Well, good evening, everyone. We're glad you're here tonight. Thank you for coming out in the middle of the week. If you'd open your Bibles to Psalm 126, please. Psalm 126. And here's what the text says. When the Lord brought back the captive ones of Zion, we were like those who dream. Then our mouth was filled with laughter. and our tongue with joyful shouting, 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 captivity, O Lord, as the streams in the south, those who sow in tears shall reap with joyful shouting. He who goes to and fro weeping, carry his bag of seed, shall indeed come again with a shout of joy, bringing his sheaves with him. Our Father, we thank you so much for your precious word, and we thank you for your people who are here to partake of it tonight. Lord, we pray that this psalm would minister to our minds and hearts, and we pray we'd glean things from it. We'll thank you for that. In Jesus' name, amen. This is certainly anything but a happy world. No matter what we really look at as far as what's in this world, there's not a lot of joy in it. I watched some of the memorial service a couple of weeks ago for Cassius Clay. What a religious sham that was. It was totally depressing. no truth about Jesus Christ anywhere to be found, a bunch of religious nonsense, and then you think of some of the great men of God who go to be with the Lord and nobody seems to even care. I mean, this is just a very sad, sad world. There's a song that was written back in the 1930s that has been used, ironically, for presidential campaigns. It's the name of a movie. It's rated number 47 in the list of greatest American songs. And the song is, Happy Days Are Here Again. And that song reflects well the theme of Psalm 126, because there will come a day when happy days will be in this world and happy days are going to exist forever in Israel. Now, she sure can't sing that song now. I mean, when you look at the nation Israel, there's no theme of joy and happiness. In fact, joy and happiness are not the theme. Survival is the theme right now. But there is coming a day predicted that she will be singing joyfully, happy days are here again. Now Psalm 126 is a psalm of ascents. It's a psalm that predicts that there will come a day when Israel will be able to go up to that temple, ascend up to the temple, and worship with great happiness and joy, the people of God will one day be experiencing all of the bliss that they can experience. And when you look down through these six verses, you can't help but notice how many words refer to the theme of joy and happiness and gladness. I mean, those words show up multiple times, verse 2, verse 3, verse 5, and verse 6. So the main part of the psalm is not too difficult to ascertain. There's going to come a day when God will do great and awesome things for Israel that will leave her shouting for joy. That's the crux of this psalm. There will come a day when God will do great and wonderful things for Israel that will leave her shouting for joy. There's coming a day when he's going to regather Israel. There's coming a day when he's going to bring her to that land. He's going to fulfill everything he's promised to fulfill for her. She will never again be subservient to any other nation or anybody for that matter. And when that all happens, she will be seen and known as the great nation of God. And finally, she will be nationally happy. And this psalm not only predicts that's going to happen, it tells exactly what things will be like when God finally does all of these things for Israel. Now, verse 1 says of the psalm, when the Lord brought back the captive ones of Zion, we were like those who were in a dream. Verse 1 tells the history of Israel. I mean, the first part of that verse sums it all up. Israel is chased out of the land. Israel has never been at peace in the land. She's never enjoyed the full blessings of God in the land. And the Lord is the one who is going to one day bring her back. I mean, that's how the verse begins. The Lord is going to bring her back to the land, regather her and put her in the land. And when the text says, when the Lord brought back the captive ones, it's communicating that there's coming a day when God is literally going to round up the entire nation of Israel from all the corners of the earth, and he's going to bring them in a wonderful gathering to the land that he's promised to give her, and from all corners of the world, Israel will be brought to a land where she belongs. Now Christ when he was here specifically talked about that. I would like you to go over to Matthew chapter 24. Matthew chapter 24. And we learn exactly when this is going to happen. Matthew chapter 24 and I draw your attention to verse 29 Matthew 24 29 what we read in that text is but immediately after the tribulation so this is right after the tribulation is over after the tribulation of those days the Sun will be dark and the moon will not give its light the stars will fall from the sky and the powers of the heavens will be shaken and then the sign of the son of man will appear in the sky and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn and they will see the son of man coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory and he will send forth his angels with a great trumpet and they will gather together his elect That's referring to Israel from the four winds from one end of the sky to the other. So Jesus Christ says, right after the tribulation, I'm coming back. And I'm going to come back at the end of the tribulation. One of the first things I'm going to do is I'm going to gather up my people from all over the world. Those of my people who've been held captive and they've been chased out of the land, they're going to be come back and I'm going to gather them and bring them right into their land. So God's nation is described here as being captive's ones and when you think about that, the Lord brought back the captive ones of Zion, that adjectival description should have never been used of Israel. You should never read about Israel, she's a captive nation. She's God's nation. She should be just as the greatest nation on earth, the freest nation on earth. She should be the most blessed nation on earth. This is God's nation. This is the apple of his eye. Why has she been taken captain? Why would God permit her to be taken out of her land? Because of her rebellion. because she will not face her sin. When Christ came to his own, his own received him not. They have continued to reject Jesus Christ as Messiah. As a result of that, he's allowed horrific things to happen to her. But this is a happy psalm in that he says, there'll come a day when I'm going to turn all that around. I will bring Israel back to the land. Zion not only refers to bringing her back to the land of Israel, it also refers to bringing her back to Jerusalem, the key city of Israel, and also bringing her back to the temple which actually sits on Mount Zion. Now I don't know how many of you receive Israel My Glory, but if you have the latest Israel My Glory, which is the July-August edition, there's an article in there about how Arabs are trying to remove Israel from having any access to the Temple Mount or any access to the Wailing Wall, which basically is a remnant of the old Temple complex. And the Muslims that are trying to prevent Israel from having access to this are saying they're lying and they're basically saying Israel has no connection to this property at all. In fact, they're going so far as to say this is really a sacred property of Mohammed. I mean, this is just, that Islam is just a bunch of hogwash lies. That's all it is. And by the way, don't let any politician kid you that Islam, it is a religion that promotes peace. It does not. It does not. I've read multiple pages of the Quran. Islam is a religion that promotes, you get rid of the infidels. And so when these politicians are trying to color this up or cover this up, they're lying to you. It is not true. Islam is not a religion of peace. It's a religion that will kill every American and kill every Jew if they get the opportunity. And even though they pretend to be so peaceful, that's the reality of what the Quran actually teaches. So I don't believe that for one second. Now, the reason why they're trying to keep Israel out of the temple area now is it's satanic. This is her land. That's her sacred spot. I mean, this is where she's supposed to be able to go and worship God. And God says, there's coming a day when I'm going to bring those captive ones back to Zion. Well, if he were to do that right now, there's not even a temple there. I mean, how would they ascend up to a temple when there isn't even a temple there? You have a wailing wall. That's basically what's left of the complex today. Well, what that tells us is something amazing has to happen if this is going to happen. I mean, God would actually have to, that temple would have to be rebuilt. God would have to do something amazing to get those Arabs out of there. and then ultimately bring his nation back to Israel, bring his nation Israel back to this very spot where they could worship the Lord. And that is the prediction of this psalm. And the psalm says, when this happens, we're going to be shouting for joy. That's the point of it. When God does this, this nation is going to be shouting. for joy. Now there are two parts to the psalm that I want to show you. First of all, there's the description of the attitude Israel will have when God restores her in verses 1 to 3. Now what is described in these verses? Is just what things gonna be like just it's imagine you're israel And all israelis are brought from all over the world to this place and they say now you can enjoy your worship. You can enjoy your land Uh, just imagine what it's going to be like. Well, we have it described here The first attitude you'll have is she will think she's dreaming notice what verse one says we were like those who dream and Now that language is language that describes the fact that the people are so amazed by what God has done. They're so overwhelmed with what God has done, it's like they're dreaming. I mean, this is the ultimate dream come true for a Jewish person. I mean, this is the ultimate dream come true for Israel. When God blesses His people, gathers them from all over the world, takes them back to Jerusalem, where they can worship Him in a temple and His presence is there, it's going to be like a dream. In fact, the entire millennial kingdom for Israel is going to be like living in a dream world. You know, sometimes we humorously say, when someone asks us how we're doing, well, we're living the dream. How's it going today? We're living the dream. Well, for believers, there will come a day when that saying will be the true saying. It will be that way. Believers will be living the dream every day, all eternity. All of our dreams will come true. Now, I think of a great illustration that came out of the book of Isaiah, and you'll remember. that Sennacherib had taken the Assyrians to destroy Israel and ultimately they were going to, they surrounded the city of Jerusalem and they were going to wipe it out and the night before they were going to do it, God, as those soldiers went to sleep, killed them. 185,000 of them died in their sleep. I mean, that's what we read in Isaiah 37. So when you got up the next day, if you were an Israeli, that would be like a dream come true. I mean, you go to bed the night before, the city's surrounded by the Assyrians who claim, come daylight, we're going to kill you all. We're going to destroy the city. We're going to destroy everything. and you get up the next morning and they're all dead. I mean, that would be like a dream come true. That is exactly what things are going to be like on a worldwide scale for Israel when this is fulfilled. Israel will all of a sudden be brought back to her land and she'll think, I'm dreaming. The second attitude she'll have is laughter. Notice verse 2, then our mouth was filled with laughter. When you read news about Israel today, there's no laughter. There's not much to laugh about. In fact, when you watch the news in our city, there's not much to laugh about either. If you are a believer, you see all kinds of things that just make you shake your head and cry. There are things you see that make you sick. You can't even believe some of the stuff that you see. is so lousy. But there's coming a day when God says, I want you to know my people one day are going to be laughing. My people will be enjoying an existence that will be happy and joyful, and they will be laughing. The third attitude is they will have joyful shouting. Notice verse two, and our tongue with joyful shouting. Now, this idea of joyful shouting is mentioned three times in the psalm. It's mentioned in verse two, it's mentioned again in verse five, those who sow in tears shall reap with joyful shouting. It's mentioned again in verse six, he shall indeed come again with a shout of joy. So this obviously is a major theme And this is describing a time when Israel as a nation has a national moment which he can just shout for joy. I mean, what a wonderful day. One day Israel will be laughing and shouting for joy. If you were to go to Israel now and say this to the Jewish people, You know, there's coming a day when you're going to be controlling all this land. I mean, all the way up the Mediterranean, all the way up the Euphrates that are now controlled by your Arab enemies. You're going to control it all and you're going to be laughing and shouting for joy. They would say, you must be dreaming. It is a dream. It's a dream that's going to come true. and that's exactly the essence of Psalm 126. Which brings us to the fourth attitude. Israel will make a statement to the nations. Now notice at the end of verse two. Then they said among the nations, the Lord has done great things for them. The Lord has done great things for us. There will come a day when Israel will be the great evangelistic nation of God. There will come a day when the nations of the world will look at Israel and say, man, God has done great things for that nation. The nations of the world will be saying that. Hell, the nations of the world sure don't say that today. I mean, they look at Israel, and nobody's saying, well, God has sure done great things for Israel. They're not saying that now. But it is predicted there will come a time when she will say it. Her mouth and her tongue will be testifying of the greatness of God to all the nations of the world and the nations will see what God has done the great things he's done and the specific statement that will be made among the nations and the specific statement that will be made by Israel herself as God has done great things for his people that's the state now this is the statement we ought to be making now and she ought to be making but frankly, it doesn't look like God is anywhere to be seen. She's certainly not boasting of this now. And when you hear anything about Israel on the news, you're never going to hear anybody say, boy, God has sure done great things for that nation. You don't hear that. All you hear is about trouble and turmoil. You hear about problems. You hear about land issues. Nobody there is testifying of the greatness of God at the present time. But there's coming a day When they will, it is predicted in scripture that all the nations are going to look at that nation and go, God has done great things for those people. And you know, I think there's an application that we can make in the New Testament grace age, because that really should be the testimony that we present to the unsaved world. The unsaved world should be able to look at us and say, boy, God's done something for them. And we should be testifying of that. I mean, we should be testifying, the Lord has done great things for us. We should be joyfully testifying about that. Our sins are gone. My guilt is gone. God has blessed us. And by the way, it is interesting to point out that joy is found in the Lord. That's where happiness is found. It's not found in this world. There's not a lot of happiness at all in this world, but it's found in the Lord. And I think we should be making sure that we are testifying of what we've seen God do. I think that becomes part of our evangelistic responsibility, testifying of the things we've seen God do for us. Now, some believers are always looking on the dark side of everything. And when you look at them or when you listen to them, You don't ever hear them making great statements for the greatness of God. You just don't hear it. They're always testifying of their problems, almost as if God is dead and doesn't deliver them from anything. The fact of the matter is we should be people who are testifying of all the wonderful things we've seen God do. I mean, that is part of our responsibility, to be a witness for all of the great things we've seen the Lord do. He's done it for us in grace, but that is our job. There's coming a day when Israel nationally will be doing that. There's coming a day when Israel as a nation will be testifying of that. And her fifth attitude is she'll be glad. Verse 3 says, we are glad. Just imagine that, a time when that's the testimony of the whole nation of Israel. We're glad. We're happy. We're joyful. We're rejoicing. No more sorrow, no more sadness. The entire nation is glad. Now that brings us to the second part of the psalm. And the second part of the psalm is the description of the attitude of Israel when God answers Israel's prayers. Notice verse 4, Restore our captivity, O Lord, as the streams in the south. Those who sow in tears shall reap with joyful shouting. He who goes to and fro weeping, carrying his bag of seed, shall indeed come again with a shout of joy, bringing his sheaves with him. Now the assumption that we can make in light of verse four, restore our captivity, O Lord, is that God's people are praying about that. I mean, that is the essence of it. the writer is asking God to restore them from captivity and when Jesus was here he predicted there will come a day when the entire nation will cry out to me for deliverance. There's going to come a day when Israel as a nation will cry out to me for a national restoration. We know from studying eschatology that it will take the tribulation that we saw when we referred to it a little earlier in the study tonight, it will take the tribulation to ultimately bring Israel to the point where she cries out to the Lord for salvation and for deliverance. And the prayer to God for Him to restore Israel is to restore us and bring us back to our land as the streams in the south. Now, the streams in the south are almost non-existent. The south of Israel is a bunch of dry ground. It's a lot of dry land, for the most part, and it gets worse in the summer. I mean, the summer heat dries up what little puddles you have. But when God sends his rain, When God sends his way, he can turn those dry places around in a heartbeat. There's an interesting description that we saw in the book of Isaiah. Go over to Isaiah 35 for just a moment. Isaiah 35 is an interesting description that really is applicable here. Isaiah 35. And this talks about the land that's south of Jerusalem. It's talking about the land of the south. And we read in Isaiah 35, the wilderness, verse 1, Isaiah 35, 1, the wilderness and the desert will be glad and the araba will rejoice and blossom like the crocus it will blossom profusely and rejoice with rejoicing and shout of joy the glory of lebanon will be given to it the majesty of carmel and sharon and they will see the glory of the lord the majesty of our god it's described there that there will come a day when god is basically going to turn the desert into a fruit-bearing, flower-bearing rose that's gorgeous. And I think that's what this psalmist has in mind. He's thinking about the fact when God is ultimately going to turn that land into a fruit production of land. He's talking about the moment when the drought nationally will be over. He's talking about a time when God is going to so reverse things as to what is happening in Israel that His blessings will come like the pouring rain. And probably, when he's writing this, they were literally experiencing some form of drought. Nothing was being watered. Nothing was growing. But the prayer, Restore Our Captivity, is in a context of asking God to turn the situation around. turn the situation around lord and turn our dryness into into wonderful refreshing fruit bearing world allow the desert to blossom as a rose i mean that basically is what this this prayer is now having said that there are two reactions that are presented to one who prays two reactions to one who prays notice verse five those who sow in tears shall reap with joyful shouting. Those who sow in tears will end up with joyful shouting. You know, there's a time for you to get alone with God and pray and shed tears. This is not some public emotional display of anything as far as I can tell, but there is a time for emotional praying. You know, as near as I can determine, the Lord Jesus Christ shed tears at least three times. The most familiar one, of course, was when there was that unbelief when he went to Lazarus' tomb and he saw the unbelief of the people and he wept there. But there's another one in Luke 19, if you want to see it. Luke 19. In verse 41, in Luke 19, 41, we read, and when he approached Jerusalem, He saw the city and he wept over it, so he shed tears over the unbelief around Lazarus, which was the unbelief of his own people. He shed tears for the nation Israel when he looked at Jerusalem and saw and realized what could have been. And then in Mark 15, 34, In Mark 15, 34, you have another interesting Greek word that's used there that would seem to imply shed tears. In Mark 15, 34, we read, at the ninth hour, Jesus cried out with a loud voice, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani, which is translated, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? The particular word there that's used for cry out is not the normal one that we think of for crying out loudly, although it was crying out loudly, this is bolao, which is a particular Greek word that would seem to imply this was very emotional with tears. So the Lord, he's crying once because of the unbelief of his own people, he's crying once for the unbelief of the nation Israel, and he's crying once for the fact that he was laying down his life for the sins of the world. And in the end, He'll be shouting for joy over all three of those because ultimately his family will come to believe in him. The nation Israel is going to be restored and the world, all those of the world who are going to come to Christ will come to Christ. So those who sow in tears will end up with joyful shouting. You may be doing a lot of planting right now and you don't see a lot of harvest. You may see a lot of barren things that are going on right now, but you stay believing God, you stay talking to God, you keep, as it were, praying to the Lord even at times when you're shedding tears and you'll end up with joyful shouting. The second reaction is those who sow seed and tears will reap great fruit and joy. Verse 6, he who goes to and fro weeping carrying his bag of seeds shall indeed come again with a shout of joy bringing his sheaves with him. The job that we have is sow that seed. And you can't just sow it with a cold heart. Our responsibility is to sow that seed. That's our job. And as we're sowing the seed, ultimately, we reap. That's the point. So, when the day comes that Israel is in the land, and the day comes that all the nations of the world are looking at her and saying, what great things God has done for her, And the day comes when she is joyfully shouting, and all the fruit has finally been born, and everything is blossoming and functioning the way it should be. It will be like a dream. It'll be like a dream come true. But as we are here tonight, that dream will come true because of Psalm 126. That's what the text is teaching, and our time is gone. So thank you for coming.