Psalm 126
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.
Bolded words have notes on translation below.
Psalm 126 follows a common pattern in the psalms and throughout the scriptures. It begins with a remembrance of the ways God has acted on behalf of the people in the past and then moves to an appeal for God’s action in the troubles of the present. As J. Clinton McCann Jr. states, “We live in the hope of God’s help always remembering what God has done in the past…and always anticipating what God will do in the future.”(NIB III:1196) The imagery of sowing and reaping have led to the Psalm’s usage on Thanksgiving Day in worship (Year B in the Revised Common Lectionary) and it inspired Knowles Shaw’s song “Bringing in the Sheaves.”
The psalm is structured around two uses of a Hebrew idiom translated “restored our fortunes” in the NRSVue. The phrase is difficult to render in English and has led to a wide variety of translations, but in the prophets it relates to the change in condition brought about by God turning away from God’s wrath and again regarding the people with favor. (Mays, 1994, p. 399) The use of the phrase often refers to the return of the exiles to the homeland of Israel (Deuteronomy 30:3; Jeremiah 30: 3, 18; 32:44; Ezekiel 39:25) and here it may also refer to a homecoming of the exiles from Babylon. (NIB III: 1195) The specific context that the psalm originally spoke to is not required for the reader to understand the relief and joy of those who have experienced the great things God has done for the people of the psalmist. The dreamy state of the remembered joy and laughter of the people emerges from the ways God has provided for and protected the people in the past. From the memory of what God has done in the past comes the hope of God’s action in the present.
The experience of the present is one described metaphorically by the dry watercourses of the Negeb. During the rainy season these creek beds are filled with water but now in the metaphor of the psalm they are dry. Psalm 42 used the imagery of thirsting for water as a metaphor for thirsting for God’s presence:
As a deer longs for flowing streams, so my soul longs for you, O God. Psalm 42:1
The prophet Joel will also use a similar image:
In that day the mountains shall drip sweet wine, the hills shall flow with milk, and all the stream beds of Judah shall flow with water; a fountain shall come forth from the house of the LORD and water the Wadi Shittim. Joel 3:18
It is possible as Walter Beyerin argues that the author of Psalm 126 utilized Joel as a source of imagery as the psalmist, in his reconstruction, attempts to deal with the disappointment that prevailed in Judah after the return from Babylon (NIB III: 1196) but the beauty of the psalms is their ability to fit circumstances frequently encountered in life. Most people can relate to the imagery of drought in the personal, relational, economic, and spiritual struggles of life. The desire for the tears of today to turn to shouts of joy and a desire for the pain of the present to have some harvest of meaning in the future. To live in anticipation that the God who brings an end to the dryness of the watercourses of the Negeb will also turn tears into joy as people come in carrying the sheaves planted in these moments of hardship.
Sign of the Rose 