Year C. Fifth Sunday in Lent April 1st , 2001
Lord of the Lake Lutheran Church
Web page http://lordofthelake.org
By The Rev. Jerry Morrissey, Esq., Pastor
E-mail pastor@southshore.com
Title: “God will do it again.”
Psalm 126
This psalm is classified as a National Lament. It is similar in structure to Psalm 85 and in mood to Jeremiah 31.
It was written after the Exile. In the heading it is called “A song of Ascents,” that is, a song to be sung while going up to Jerusalem or entering the Temple. While most scholars think this is an error, that it is a Lament not a “processional hymn,” even though it appears within the collection of Psalms 120-134, all of which have this title. Yet, given our present state of knowledge, there is nothing in the psalm that would prevent it from being used as an appropriate song while advancing toward Jerusalem to celebrate the Autumnal Festival or Feast of Tabernacles. The metaphors associated with rain and sowing and reaping as well as reference to Yahweh’s mighty works reinforce this interpretation.
The Exile was the second most important historical event of Jewish history, the first being the Exodus. It was remembered and reflected upon constantly. It became a major paradigm for interpreting all sorts of situations – especially seemingly hopeless ones. In the psalm the author looks back upon the return from exile with gratitude, but also hope, hope that God will do it again in the present situation. The return was not all the people had hoped it would be. Jerusalem was not restored to her former glory, nor was the Temple as magnificent as before. It was a great deliverance, yes, but there was much more to be done.
The structure of the psalm reflects this kind of situation.
In verses one through three, “remembers God’s miraculous deliverance from exile,” verse four prays for the repetition of that miracle or its completion; and verses five and six, is a proverb promising that the miracle will be repeated or completed, given the modus operandi of God.
Although the Psalm principally reflects the return from the Babylonian Exile in 537BC, still this return became typical of each pilgrimage to the holy city as well. It could also be used as a private prayer for any “return” to God’s good graces.
In verse one, “When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion,” “To restore the fortunes of” was an expression for realizing salvation. It was used in the cult in this sense, but also in ordinary life to indicate a return to a good state of affairs after a bad turn. “Zion” was the hill on which Jerusalem was built and where the Temple was. The term was used to indicate Israel as a people whose spiritual home was Jerusalem. The return home from exile was seen as God saving his people in the concrete historical realm.
“We like those in a dream,” This expresses the people’s utter amazement at what God has “pulled out of the hat.” Who would have ever thought that the huge, powerful Babylonian Empire would be defeated, without a “shot” being fired, and, then, the new king actually freeing the Israelites and letting them go home and rebuild their city and Temple. It seemed like they were dreaming.
In verse two, “Then was our mouth filled with laughter,” this is a picturesque way of saying they were overjoyed.
“Then they said among the nations,” Even the other nations, who were Israel’s enemies and quick to ridicule them for belief in a God who had let them be taken into exile in the first place, had to stand up and notice the “great things” their God had done for them.
In verse five, “Restore our fortunes, O Lord, like the watercourses of Negev.” This is a prayer for God to do again what he once did at the time of the exile. In its original context it may mean for Yahweh to complete the process of return – to bring back all the exiles, to let the city and Temple return to their former glory, to motivate all the people to a zealous conversion of life. Over time this prayer would be appropriate for any situation which needs correcting, restoration or renewal.
Like the dry stream beds of the Negev: “Negev” is a region in Judah, S. of Hebron. It is also used as an equivalent of “the south,” a semi-arid country. This became a proverbial expression for a sudden change. The dried up wadis could turn into raging torrents in a very short space of time as a result of the winter rains. There was at one time refreshing, life-giving waters when Yahweh changed Zion’s fate and restored her fortunes. Now, once again, the valleys of the brooks have dried up. The prayer is for Yahweh to renew the exhausted springs and change the state of affairs in the present as he did in the past.
In verses six and seven, sowing is equated with sadness and death. In fact, it sort of looks like a burial of the seed. Reaping is seen as a cause for rejoicing, even though it is, in fact, hard work, harder than sowing, like a resurrection. Some cultures for instance, the Canaanites would ritually weep over the buried seed in the hopes that their tears would “water” the seed and produce a fertile crop. These verses, almost certainly proverbial, are quoted here as “comforting promises,” words of consolation to make clear the truth that sowing with tears is followed by a joyous harvest.
The historical miracle of return from exile is equated with the natural “miracle” of sowing and reaping. It is the same God who does both and there is an underlying similarity, not obvious on the surface of things until prayer reveals it. The Jewish people, in their inspired thinkers and writers, never stopped reflecting on the implications and applications of the two great events of their history: the Exodus and the Exile. This psalm enshrines the Exile as a paradigm for all situations that need restoring. We constantly move from being oriented to life in a positive and stable way to being disoriented by events beyond our control, only to be reoriented once again. The times of the day, AM to PM, proceed in order. So do the seasons of the year, at least more or less. But the times and seasons of an individual’s or community’s life are much more random. Orientation, disorientation and reorientation ebb and flow at their whim and will. As an individual identifies what phase he or she is in at present, various psalms will become more or less appropriate, as they all fit into one or another category. Each psalm in its own way sings of orientation, disorientation and or reorientation.
This psalm recognizes those various life-seasons. First, it remembers the past. In the past God did thus and so. God is faithful. What he did once he can and hopefully will do again. His past “mighty works” gives one hope that he is in a “repeating mood” in the present case - whatever that might be. The prayer goes something like this: “Lord, remember when you did…could you do that again? Would you, please? I’m broken and I’d like to be fixed, like it was before.”
To bolster his or her argument the one who prays recalls not only historical events like the return from Exile, but natural ones like sowing and reaping to remind him or herself, but also to remind God, that there is ample precedent for what he or she is asking for. It is asking God to strut his stuff, like the mummer does every New Year’s Day.
These events - historical and natural - now become metaphors which reveal the way things work. First there is union and friendship with God orientation. Then there is a falling out -–tears and sorrow disorientation. God turns them into seeds and plants them. How long it takes for them to grow into sheaves of wheat or whatever, depends on a combination of God’s will and humans’ willingness or willfulness, somewhat unpredictable and fickle, like the weather. Finally, there is harvest reorientation. All the pain and suffering was worth it. Look what came out of it all. There ensues a deeper appreciation of being oriented to God and a better state of affairs, which would not have happened without the loss.
The metaphors of sowing and reaping become examples for the cross and resurrection of Jesus in John 12: 24 and 16:20. Experience teaches that the loss is temporary, but the gain is permanent. The psalm reflects and expresses sentiments of one who knows life as a pilgrimage, made up of many situations good and bad. The pilgrim approaches each situation as yet another step toward the goal. Even the bad situations are still steps, another hurdle straddled. Thus, even they produce the harvest of hope, long before the harvest of realization. For the Jew it was the Return, for the Christian it is the Resurrection that is seen happening in even the seemingly smallest events of every step along the way. In remembering, “the way it was,” one is also viewing or pre-viewing, if you will the way it will be. Amen.
