty's mother had died in the past year, so they were mourning that. For years the Martins had been trying to have children but they had been unable to do so. That too cast a gloom over our time together. Within a number of days, however, the Martins had adopted a baby. And before the next Mother's Day they had another adopted baby. In one year they went from a family with no children to a family with two! In one day they were filled with joy and excitement. That was how it was for Israel when they came back from Babylon.
The pilgrim goes on to detail the results this had upon them and upon the nations around them. Verse 2:
Then our mouths were filled with laughter
And our tongues with shouts of joy.
He says, "We were so excited, we were filled with such ecstasy we could not hold it in. Our mouths had to release all the emotion in shouts of joy and unending praise. We could not say enough about the Lord." Imagine watching your team pulling out a win in the last seconds of a game, just whenyou had been feeling depressed over vet another loss. With just a few seconds left on the clock your team's fortunes turn and the stadium rings with shouts of joy. Such is the joy the Israelites felt as their fortunes were turned in a day. They were delirious; they could not say enough about it.
Then what also made this a joyful occasion was that God had acted in such a way that even those who had no faith, even their enemies, had to acknowledge that this was the work of God. Look at what the pilgrim says in the second half of verse 2:
Then they said among the nations,
"The Lord has done great things with these."
Isn't that an occasion for joy, when pagans give glory to God? Not only did God act, but he did so in a grand manner As Bob Roe says. "When you go w ith God you go first class.'' God does not do things shabbily. When Cyrus issued the decree for the Jews to leave Babylon, he also decreed that they could loot the entire city and take with them all the riches and gold that Nebuchadnezzar had stolen from the original temple. (cf: Ezra 1) So the Jews left Babylon as extremely wealthy exiles. Isaiah's prophecy concerning them had come true. In Isaiah 45, the prophet had predicted the impact the returning Jews w ould have on the nations around them:
"I have aroused him Cyrus in righteousness,
And I will make all his ways smooth;
He will build My city, and will let My exiles go free,
Without any payment or- reward," says the Lord of hosts.
Thus says the Lord,
The products of Egypt and the merchandise of cash
And the Sabeans, men of stature,
Will come over to you and will be yours;
They will walk behind you, they will come over in chains
And will bow down to you;
They will make supplication to you;
Surely, God is with you, and there is none else,
No other God.' "
Truly, Thou art a God who hides Himself,
O God of Israel, Savior!
They will be put to shame and even humiliated, all of them,
The manufacturers of idols will go away together in humiliation.
Israel has been saved by the Lord
With an everlasting salvation;
You will not be put to shame or humiliated
To all eternity.
God so acted that even the enemies of Israel were compelled to give glory to his name.
Emily and I have tasted this to a degree in our own lives. Most of you know the story about our plight with our children. Our first two children were born with an enzyme deficiency and died shortly after birth. On December 4th, a Saturday, we lost our daughter. On December 5th there was a meeting here at church, and a woman prayed that we would have a baby by Christmas. A girl whose roommate was due to deliver a baby the next day was present. Two weeks later that baby was given to us for adoption. God had restored our fortunes in a day, and he had done it in such a grand manner that no one not even pagans. could deny his work.
Verse 3:
The Lord indeed has done great things with us;
We were rejoicing.
It is one thing for non-Christians to give witness to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, but when that witness is true, it is even more exciting. The psalmist says, ''We were rejoicing." The Hebrew word for joy does not describe a superficial emotion, but a joy that takes over your whole being. In the Scriptures it is spoken of as filling your heart, " possessing your soul", even, "lifting up the countenance of your expression." The word is used of your eyes being lifted up. Nehemiah 8: 10 says this joy even strengthens you: "The joy of the Lord is our strength." Thus the Jews are reliving the joy they had. God had acted so suddenly, changing their fortunes overnight and bringing such ecstasy to their being that it was even acknowledged by unbelievers.
Well, that was back then. What about now? Now that they arein the land the light of their joy has been dimmed by tour factors. First. they discovered that not all of Israel but only a remnant had returned. Secondly, the condition of the land was not good. It was desolate. The city was in disrepair and rubble. There was no place to worship as the temple had been ransacked. Thirdly, the Assyrians had transplanted a whole new population into the land, a people who could not care less about the temple. In fact they opposed Israel in all the rebuilding process. Thus Israel had to face new enemies. Ezra said, "The people of the land discouraged the people of Judah, and frightened them from building." Fourthly, when the Jews finally laid the new temple foundation, the older generation (those who had seen the original temple) were discouraged because the new beginnings did not compare with the former glory. At the dedication of the temple, all the young men, the children and the women were rejoicing, but all the old men were weeping.
Isn't that like our own spiritual pilgrimage? Our spiritual new beginnings are often exciting, miraculous, dramatic and widely spoken about. There is joy over the forgiveness of sins, a new relationship, a new peace. God reverses our fortunes in a day and changes our destiny. But then reality sets in. As we start to grow we discover we are not totally free. We find we still have this thing in our bodies called sin. Every time we choose righteousness it opposes us. A whole new realm of enemies we had never heard about- angelic powers in the heavenlies- rises up to tempt and oppose us. We were on their side before and life was easy, but now that we have switched camps the pressure is on. Our lives look like the land of Israel looked to the Jews after the exile- in a state of disrepair and desolation, without a lot of promise. Thus discouragement sets in. I have seen a number of marriages come back together again following a period of heartache and disappointment. There were miraculous, supernatural beginnings following a change of attitude, an admission of sin, a cleansing. But when these couples begin to live together again and they were confronted with the same old habits and weaknesses they get discouraged.
What do you do when you are faced with that kind of discouragement? There are two wrong responses that are quite common in the body of Christ, the first of which is to quit. That is what the Israelites chose to do in Ezra's day. Because they were discouraged, because of the desolation of the land, their enemies harassing them on every side, because their meager beginnings were not as glorious as the former ones, they quit. They quit working on the temple, took all their time and money and invested it in their own private world. They refused to become vulnerable again because they were hurt and disappointed. Instead they tried to build a world of protection around themselves. Isn't that what we do? Sometimes we act disappointed when our expectations are unrealized. we thought restoration was at hand but it was not fully at hand so we quit and built our own secure, private world. We discounted our past joyful experiences, saying they never existed. But we must not do that.
The second wrong response is to say, "The joy I had was real. I remember the ecstasy, I cannot deny it," and then focus all your efforts in trying to recreate that feeling of ecstasy yourself An example of this is people constantly recommitting their lives to Christ. What that is saying is that they are trying to recover and maintain the joy of their new beginnings. Some Christians try and create the experience that will lead to a second or third blessing, that if they somehow get the environment right that will create the old ecstasy, so they direct their efforts to keep the high going.
I am prone to that. Some of my greatest joys in the Lord were when I was a young Christian. I was single, carefree, with no responsibilities, traveling in Europe and following Jesus Christ at his every beck and call. In Greece one evening I hadjust shared Jesus Christ with some Stanford students in a restaurant. When I went outside later there was a full moon over the Aegean Sea. I was flooded with the presence of Jesus Christ. I was in such a state of ecstasy that I thought, "There is nothing better than this. " I have never experienced that same feeling since, although I have sometimes been tempted to try to recreate it. But that was eleven years ago. Now I am married, and have three children. I am a pastor of this church, and I cannot again be single and carefree and wander about Europe.
What is the proper response? Let us look at what the pilgrim does. First, he recalls his former joy; he does not discount it. Then he admits that he cannot in his own strength recreate that joy. The psalm goes on to talk about tears and weeping. There is no way he can recreate that joy so he is not even going to try. But what he does say is that what happened in the beginning gave him hope for the future because God never starts a redemptive work without completing it. If God gives joy in the beginning that means we are destined for future joy. But that joy will be deeper and richer, and it will come about through a different process.
That is what the pilgrim recognizes in his prayer (verses 4 through 6):
O Lord, restore our captivity,
Like the streams of the Negev
He who sows in tears with joyful shouting will reap.
He who goes to and fro weeping, carrying his bag of seed,
He shall surely come with shouts of joy, carrying his sheaves.
When he prays, 'restore our captivity," he means, "When you restored us from captivity the work began, but it was not completed.'' thus he is praying now for God to complete the work he had begun. He uses two metaphors to describe what the restoration will be like. First, it will be like "the streams of the Negev," and second, like the harvest a farmer reaps. "Negev" means dry. The Negev was the dry, arid desert to the south of Judea. There the dry riverbanks, called wadis, are suddenly transformed into raging torrents when the rains come. These wadis are able to transform a dry desert into a garden of flowers overnight. In his book ''Symbolism of the Biblical World," Otto Keel describes these dry beds:
The rain itself often falls in the mountains or far out in the desert. The waters gather in the dry beds, then suddenly, perhaps even under a fair sky, the flood appears in a place remote from the area of precipitation and carries off with it both men and beast. On April 8, 1963 a sweeping torrent (3 meters deep) tilled the canyon (1.5 km long) which leads to Petra, killing 22 pilgrims on their way to the Habatean capital
By recalling the streams of the Negev, the pilgrim says that our restoration will come, and when God completes it it will be sudden, dramatic and divinely powerful. All your parched areas will be "rivers of living water."
But now the pilgrim couples this figure with that of farming and by doing so he is saying, "Our future joy, though, will not be restored without our being involved in the process.'' In farming, "all your joys are hard won and long awaited.'' (Derek Kidner) No sweat and no toil means no harvest. So the pilrim says,
He who sows in tears with joyful shouting shall reap.
He who goes back to and fro weeping, carrying his bag of seed,
He shall surely come with shouts of joy, carrying his sheaves.
There are three things we can learn from this second figure. First. before the ultimate joy of harvest you must endure the pain and sorrow of sowing- which is accompanied by tears and weeping. Those who have gardens know the truth of this. Sowing is associated with death because life does not come without death. As Paul says in I Corinthians, "that which you sow does not come to life unless it dies.'' (I Cor. 15: 36) Picture the exiles just back from Babylon. The land was desolate, and they did not have much to eat. A father enters his home and sees a bag of seed sitting on the table. He can do two things with that seed, he can feed his hungry children, or he can deprive them of that day's food and go out to the field and plant the seed. Sowing always involves death; and death means postponing your present- day gratification so that you may reap a future crop. Sowing too involves backbreaking effort. The parched land did not look very promising. It was a risky business taking that bag of seed and throwing it into the ground, yet that is what the father did with it.
In the book "Little House on the Prairie," there is a chapter called "Independence Day." A hot and thirsty boy comes to his father during a Fourth of July fair to ask for a nickel for lemonade. His dad takes out a half- a-dollar and says,
"Almanzo, do you know what this is?" "Half a dollar," Almanzo answered. "Yes. But do you know what half a dollar is?" Almanzo didn't know it was anything but half a dollar. "It's work, son," Father said. "That's what money is; it's hard work." "You know how to raise potatoes, Almanzo?" "Yes," Almanzo said. "Say you have a seed potato in the spring, what do you do with it?" "You cut it up," Almanzo said. "Go on, son." "Then you harrow-- first you manure the field, and plow it. Then you harrow, and mark the ground. And plant the potatoes, and plow them, and hoe them. You plow and hoe them twice." "That's right, son. And then?" "Then you dig them and put them down cellar." "Yes. Then you pick them over all winter; you throw out all the little ones and the rotten ones. Come spring, you load them up and haul them here to Malone, and you sell them. And if you get a good price, son how much do you get to show for all that work? How much do you get for half a bushel of potatoes?" "Half a dollar," Almanzo said. "Yes," said Father. "That's what's in this half-dollar, Almanzo. The work that raised half a bushel of potatoes is in it." Almanzo looked at the round piece of money that Father held up. It looked small, compared with all that work. "You can have it, Almanzo," Father said. Almanzo could hardly believe his ears. Father gave him the heavy half- dollar. "It's yours," said Father. ''You could buy a sucking pig with it, if you want to. You could raise it, and it would raise a litter of pigs, worth tour, five dollars apiece. Or you can trade that half-dollar for lemonade, and drink it up. You do as you want, it's your money."
That is the sorrow of sowing: you are postponing your gratification for a future harvest. We live in a culture that knows nothing of that. We know nothing of sacrifice. We do not postpone any desires. But if you want to have everything now you are diminishing your capacity for joy in the future.
The second thing about this figure of farming is that it not only begins with death, but if you sow, a harvest is certain to come. Sowing and reaping are inseparable. You cannot sow and not reap. The Hebrew construction is emphatic. By repeating the verb twice the pilgrim is saving, ''Coming he shall come." In other words he will come. There is no question about it. The sower will enter carrying his sheaves with him. Knowing this, the pilgrim's sowing is methodical; it is thorough and consistent because he knows a harvest is certain. The apostle Paul picks up this exact figure in Galatians 6. The Galatians were getting discouraged about sowing for a spiritual harvest. They stopped using their money to invest in the Word of God and in good deeds and started investing it in their own lives. Paul says.
And let the one who is taught the word share all good things with him who teaches. Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh shall from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit shall from the Spirit reap eternal life. And let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we shall reap if we do not grow weary So then, while we have opportunity, let us do good to all men, and especially to those who are of the household of the faith.
We are to be committed to sowing for a spiritual harvest by sowing the Word and by doing good deeds, thereby investing in a future, eternal harvest. Do not give up.
Thirdly, when you are blessed, when the harvest comes, you will be blessed beyond expectation. The pilgrim compares this little bag of seed with the grand harvest of the wheatfield. Amos 9 describes it a little better:
"Behold, days are coming," declares the Lord,
"When the plowman will overtake the reaper
And the treader of the grapes him who sows seed;
When the mountains will drip sweet wine,
And all the hills will be dissolved.
The harvest will be so great you will not be able to get the fruit off the trees before it is time to plow again; the plowman will literally overtake the reaper. The hills will drip with wine, the harvest will be so full, the grapes will be so big that the vineyards will burst with wine. Amos continues:
"Also I will restore the captivity of My people Israel;
And they will rebuild the ruined cities and live in them,
They will also plant vineyards and drink their wine.
And make gardens and eat their fruit.
I will also plant them on their land,
And they will not again be rooted out from their land,
Which I have given them,"
Says the Lord your God.
Historically, the blessing of this people was beyond expectation. The prophets encouraged them to keep working and they built the temple. Then 400 years later God shook the heavens and the earth and brought all the wealth of the nations to beautify the temple. Herod, a pagan king, used much of his treasury to this end. Then the temple was further adorned when the Messiah, Jesus Christ, came to it.
The labors of these Israelites were blessed beyond expectation. The principle here is the greater the toil, the greater the death and the longer the wait, the greater will be your capacity to enjoy the harvest itself. The reason God wants you involved in the process is that when harvest comes you will enjoy it, and the longer you have waited the greater will be the joy. Emily and I have experienced the truth of this. We were denied our first two children, but because of the wait and the pain, when we finally had children God increased our capacity for joy.
Are you discouraged? Has the flame of the joy of your new beginnings been blown out by hardship, frustration and toil? Have you quit risking your bag of seed and used it to build your own private world of protection? Have unpromising conditions caused you to quit sowing? Then remember that the God who first redeemed us, who filled our hearts with joy, is still present with us. He is able to turn all our parched areas into rivers of living water. Just because we do not see the miraculous anymore does not mean God has changed his intentions. Now he wants us involved in the process so that all our toil and our waiting will increase our capacity to enjoy the harvest. The God who first surprised us with joy has destined us for joy, and the latter joy will be greater than the former. What you will see on that day will fill your heart, possess your soul, and strengthen your being. Your lips will not be able to contain your ecstasy, but will pour forth streams of unending praise.
Prayer
Our Heavenly Father, thank you that what you began in our lives will one day be completed. Our former joy was no mistake, it was not a false hope; and what you are doing in our lives now is even greater. How we thank you that you have not abandoned us, that you are available to us. Make us a people who are committed to sow for a furture return. In Jesus' name, Amen.
Catalog No. 3904
Psalm 126
Fifth message
Brian Morgan
July3, 1983
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