"Restoration Realized" Series

We’ve discovered joy in reflecting on the past; now we turn to anticipated joy, verses 4-6. One reason for rejoicing is that we know God isn’t going to change His way of working with us. God’s system isn’t going to change, and He isn’t going to stop loving us.

Verse 4 asks God to “restore” the nation’s “fortunes”. Some restoration has occurred, but a fuller measure is desired. An analogy is made: The singer asks that the nation be restored “like streams in the Negev.” The Negev is a desert land; its name means “dry”. The waterways, called wadis, are bone-dry most of the year, but in the rainy season this barren land is transformed. The wadis fill with rain and the desert blooms with vegetation and flowers. I remember seeing the west Texas desert one year carpeted with yellow flowers. I’ve seen vegetation in the vast desert of Saudi Arabia. I passed a patch of gorgeous flowers in the midst of barren sand and rock; I tried to ask a passing Bedoin what the flowers were called, but I couldn’t understand his friendly answer. We take all this for granted in New England. Just as rain restores the Negev, God will restore us. He will bring rain to our drought-stricken lives.

When the Jews returned to Israel from Babylon, they were allowed to renew the pattern of their former way of life, which included rebuilding the Temple in Jerusalem and constructing a defensive wall surrounding the city. It is likely that verses 4-6 may be anticipating the future Messianic restoration, how things will be set right when Jesus returns to “rule from sea to sea…to the ends of the earth” (Psalm 72:8).

We’re given comforting assurance in verse 5: “Those who sow in tears will reap with songs of joy.” To “sow in tears” is a reference to death. It was a common way of referring to burial; even Jesus uses the imagery when He describes death as a seed buried in the ground which will sprout into new life (Jn 12:24). The grave is not the final word. We can rejoice, even in the face of death, because we have hope for restoration, the promise of eternal life. Sorrow is our sowing, and rejoicing will be our reaping. “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted” (Matthew 5:4). The release from Babylon was like being raised from death to life.

Verse 6 assures us that, though we weep, we will rejoice. In Gethsemene, Jesus sowed tears for a world lost in sin. In another garden, He destroyed the power of sin by conquering death. Homecoming and harvest are God’s promises to His people. God weeps with us, so that we may someday rejoice with Him. Because of Jesus, death is not the end of life. “Because I live, you shall live also”, Jesus said. “I am the resurrection and the life; they who believe in Me shall never die.” God took the worst deed of history—the Cross—and turned it into the greatest victory. There will be an end to mourning. God will wipe the tears from our eyes. “We will come rejoicing, bringing in the sheaves.”

The image here is of harvest time. Sheaves were bundles of grain, usually wheat or barley, cut and gathered together. The joy in harvest was a highlight of the year, a time of great blessing.