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For the Joy Set Before us, We endure the Cross! For the Joyful Return Set Before Us! A Lenten Sermon onPsalm 126
For the Joy Set Before us, We endure the Cross!
For the Joyful Return Set Before Us!
Psalm 126
† I.H.S. †
May the grace, mercy and love of God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ encourage you to think of your homecoming… and to rejoice as you find others who start the journey home!
- The Exiles return
One of my commentaries, on the vitality of worship, said this about our reading from the Psalms this morning,
“The first part of the psalm expresses an almost childlike delight in what the Lord has done. It has a miraculous quality about it, something unexpected, something for which the people had hardly dared to hope.”[1]
For those caught in captivity, who thought they slavery would end, these words are even an understatement. Image the look on the faces, as they climbed the mountain paths that led to Jerusalem, as they topped the last peak and their eyes settled on their long their abandoned home.
Imagine their joy as they entered the city’s gates. Asthey realize home was home again, and that they had proof of God’s blessings, and His presence….
For He had restored them, and all that was broken was made right…which is the basis for our hope.
The hope made true that we can take a childlike delight in, as we realize what the Lord has done, for it is miraculous unexpected, and something which we didn’t even dream of, never mind hope for!
- Why were they exiles? What separates us..
Nearly 100 years prior to Psalm 126. The prophetess Huldah, the wife of H Shallum and Harhas said,
“24 ‘This is what the LORD says: I am going to bring disaster on this city and its people. All the curses written in the scroll that was read to the king of Judah will come true. 25 For my people have abandoned me and offered sacrifices to pagan gods, and I am very angry with them for everything they have done. My anger will be poured out on this place, and it will not be quenched.’ 2 Chronicles 34:24-25 (NLT2)
This included Hezekiah, one of the greatest of the Kings of Judah, and while he did repent, it only put off this punishment until he passed away.
Then because of their sin, because of their idolatry, murder, adultery, gossip and jealousy.
They earned their exile. They chose to forgo being holy, in order to gain what they desired.
As I’ve taught before, holiness is less about following all the rules, but the purity of the relationship we are separated to when we enter into the covenant. As they chose to sin, and never repent, Israel and Judah exiled themselves – they chose to separate themselves from God, and from His people.
You know that feeling as well, that separation that comes when sin separates you from someone else. It doesn’t matter if the separation is because of our sin, or theirs-the separation is real, the loneliness that overwhelms us, as we realize the gaping chasm that sin creates.
If we are that aware of the distance sin puts between us and those we work with, live with, play with, and because of sin, avoid… how much more do we live in denial abut the distance we once chose to put between God and us…
And maybe, today, you still are hiding some sin, Maybe your dealing with that loneliness and feeling of not being a part of a family.
There is no need for that. You can re-begin that walk with God today, or perhaps even begin it for the first time.
This is the time – this is the place for the dream of Psalm 126 to become true in your life.
- Turning back everything (How were we brought back -will we be brought back?
If you read the Old Testament Books of Ezra and Nehemiah – or 1 &2 Esdras as they are called in some Bibles, you will see the people of God, once again separated to Him, once again being made holy, as they rebuild the Temple, and the City.
But Psalm 126 doesn’t get into what they did, it gets into the emotion of coming home, and the knowledge that God did something amazing – He restored the life their grandparents spoke of, recognizing what they lost,
But God restored them, and looking back, that gives the Psalmist hope in his time, as he prayed, “Restore our fortunes, LORD, as streams renew the desert. 5 Those who plant in tears will harvest with shouts of joy. 6 They weep as they go to plant their seed, but they sing as they return with the harvest.”
The writer of the Psalm – having remembered the great mercy of God and the fact that even the nations around Israel were praising God for the amazing things God had done, switches to pray that He ill do them again.
Hmm – could Judah and Israel begin to sin again? Did they need to be rescued and restored again?
Should that be an encouragement for us, as we find oureslves in needs of God’s restoration service as we need to be restored? Yes!
And then we can truly live the dream – God’s vision for us, those who have realized that our thoughts, words and deeds have been wrecked by sin. And yet God has called us home, cleansed us and ended our exile as He causes repentance to occur in us.
On our way back home, as we realize our exile, our loneliness is over, we can bring others with us. So keep an eye out for those alone, and tired, and exiled… and bring them home.
[1] Davidson, R. (1998). The vitality of worship: a commentary on the book of Psalms (p. 417). W.B. Eerdmans; Handsel Press.
The Blessing of Despair and Self-imposed Exile
Thoughts which draw me out of my exile, to Jesus and the cross
16 “Now tell your fellow-exiles what I am saying. I am the one who sent them to live in far-off nations and scattered them in other countries. Yet, for the time being I will be present with them in the lands where they have gone. Ezek. 11:16 GNT
But God is trying to reveal by His Holy Spirit the utter weakness of the child of God who is still putting his trust in himself.
Why does it take us so long to put our complete trust in God? He has made it so simple, so rewarding to yield what we are to Him!
767 What really makes a person—or a whole sector of society—unhappy, is the anxiety ridden, selfish search for well being, that desire to get rid of whatever is upsetting.
As I read Ezekiel’s words to the exiles, I can easily put myself in their shoes. There are days I feel like I don’t belong, that I am all by myself and feel like there is no hope.. no relief from the pain or the loneliness. I also know I am not alone in this – all you have to do is look at the number of pastors leaving the ministry, the number of teachers leaving education, the number of frontline workers leaving sheriff’s departments, police departments, and the rise of “coaches”–more often than not those who could not continue in their vocation, but someone want to help those who remain (and find a remnant connection to it)
Often times we call such times of self-imposed exile “burnout.” And truly, they are.
Those times come with a promise though, one seen by Tozer, that God will reveal our weaknesses, and use those times to deepen our relationship with Him–that we would come to trust Him more. You see exile and burnout are a matter, not of a lack or weak faith, but a time that reveals those times so that we value what God’s presence in the brokenness provides.
What it we took St. Josemaria’s idea of what was upsetting – and instead of getting rid of it, saw it as an opportunity to get to know Jesus better? To look for how He will provide? To find the joy in the presence of God who loves and embraces us, even in the midst of all that we consider negative. What if we heard Ezekiel’s message – that our exile was not just a disciplinary action by God, but a chance to see Him active in our lives, restoring us, calling us back–fulfilling the promise He made through the words of Ezekiel.
God sends us off into the exile we choose in our rebellion, so that He can be with us, and therefore restore us. Even there, WE ARE NOT ALONE!
God is with us… even in our doubt-filled, sin caused periods of exile we choose and impose on ourselves. He lets us go there.. so He can bring us back..
A. W. Tozer and Gerald B. Smith, Mornings with Tozer: Daily Devotional Readings (Chicago: Moody Publishers, 2008).
Escrivá, Josemaría. The Forge . Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
