Psalm 126:2 Then was our mouth filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing: then said they among the heathen… Polybius, in describing the joy of the Greeks when unexpectedly rescued from the Macedonians, says, "Most of the men could scarcely believe the news, but imagined themselves in a dream as they listened to what was said, so extraordinary and miraculous it seemed to them." I. JOY AND GLADNESS MAY BE FITTING RESPONSE TO CIRCUMSTANCES. There is a natural and proper response to every set of conditions in which we are placed. We need never restrain those responses. Religion tones them, but does not arrest or crush them. Joy and gladness were befitting to the restored captives. Laughter is the expression of joy; and "Is any merry, let him sing psalms." Some phases of Christian life are too decorous, too restrained, too cold. True religion only flourishes in a warm atmosphere of feeling. And we should find abundant cause for joy and song, if we did but read our lives aright, and recognize the loving-kindness of the Lord. "The redeemed shall come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads." II. JOY AND GLADNESS MAY BE EXAGGERATED, AND BECOME A PERIL. There was a degree of extravagance in the joy of these returned exiles. They were over-excited. In their excitement they imagined a future which could never be realized; and were tempted to play with their new-found liberty as with a toy, instead of being solemnized by its obligations, and urged thereby to high and noble endeavor. 1. Times of overjoy make the prosaic work of everyday life very trying and hard. The beginnings of religious life are often a skipping and dancing and singing of the soul, and it is almost overwhelming to discover that it must pass into a persistent, humdrum walking the pilgrim-path of righteousness. We cannot be always in ecstasy and song, either here or in heaven. Israel found the actual life in restored Palestine soon changed excited song for the quiet strain of daily service. 2. Times of over-excitement are followed by times of undue depression. Israel bravely sang on the shores of the Red Sea, and murmured, ere three days were passed, at what redemption involved. Overstrain of religious feeling in times of revivals and missions, is oftentimes a most serious peril to young souls, because it suggests a false idea of Christian life. And, to some dispositions, it is no less than absolute ruin. - R.T. Parallel Verses KJV: Then was our mouth filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing: then said they among the heathen, The LORD hath done great things for them. |
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