Our appointed Psalm for this Sunday is Psalm 126. I think it’s one of the most beautiful of the Psalms of Ascent; we might be 2500 years away from its context, but it has barbs that still catch the heart and won’t let go.
The most intuitive reading of the Psalm situates it after Israel’s restoration from exile. Yet it also shows that restoration is incomplete. The LORD has “overturned the captivity of Zion,” but there is still a plea for that captivity to be overturned still more. Israel was still suffering after the exile. Partially restored to a land turned fallow, where the city walls and the temple were crumbled heaps, sorrow still lay ahead of them.
There is a beautiful, but hard, picture of the Christian life there. I think most of us can look back and sing verse one with words from our own experience:
When the LORD
overturned my addiction
lifted my depression
healed a terrible disease
provided in abundance
restored my marriage
It was like living in a dream.
Then was my mouth filled with laughter
and my tongue with shouts of joy.
But we also live with verse 5 still on our lips. There is still brokenness ahead of us that only the LORD can restore. The Christian life still takes endurance, because God’s work is not yet finished. That sort of resilience doesn’t come from our own strength. It flows from faith; we have to join Israel in hanging our hopes on the One who always keeps His promises.
The Psalm ends with a comfort that is simple but profound. “Those who sow in tears shall reap with songs of joy.” In God’s covenant land, sorrow is the soil where good seeds flourish. In other words the pain behind you and the darkness before you will be fertilizers for your joy. You will have MORE joy, not less, because he will redeem them.
This is not because God likes suffering, or because he thinks it is good. It’s also not because “everything will work out in the end” and “it’s not that bad, really.” It’s true because God promised it for his people, and because Jesus bolted that promise to himself when he laid aside his glory and walked into darkness and death before us. He doesn’t like your suffering, so he suffered to redeem it for you.
God isn’t asking you to look for more suffering, or to cling to it or nurture it. He’s not asking you to hide it away either. He’s promising something much better. He will meet you in it with a plentiful harvest of joy. The LORD has done great things for us, and what is coming is greater still.
Justin+