the book of Psalms. The book of Psalms is really an all-encompassing book. It shows the very heart of every psalmist that pins down the Word of God here. It's what I call sometimes the good and the bad and the ugly of life. And you see that in the Psalms. You see the very depths of the souls of men like David and Asaph and others that penned down these Psalms. I mean, it just takes you right down into their heart and into their soul. And I can relate to that. And I guess that's why the book of Psalms is such a help to me. And this morning, we're going to be looking at one of the Psalms of degrees. And we'll look at that in just a moment. Psalm 126, a very short Psalm, just six verses. If you're able to stand, let's stand together as we reverence the reading of the word this morning. And we'll read these six verses and ask the Lord to help us. Psalm 126 verse 1, When the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion, we were like them that dream. When our mouth filled with laughter and our tongue was singing, then said they among the heathen, the Lord hath done great things for them. The Lord hath done great things for us, whereof we are glad. Turn again our captivity, O Lord, as the streams in the south. They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him. Let's pray together this morning. Father, we thank you again for the privilege, the opportunity once again to be in your house and Lord, the ability to be able to come out. I know there are many today with sickness and things going on in their life. Lord, they'd love to be the house of God. I pray you'd help us take advantage of that. Rejoice and worship you today. I'm glad, Lord, no matter what is going on in our life, Lord, we can look to heaven and we can know you're there and that you're watching over us and you'll be that present help in a time of need. Lord, I pray you'd touch each one that's made an effort to come this morning and especially that one that may not be saved. Lord, would you just reveal yourself to them and show them how much you love them and how you went to the cross for them personally and you want them to be saved. And then for we that are saved today, help us rejoice that you are our Savior, our Lord, our God, our Master. And may you have your way in this service we ask in Jesus' name. Amen. Thank you for standing this morning. Now, again, this is a psalm of degrees, and what that simply is, the nation of Israel, when they would go up to worship, they would sing these 15 psalms, beginning in Psalm 120, and it was preparing their hearts for worship. I think that's a really important thing. I know most of us probably don't do this like we should. I think some of the older generation did. They understood the importance of this, speak to themselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, as the Bible instructs us to do, and they would do that leading up to the house of God. And you ought to try that sometime. I try every time I'm preparing for a service, I try to, at best, listen to calming, Christ-honoring music, usually it's hymns or instrumentals, something to get my mind on going to the house of God. Because the fact is, we are living in such a busy world, overwhelming world that many times we rush into the house of God, we've not prepared for worship, and it's really hard to worship when we get to the house of God. So that was the purpose of these Psalms of degrees. There's 15 of them, and this morning we want to look at the seventh of the 15th Psalm of degree here in Psalm 126. And what you find here is my thought in the first verse. The psalmist said, when the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion. I think it's very easy for us to understand exactly what this psalm is talking about. It's talking about God turning the nation of Israel out of their 70 years, the historic captivity of the nation of Israel, out of their 70 years of captivity back into the promised land. You can read a lot of that in the books of Nehemiah and Ezra. You can read about those post-exilic prophets that prophesied afterwards and how God blessed Israel, how God brought Israel out of the heathen land, out of 70 years of captivity in Babylon. They were there because of their idolatry. They were there because they had rejected the word of God, and even killed the prophets of God, and ran many of them off. And God allowed them, because He loved them, He allowed them to go into 70 years of captivity to judge them, and to deal with them, and to chastise them. So now they're coming out, and that's what this psalm is about. So I want to look at verse 1 for my thought this morning. Just a simple thought here. When God turns it around. When God turns it around. That's what the Lord is doing here in the nation of Israel. He's turning their captivity around. Now, the Lord promised them in 2 Chronicles there would be a determined set time of them being in captivity. Seventy years was promised there in the end of the book of 2 Chronicles. But no doubt many of them had forgotten that. Seventy years is a long time. That's a lifetime. The Bible talks about man's days being threescore. And 10, that's 70 years. That's pretty much a lifetime. Many of them had forgotten about it. Many of them had been born during those days of captivity. They had never seen the Promised Land. They had never been in Jerusalem. They didn't know about it. So all this was fresh and new to many of them. And God now is turning their captivities, turning them around in this situation. And I want to look at a few things here in our text this morning that I think will be a blessing to us. First of all, in verse 1, let's notice their captivity. I think most of you probably have studied the scripture and you understand at least a general overview of the nation of Israel being in captivity. Again, being under the hand of Babylon and the media Persians because of their turning away, their forefathers turning away from God. I think one of the saddest things about Israel being in captivity, there were many of them that were suffering and they themselves individually had not really done anything against God. But because their nation had collectively turned against God and the leadership in days gone by had turned against God, they themselves were suffering for that. And those that were born in captivity, they didn't ask to be born there, they didn't rebel against God, but yet they're suffering the effects of this captivity. And I think we see that in America today. One of the reasons why there's so many things going on and so many things that are happening in these days are really a compilation of years and years and years and years of turning away from God. So here's their captivity. In verse number 1 we see their turning. He opens up the psalmist here by saying, when the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion. Now we can rejoice over that statement right there. The Lord is turning their captivity back again. He has not left them there. He has not forgot them. He has not turned His back on them. If you study Nehemiah and Ezra, you'll find out throughout those two books especially, God is referred to as the God of heaven. And the reason why He's referred to as the God of heaven is because He has basically withdrawn His presence away from the nation of Israel and allowed them to go into captivity. He still had His eye on them. He still had control of them, but His presence was not with them as it was in days gone by. When Nebuchadnezzar came in and they destroyed Jerusalem, they tore down that temple. And all those things that took place there were taken out of the way. So no longer did they have their worship services. No longer were they able to come together down at the house of God and enjoy all that went on there. So God now is turning that back. He's bringing them back to where they need to be. And I want to remind you this morning that the Lord alone can turn our problems around. Only the Lord can help us in times of trouble. Only the Lord can fix things in our life and restore things in our life that have been lost in days gone by. So there's a turning. And then he mentions their trouble here specifically. He said, when the Lord turned again, the captivity of Zion. I want you to take just a moment this morning and try to think about maybe what that captivity would have been like. The Babylonian nation at that time was the greatest world Gentile power at that time. I mean, they owned the world. They were the boss at that time under Nebuchadnezzar. others that would come through, and then the media Persians would step up on the scene after the Babylonian Empire fell. So it was all these heathen kings that were controlling God's people, the nation of Israel. You can imagine how they must have felt. The language was foreign. If you've ever been in a foreign country for any amount of time, boy, you get there and you're excited, you're seeing a new place, you're listening to people talk, you're experiencing new things, and by the end of the week or so, you're ready to get to the house. You don't understand what anybody's saying. It's all foreign to you. The food is foreign. The customs are foreign. Everything about it has just got you out of sorts. Well, they were not there for a week, but they were there for 70 years as a nation. So you can imagine their trouble being in the captivity of Zion. Again, they didn't have the worship as they did in days gone by. I believe many of them did worship, but it was not the collective worship that they were used to. It'd almost be like you and I being in a captive place today, maybe being in a foreign country like China or Russia or somewhere like that. We were not able to meet together collectively. We were not able to worship together as we are this morning. What little worship went on just had to go in our private time. And that's good, but that's still not everything God designed worship to be. He wanted worship to be collective. That strengthens us. So their trouble is going on here. They're coming out of this trouble. They've been subjected to all the heathen ways. Matter of fact, These heathen ways were so strong that many of them never did come out of captivity. If you go back to the book of Ezra, I think it's maybe the second or third chapter, you'll find out there was about 46,000 plus the servants, maybe 7,000 or 8,000 servants with them that came out of captivity. This was not all of them that were in captivity. It was just all of them that were willing to come out. The captivity days were so strong and so overpowering that some of them never came out. Some of them never had a desire. They were at home. They were happy. Probably some of the little ones that were born during those years of captivity, they didn't see what was the big deal about going back to the homeland. The only thing they knew about Jerusalem is it was in rubbish and heaps of trash, and the walls were broke down, and the temple was broke down, and there was no established nation there again. And to them, they probably looked at some of the older ones and said, what's the big deal? Why even go back? So their trouble was a major trouble, not only in their life individually, but collectively as a nation. But then notice this now, this is a good psalm. Matter of fact, all these psalms of degrees are positive psalms. Now some of them are cheerful, some of them at least are hopeful. They may tell some things that are discouraging, but they always have an element of hope in them. That's one of the great things about these psalms of degrees. As they were going to the temple and singing these psalms, they were building up their hope. No doubt they'd had a bad week, just like we have bad weeks. No doubt they were going through trials just like we go through trials. They had heartaches just like we had heartaches. So as they would come from time to time up to the temple to worship, they would sing these psalms of hope and of joy and looking forward to what God was doing for them. And it would help them and energize them in getting them ready to worship. So now in the latter part of verse number one, this is an amazing thing that's happened. Look at what I call their trance or their dream. The Bible uses the word dream. We were like them, that dream. What the psalmist is saying here is the Lord is turning our captivity. He's bringing us out of the heathen land back to Jerusalem, back to the homeland. Understand this didn't happen overnight. This was a major movement of people. So it just didn't happen overnight. They didn't go to bed one night in Babylon, wake up the next morning over in Jerusalem. They had a journey to make. Matter of fact, if I remember right, and I didn't look it up this morning, but if I remember right, when Ezra came back, Zerubbabel came back first, then Ezra came back, and then later on Nehemiah would come back. But when Ezra came back to get that worship started, if I remember right, it was about a three-month journey from where they were in captivity back to the homeland. Their area of captivity was Babylon. We know where that's at today, present-day Baghdad. And that area has been very popular in our culture for the past 24 or so years. So that's where they were at in captivity. They had to get all the way back in that westward direction back to Jerusalem there by the Mediterranean Sea. And they couldn't just go in a straight line. That was the Arabian Desert there. If you'll look at their routes of those days, they would go northward following that fertile crescent, going around north of the Arabian desert, back down through Syria and down into the land of promise, the land of Jerusalem. So it took them some time. And as they're going back and preparing and getting all this together, the Psalmist said this, said, we were like them that dream. I wonder how many of them along the journey looked at each other and said, hey man, pinch me. I never thought we'd ever see Jerusalem again. I never thought we'd ever get back there again. Can you believe we're on our way home? Some of them in the congregation remembered the old days. Ezra tells us about that. Ezra said when they started laying that foundation of Zerubbabel's temple, this is what happened. He said the young men shouted and the old men wept. You say, why'd they do that? Because the young men were excited. They had never seen a temple before. They'd never enjoyed this, it was about to happen. They were just so excited for it to happen, but the old men remembered the former temple. They remembered the days before, and they wept because the present temple of Zerubbabel's temple was no comparison to the temple of Solomon. The temple of Solomon was a very majestic temple, and they wept because they didn't think it was gonna be as good as it used to be, and the young men were excited because they were in the homeland they had so heard about. So it was like a dream to them. Their captivity is changing. And you know you can be in captivity or a situation so long that you begin to think in your mind you're never going to get out. I've read some books before about prisoners of war, especially during the Vietnam War. I read about men that were prisoners of war. I read a book one time I think his name was First Lieutenant John Rowe, if I remember right. Five years in a Vietnamese POW camp. Five years. Can you imagine that? I can't imagine that. Five years. He had gotten so into the situation he was in that his mind could not even comprehend freedom. His mind could not even comprehend getting out of there. And you can imagine as he came out of there how it must have been. And, you know, if you've ever been in a place of stress or a place like that, coming out of that is almost like a dream. Like this can't be happening because you've already resigned your mind that I'm going to be here for the rest of my life. But thank God these Israelites were not so. God was bringing them out and they cried out. The psalmist said, it's like a dream that we get to come out of here. Then secondly, I want you to notice as God is turning it around, I see not only their captivity they're coming out of, and that's something to rejoice about, and that's something to praise the Lord about. Anytime God gets us out of captivity, anytime the Lord lifts our load and brings us out of a hard place, boy, it's definitely a time to worship Him. But then I see their change, beginning in verse two. The psalmist starts describing the change that God is making in their life. In verse number two, notice they're rejoicing. He said, Do you remember over, I think it's Psalm 134, I think, let me look, I wanna tell you right. I think it's Psalm, no, it's not Psalm 134. I'll find it real quick. Psalm 137, that's a pretty popular psalm. That's the psalm about them being in captivity, hanging their harps on the willow, and those Babylonians mocking them and saying, sing us a song of thine. Sing us one of them good old songs where you worship back there. They looked at them and said, how can we sing the Lord's song in a strange land? I'm telling you, when you get in a time of captivity, whatever that trouble is, it's hard to sing. I mean, it's hard to sing a song in a strange land. It's hard to sing when you're discouraged. It's hard to sing when you're depressed. It's hard to sing when you're defeated. So here they were, now God has given them their song back. What a joy that must have been. Verse 2, our mouth was filled with laughter. and our tongue was singing. They're just so excited to be out of captivity. They're just so thankful that God has lifted their burden and God has been faithful to them and He did what He said He would do. I wonder how many times the older congregation that came back I wonder how many times in those 70 years they might have thought, I'm never gonna get out of this. It's never gonna come to pass. Yeah, we know what was said in Chronicles, but boy, that seems like so far away that it just is never going to happen. I was preaching this week through Psalm 102 there at the Bible school. Talking about how low that psalmist got. And we don't know who he was, but most people believe he was either Nehemiah, Ezra. It is a psalm about their captivity. It's a national psalm. And as you study Psalm 102, you'll see he's referring to their days of captivity. And whoever the writer might have been, he got into such a place that really he wasn't sure God was going to bring him out until later on in the psalm when God touched him. And I'm sure they were thinking that same way, but now they're rejoicing. Now they're praising the Lord and they're magnifying Him. Why? Because they're seeing their trial turn. They're seeing their days of captivity come to an end. What a joy that is when that happens. And then we find they're reaching in their change this morning. Notice He said, then was our mouth filled with laughter, our tongue was singing. And then look what happens here. Look at how all this has a domino effect. Then said they among the heathen. This lets me know they're still not completely out back in the homeland. They're headed that way. They know they're going. They're rejoicing over that. But then said they among the heathen, the Lord hath done great things for them. Ain't that amazing how God's turning this thing around? Up until their time of dismissal from the captivity, the heathens in control, they're mocking them. I mentioned Psalm 137, you can read about how the heathen are mocking them and making lie to them. Now they're coming out, they're headed back to the homeland. And now the heathen are standing back scratching their heads saying, wow, the Lord's done great things for them. Wow, God's doing something in this little nation that we thought was weak and not able to do anything. I'm telling you, the world just does not understand how big of something, how big a bite they're biting off when they mess with the nation of Israel. I'm telling you, God's protected them in days gone by and he's gonna continue to do that throughout all eternity. They are the apple of God's eye. And when a heathen mess with Israel and God turns the thing around, he's gonna do it one of these days. You see all that that's going on right now in our world against the nation of Israel, and it's going to intensify between now and the coming of the Lord. It's going to get real bad during the days of tribulation. Those seven years of tribulation, that time of Jacob's trouble, when God pours it all out on the nation of Israel, it's going to get the worst that they've ever seen. You think it's bad now? It's going to get real bad. But then in Revelation chapter 19, He's coming back, King of kings, Lord of lords, His vestures dipped in blood. He's going to tread the winepress of the wrath of God. He's going to stomp the Gentiles down one last final time there in Revelation chapter 19. And if any of them is alive, the Bible tells us in Ezekiel that it's going to be blood to the horses' bridles. It tells us this, they're gonna have months and months and months of burying the dead. They're gonna have to recruit people that are coming over there to visit the land and say, hey, y'all take a few minutes and help us bury these dead. We don't have enough to bury them. That's how big God's gonna be in their life according to the scripture. And in that day, what a day that's going to be. Well here, God is changing them. Their reaching is going out as far as the heathen. The heathen are having to step back and say, wow, there's something to their God. There's something to their faith. There's something to this power that lives in them who is Jehovah God. And when God begins to turn things around in our life, not only does it bless us. We love that. We thank God for that. But in turn, it also preaches to the heathen world and the lost world that our God is a God that is faithful. Our God is a God that takes care of His people. Our God is a God that never leaves us nor forsakes us. When He turns that around in our life, it has a ripple effect that goes out into the world, and the world has to take notice and say, hey, there is something to this God, the Lord Jesus Christ. So their change incorporated their rejoicing and their reaching, and then the reaching here is the heathen saying their God has done great things for them. Verse 3 is them repeating, this is their realizing. Look at verse number 3. Let me read verse two with it together, the latter part of verse two so it'll make sense to you. Here's the heathen talking in the last phrase of verse two. The Lord hath done great things for them. Now here's the nation of Israel talking. The Lord hath done great things for us. How about that, right? They're saying, amen. The Lord hath done great things for us. It's dawning on them. Don't you know those 70 years in captivity, they were discouraged, they were depressed. I mean, anybody in their right mind would be. They're going through a horrible trial. Nehemiah in chapter one, when he really finds out from his brother how bad Jerusalem is, how bad the walls are broken down, how bad the gates are burned with fire, he weeps for four months. He fasts and he prays and I mean, he's distraught because it didn't really dawn on him how bad it was until he got that report from that poor remnant that was left there in Jerusalem. You can read in the book of Jeremiah, when they all went out and God allowed that nation of Babylon to take them out, there was a little bit of a handful of the poorest of the poorest that were left in the land. Boy, it was pitiful. You can read the book of Lamentations and I mean, there was starvation, sickness. I mean, it was just a horrible wasteland. Kind of like something you'd see in a third world country today where drought and famine is devastating. That's what the nation of Israel was like for that little small amount of people that were left there in desolation. It was a horrible place. Now we find they're realizing God is turning their trouble around. You may be here this morning and you say, well, preacher, God hasn't turned my trouble around. I understand that. I understand that there was days in their life where God hadn't turned their trouble around. But I believe He will in His time and in His way. And there'll be a day that you'll realize it. It may not be today. It may not be tomorrow. It may not be this year. But there'll come a time when God will turn your trouble around because He's faithful. There'll come an hour when He does begin to work some things in your life, maybe not exactly the way you think they ought to be, but the way God wants Him to be. And through His faithfulness, you will begin to realize as a child of God, He is turning my trouble around. He's helping me. And you know, when you're in a trial and you're having trouble, just one little bit of help, I'm telling you, it means the world to you. This week, I wish I could tell you exactly, but this week had been a little something in our life that we had just been concerned about. If I told you, some of you would probably think this morning, wow, that ain't nothing. And really it isn't nothing in the scheme of things. But I watched the Lord do something specific for our family this week. Something we'd been praying about just my wife and I've been praying about told the kids After the fact what the Lord had did and it may not seem like much But I'm telling you it was a shot in the arm this week It was a help this week that God had heard our prayer God had answered answered our prayer. And let me tell you something, He did far greater than I was asking for. He did far above what I would have dreamed of in that little situation. And again, if I were to tell you this morning, you'd say, oh, that's not a big thing. And it's not a big thing compared to what some people deal with. But boy, it was sure a big thing to me this week. God helped me and it restored my strength and it helped me realize once again that God was going to take care of His people. Thank God for their change. I'm glad the scripture tells us He'll never leave us, He'll never forsake us. You may feel like it, there may be some days you can't hardly grasp it, but we trust the Word of God that God will do what He said He would do. Don't you notice their cry now? There's a cry as they're coming back to the land. There's some more obstacles now. They've come out of the land of bondage. They've come out of captivity, and that's a wonderful thing. They're so thankful just to be out. They're so thankful to be on the road, heading back to Jerusalem, just thinking about all the good things, thinking about getting back in the homeland, thinking about maybe enjoying some things that God has for them. But yet there's going to be some complications there in Jerusalem because they've been out of the land 70 years. You remember one of the points of judgment that God brought judgment upon Israel was because they profaned the Sabbaths. And with their Sabbaths and with their time of allowing the land to rest, they didn't do that. They were supposed to let the land rest. They were supposed to change their crops around and do different things, and they just ignored the law of God concerning the land. So God said, OK, fine, I'm going to fix it. I'm going to jerk you out of the land for 70 years, and it's going to have time to rest. And there was a lot of good things with that, but then there was some difficult things they were going to have to deal with. Look at their cry with me, if you would. In verse number four, notice their request. The Bible said, turn again our captivity. They're requesting the Lord. Turn again our captivity, oh Lord. Now notice what they say here. As the streams in the south. They're thinking about, now they know the land. They're very, the older generation, they're very familiar with the land. They know the harvest schedules, they know the rain schedules. It's different in that land than it is in our land. They're coming back, the best I can tell from looking at the book of Ezra, they're coming back around the month of October. It's the seventh month according to the book of Ezra. That's when they set up the temple and that's when they set up the altar to begin with and begin the sacrifices when they got back in the land. It was in the seventh month, the month we would call October. They have a different name for that. So they're coming back in that fall time of the year, and they're excited about coming back, but they're saying, Lord, we need you to do something for us. And again, they're specific here. Said, turn our captivity, O Lord, as the streams in the south. Now, during those months, they have went through the latter summer months, which are kind of like our latter summer months, very dry. You know, around here, a lot of times, July, August, early September's very dry. The grass gets parts. Everything's drying up and we need some of the fall rains to come in and get things maybe rejuvenated a little bit. But here, that's what they're asking for. They're saying, Lord, turn our captivity as the streams of the south. The south land below Jerusalem was desert. The south land was dry. And during those summer months, they're coming back at the end of the dry months. They're coming back where really there's nothing there to eat. They're coming back where there's a lot of desolation. They're coming back during a dry time. And they're asking the Lord, said, do for us spiritually or physically maybe just like you're doing or do with the south streams. In time, God would allow those south streams to flow down and it would start preparing things and eventually in the springtime, it would be a time of harvest. You remember in Joshua chapter 3 when they crossed the Jordan River? You remember what the Bible tells us about it? It was a time of harvest. It was barley harvest. That was the first harvest somewhere around the month of April, which is the first month for the nation of Israel. It was the month of the beginnings. It was the time of Passover. So you remember in Joshua 3 when they crossed the river Jordan, the Bible said it was overflowing its banks at that time. You know why? Those south streams were coming down. All the mountain, the snow and the dews on the mountain was melting, coming down, filling up that land so that they could harvest and get what they needed and bring water to the crops and preparing the land for the next cycle. All that was coming. But here they were, they were requesting that God do something great in their life. But then with that request of their cry, I want you to notice their responsibility. The psalmist reminds us here of that responsibility. Now, I'm glad God is in control of things. And I'm glad He does for us what nobody else can do. But quite often when the Lord is helping us, and He's getting us out of our time of captivity, He's turning things around, quite often He's asking us to do some things too. And thank God He never asks us to do what we cannot do. I'm glad for that. He doesn't tell us to do something impossible. He doesn't tell us to do something that's beyond what He has empowered us to do. But I want you to see what the Lord starts telling them here concerning their responsibility. They had been in 70 years captivity. Really, they didn't have much responsibility. Now, they were in slavery and there were some good things and some bad things. You look at the life of Nehemiah. Nehemiah had it pretty good on the outward look. Nehemiah was the king's cupbearer. I mean, he lived in the palace. He didn't have a hard time. He wasn't out in the wilderness. I know they were in bondage and they didn't want to be there, but many of them had gotten a little lazy during that time of captivity, and they didn't mean to, it's just what happens. I told you about reading about those prisoners of war, and many of them were confined in such conditions they couldn't work out and they couldn't keep their strength, and they would come out of those days of being in, as a POW, especially World War II, most of you studied and seen those pictures of those that come out of World War II, just skin and bones. Why? Because in that time of captivity, they really didn't have a lot of responsibility on them. They didn't work many times. They didn't labor. They barely got a little bite to eat. They sat in a cramped, confined cell day after day after day, and their bodies began to wear down. So now they're coming back into the land of captivity. And in verse number 5, the psalmist is reminding themselves and us of a responsibility if we're going to see the fullness of what God has for us. Look what he said in verse 5. They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. Again, plowing would begin in the seventh month, planting in the eighth month, which would coincide with November, and a little bit in the ninth month, and then the first barley harvest wouldn't come until April. So they're getting back to the land just in time to guess what they're going to have to do? They're going to have to plant. They're going to have to put the seed in the ground. They're going to have to toil, or they're not going to have anything in the spring to come. No doubt God gave them provision. We read in Ezra of Nehemiah about them coming out of the land with some provision, so God sustained them, and He took care of them. But they knew, now that they were back in the land, that if they didn't step up and complete their responsibility, that it was not going to go good for them in the days to come. So here's what He's saying. He's saying, they that sow in tears, Sowing is a hard thing. Many of you, you're planting a garden right now, have planted a garden. It's not easy. You get out in the hot sun, you till the ground, that's part of the curse on man from the sin of Adam and Eve in the garden. It's not an easy thing, it's a hard thing. laborous thing, especially years ago before we had all the modern conveniences and tractors and things. Can you imagine plowing that ground up with a team of oxen like they did? Can you imagine even some of them out there with a matic just digging that fallow? That ground had set for 70 years. They're chopping the weeds down. They're tearing it up. I mean, they're turning that new ground over. And that's a whole lot harder than going back to something that you've tilled year after year after year after year. They're sowing in tears. Their tears are not over. See, a lot of times when we come out of the bad situation, captivity or something, we want our tears to be over, but it doesn't always work that way. Sometimes there's some more tears, and they're going to sow in tears. They must do their part to see the full restoration of the barren land come to pass. And this sowing in tears is an act of faith. They're tired. They're weary. They're probably weak physically. They're just getting back into the land. It's all new and everything's different. And now they realize we've got to sow with tears and they're weeping as they're breaking up the ground and they're sowing precious seed. I don't think they had a whole lot of seed like many times we can get today. And it looks like in our generation, some of that's getting hard to get because the elites are trying to control that because they know if they got the food, they got the people. And years ago, you know, we didn't think much about that when I was a kid, growing a garden and having seed, you know, you just had an abundance of seed. Well, here they are, they came back, they had some seed, probably not an abundance of it. So as they're plowing that ground and getting it ready for that future reaping, they're sowing with tears, they're putting that seed in the ground. Now that's an act of faith. It was an act of faith in this generation, and it's still an act of faith today. How many times have we put a seed in the ground, in our gardens, and it didn't come up like we thought it would? Maybe the rain was too much. Maybe the rain was too little. Maybe the temperature changed too much. Maybe it didn't change enough. Whatever. We don't have control over the harvest. You say, I've got control over the harvest, I'll put my seed in the ground in my garden this year, and I'll promise you, no, you won't promise anything. That'll be up to God. Amen. You might get a good harvest, and chances are high maybe you'll get a good harvest, but all it takes is something to change that is out of our control, and we won't get a harvest at all. We know that, that have planted gardens before. So here, their responsibility requires a tremendous act of faith. They're planting this seed, weeping. They've come out of captivity. They're back to the homeland that doesn't look like it used to. It's not fruitful like it used to be at this time. And they're going to have to labor a little bit more to get the full benefits of what God has for them. Boy, that's hard sometimes, but it's important. But then notice in verse 5, as they're crying out to the Lord, notice the Bible talks about their reaping. They know this down deep in their heart, even though it's not easy, and even though it's some hard days still ahead, they that sow in tears shall reap in joy. That's what the psalmist said. The psalmist said this, we know this as God's people, if we will faithfully just keep planting when it's hard, if we will faithfully just keep tilling the ground and dropping the seed in and doing what we can, we know God has promised that there is joy that's going to come. We know that God has promised that if we will be faithful in sowing in tears, He didn't say they might reap joyfully, did He? He didn't say that. Notice what He said. He didn't say they that sow in tears might reap in joy. They that sow in tears will probably reap in joy. No. He said they that sow in tears shall reap in joy. They were sowing by faith. It was hard. It was difficult. There was still some... You know, when they crossed over into the borders of Jerusalem, it still wasn't great, wonderful days after that. It was better than being in captivity. Thank God they were out of that land. But in some ways, it was heathen harder. In some ways, it took a little bit more faith because they're walking into that land where nobody's at. At least in captivity, they had some supply and they had some things around them, especially there in Shushan where Nehemiah was. That was a major city. And I mean, they had all kinds of things at their disposal. Now it's up to them. Now they're really walking by faith where they had not lived by faith for 70 years. That was a major change. And they're crying out to God and He's reminding them that joy is coming if they'll be faithful. Now let me give you this, and I'll finish this morning. We're talking about when God turns it around. And I'm so glad He can. In verse number 6, notice their comfort. In verse 6, notice the obedience. Again, this goes back to them sowing in faith. Here's a great verse. We've heard it quoted and said so many times. He that goeth forth and weepeth bearing precious seed. There's that obedience. There's that faith. We have to go forth. It's hard sometimes. It's hard when you're hurting to go forward. It's hard when you're going through something to keep your mind on what you need to keep on. It's a constant battle moment by moment by moment. But here is that act of obedience that turns on the power of God. As God's people, we must obey His instructions to us. They put their faith in action. It was not easy. They got up many days and did not feel like it. They went to bed many nights and said, this is a waste of time. It ain't doing any good. We're not getting anywhere. Boy, we've been there before for sure. But they put their faith in action, their obedience. And then that obedience opened up the door of opportunity. Look on at this. He said, he that goeth forth weeping, Bearing precious seed, there's that obedience, that precious seed. Of course, in their case was physical seed in the ground. You and I think that precious seed is the seed of faith, faith in God's Word, faith in God's plan, bearing that precious seed. When you bear something, it takes labor, don't it? It's not easy. I've never bore anything that was really easy. It's always heavy, especially if you're really tired. I mean, listen, you can be really tired. Five pounds will feel like 50 pounds to you. They're bearing precious seed, but notice now the opportunity. Here's the opportunity God's gonna give them. Shall doubtless. Same terminology as verse five where he said shall reap. He said shall doubtless come again with rejoicing. You know what the psalmist is being reminded of and reminding us? There will come rejoicing again. There will come a harvest. There will come some fruition from your days of weeping if you'll just stay faithful, if you'll just keep sowing, if you'll just keep planting, if you'll just keep putting one foot in front of another. Somewhere down the road, we don't know the day or the hour, that's God's timing. Well, I wish it was short every time, but it's not short every time. But somewhere down the road, God said, there's gonna be rejoicing. And notice the outcome here, bringing his sheaves with him. Now, I want to show you a contrast here, and I'll finish this morning. You can imagine them coming back early fall. The land is dry from being parched during the summer, and there's weeds everywhere. You ever seen that dry ground that cracks out, that fallow ground? I mean, it's just hard and compact. And the Scripture talks about spiritually breaking up your fallow ground. You can throw seed on fallow ground. Birds is the only thing that's going to be helped with it. They're the only things that's going to get it. That seed's not going to get down in that ground. You've got to break it up. So they come back to that kind of atmosphere. They probably, some of them walk back into Jerusalem and say, wow. I don't know about all this. I don't know if we can handle this. But they put their hand to the plow. They sowed in tears. They broke up that ground. They were faithful in those dry months. They were faithful to the winter. And then along come the early spring, and after those rains, and after all the water began to come down and water those fields and all the grain began to grow, along come harvest time, barley harvest in early spring. Here comes somebody in with the first fruits. Here comes somebody in with the first harvest under their shoulder. And I'm telling you, they're skipping and they're jumping and they're shouting. They saw him coming probably from a half a mile away. I want you to look, I want you to look. God has blessed us, bringing his sheaves with him. God turned that thing around in the nation of Israel. I wonder how many times the Babylonians, wonder how many times the Sanballats and the Tobias and the Gesshams said, y'all are crazy. You'll never have another nation again. You've lost your mind. Matter of fact, Sam Ballett said when they started rebuilding the walls, early in the book of Nehemiah, Sam Ballett said, y'all messed up. Said a fox is going to run across that wall and knock it down. And in 52 days from the time they started, the walls were rebuilt again and the breaches were closed up. I'm telling you, that's what God can do. The world looked on and said, no way there'll ever be a nation again. The world's looked on for nearly 2,000 years at Israel and said, no way there'll ever be an amount to anything again. And in 1948, May of 1948, I believe it was. They became a nation again. God's prospering them. He's fighting their battles physically. God turned them around. And I'm glad there's a spiritual principle here for you and I. God can turn us around. He can turn our day of trouble. He can turn our sorrows, our captivity around. We do have some responsibility in that though. And if we'll exercise that responsibility and just walk daily doing what God's told us to do, I really believe according to the Scripture this morning, God will turn it around. Well, I hope this will help you this morning. It sure blessed my soul looking at this earlier this morning. I'm glad God wants to help us in these days. Let's stand, if you will.