Journeys of Faith The Songs of Ascent Psalm 126 JOY 1 1 It seemed like a dream, too good to be true, when GOD returned Zion s exiles. 2 We laughed, we sang, we couldn t believe our good fortune. We were the talk of the nations GOD was wonderful to them! 3 GOD was wonderful to us; we are one happy people. 4 And now, GOD, do it again bring rains to our drought-stricken lives 5 So those who planted their crops in despair will shout hurrahs at the harvest, 6 So those who went off with heavy hearts will come home laughing, with armloads of blessing. 1. Joy builds on the past. Hope has a history. 1-3: Looking back. Period of history recorded in Ezra and Nehemiah. (Deportation in 586 BC under Nebuchadnezzar). After 70 years of exile in Babylon, God brought his people back to the land of promise. A dream. Too good to be true. We laughed. We sang. We couldn t believe our fortune. We were the talk of the nations. God was wonderful to us! Oral tradition. Telling the stories of old. Remembering what God has done in the past. The people of God always got in trouble when they forgot what God had done. The bigger story Sometimes we act and think as though we live in a vacuum in this brief moment. We become all-consumed with our story, with our present reality. Our lives in the here-and-now. Our church, our ministry, our issues. We act as though we had no history. We act as though God had never acted on our behalf in the past. We act as though God were surprised by our present dilemma.
But we are part of a much bigger story. We are part of history his story God s story. 2 God has a plan and a purpose for our lives that goes beyond our current situation the things that occupy us and obsess us. He has already acted in the past. He is the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. He is the God of Enoch and Noah and Joseph and Moses and Rahab and Gideon and Barak and Samson and Jephthah and David and Samuel and the prophets.and others too numerous to mention. This is the roll call read out in Hebrews 11 which talks about all the heroes of faith that have gone before us. These were all commended for their faith. Do you see what this means all these pioneers who blazed the way, all these veterans cheering us on? It means we d better get on with it. Strip down, start running and never quit! (Hebrews 12:1 MSG) Everything that was written in the past was written to teach us. The Scriptures give us patience and encouragement so that we can have hope. (Romans 15:4 NCV) It is no coincidence that all this is recorded for us. That we get to see in considerable detail the ups and downs, trials and triumphs of those that have gone before us! These veterans of faith. These encouraging words of scripture. God has a track record. We are part of his greater story his plan of redemption. Joy builds on the past. Hope has a history. Recent history But we don t need to look back over biblical history to see God s hand at work. In the last century, in the last decades, this country and the world has seen amazing works of GOD.
3 A century ago, in Azusa Street in Los Angeles, there began an outpouring of God s spirit that saw the birthing of Pentecostal experience across the world. We have seen the birth of the charismatic movement, the gifts of the spirit being restored in greater measure to the church, healings and miracles, the great evangelists of the last decades such as Billy Graham, filling football stadiums, and seeing countless thousands come to Christ. I remember sitting in the Kop at Anfield, listening to Billy Graham preach and watching as thousands responded. We have seen times of renewal and refreshing. We have seen some amazing things. I remember going to conferences where we would have waiting meetings. People would wait for the Holy Spirit to come. They would seek his fullness his baptism. And just beyond my own lifetime, when you talk to an older generation, you hear stories about God moving in power. Prayer meetings filled and infused with God s presence, revival meetings, salvations and healings a sense of God moving in powerful ways. If you talk to the older folks in this church, they will tell you of the challenge of moving to this building the faith involved, the sacrificial giving, the weeks of work to get the place ready. We are part of a bigger story. There are those who were young and who are now old and they, in the words of Psalm 37, have never seen the righteous forsaken. But what is this!? Have I been overcome by spiritual nostalgia!? Are we stuck in the past? No. But hope has a history. Joy builds on the past. We say with the prophet Habakkuk: GOD, I ve heard what our ancestors say about you, and I m stopped in my tracks, down on my knees. (Habakkuk 3:2 MSG)
I have heard all about you, LORD, and I am filled with awe by the amazing things you have done. (NLT) 4 There have been times in our own lives when it has been as if we were dreaming almost too good to be true. Times of laughter and singing. God being wonderful. It is important that we forget not all his benefits. God has brought us a long way. Do you see what this means all these pioneers who blazed the way, all these veterans cheering us on? It means we d better get on with it. (Hebrews 12) 2. Joy believes in the present 3: and we are filled with joy The central point of this psalm. The words before it look to the past, the words after it look to the future. But now we are filled with joy. It is so easy to get stuck in the past. I have met people who will tell you always of the glory days the bygone days with a misty look in their eyes and a nostalgic tremble in their voices. It is easy to live one-day lives to always be looking to the future and what God is going to do. To dream of a future ministry, a future husband or wife, a future job. When we are less busy, when we have a bit more time, when we feel a bit more like it then. watch out here we come. The joy described here builds on the past, it borrows from the future, but it believes (in God) in the present. 3: The Lord has done great things for us, and we are filled with joy. This is the day that the LORD has made. Let us rejoice and be glad today! (Psalm 118:24 NCV)
When my job gets better When I sort this problem out When I ve got more money When I ve met my dream husband, wife, friend 5 Then I will rejoice and be glad. No this is the day that the LORD has made. Let us rejoice and be glad today! This psalm doesn t represent some pie-in-the-sky, spiritualistic nirvana an escape from reality. A spiritual happy pill. Joy and laughter run throughout the psalm but they are in the presence of tears and weeping and desert times. The bible never promises us trouble-free lives, in fact true joy is found most often in company with hardship and trials and troubled times. Christian joy is actual in the midst of pain, suffering, loneliness and misfortune. Joy believes in the present as it builds on the past and borrows from the future. The kingdom of God is both NOW and NOT YET. We see signs of God at work, we experience him in various times and places, but his kingdom, his rule, is NOT YET fully revealed. We don t yet see things clearly. We re squinting in a fog, peering through a mist. But it won t be long before the weather clears and the sun shines bright! We ll see it all then, see it all as clearly as God sees us, knowing him directly just as he knows us! Corinthians 13:12 MSG) Always be joyful. Keep on praying. No matter what happens, always be thankful, for this is God s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus. (1 Thess. 5:16-18 NLT) 3. Joy borrows from the future
4-6: 6 And now, GOD, do it again bring rains to our drought-stricken lives (Psalm 126:4 MSG) Restore our fortunes, O LORD, like streams in the Negev. (NIV) This echoes again the cry of Habakkuk. LORD, do great things once again in our time; make those things happen again in our own days. (Habakkuk 3:2 NCV) LORD renew. Restore our fortunes. If the joy-producing acts of God are characteristic of our past as God s people, they will also be characteristic of our future as his people. There is no reason to think that God will change his way of working with us! The Negev, the South of Israel, is a vast desert. There are wadis, dried-up river beds, a network of ditches cut into the soil by wind and rain erosion. For most of the year they are baked dry under the sun, but a sudden rain can make the desert blossom overnight. Our lives are like that sometimes. They seem drought-stricken. Dry. Desert-like. Our ministries are like that sometimes. Arid and apparently fruitless. Our church is like that sometimes. Monotonous and tiring. And now, GOD, do it again bring rains to our drought-stricken lives (Psalm 126:4 MSG) And God s promise to us is the same as spoken through the prophet Isaiah: The LORD will come quickly like a fast-flowing river,
driven by the breath of the LORD. (Isaiah 59:19 NCV) 7 Sometimes God just surprises us with his grace. Sometimes he will do so much more than we have ever asked or imagined. He will flood us with his grace. His mercy will flow into our situation and, as if overnight, it will seem as if the whole desert is ablaze with the flower of his favour. For the times that we have been sowing in tears, going out weeping, struggling along working hard and not seeing very much fruit for our labour. For the times when work and ministry is a thankless slog for the tears we have wept over a relative, a friend, a loved one - Joy borrows from the future. Those who sow in tears will reap with songs of joy. He who goes out weeping, carrying seeds to sow, will return with songs of joy, carrying sheaves with him. (Psalm 126:5-6 NIV) We look back at what God has done. The moments of pure joy and laughter and singing. We live in the fullness of now rejoicing in today and the signs of God s kingdom. But we say and we sing: There must be more than this. God break in to our barren lives. Come to our godless nation. We have heard so much about your goodness and greatness. Please, God, do it again. Pour out your Spirit again. Touch our lives again.