Psalm 126:1-6 When the LORD turned again the captivity of Zion, we were like them that dream.… When the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion, we were like them that dream. I. SOME CHANGES SEEM MORE LIKE DREAMS THAN REALITIES. Seem too good or too bad to be true. 1. When they come suddenly. It takes time to adjust ourselves to them as facts and not fictions. And to realize the consequences they bring with them. 2. When they bring or promise more than we ever expected. We sing and laugh as those who have come into an immense fortune. If the change be spiritual, we rejoice like an emancipated slave, and can understand the experience of a Zacchaeus, a Magdalene, or the Philippian jailor. 3. When we are able to trace the change to God. The sense of the presence of God with us always fills us with wonder. "The Lord has done great things for us, whereof we are glad." When strangers see the Divine hand in our history, there is a strengthening of our faith in God. "The heathen said, The Lord hath done great things for them." II. BUT NO CHANGE, HOWEVER GREAT, EXEMPTS US FROM TOIL AND TEARS. (Ver. 4.) Begins another strain. 1. It is always incomplete. It does not put an end entirely to the past order of things, nor introduce a completely new order. A terrible war to be fought between the old and the new. The return from Babylon at this time was only partial. 2. Every change for the better or the worse exacts new endurances and trials. We have to go forth bearing precious seed and weeping - to sow the seed of a near future, and to pass through the hopes and fears of the anxious husbandman. 3. But all anxious and faithful labor now shall be rewarded with an abundant recompense when God and man shall gather the harvest of the world. (Ver. 6.) "Blessed are those who mourn: for they shall be comforted." - S. Parallel Verses KJV: {A Song of degrees.} When the LORD turned again the captivity of Zion, we were like them that dream.WEB: When Yahweh brought back those who returned to Zion, we were like those who dream. |
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