Psalm 125
A
song of ascents.
1 Those who trust in the Lord
are like Mount Zion,
which cannot be shaken
but endures forever.
2 As the mountains surround Jerusalem,
so the Lord surrounds his people
both now and forevermore.
3 The scepter of the wicked will not remain
over the land allotted
to the righteous,
for then the righteous
might use
their hands to do evil.
4 Do good, O Lord, to
those who are good,
to those who are upright
in heart.
5 But those who turn to crooked ways
the Lord
will banish with the evildoers.
Psalm
126
A song of ascents.
1 When the Lord
brought back the captives to Zion,
we were like men who
dreamed.
2 Our mouths were filled with laughter,
our tongues with songs
of joy.
Then it was said among
the nations,
“The Lord has done great things for them.”
3 The Lord has done
great things for us,
and we are filled with joy.
4 Restore our fortunes, O Lord,
like streams in the
Negev.
5 Those who sow in tears
will reap with songs of
joy.
6 He who goes out weeping,
carrying seed to sow,
will return with songs
of joy,
carrying sheaves with him. [1]
Our current series on Sunday
mornings have touched on a lot topics about worship. At the heart of worship is a deep
understanding of who God is. This
understanding of God will lead us to become like “Mt Zion.” We will be unmovable, unshakable, but not without
tears.
There are different ways that we
grow in our understanding of God and our trust in Him. As we read the Bible we get a better picture
of what God is like. While we can never
understand God completely or compartmentalize what we know about God into
certain theological categories, we can know what God is like. This comes through serious and heart-felt
study of His word. But we don’t learn
solely by reading the Bible or having daily quiet-times. We learn also by experience.
Last Fall semester Andrew began
asking lots of questions about God and the Bible. He was beginning a journey with Him. He still wasn’t sure if he was saved or not. He was growing in his understanding on what
it meant to be a Christian, on what it meant to be “saved.” I talked with about certain passages of
Scripture that talked about what genuine faith and repentance is. I also encouraged him to confess any sin to
God that might be making things foggy.
But I shared something that I think helped at just the right time. I shared a story of when I was hiking in the
mountains.
Growing up I had heard of the place
called “World’s Edge” but I had never visited for myself. In high school I heard people talk about it
as the party place. It was located at the
edge of a farmer’s property in the apple farming community I grew up in. You have understand, being from a somewhat
secluded spot in the mountains we didn’t have the traditional hang out spots
and we didn’t do the traditional hang-out things. A lot of party stories involved shooting road
signs, knocking over road signs, stealing road signs, switching road signs,
running over road signs, tipping over cows with road signs (just kidding). So, as you can imagine, “World’s Edge”, was
quite redneckish. I was very shy and was
definitely not into the party scene so I had only heard about this place even
though I didn’t live too far from it.
After I graduated from college I
decided I was going to visit the place.
I wanted some solitude to spend with God. I found it on a map then drove up Mt. Gilliland, out to the orchard, and parked.
As I started walking, clouds began rolling in on the mountainside. I heard that the view was amazing and I wasn’t
sure that I was going to be able to see anything. As I walked the old trail the clouds
surrounded me. By the time I reached the
edge of the cliff I couldn’t see anything but grey. It started raining so I had a choice to make. Was I going back to the car or was I going to
wait it out? I had already come this
far so I decided I was going to wait it out no matter what. I found shelter underneath a rhododendron
which gave me a little relief from the downpour, but I still got soaked. After about 10 minutes the rain stopped and I
could start to see the clouds beginning to break apart. I walked out to the rock outcrop, and, slowly
the clouds began disappearing in front of me.
But the clouds stayed thick below the cliff. Eventually, what I saw was an almost
perfectly flat blanket of white clouds as far as I could see. The occasional mountaintop would poke through
the blanket as clouds would swirl over the tops. The sun was shining and I couldn’t believe my
eyes. It was one of the most
breathtaking views I’d ever seen in the mountains. It felt like I was standing on top of the
clouds.
I’d never seen this place before but
I had heard about it. People who had been
there personally had described it to me, but it was still hard to picture in my
mind what it looked like exactly. I had
to go experience it for myself. I’m glad
I didn’t give up. I had to rely on other
people’s experiences until I experienced it myself. It was worth standing in the rain to see.
This is like our experience with
God. I’ll tell you what I told
Andrew. You have some sort of
understanding that God is a good God but maybe you feel like you’ve only read
about it up to this point in your life.
You’ve only heard people talk about it.
Our faith in God grows as we see Him come through in difficult
circumstances. Maybe you haven’t gotten
through the other side of the “difficult circumstances.” You feel like you’re relying on what the
Bible says about God and you're relying on the testimony of other Christians as
you stand out in the rain of your trials.
But let me tell you, "Hang on," it’s worth the wait.
The people of Israel had been in
captivity for so long that they had only heard of this place called
“home.” We don’t know exactly when
Psalms 125 and 126 were written. They
had been exiled since probably the Babylonian exile which came in 586 B.C. Somewhere between 48 and 141 years had passed
since the time they were exiled until the Psalmist wrote about their experience
returning to Zion. It’s possible that
the Israelites who were returning hadn’t seen Zion or experienced God in the
temple. They may have been relying only
on what their parents, grandparents or great grandparents had told them. Now they were experiencing firsthand what
they had only heard about. And the wait
was worth it.
So, how does the worshipper describe
God in Psalm 125 and 126? I think the
picture that’s painted here is a God who is kind, compassionate, gracious, good
and generous. The people of Israel were
in exile because of their own sin. They
refused to repent as a nation so God brought judgment by allowing other nations
to defeat them. They had gone through
the hard times, the rain so-to-speak. At
some point, the people had repented and God was merciful to let them go back to
Zion.
If we’re not careful, our worship of
God can have the life sucked out of it because of our poor understanding of
God. Why do we think that God’s will is always
the toughest decision? If we have three
choices in front of us why do we think that the hardest road must be the road
God wants for us? Part of God’s will for
my life has involved hard times. But not
all of His will for me has been hard times.
In A.W. Tozer’s book “The Attributes of God” he said, “Did you ever see
a father bringing gifts to his children?
Did you ever see a lover bringing gifts to his bride? He wants to please the people He loves, and
the people that love Him. The idea that
God must always make you miserable is not a biblical idea at all. Jesus Christ knew God and He suffered from
the irritations and persecutions of the world, the bitterness of their polluted
hearts. They made it hard for Him. But he was pleased with God and God was
pleased with Him. ‘This is my beloved
Son, in whom I am well pleased’ (Matthew 3:17).” (page 55-56)
God let the Israelites experience
blessings. In these Psalms it says that
the LORD “brought back the captives to Zion…The LORD has done great things for
them…The LORD has done great things for us...Those who sow in tears will reap
with songs of joy…”, they “will return with songs of joy.”
In Matthew 25:26, we find the story
of parable of the talents. The master
gave three men three different amounts of money to invest while he was gone on
a trip. When he came back he found that
the first two had invested their master’s money wisely. While the third man “dug a
hole in the ground and hid his master’s money.” [2] What led the third man to not use wisely what
his master had given him? It was because
he had a wrong idea of what his master was like, “'Master,’ he said, ‘I knew
that you are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where
you have not scattered seed. 25 So I was afraid and went out and hid
your talent in the ground. See, here is what belongs to you.’”[3]
Years ago I
came across a verse that still strikes me today. It’s Psalm 139:17-18 found in The Living
Bible, “How precious it is, LORD, to realize that you are thinking about me
constantly! I can’t even count how many
times a day your thoughts turn towards me.
And when I waken in the morning, you are still thinking of me!” In the NIV it says, “17How
precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! 18Were
I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand. When I awake,
I am still with you.”[4]
In my hand, I have a quart Mason jar full of sand.
When the worshipper in Psalm 139 says that His thoughts towards us
“would outnumber the grains of sand,” I think he’s talking about all the sand
in the world. There’s lots and lots of
sand on the beaches. But there’s also
sand on the floor of every ocean.
There’s sand on the surface inland on the surface. And there’s sand under the surface on the
continents.
Some of you
math nerds are already trying to figure out the answer. Or maybe you’re trying to determine all the
parameters associated with the problem.
I’m sure there are multiple ways of approaching the estimation and
multiple problems to address. I’m
assuming that the dimension of each grain of sand is 1/75 in. X 1/75 in. X 1/75
in. I know that every grain of sand
isn’t the same size but just go along with me.
For the sake of time I couldn't factor in air space or the orientation
of each grain. I calculated that there
are probably somewhere between 21 and 24 million grains of sand in this jar! I know I’m absolutely right because I came up
with the same answer as Isaac.
The
Psalmist doesn't say that God’s thoughts turn towards us as many as the grains
of sand in a quart Mason jar. He said
that His thoughts turn towards us as numerous as the “grains of sand.” He’s thinking about us constantly! And, apparently, His thoughts turned towards
the Israelites many, many times as well.
He wanted to bless them.
The
Israelites didn't deserve to go back to Zion.
God had every right to leave them in exile. But in His mercy and goodness He let them
return. Tozer goes on to say,
“Now all
this that I have said means that God is good.
All this He is infinitely. Why do
I say that? Because infinitude is an attribute of
God. And it is impossible for God to be anything and not be completely,
infinitely what He is. It is possible
for the sun to be bright, but
not infinitely bright because it doesn’t have all the light there is. It is possible for a mountain to be large but not infinitely large. It is possible for an angel to be good, but not infinitely good. Only God can claim infinitude. When I say that God is good, that God has a kind heart, I mean that He
has a heart infinitely kind and that there is no boundary to it. When I
say that God is good-natured, good and kindly of nature, I mean that He is infinitely so. God is not
only infinitely good, He is perfectly good.
God is never partway anything! When I say that God is kindhearted, I mean
that He is perfectly so.” (The Attributes of God,
43).
So, why does it talk about “Those who sow in tears will
reap with songs of joy. 6He
who goes out weeping, carrying seed to sow…”?
William MacDonald sheds a little light on this when he said, “The first
year after their return would be especially difficult. There would be no crops
to harvest right away. They would have to make a fresh start by planting their
crops and waiting for harvest time. It would be a period of austerity, of
doling out the meager food supplies as frugally as possible.
There would be a certain sorrow or frustration about sowing the seed for that first crop. Here is a farmer whose barrel of grain is low. He can use the grain to feed his family now or he can sow most of it in hope of an abundant supply in days to come. He decides to sow it, but as he dips his hand into his apron and scatters the seed over the plowed land, his tears fall into the apron. He is thinking of his wife and children, of the skimpy bowls of porridge, of how sacrificially they will have to live in the days till harvest. He feels as if he is taking food out of their mouths.
But a cheering word goes out to the returned exiles.
He who continually goes forth weeping, bearing seed for sowing, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.
So they go forth and sow the seed. Their present anguish will be more than compensated by the joy of bringing their sheaves of ripened grain to the barn.[5]
There would be a certain sorrow or frustration about sowing the seed for that first crop. Here is a farmer whose barrel of grain is low. He can use the grain to feed his family now or he can sow most of it in hope of an abundant supply in days to come. He decides to sow it, but as he dips his hand into his apron and scatters the seed over the plowed land, his tears fall into the apron. He is thinking of his wife and children, of the skimpy bowls of porridge, of how sacrificially they will have to live in the days till harvest. He feels as if he is taking food out of their mouths.
But a cheering word goes out to the returned exiles.
He who continually goes forth weeping, bearing seed for sowing, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.
So they go forth and sow the seed. Their present anguish will be more than compensated by the joy of bringing their sheaves of ripened grain to the barn.[5]
They had become unshakable like Zion
because they trusted God. They were able
to trust God because they had gotten to know Him and saw, from experience, the
goodness of God. They realized what I
would like to say to you this morning.
“Hang on. The view is worth the
wait. Trust me.”
[1]
The Holy Bible: New International Version.
(1984). (Ps 125–126:6). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.
[2]
The Holy Bible: New International Version.
(1984). (Mt 25:18). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.
[3]
The Holy Bible: New International Version.
(1984). (Mt 25:24–25). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.
[4]
The Holy Bible: New International Version.
(1984). (Ps 139:17–18). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.
[5]
MacDonald, W. (1995). Believer’s Bible
Commentary: Old and New Testaments. (A. Farstad, Ed.) (p. 755). Nashville:
Thomas Nelson.
[1] MacDonald, W.
(1995). Believer’s Bible Commentary: Old
and New Testaments. (A. Farstad, Ed.) (p. 755). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.
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