If you would, please, let's open our Bibles to Psalm 126. Psalm 126. And this will be the sermon text for this morning's message. Just six brief verses, but of course, verses loaded with much truth. So Psalm 126. And as the title of it says, it is a song of ascents. So Psalm 126. Let's give attention to the reading of God's word, Psalm 126, beginning in verse one here. Now the word of God, when the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dream that our mouth was filled with laughter and our tongue with shouts of joy. Then they said among the nations, the Lord has done great things for them. The Lord has done great things for us. We are glad. Restore our fortunes, O Lord, like streams in the Negev. Those who sow in tears shall reap with shouts of joy. He who goes out weeping, bearing the seed for sowing, shall come home with shouts of joy, bringing his sheaves with him. May God add his blessing to this reading from his holy and inspired word. Let's bow together in a brief word of prayer. Let us pray. Father God, we give thanks that you are merciful and gracious to us. You do not treat us as our sins deserve, but rather you pour out your mercy in Christ by the Holy Spirit as he gives us eyes to see and ears to hear, as he opens our hearts and replaces the heart of stone with the heart of flesh. We pray, O Lord, that as you have given us the gift of faith, that you would continue to sanctify us, continue to manifest Christ in us, that you would continue, O Lord, to conform us unto his holy image, and that in so doing, you would bring glory to your name. Bless now the preaching of your word, not only in its delivery, O Lord, but in its reception. We pray and ask all of these things in Christ's name. Amen. As we've noted over the last several weeks, the Psalms of Ascent capture that pilgrimage that many Israelites would make each and every year as they would travel from the far most regions of the nation and make their way into the capital city of Jerusalem, and of course, make their way to the temple. And as they made their way to the temple, they would at last come to the final steps of their long journey as they would behold the symbolic building, that building that represented God's presence in Israel's midst. They would be filled, I suspect, with a great joy, perhaps not unlike a person who had been converted, who was in utter darkness, but then all of a sudden would have great light and They would know what it would mean to go from being alienated from the presence of God and at enmity with Him all of a sudden to being in His presence, a presence that imparted joy and mercy and love. This is, of course, how Martin Luther once described his own conversion when he said that if you mention the name of God, he would say, love God. I don't love God. I hate him. And it's because Luther was under the impression that God in no way was in any way merciful, but rather he was only a God of wrath and of judgment. And so Luther was always fearful at being in the presence of God. But when the Lord finally changed his heart and opened his eyes to the gospel, how does he describe it? He says, I felt as if I had been born anew and as if the gates of heaven had been opened. The whole of scripture gained new meaning. And from that point in the phrase, the justice of God no longer filled me with hatred, but rather became unspeakably sweet by virtue of a great love. So Luther here describes the great joy that he felt now at being in the presence of God after languishing in his sin and in receiving the gift of grace. In faith, he at last arrived into the presence of God, and he described it as if the gates of heaven itself were thrown open wide. And he was, of course, filled with a love, with a joy and praise for the triune God. Such is the nature of the spirit that the psalmist captures here in Psalm 126. We can say that he presents a many-layered psalm that casts rays of light into the New Testament, not only shining light upon the ministry of Christ and his own death and resurrection, but also rays of light that I think continue to cast the light of truth and the gospel and the grace upon us. So it begins thousands of years ago, but it casts its light not only into the ministry of Christ, but into our own lives, the light that finds its fulfillment in our own resurrection from the dead. And so we want to give thought and to see how these many layered lights shine, not only upon the ministry of Christ, but also upon us and how they all point us to the joy that should fill our hearts, not only at the prospects and the hope of the resurrection from the dead, but also at that last day when we will all be raised in Christ, where we will all be raised from the dead and unquestionably, undoubtedly filled with eternal praise and glory for our triune God. And so we want to do this under two headings. First, the idea of returning to Zion, and then secondly, in the theme of restoring our fortunes. So returning to Zion, and then secondly, restoring our fortunes. So let's give thought here as the psalmist describes the idea of returning to Zion and that our psalm was likely written in the wake of the restoration to the promised land. It was likely written in the times of Ezra and Nehemiah when the exiles returned from Babylon and their captivity there that they had dwelt there in that foreign land for some 70 years. Now, while they were living in Babylon, it was, of course, a time of peace for them. We read in Jeremiah 29, seven, but seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare, you will find your welfare. So they were in exile, they were living in Babylon, and it was, by God's blessing, a time of peace for them. But even though it was a time of peace, there were many faithful Israelites as they dwelt in Babylon, as they dwelt in exile, where they longed to return to the promised land. They were watching the clock. They were watching the seconds tick off. I can remember, you know, when I was younger in my childhood, I used to measure time by the minute. You know, I would sit there in class and I would look up, I can distinctly remember looking up at the clock and I couldn't wait for the clock to finally hit three o'clock so that I knew that I would be able to get out of school and I would be able to get home and to get on to more interesting things, right? And I could just remember watching it and the clock would just, and then it would tick and then another 60 seconds would go by and You know, and it would click, and so I would watch that intently, minute by minute. There's a sense in which this is how the faithful Israelites in Babylon looked upon the calendar. Daniel, for example, in Daniel chapter nine, verse two, he says, in the first reign of Darius, I, Daniel, perceived in the books the number of the years that according to the word of the Lord and Jeremiah the prophet, must pass before the end of the desolations of Jerusalem, namely 70 years. So he was watching the clock. He knew that God was gonna restore them to the land after 70 years, and he couldn't wait. He couldn't wait. And so as you can imagine, returning home brought him and the others who eventually were able to return home great joy and happiness, a happiness that we see recorded here in verse one. When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dream. We were like those who dream. I suspect all of us at one point or another have had dreams where we simply do not want to wake up because they're filled with joy. You know, in my own life, there have been times in the past couple of years where I've had dreams that I'm talking with my father. My father died some two and a half years ago. And it's a joyful thing to be able to see him in a dream. I know it's a dream, but it's still a joyful thing. And yet this is how the Israelites who returned, they thought they were in a dream. You know, how many of us have had those experiences where you're in the midst of something and you have to literally ask yourself, am I awake? Is this real? I can remember a number of years ago, my wife and I took a trip and we went to China. And it was very surreal for me because, you know, we started off the day in the United States. We flew from Atlanta to Detroit and then we got on the plane to Detroit. And, yes, it was a long journey across. It took, you know, I don't know, 16 however many hours it did. And then we finally arrived and our handler took us to the hotel and he said, we've set up some sightseeing for you. And so we got into the cabin. We went off, and there we were, seemingly not that much longer after we had left, and we were standing on the Great Wall of China. You know, I had to stand there, and it was surreal for a moment, because here we were, standing in a place that I had only read about. I had only seen pictures of it. And yet now, here we were, on the Great Wall of China. And I had to stop for a moment, and I had to say, is this real? It seemed surreal. Well, this is how it was for the Israelites. Now they were back in the land. The people were once a byword, a punchline at the end of a joke. They were considered inferior by the nations and certainly by their Babylonian captors. And yet when they returned to the land, it's as if they were dreaming. They had to pinch themselves to make sure that they were awake. But at the same time, they did not come back to the land by their own power. They recognized that it was the blessing of God that they were enjoying, that God himself had brought them back to the land. Jeremiah chapter 30, verse three, for behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will restore the fortunes of my people, Israel and Judah, says the Lord, I will bring them back to the land that I gave to their fathers and they shall take possession of it. It's as if they said, finally, we're back. The Lord has fulfilled his promise. It's almost as if we're in the midst of a dream. And so it says in verses two and three, then our mouth was filled with laughter and our tongue with shouts of joy. Then they said among the nations, the Lord has done great things for them. The Lord has done great things for us. We are glad. They were so happy. They were filled with laughter. Have you ever had such a joyous occasion that you're filled with great laughter? that you just have to laugh and cheer? I can remember getting word that I had submitted a proposal for a book to a publisher, and this was a publisher that I really wanted to get in with, and I got an email. I had to run and close my door, and I yelled. So much so that an office mate on the other side of the wall in the hallway was like, are you okay? I heard you yelling and I was like, hey, I was just cheering because I finally got something that I would really work for. I suspect that this is the type of joy that filled Job's heart. Job 42.10, and the Lord restored the fortunes of Job when he had prayed for his friends, and the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before. Job went from the ash heap back to the luxury, the comfort, and the joys of knowing God's presence, and having family, and having his wealth restored to him. I suspect he was filled with songs of praise and joy. Well, this kind of joy of having this great reversal of being in exile and then being restored and almost seeming as if you're in the midst of the dream, I suspect this is the same type of swing in emotion that the disciples themselves experienced on the heels of the death and then the resurrection of Christ. And I think that this is what the psalmist is ultimately talking about, because if you remember in the prophet Ezekiel, in the prophet Ezekiel, the prophet characterized the nation's exile as being in a state of death, being in an exilic graveyard. And so as God brought the prophet Ezekiel, he looks out upon the nation and all he sees is a valley of dry bones because they're in exile. Ezekiel 37, 10, so I prophesied as he commanded me and the spirit came into them and they lived and they stood on their feet exceedingly, a great army. And what did God say about the people in coming back from exile, raising them from the state of exilic death to life? And I will put my spirit within you, the prophet says in Ezekiel 37, 14, and you shall live and I shall place you in your own land. Then you shall know that I am Lord, I have spoken and I will do it, declares the Lord. The psalmist is talking about the joy of being resurrected from the state of exilic death. being in exile, being in Babylon, being dead, and then being raised back to life as God places them back in the land. This is foreshadowing ultimately of the resurrection of Christ and the joy that the people of God would know on the heels of Christ's resurrection. Think therefore of the utter despair and distress that mark the disciples. and then think of their sheer joy when they realized that Christ was alive. Jesus himself tells them in Luke 24, verses 38 and following, why are you troubled? And why do doubts arise in your heart? See my hands and my feet that it is I myself, touch me and see. For a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have. And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet, and while they still disbelieved for joy and were marveling, they couldn't believe it. Jesus had to say, touch me, I'm real. It must have been utterly surreal for them to have seen Jesus suffering, dying, knowing that he was buried in the tomb. You remember when the angel rolled back the tomb and the disciples finally got word, Peter had to go in and he had to look, he had to see, because he couldn't quite believe it. So they had to pinch themselves to ensure that they weren't dreaming. Moreover, given that Christ didn't abandon them, when they had abandoned him in his darkest hour. The words of verse three certainly, I suspect, describe their experience. Verse three, the Lord has done great things for us. We are glad. I think that this is the type of joy and feeling that we should all have to a certain extent, feeling as if we're in a dream and that it's not unlike a person's regeneration. Think of it as Luther or as any of us or family members or friends that we know, if a person has no love for God whatsoever, and then all of a sudden they have a great desire to worship Christ, they're acting in a completely different way. You know, to use the words of John Newton's famous hymn, I once was lost, but now I'm found, was blind, but now I see. This is certainly true for those who have prayed for the salvation of a friend or a loved one. What does Jesus say about the angels in Luke 15 10? When somebody rejoices and turns from sin to Christ, I tell you there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents. So here notice these multiple layers is that the psalmist is talking about the joy of returning to Jerusalem from exile, something that the prophets characterize as resurrection. As this shines the light of revelation into the New Testament ministry of Christ, it's foreshadowing of Christ's own death and his resurrection and the joy that the disciples undoubtedly experienced on the heels of that great event. But it also shines light upon us and the joy that we should know as Christ raises us from spiritual death to life. And as he fills our hearts with love for him, with life from him and with great joy in knowing that we were once lost, but now that we are found. But as we return to the original context here in Psalm 126, I think we know that memory of God's mercy and returning to the land caused them to look forward and to hope for an even greater blessing to come. And so this turns us to our second and final point, which is the restoration of our fortunes. The psalmist turns his attention to the future. There's so much of this that goes on in the scriptures where faithful Israelites look back to the past to see what God has done, how he has been faithful in the past, and how that informs them for the present, and how they know that God will do great things yet to come. And so this is why the psalmist writes in verse four, restore our fortunes, O Lord, like streams in the Negev. So I think there's, we can think of this in that they returned to the promised land. They were filled with joy. It seemed as if they were in a dream. And then after the joy maybe settled a little bit, they began to look around and they began to see the destruction that had been wrought by the Babylonians in the land. They looked upon the destroyed temple, how it lay in rubble. It was just, you know, in pieces. And so they eventually went back and went about the work of rebuilding the temple. They wanted to restore the edifice that would manifest God's very presence in their midst. And so they finished the temple. They finished rebuilding it. And yet what happened as Israelites who had seen the original Solomonic temple and how they compared it to the temple that they had built? We read in Ezra chapter three, verses 12 and following, but many of the priests and Levites and heads of the father's houses, old men who had seen the first house, wept with a loud voice when they saw the foundation of this house being laid. They recognized that this temple was paled in comparison with the glories of the Solomonic temple. And so while the psalmist rejoices at returning to the land, he knew that there were still greater yet blessings to come. God had promised them greater things in salvation. And so he calls upon God to restore their fortunes like streams in the Negev. Now, what does that mean? Well, the Negev is one of the southernmost regions in Israel, and it is incredibly dry. so that when Joshua was given a portion of the Negev, he also asked that he would have rights to wells for water because it was so dry. And so when it rains very heavily in that land and in that region, what you get is you get beautiful desert blooms. One of the things that the wife and the kids used to do is she used to say, because they were homeschooled and so they had a pretty flexible schedule, today we're going to go out to the desert to see the desert blooms. Because there would have been heavy rains out in the desert. And you would look, and the once barren, dry, khaki-like sands that spread all over the place, and the dry, baked clay, and everything that you see in the desert would be covered in blankets of flowers of every kind of imaginable color and hue. Reds and golds and purples and pinks and yellows, just as far as the eye can see. And so the once parched land would look like a rainbow exploded across the landscape. A place of death would now look as if it was a place abundant with life. And so this is the thing that the psalmist is saying, make the dryness of our existence like the streams in the Negev that flow because of the rains that you send and that cause life to burst forth from the once parched land. And this is something that comes about and it is prophesied even in Isaiah. When Isaiah says this in Isaiah 32 verses 15 and 16, he says, until the spirit is poured out upon us on high and the wilderness becomes a fruitful field and the fruitful field is deemed a forest, then justice will dwell in the wilderness and righteousness abide in the fruitful field. So the psalmist is ultimately looking forward to the outpouring of the spirit and the restoration of Israel's fortunes, like the outpouring of rain that causes the beautiful desert blooms. And so what does the psalmist describe things as here? He describes their sense of longing. He says in verse five, those who sow in tears shall reap with shouts of joy. The psalmist knows that if God has brought them back to the land and he has done so in his grace and in his mercy, that it is only he who can restore their fortunes. It is only he who can turn their suffering into joy, their tears of mourning into tears of gladness. And as he returned them to the land, he was able to give them the ultimate blessings of salvation. I can't help but think that this is in part where the Apostle Paul draws his language about the imagery of resurrection. He says in very similar language, you know, the Psalmist says, those who sow in tears will reap with shouts of joy. Paul writes this in 1 Corinthians 15 verses 42 and following, what is sown is perishable. What is raised is imperishable. It is sown in dishonor. It is raised in glory here as he speaks of the bodies that are buried in the ground. It is sown in weakness. It is raised in power. It is sown a natural body. It is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. I suspect that most of us or many of us have stood beside the grave of a loved one. Maybe perhaps on that day of burial, you know, I can remember doing one service for a family member and it was in one sense from, I suspect, from the standpoint of the world a pathetic sight. It was a pathetic sight from one standpoint because there we were, it was raining cats and dogs. We were under a small tent and there were three family members, myself, and then maybe four or five others. off on a hill in a graveyard, and there was the casket. And so you just, if you looked with the eyes of the flesh, all you saw was seven or eight people sitting under a tent, getting soaked on a very dreary day as we gathered together to inter a loved one. And there were tears that were shed that day. And moreover, I suspect that we could certainly characterize that burial in the same way that the Apostle Paul does when he says, we buried that family member in weakness and in death. The family that was gathered there were sowing tears. And yet, as I preached that burial service, I reminded us all of these very words from the Apostle Paul, what is sown is perishable. What is raised is imperishable. We sow the bodies of our loved ones in the hope and in the joy of the resurrection to come. In the words of Gerhardus Voss, he says this, ever since the angels descended into the tomb, the symbolism of burial has been radically changed. From this moment onward, every last resting place where bodies of believers are laid is a furrow in that great harvest field of Christ. Whence heaven draws upward into light, each seed sunk into it. Whence Christ himself was raised, the first fruits of them that sleep. We're not burying someone so much as we are planting them. That changes things dramatically. And we plant them in dishonor. We plant them in weakness. We sow them in sadness. But our sadness shall give way to joy. Our weakness shall give way to strength. The death will give way to eternal life. And this is why the psalmist writes in verse six, he who goes out weeping, bearing the seed for sowing shall come home with shouts of joy, bringing his sheaves with him. We sow in weakness and in tears, but we will come home in joy with songs of praise. As Jesus himself says in John 16 20, truly, truly, I say to you, you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice. You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn into joy. In the words of one prayer, one Puritan prayer, give me the assurance that in Christ I died, in him I rose, in this life I live, in his victory I triumph, in his ascension I shall be glorified. Adorable Redeemer, thou who was lifted upon a cross, art ascended to the highest heavens. Thou who as a man of sorrows was crowned with thorns, art now as Lord of life wreathed with glory. Once no shame more than deep than mine, no agony more bitter, no death more cruel, now no exaltation more high, no life more glorious, no advocate more effective. Thou art in the triumph cart leading captive thine enemies behind thee. What more could be done than thou hast done? Thy death is my life, thy resurrection my peace, thy ascension my hope, thy prayers my comfort. We will be filled with the joys described here in Psalm 126. We will sow our tears in mourning, but we shall reap a harvest of joy at the resurrection. In the wake of the resurrection and in the wake of our glorification, we will know nothing but complete and unfettered joy. I suspect many of us will sit there, start pinching ourselves saying, is this real? Are we truly raised? Are we truly beholding Christ with our eyes rather than the eyes of faith? More so than this, as we read in the book of Revelation, chapter 21, verse four, Jesus will wipe away every tear from our eyes and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away. Our tears of sorrow will become tears of joy, happiness, and praise for our triune God. Beloved, when we finally walk through the gates of Zion, I suspect we will be like those who dream. But blessedly, we will never awake from this dream, for it will be our new life in the new heavens and the new earth. Our mouths will be filled with laughter and our tongues with shouts for joy. We will tell one another in word and in song, as we see here in verse three, the Lord has done great things for us, we are glad. The cool, crisp air of the new creation will fill our lungs, and we will worship before the throne of the Lamb. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty, who was and is and is to come. Worthy are you, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created. But beloved saints in Christ, Remember, we do not have to wait until that day to be filled with words of praise and song. We can tell one another now, the Lord has done great things for us. We are glad. We can rejoice with laughter and shouts of joy for what the Lord has given us now. So rejoice. And of course, we can continue with the words of Paul and his cry, Maranatha, come quickly, Lord Jesus. We can say, restore our fortunes, O Lord, like streams in the Negev. But O Lord, we can give you thanks now. We can say, O Lord, you have done great things for us, and we are glad. Let's bow together in a word of prayer. Father God, we are grateful and give you thanks for indeed you have restored our fortunes. You have given us, oh Lord, so much in our salvation in Christ. We were once, we're lost, but now we're found. We were blind, but now we see. And so we are like those who are in a dream. We have to pinch ourselves sometimes to think, oh Lord, have indeed you truly blessed us like this? Is this real? Are we privileged to be counted among your people? Lord, we give you thanks for these tremendous and wonderful blessings that you have given us in Christ, in the gospel of his love, through the application and outpouring of your Holy Spirit. We give you thanks for the forgiveness of our sins. We give you thanks for your all-caring providence. We give you thanks for the many, many temporal blessings and mercies that you give us. But oh Lord, we pray that you would restore our fortunes. Give us faith, and though we may sow our tears and mourning as we watch loved ones die, though we may sow our tears and mourning knowing that death comes for us all, though we sow our tears and mourning as we know, oh Lord, that we sin and we lose heart and we lose hope, Restore the strength that we need through faith. Restore our hope. Help us to remember, O Lord, that though we may sow those tears in mourning, that you shall transform them into tears of joy. You shall wipe away every tear when on the last day the trumpet blast shall sound and the dead in Christ will be raised and we shall all join Him in the air and we shall all be reunited before the throne. We shall behold you in the face of Christ And we shall worship in your presence all gathered together, saints from the past, saints from the present. Oh, Lord. And even from this standpoint, saints yet to be born. We rejoice in that hope. Make it real, Lord Maranatha. Come quickly, Lord Jesus. But until that day. Fill our hearts with praise and thanksgiving even now, that we would give thanks for all you have done for us in Christ through the Spirit. We pray and ask all of these things in Christ's precious and holy name. Amen.