Psalm 126 - by Matthew Westerholm
I spoke in Southern’s chapel this month on Psalm 126. Several students and faculty thanked me for my message, so I thought I’d share it here. If you’d like to watch the message instead of read it, you can always do that.
Let’s examine Psalm 126 using three questions. The first question is “When?” That provides some context. The second question asks, “What does the Psalm mean?” That provides some interpretation. And a third question provides some application: “What does this mean for us?”
Let’s begin with the first question, “When”. Notice that first word of our Psalm this morning: “When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion.” Commentators disagree about the specific time and occasion this psalm refers to.
In his book, The Songs of Ascent, David Mitchell argues that David collected Psalm 126 along with other psalms of ascent for the dedication of the temple. Other commentators claim Psalm 126 was written much later. In his book, How to Read and Understand the Psalms, Bruce Waltke suggests that Psalm 126 was a part of post-exile editing because he sees clear references to the return from exile here in verse one. Older Hebrew translators interpret verse one as “brought back the captivity.” Perhaps that’s what your translation says. Newer translations use the phrase “restored the fortunes of Zion,” and this reflects the disagreement among commentators.[1]
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There is tension among the commentators, and there is tension in the text. We are trying to answer “the when question,” but we feel the disorienting chronology as we look at our text. The song begins with words of praise, describing how God had restored the fortunes of Zion. The Psalm describes joy and celebration, mouths filled with laughter, tongues filled with shouts of joy, and nations rising up with testimonies of the great things the Lord had done. So far, so good.
Or as the Old Testament musicians might say, shofar, show good.
But then, feel the disorientation in verses 4 through 6. Even though verse 1 described how the Lord restored Zion’s fortunes (in the past tense), verse 4 cries out to the Lord to restore fortunes in the future. If I were working at the Southern Seminary or Boyce College Writing Center and a student submitted this Psalm for review, I might send it back for editing. My comment in red marker across the top would read, “Disorienting: This suffers from chronological confusion.”
In my editorial brain, to my songwriting sensibilities, it seems more logical for the psalm to begin with verse 4. Hey psalm writer, Try this instead: begin with the prayer to God to restore our fortunes, and then conclude by celebrating how He answered that prayer.
There are many Psalms that are arranged by that chronological logic. Psalm 22 and 69, for example, begin with a prayer for deliverance and conclude by celebrating the Lord’s deliverance. But this psalm seemingly reverses that order (and spoiler alert, so do several other psalms). God has restored our fortunes, and we pray that He would restore our fortunes. The Psalm begins with praise and ends with a prayer. The chronology on this is disorienting. When are we talking about? It feels like to really understand this psalm, we need to dig further.
Perhaps we can gain some clarity as we consider our second question, What does the Psalm mean? Begin in verse one: “When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion.” Here, the Psalm refers to the entire nation of Israel, to all of God’s people by referring to its capital. In poetry, this is called a metonym, referring to the whole by naming a part. Notice, though, that by naming “Zion” instead of the political capital of Jerusalem, the psalmist seems to emphasize the spiritual nature of God’s nation, the covenantal nature of God’s people.
Moving to the rest of verse one, we see the phrase, “We were like those who dream.” When God restored His people’s fortunes, the people felt like they were dreaming. Does that indicate a sense of disbelief? Of profound wonder? Some commentators see this dream language as a clue that the psalmist may be imagining a future restoration.
Whatever it indicates, we see that the relief of the dream overflows into joy. Look at verse 2: “Then our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongue with shouts of joy.” In his commentary on this passage, Alan Ross says that the words translated “laughter” and “joy” are both victory shouts in war and cries of lamentation. It is identified, he writes, with “the sound made by flicking the tongue from side to side in the mouth and shrieking or crying out as loud as possible.” I will not demonstrate.
The joy is exuberant. It’s the joy of people who have arrived. If you’ve read much Augustine, you’ll recognize that this is one his favorite metaphors. In his sermon on this passage he writes, “If travelers rejoice in each other’s company along the way, what joy they will obtain in their home country!”[2] God’s people have been delivered and they are laughing and shouting with joy.
And we see this joy not only from God’s people; we also see joy among the nations. Look at the end of verse 2: “Then they said among the nations, ‘The Lord has done great things for them.’” This is not a testimony of repentance, where the nations turn in saving faith to the living God. Instead, the nations simply saw something happen that seemed impossible. They recognized something supernatural was at work.
In verse 3, God’s people corroborate that recognition: “The Lord has done great things for us.” Good job, nations. You are correct in your observation. And at the end of verse 3, we see the emotional response: “We are glad.” Again, Alan Ross, the same commentator who said that “joy” was a sound made by the flicking tongue, says that the English word “glad” is far too weak for the Hebrew concept. Again, I will not demonstrate.
To summarize what we have seen,
the first three verses of Psalm 126 represent exuberant and joyous praise as God’s people recognize that God has restored their fortunes.
People who thought they were losing discover that they are winning.
It seems like a dream, but it’s a dream that the nations can see, and it fills God’s people with gladness.
Next week, we’ll see how the text takes an unexpected turn and finish our study of Psalm 126.
[1] Source critics see texts from two or more different times smashed together. Source critics gonna source critic.
[2] Sermon 306B.I. WSA 3 9:28
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