Skip to main content
Sunday Psalms;

A pilgrimage song.

When the LORD changed Zion's circumstances for the better, 
it was like we had been dreaming.
Our mouths were suddenly filled with laughter; 
our tongues were filled with joyful shouts.
Psalms 126:1-2 CEB
A pilgrimage song, a song of journey.
Something shifted in the life of the nation and it felt like waking up from what must've been a bad dream.
And suddenly things were different. 
Maybe you know what that's like, or perhaps you know what it's like to wake up and nothing has changed. 
I wonder how often that had happened before the writer of this song penned these words?
In v4 the writer gives a clue:
LORD, 
change our circumstances for the better, 
like dry streams in the desert waste! 

His story feels like a dry stream in the desert.
No hope of any kind of restoration.

And yet he continues to hold hope (v5);

"Let those who plant with tears reap the harvest with joyful shouts."

There's hope found in our tears. 
The picture seems to be that it's our tears that will restore the stream in the desert, something will flourish from them, somewhere.
And one day all will be made new, when all things are restored, it may well be like waking from a dream. 
A pilgrimage through the desert with only our tears is not the end of the story...
#sunday
#psalms 
#psalm126
#pilgrimage 
#tears
#onedayallwillbemadenew 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Christ is the visible image of the invisible God. He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation,  for through him God created everything in the heavenly realms and on earth. He made the things we can see and the things we can't see - such as thrones, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities in the unseen world. Everything was created through him and for him. Colossians 1:15-16 NLT OK so this is an English translation of a letter Paul wrote to a church 2,000 years ago, but does it feel like Paul is wrestling with words and ideas to try and capture all of who Jesus is, of who God is, of how does it work that the walking around Jesus was also there before the beginning of the beginning of everything we can see and touch and know. Not only that but Jesus was somehow the agent of everything that has been made in the physical, social, and spiritual.  Jesus is at the centre of it all.  Walking around Jesus. Cooking fish for breakfast Jesus. Heart aching as he ...
Now rescue your beloved people. Answer and save us by your power. ... Who will bring me into the fortified city?  Who will bring me victory over Edom? Have you rejected us, O God?  Will you no longer march with our armies?Oh, please help us against our enemies,  for all human help is useless. With God's help we will do mighty things, for he will trample down our foes. Psalm 108 6, 10-13 NLT After the most beautiful and uplifting worshipful first half to this song, David takes us somewhere completely different in the second half.  It's all about victory, power, winning, it's all about him. The "mighty things" he wants God to do are all on the outside, all about power, and David's writing sounds like he's a bit lost in his quest to win. And I do the same thing. Praise God and ask him to fix my problems. Fix the classroom/online/workplace bully, fix my finances, fix my relationships, fix my problems. So as I sit with this psalm of 2 halves, its a bit of a mir...
Friday! Proverbs! The Lord hates six things;  in fact, seven are detestable to him:  (1) arrogant eyes,  (2) a lying tongue,  (3) hands that shed innocent blood, ... Proverbs 6:16-17 CSB This list of things that Proverbs describes that our God stands against, are anti-God, must be things that God isn't.  It's easy to use Proverbs as a weapon, to accuse or label others, but Proverbs is about finding the way of wisdom, of life, it's about the heart, mine, yours, ours.  And it's full of metaphor. Arrogant eyes. Eyes aren't arrogant, they're just that part of my body that receives visual information aren't they? Arrogant eyes. My tongue doesn't tell lies by itself, I do that. Hands that shed innocent blood - I haven't taken anyone's life... The word here for "hands" is "yad" and it is used literally and figuratively- it means an open hand (not closed) and is about direction and use of power. Proverbs invites us to sit with these p...