Psalm 126, theme verse Ps 126:3
The praise and honor and glory be to our heavenly Father who seeks true worshipers who worship Him with the Spirit and truth.
In this twenty seventh Sunday after the Pentecost, I pray that His grace of the application of all the benefits which Jesus earned for our salvation and also the glorious ministry of the proclamation of His kingdom by the power of the Holy Spirit may be full in our life. Last week, by looking at those that would happen, after we became to know that Jesus, our Lord will have the final victory against the dragon and its followers and we will reign as His kings in new heaven and new earth forever with Him, we decided to stand firm and overcome the tribulation and temptation which we take today in the hope of final victory. This week we would like to think about what kinds of grace we received from our Lord on this Thanksgiving Sunday through Psalm 126.
1) The Book of Psalm originally had no title, but was called ספר תהילים“(sepher dehillim) in Hebrew, meaning “Book of Praises” and then in Septuagint and Vaticanus, it was titled “ψαλμόἶ”(psalmoi) in Greek, meaning “Songs for stringed instruments” from which the English title “Psalm” is derived. The Book of Psalm consists of total 150 psalms. But in the Septuagint, as Psalm 9 and 10 are grouped together as one psalm, originally it is said that it was only 147 or 148, then later it became 150 psalms by dividing 2 or 3 psalms into two. The authors of the Psalms include David who wrote 73 psalms, Asaph 12, Korahites 10, Solomon 2, and then Heman the Ezrahite, Ethan the Ezrahite, Moses, 1 each and 50 by Anonymous and it is said that the Psalms were written over 1000 years, from the time of Moses in 1440 BC to the time of post-exile from Babylon in 430 BC. When reading these psalms, we have to know that the Psalms are not only songs sung by God’s people to God or about God, but also they are the Word of God. And the Psalms are not primarily intended to teach doctrine or moral behavior, but are helpful to believers who seek the Bible to help them express their joys and sorrows, successes and failures, hopes and regrets. Based on this understanding, we can read and understand Psalm 88, which expresses the most negative and miserable feelings, or even Psalm 109, which is full of bitterness and even cursing of enemies.
2) And the Psalms are carefully arranged by Jewish rabbis into five Books so that they mirror the story of Israel from the time of David until post-exile. For instance, books 1 and 2 basically assume the time of early monarchy, as David sung praise and lament for himself and the people, based on God’s unending goodness and righteousness, concentrating on David’s kingdom under God’s ultimate kingship. On other hand, book 3 has only one Davidic psalm; instead by the presence of some prominent exilic and postexilic laments, it assume the fall of Jerusalem, as the psalmist in Psalm 74 repeated to ask “why” and “how long?” so that this book 3 begins with a wisdom psalm that wonders about the prosperity of the wicked in 73:3 and then ends with the darkest psalm of Ps 88, whose only note of hope is the opening address of “the God who saves me”, and then with a poignant lament over the present demise of the Davidic covenant of Ps 89. And then in response to book 3, book 4 begins by going back to Moses with a psalm that reminds Israel that God has been her dwelling place throughout all generations, then after two psalms of trust and thanksgiving of 91 and 92, the collection of the LORD’s kingship of 93-100 comes, so that despite the present state of the Davidic monarchy, it sung that the LORD reigns, ending with psalms of praise of 101-106, whose last word is an appeal for the LORD to gather the exiles in 106:47. And lastly book 5 praises God’s reign over all the nations and God’s sovereignty over all the creations, ending with praise of the kingdom which God will finally consummated and of eternal reign. By the way, there are few scholars who connect the Psalm with the Pentateuch. I mean, the book 1 corresponds to Genesis, talking about creation and the fall of human beings, while book 2 corresponding to Exodus talks about the God’s salvation, as book 3 corresponding to Leviticus talks about the temple, and book 4 corresponding to Numbers talks about wandering and anxiety, and book 5 corresponding to Deuteronomy talks about God’s word.
3) And also the Psalms can be classified by genre so that even though each scholar uses a slightly different genre classification, Logos Bible app classifies seven genre such praise, lament, thanksgiving, trust, wisdom, royal and hymn. The praise psalms such as Psalm 8 or Psalms 146-150 which are the last five psalms, are the psalms to praise the omni-science and omni-potence of God and also greatness of God. And the lament psalms is the psalmists’ cry for help in great distress, or cry for protection in danger, or cry for forgiveness of sin. Among them we can find the curse psalms such as Psalm 109 in which the psalmist curses their enemies. And the thanksgiving psalms which begin with “Oh give thanks to the LORD” in Psalm 107, are the psalms of thanksgiving to God’s grace of salvation. And also there are the trust psalms through which the psalmists confess their faith in God’s goodness and care even in the desperate situation, since God is trustful, while the wisdom psalms are the psalms to praise the merits of wisdom and the wise life. And the royal psalms include the psalms to praise God’s ultimate kingship and the prayers for the kings who represent God’s kingship. And then, even though all the psalms are used for rituals, but there are some specific psalms which were used for the feasts, or the psalms sung while going up to the Temple in three major feasts of Israel that God commanded them to present to God, such as psalms 120-134, and also the ceremonial prayers used when entering the Temple like Psalm 15, and the prayer sung while marching with the Ark of the Covenant, like psalm 24. And also there are other classification method according to the literary techniques, such as the acrostic psalms which are composed using the 22 Hebrew consonants as alliteration, and the psalms that follow the Hebrew chiasm, I mean, the parallel and chiastic contrasts or the psalms that can be divided into the strophe like the songs or poems.
4) Psalm 126 was included in Book 5 and the genre is a song of ascent to the temple. And as you can see in the screen, its structure uses the Hebrew literary parallel chiasm. I mean, verses 1-3 remembering the great joy that the LORD brought back the captives of Zion, I mean, from the Babylon exile, and verses 4-6 asking for the restoration of their fortune to God and expecting great joy are paralleled together.
5) In the interpretation of Psalm 126, there are few major interpretation issues. I mean, the first is the rendering of the verval tense of restore (šûḇ) in vv. 1 and 4. NRSV, NIV, and NASB translate the first occurrence of the verb, in v.1 as past tense, the second occurrence, in v.4 as imperative, part of petition to God so that they interpret that in vv. 1-3, the people remember a past event of restoration and in v.4, they call upon God to restore them once again. However, NJPS (New Jewish Publication Society) version renders the verb in v.1 in the future tense so that it interprets that the psalmists are calling upon God to enact for the restoration. But, generally we’d better to render v.1 in the past tense so that we can understand this that the psalmist reminded the past event of the return from Babylon exile. And the second challenge in interpretation is the translation of שִׁיבָה(šîḇâ) in v.1 and שְׁבוּת (šeḇûṯ) in v.4. A few manuscripts of the LXX harmonize šîḇâ of v.1 with v. 4’s Kethib, I mean, reading it šeḇûṯ as the text reads, which results into “fortune”, while others harmonize it with v. 4’s Qere, I mean, reading it differently as šeḇîṯ, which results into “captive”. Therefore, NRSV and NJPS translate them as “restore the (our) fortunes”; while NASB as “brought back the captive ones” for v. 1 and “restore our captivity” for v. 4; and NIV as “brought back the captives” for v.1 and “restore our fortunes” for v.4. Yet I think we’d better to interpret “brought back the captives” for v.1 and “restore our fortunes” for v.4 based on the historical context of Psalm 126.
6) If we interpret this as such, then, we can understand the Psalmist, recalling the joy they felt when God returned them from captivity in Babylon, asks for their lives to be restored after the Babylonian captivity, as in Ezekiel 36:37, God said that “I will let the house of Israel ask me to do for them,” even after promising the restoration of their land and. House, after He would bring the captive Israelites back to their homeland, purify them, renew their hardened hearts, put the Spirit of God in them, make them God’s people who live according to God’s will, and become their God. Through this, we can clearly know that even though both the liberation of the captive Israelites and the restoration of their lives are God’s work in His grace, yet, they have to hope for it and also pray for it through which they can have desire for it and after it is answered, they can thank to God.
7) And also, in verses 5-6 it is said that they have to sow seeds with tears, in addition to the prayer. By the way, in the Bible, tears are usually shed when expressing sorrow or lamentation or joy, as in Jer 14:17, or when praying, as in Psalm 39:12. But, tears in verses 5-6 can mean the toil of sowing, watering, and cultivating the seeds. Therefore, we can know that as we pray for, then we also have to sweat and tear even when God restore our lives.
8) Therefore I believe that Ps 126 of Today’s text teaches us few things regarding His salvation and our life after. I mean, first, regarding our salvation, we can know that in the justification which is entirely by the grace of God, we receive it passively, but in the sanctification, that is, in the purification of our inner being and participation in the Lord’s holy nature which is also entirely God’s work, yet we have to participate in God’s work through the Word and prayer. And also, regarding our participation into the mission of God as our life of gratitude, as Amos 3:7 says “For the Lord God does nothing without revealing his secret to his servants the prophets,” we have to pray and work in His mission to restore His creation, so that we have to participate in His mission with tears, yet in gratitude and praise, since as Anthony Hoekma said in his book “The Bible and Future” that “We must indeed be working for a better world now. Our efforts to bring the kingdom of Christ into fuller manifestation are of eternal significance. As we live on this earth, we are preparing for life on God’s new earth. Through our kingdom service the building materials for that new earth are now being gathered.”
Key Questions as Small Group Activity
Q1 According to Psalm 126, the Israelites gave thanks to God who returned them from the Babylon exile and restore their life after. So on this thanksgiving Sunday, after reviewing your life and counting how many grace you received, then thinking how you will thank God, I hope we could share our thought and experience with our team members together to learn from each other.
Q2 And even though God gives the salvation in grace, the rear half part of Psalm 126 says we also have to pray and sow in tears. So after reviewing your life, thinking how you are participating in God’s restoration work, I hope we could share our thought and experience with our team members together to learn from each other.
Love you. Thank you. God bless you.
Prayer Note
Dear ( God’s attribute which you found Today ) God!
Thanks for ( something you received through the sermon or even during the week )
Praise, gratitude and glory be to You, Lord!
Today, I realized my sin (pains) that ( the sin God reminded through the sermon ),
please forgive (or heal) me and help me not to repeat ( the sins you recognized ).
I learned that ( something you learned through the sermon )
Please help me to live in that ( learned way of life )
I pray in ( Jesus’ attribute you find ) Jesus’ name. Amen.
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