Some dark cloud lowered over the beloved capital, and its citizens prayed "Turn again our captivity. The Hebrew noun denotes conversion, in its spiritual sense, and the verb God's gracious condescension in accepting or responding to it. --W. H. J. P. O Lord. This is right, inasmuch as the deliverance from the captivity of sin and death should in an increased measure excite those feelings of gratitude which Israel must have felt on being delivered from their corporeal captivity; in this respect again is the history of the outward theocracy a type of the history of the church. of religion, whose spirits the Lord stirred up to come out of We were like them that dream. employed him in, and stirred him up to do, and therefore is Abiding is not enough, fruitfulness is added. They could scarcely believe that they had heard aright. And while we are in this world there will be matter for prayer, even when we are most furnished with matter for praise. Psalm 126:1-6 A Song of the Ascents. So, we can be confident from that and this superscription that David wrote Psalm 26. Salem Media Group. Psalms 126:1. When the Israelites had served in a strange land four hundred years, it was not Moses, but Jehovah, that brought them out of the land of Egypt, and out of the house of bondage. Psalm 126 expresses the themes of redemption and joy and gratitude to God. 2. In the reality of their experience. Jeremiah Then it was said among the nations, “The Lord has done great things for them.” 3 The Lord has done great things for us, and we are filled with joy. Please enter your email address associated with your Salem All-Pass account, then click Continue. Psalm 126 is generally thought to have been written by Ezra, upon the return of the Jews from their captivity in Babylon. In the lapse of seventy years the hope of restoration to their land, so long deferred, had mostly gone out in despair, save as it rested (in some minds) on their faith in God's promise. ) ; for the return of the captivity seems to require it should: Mount Zion, and the restoration of religious worship; which gave 2 Our mouths were filled with laughter, our tongues with songs of joy. "Them" is the army that God turned away. When the LORD restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dream. Living Between the Advents. whether they are asleep or awake; and whether what they see and Why? Verse 1. As by the Lord's permission they were led into captivity, so only by his power they were set at liberty. All rights reserved. it seemed too good news to be true, as the news of Joseph's being The theme of restoration that began with Psalm 80 in Advent 1, and Psalm 85 in Advent 2, is continued this week in Psalm 126. When the LORD brought back the captive ones of Zion, We were like those who dream." yet it may be put for the future; and be considered as a prophecy Augustine interprets the title, "A Song of Degrees, i.e. According to Matthew Henry, it was likely written upon the return of the Israelites from Babylonian captivity. Psalm 126 1 Psalm 126 A song of ascents. When the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion. The captivity had been great, and great was the deliverance; for the great God himself had wrought it: it seemed too good o be actually true: each man said to himself, --. Peter, being imprisoned by Herod, when he was delivered by an angel, for all the light that did shine in the prison; though the angel did smite him on the side and raised him up; though he caused the chains to fall off his hands; though he spake to him three several times, Surge, einge, circunda; "Arise quickly, gird thyself, and cast thy garment about thee"; though he conducted him safely by the watches; and though he caused the iron gates to open willingly; yet for all this he was like unto them that dream. 126:4 126:1 "brought back" This verbal (BDB 996, KB 1427, Qal infinitive construct) has a wide semantic field. Jerusalem, Judah, Israel, were led away captives, no less than Zion. Psalm 126A song of ascents. To answer your good question, let’s read Psalm 126:1-6, “A Song of degrees. Joy! This shows the English words related to the source biblical texts along with brief definitions. Psalm 126:1 When the LORD restored the captives of Zion, we were like dreamers. 30:3 Jeremiah of it, and which the following word seems to confirm; and In like manner it was he and not Deborah that freed them for Jabin after they had been vexed twenty years under the Canaanites. Psalm 126 A Harvest of Joy. And I had to think about it for quite awhile; really think about the meaning. 2 Then was our mouth filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing: then said they among the heathen, The LORD hath done great things for them. Their deliverance was so great and incredible that when God brought it to pass they were as men in a dream, thinking it rather a dream, and a vain imagination, than a real truth. ", This psalm is in its right place and most fittingly follows its predecessor, for as in Ps 125:1-5, we read that the rod of the wicked shall not rest upon the lot of the righteous, we here see it removed from them to their great joy. We were like them that dream. That is, they thought it was but mere fantasy and imagination. or "shall be" F16; that is, as persons that know not Or returned the Jews from their captivity in Babylon; who are called Zion, from the city of David, built on Mount Zion, which was in Judea, and adjoined to Jerusalem, the metropolis of the kingdom; and because they were the godly who were concerned for Zion in a spiritual sense, or the church of God, and the interest of religion, whose spirits … What does this verse really mean? In faet the interpretation of many psalms is more difficult than other parts of the Old Testament. There is nothing in the psalm that can be applied exclusively to the return of Israel from the captivity; but, at the same time, there is nothing to exclude that example of God's restoring the fortunes of Israel. When the LORD turned again the captivity of Zion, we were like them that dream. It was he and not Gideon that brought them out of the hands of the Midianites, after seven years' servitude. and redemption by him, were to the disciples, ( Luke 24:11 Luke 24:21 Luke 24:41 ) . In Psalm 126, the memory of those singing, laughter-filled days of the past becomes, not nostalgia, but the ground of a strong hope for even better days to come.” (Boice) This maketh Zion's captivity to be mentioned chiefly, as chiefly regarded by God, and to be regarded by his people. The Psalm is a Psalm of joy. I ask, first, Why of Zion? This verse is the marrow of the whole psalm, occasioned by the return of God's people out of Babel's captivity into their own country. It is one of the fifteen Songs of Ascent in the Book of Psalms, from the third section of the Hebrew Bible, and a book of the Christian Old Testament. We need not instance the histories which illustrate this verse in connection with literal Israel; but it is well to remember how often it has been true to ourselves. The product is one of the grandest, most eloquent lyrical prayers in the Psalter. Verse 1. The pilgrims went from blessing to blessing in their psalmody as they proceeded on their holy way. and may not only literally respect the return of the captives in Psalm 126:3(NASB) Verse Thoughts Imagine your country being conquered, your homes destroyed, your possessions taken and you, along with every member of your family being led away captive, into a foreign land for 70 years. 3 The LORD has done great things for us, and we are filled with joy. And so the same word is translated in Isaiah 38:1-22 , when Hezekiah recovered, he made a psalm of praise, and said, "O Lord, by these things men live, and in all these things is the life of my spirit: so wilt thou recover me, and make me to live." Isaiah 1:27 ) the Lord, ( Isaiah 52:8 ) ( 31:23 ) ; and the people redeemed are often signified by They were looking on each other wonderingly, like sleepers on an empty dream. We thought that we were dreaming; we could hardly believe our eyes, when at the command of Cyrus, king of the Persians, we had returned to our own land. In the … Abiding is not enough, fruitfulness is added. The same thing happened to the Greeks, when they heard that their country, being conquered by the Romans, had been made free by the Roman consul, P. Quinctius Flaminius. --William Digby Seymour, in "The Hebrew Psalter. Zion, and are by nature captives to sin, Satan, and the law; from The word "turn" would seem to be the keynote of the song: it is a Psalm of conversion -- conversion from captivity; and it may well be used to set forth the rapture of a pardoned soul when the anger of the Lord is turned away from it. He did weaken the loins of kings, and did open the doors before him, he did go before him, and made the crooked places straight; and he did break the brazen doors, and burst the iron bars. And though this is expressed in the past tense, was in Judea, and adjoined to Jerusalem, the metropolis of the Psalm 126:1-6 The Greatest Future Is Yet to Come “Bringing in the Sheaves,” a hymn in the Baptist Hymnal was written by Knowles Shaw, is based on the last verse of Psalm 126. Verses 1-3 speak of a wondrous, joyful time “when Yahweh brought back those who returned to Zion.” This almost certainly refers to the miraculous return of Jewish exiles from Babylonia, which took place when Cyrus, king of Persia, defeated Babylonia and in 538 B.C. Zion in a spiritual sense, or the church of God, and the interest There is nothing in this psalm by which we can decide its date, further than this, -- that it is a song after a great deliverance from oppression. Then our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongue with shouts of joy; then ... Psalm 126 A Harvest of Joy - A Song of Ascents. When the L ord restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dream. [2 Our mouths were filled with laughter, our tongues with songs of joy. alive was to Jacob, ( Genesis 1. 1 (A Song of degrees.) A New Metrical Translation", 1882. returned the returning. Then sorrow was gone like a dream, and the joy which followed was so great that it seemed too good to be true, and they feared that it must be the vision of an idle brain. language, ( Psalms 14:7 ) ( It was he and not Jephthah that delivered them from the Philistines and Amorites after eighteen years' oppression. Copyright © 2020, Bible Study Tools. No awakening to find it "but a dream": see. Psalms 126:1 When the LORD turned again the captivity of Zion, we were like them that dream. had their liberty upon it, they could hardly tell whether it was
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