The LORD has done great things for us,
and we are filled with joy. – Psalm 126:3

At some points in our lives we experience humongous problems that weigh us down heavily, consume or impair us, or push us on the verge of exhaustion or collapse. Sadly, not all of us survive our life crises. Some are confined to permanent emotional breakdown or incapacity. Some drag their pain to their graves.

When a storm exits or dies down and the first ray of light dispels the darkness and the gloom we feel a spark of hope in us. When finally the sun is out and shines fully, we bounce back to life gleefully and joyfully like little innocent children on their first visit to the park.

The Psalmist in chapter 126 breaks into a song of celebration and jubilation when God comes to Israel’s aid and reverses her situation by setting her free from captivity. He compares Israel’s return from exile to Zion, her true homeland, as a fresh and glorious awakening from a nightmarish dream, a restoration to good health (v.1).

Their forced migration to an alien and hostile land is an enigma to the Israelites who revel in their being God’s special people. For their call is to bless other nations, not to be voiceless, oppressed, mocked, second-class citizens. As they await their liberation and return to Jerusalem, they quietly and remorsefully sit by the waters of Babylon and weep.

This brings to mind the millions of immigrants around the world quietly bearing the anguish of separation, the alienating coldness of their hosts, and the bitter-sweet thug of nostalgia for home. The second country is not always a promised land flowing with milk and honey for all immigrants. For some are forcefully uprooted for social, economic, and political reasons. And so, although the mighty euro and dollar roll and the fanfare and glitz of Hollywood glare, they silently murmur at the deepest recesses of their heart that there is no place like home.

Israel’s defeat and pathetic condition as a prisoner of war in Babylon is nothing new. Way back, she was forced to migrate to Egypt when threatened by a famine. Such migration reduced her to hard labor and domestic servitude until God set her free and brought her to the Promised Land. Israel’s Red Sea experience stands as a great milestone in Israel’s collective life because God saved her by His great and mighty power.

The Israelites in Babylon did not choose to be there (although their unfaithfulness brought them there). Since day one of their forced migration they have dreamed of returning to Zion to resume their temple procession. We imagine, therefore, what joy they have when God finally comes and sends them back home! The Psalmist expresses such exhilarating and exuberant joy: “Our mouths were filled with laughter, our tongues with songs of joy. She who has sown in tears now reaps with songs of joy” (vv. 2, 5).

The Lord’s salvation of Israel has a global effect. The Psalmist realizes it is not merely for Israel that God is saving her. It is for the other nations to witness and be awed by God’s great act for His people (v. 2b). The Psalmist teaches us not to be passive spectators of our lives, or be unresponsive recipients of God’s mighty acts. When God acts miraculously and mightily in our lives we open our mouths to speak. We do not contain our joy for it has a divine purpose: to testify to God’s greatness.

We may not always emerge unscathed in our crises. We may be sorely bruised and scarred. But we can choose to be stronger and wiser, and to be more receptive and open to God. The Psalmist confesses Israel’s present joy was sown in tears. We express our pain, confusion, bewilderment, and ambivalence also in tears. We cry ourselves a river. But as the Psalmist admonishes us, we bounce back to life with songs of joy.

God will restore our fortunes, our health, our joy. For He can not deny the greatness of His heart and the awesomeness of His power. He simply can not deny Himself.

Written by Millicent A. Guarin