Restore our fortunes, LORD,
as streams renew the desert.
Those who plant in tears
will harvest with shouts of joy.
PRAYER: O Lord, the words and images of Psalm 126
touch our hearts. We too need you to restore our fortunes, like streams
in the desert. We need the living water of your Spirit to refresh our
parched souls.
It does seem, Lord, that our planting is often in tears. Our lives
are filled with challenges, discouragements, and frustrations. Sometimes
we are slammed by tragedy. We keep on “planting,” but with plenty of
weeping. Thus we long for the day when you will reign completely, when
our planting in tears will return an abundant harvest. We look forward
to shouting with joy in your presence.
Thank you, gracious Lord, for allowing us to sample a bit of that
future joy even now. Thank you for the reassurance of your Word. Thank
you most of all for our Savior, Jesus Christ, whose birth we prepare to
celebrate in this season of Advent. Amen.
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Where I live in the Texas Hill Country, hundreds of creeks meander
through the oak-covered hills, canyons, and ranches. A few of these
creeks run year round, but most are seasonal. Many of the creeks are, in
fact, dry most of the time. But when torrential rain comes, as it often
does in this part of the world, then the creeks quickly fill with
rushing water, water that often overflows the creek banks.
The streams in the Hill Country are not unlike the wadis in
the desert of Israel, which remain dry except in the rainy seasons.
When the rain comes, these parched creeks are transformed into
life-giving streams that “renew the desert” (126:4). This was exactly
the sort of renewal that the people of God needed after they were
brought back from exile in Babylon. Though they were once again in the
land of promise, their life was anything but perfect. They were
“planting in tears” (126:5). On a literal level, the people struggled to
get the hard ground to produce the food they needed to eat. But,
emotionally and spiritually, the people were also “planting in tears” as
they sought to rebuild their shattered lives.
Sometimes we can feel as if we’re “planting in tears.” We work hard
to raise our children in the Lord, but they wander away from the life of
faith. We labor faithfully in our jobs for many years, only to be laid
off in the latest downsizing. We save for a secure future, yet our
savings shrink as the economy staggers. We try to honor God in our daily
lives, but our sin keeps dragging us down. I expect you have your own
version of “planting in tears.”
Psalm 126 offers the hope that God will renew us like streams in the
desert. It proclaims with confidence that “Those who plant in tears
will harvest with shouts of joy” (126:5). This harvest comes fully in
the future when the reign of God is established on earth. Thus we look
forward to the day when we will reap the harvest of our lives with
celebration. In the meanwhile, we get to enjoy a taste of the future
even as we wait for the banquet that is yet to come.
On the third Sunday of Advent, we add a new element into this solemn
season of expectation and hope. Today we rejoice because we know that
our hope for a savior was fulfilled in the birth of Jesus. Moreover, we
know that the tears of this age will one day become overflowing streams
of joy.
QUESTIONS FOR FURTHER REFLECTION: When do you feel
as if you are “planting in tears”? What sustains you even when life is
hard? Do you think about the harvest of the future, when there will be
shouts of joy? When do you experience a bit of that joy in your life?