September 4 — Psalm 126

“When the LORD restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dream. Then our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongue with shouts of joy; then it was said among the nations, “The LORD has done great things for them.” The LORD has done great things for us, and we rejoiced. Restore our fortunes, O LORD, like the watercourses in the Negeb. May those who sow in tears reap with shouts of joy. Those who go out weeping, bearing the seed for sowing, shall come home with shouts of joy, carrying their sheaves.”

In the old religious myths of Egypt, seedtime was associated with the death of the god of fertility, and harvest was associated with his revival. The ancient tradition seems to have created an association of sowing with grief and of joy with harvest. The Psalm then uses this association as a cultural idiom. Perhaps it intends that the sowers represent the going out of the Israelites during the diaspora and that those who come carrying the sheaves of harvest represent their return.

It is true, I believe, that the Lord weeps every time someone leaves the faith — leaves the church — expresses their contempt for any hope that the church can be a healing, sustaining, and worshipful presence in the community. But when someone returns to the faith, or when one person remembers their need for the Lord, then, as Jesus says “Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.”

Let us Pray:

Faithful God, like a grain of wheat falling into the earth your Son went into death, so that after three days the earth might bloom with the joy of his rising. Let the seeds of justice, which we plant with tears, bring forth the power of the resurrection in the places of death and despair, and gather us at last into the joyful harvest of the saints; through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord.

Amen.