series: guest speaker (Anchored in Hope, Rising in Faith) #
verse: Psalm 126 #
Context of the verse: Of the five books in Psalm, the fourth is about the worship response to extreme lament. And the fifth book is the triumphant praise book. Verse 1-3: References a remembrance of a time of joy. This entire psalm is about the return from Exile. Some people were taken to Babylon, some to Judah, many were left to die. This is the second Exodus. Moses led us from egypt, and the lord is leading us out of babylon into true freedom. But now this is a distant memory. It’s a sense of discouragement.
The Negeb region is one with extremely volatile weather. So when verse x says, “Like streams in the Negev…”, it’s referencing to streams of raging waters that form out of nowhere. It alludes to the chaos of day to day life. The writer is pleading for a restoration to the land and for the return of glory to God’s people. “Those who sow in tears, will reap with shouts of joy”. There is a temptation to take this passage and say, “We just need to be a ministry that sows, and sows, and sows faithfully”. And you’re imagining the parable of the sowing of seeds, and misconstrue a relationship between doing good and receiving good. We do not serve a transactional God. Our salvation will never be based in the work that we do, but only in the faithfulness of God.
So what does this verse actually mean? For more context, we are currently in the Eastern region of Negeb, which had an extremely arid climate. The harvest was dependent completely on the rain. This psalmist is saying that, “for centuries we have not seen a good harvest, but by the incredible grace of God, our delicate seeds can grow into tremendous plants that bear fruit to feed an entire population. Lord it’s a tough time, but we’ve seen your faithfulness winning out before, so we have hope”. Keep trusting in the Lord that you won’t always be in a season of sowing, but that one day you will have a season of harvest.
Deltars devotional about Psalm 126: “I was always perplexed by psalm 126 until I went to sahare, a vast 4.000 stretch of desert below the sahara. All of the moisture in this area comes within a 4 month window. The ground will crack and dust will flood the atmosphere. The years’ food has to all be grown in those four months. They stretch out their reserve for as long as they can. As the months go on, the meals get smaller. By spring, the family is eating morsels every night. But there’s this one sack, hanging on a wall, completely filled with grain. You might be wondering why the family isn’t being fed with it. It’s because it’s the only way to have a harvest. The last seeds of grain. When the rain finally comes, the bag is retrieved from the wall, and the seeds are scattered with tears in the eye. The season of hardship is real, but so is the joy to come.”
Life is filled with volatile seasons. And you may reminisice and dream about the great times. And there is destined to be dry spells of lamentation. But remain steadfast, because our God is faithful. Allow for your seeds to grow fore it will eventually become an abundant harvest.
I want to end with this: Spiritual Hope is a certainty in God. Worldly hope is more of a desire of human.
Main Idea #
How do you feel spiritually at this very moment?
- Personally I feel spiritually lukewarm. My QT has become a force of habit rather than actual conviction to geninely grow close to God