Psalm 126: Dreaming and Laughing

"A Song of Ascents.
1 When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion,*
we were like those who dream.
2 Then our mouth was filled with laughter,
and our tongue with shouts of joy;
then it was said among the nations,
‘The Lord has done great things for them.’
3 The Lord has done great things for us,
and we rejoiced.
4 Restore our fortunes, O Lord,
like the watercourses in the Negeb.
5 May those who sow in tears
reap with shouts of joy.
6 Those who go out weeping,
bearing the seed for sowing,
shall come home with shouts of joy,
carrying their sheaves."

Introduction

I always chuckle when I read this Psalm. The reason has little to do with the ideas or concepts in the Psalm but with a story from my past. As you probably know, the Gospel hymn "Bringing in the Sheaves" is based on this Psalm. The first verse, for those of you not blessed to have a "Gospel Hymn" upbringing, runs like this:

"Sowing in the morning, sowing seeds of kindness,
Sowing in the noontide and the dewy eve;
Waiting for the harvest, and the time of reaping,
We shall come rejoicing, bringing in the sheaves."

Then comes the chorus:

"Bringing in the sheaves, bringing in the sheaves,
We shall come rejoicing, bringing in the sheaves,
Bringing in the sheaves, bringing in the sheaves,
We shall come rejoicing, bringing in the sheaves"

It is sort of a hokey tune and words, but hokeyness never stopped the Protestant Church from singing something. Well, my youngest brother, who is eight years younger than I, used to go to various "sing-a-longs" with me when he was a kid, and we would sing the old Gospel tunes with gusto. This was one of his favorites. I could never figure it out until I heard him belting out the chorus one day. He sang, "Bringing in the cheese, bringing in the cheese." He loved cheese, especially cottage cheese, and thought that the hymn was celebrating the "cheese harvest." The memory of that time is so vivid that it almost removes my ability to derive theological meaning from this Psalm, but I will try.... Let me number my introductory points.

1. This is the seventh of a series of Psalms of Ascent, Psalms which were probably recited by pilgrims "going up" to Jerusalem. In fact, if you trace the "psychological journey" taken from Ps. 120 through Ps. 133, you first have a person beginning in distress (Ps. 120:1) who feels that he is an alien, dwelling so far from the city of God (120:5). But then, in Ps. 121, he decides to make the journey to Jerusalem. He lifts his eyes to the hills and is reminded of the God who will keep him from all evil (121:7). Then, in Ps. 122-125 he is in the temple of Jerusalem, gazing with gladness and joy at the one enthroned in the heavens (123:1).

He uses his location in Jerusalem then to focus on the theological meaning of Jerusalem. Those who trust in God are as firm and abiding as the temple mount, Mount Zion (125:1). Then comes our Psalm. The Psalmist has, as it were, already done the "tour" of the Holy City. He has heeded the words of an earlier Psalm: "Walk about Zion, go all around it, count its towers, consider well its ramparts; go through its citadels, that you may tell the next generation that this is God..." (Ps. 48:12-14). Now that he is firmly set in Jerusalem he thinks about that which Jerusalem signifies: deliverance of the people of God. Restoring fortunes and the desire to have fortunes restored is then the theme of this Psalm.

2. I am more and more seeing the Psalter as a sort of antiphonal collection of poetry. An antiphon is where you have one person say a line and then have others answer with a suitable response. We see that obviously in some Psalms. Ps. 136, for example, details the blessings of God, interspersed with the refrain: "For God's steadfast love endures forever." Psalms 42-43 have a sort of refrain after every few verses:

"Why are you cast down, O my soul,/ and why are you disquieted within me?/ Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,/ my help and my God, (Ps. 42:5-6, 11; 43:5).

Examples may be multiplied. But in Ps. 126 I see another type of antiphonal reading. It is as if this Psalm is engaging in a conversation with other Psalms in the Psalter. Listen to the final words of Ps. 14 and Ps. 53, for example.

"O that deliverance for Israel would come from Zion!/ When the Lord restores the fortunes of his people,/ Jacob will rejoice; Israel will be glad" (14:7; 53:6).

What is the author of Ps. 126 saying? Well, deliverance has happened. The fortunes have been restored. Ps. 126 is an "answer" to the sad and plaintive cries of these Psalms. We can say more. Our Psalm is also in conversation with Ps. 85. There the tone is one of deliverance already accomplished, but it is needed again:

"Lord, you were favorable to your land;/ you restored the fortunes of Jabov./ You forgave the iniquity of your people;/ you pardoned all ther sin./ You withdrew all your wrath;/ you turned from your hot anger./ Restore us again, O God of our salvation...." (85:1-4).

3. Once you begin to see Ps. 126 in conversation with other Psalms, you can take a leap and try to see the entire Psalter of the people of God as one big conversation with itself. Space only permits one or two other examples. I see Ps. 139, for example, that great Psalm that says that "even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is as bright as the day,/ the darkness is as light to you" (139:11-12) as a response to that most hopeless of the Psalms, Psalm 88, where the last word in the Psalm is "my companions are in darkness" or, in another translation, "darkness is my only friend" (88:18). Or, one more example. Ps. 78, that Psalm recounting the deliverance of Israel in its early days, gives a checkered history of the people. It isn't whitewashed. After God made streams come out of the rock and caused waters to flow down like rivers (78:16), the people still complained. They said, "Can God spread a table in the wilderness" (78:19)? Actually, the answer to that question, a question that may have reverberated hundreds of years in time before it found its appropriate answer, is in Ps. 23. Yes, God can spread a table and not just in the wilderness. God can give us a table in the midst of our enemies (23:5).

I am at the end of this essay, and I still need to exposit the Psalm. Let's turn to the next essay for that.

[Next]

2519