Restore our Fortunes O Lord

Sometimes I wake up in the morning aware that I’ve been dreaming and knowing it was a dream where much has happened, even though I can’t remember it in detail.  When we look at Psalm 126 we get the impression that the Psalmist has experienced something very similar and he too would struggle to put everything into words as his feelings are far too profound.

Some have surmised that this is a psalm about the ending of the exile as in some versions verse 1 is rendered: ‘When the Lord brought back the captives to Zion’ (NIV).  However, the more literal translation is: ‘When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion’.  The key thing is that this is a psalm about restoration which means it could be linked to the events of the books of Ezra or Nehemiah or the rebuilding of the temple in Haggai and Zechariah’s time.  One thing we can be sure of is that this is a psalm of unmitigated joy as the Psalmist struggles to find the right words and medium to express himself (v2).  He’s overjoyed because he’s someone who clearly doesn’t take God’s blessing for granted!  We need to note that times of extraordinary and miraculous blessing are not the norm for God’s people.  Yes, we see remarkable and miraculous happenings during the exodus and the conquest of the Promised Land.  But for a lot of that time things were pretty ordinary from day-to-day in Old Testament times.  It could be that the Psalmist troubled by the state of the nation has been praying for a revival, and now it’s here!

Now revival is happening among the Lord’s people others are noticing.  The second part of verse 2 notes that: ‘then they said among the nations “the LORD has done great things for them.”’  When I was studying ‘Revival and its Results’ at college it was interesting to read contemporary secular accounts of various revivals.  Very often they would try and explain it away, but they couldn’t ignore it and they certainly couldn’t pretend it wasn’t happening!  But the challenge here is also for God’s people to acknowledge that.  So in verse 3 the phrase at the end of verse 2 is now rendered as: ‘The LORD has done great things for us; we are glad.’  The Lord’s people also acknowledge the Lord’s great work!

But whatever the Lord’s people were involved in, and whatever blessing had already been given, it was very necessary for them to request blessing to continue the work of restoration, and this is what the Psalmist now does.  The Negeb was a dry and desolate place.  Yet it was prone to flash floods which would transform it.  The Psalmist now prays for the equivalent of that in blessing (v4)!  But verses 5-6 also show how realistic the Psalmist is.  He realises that any revival of God’s people’s fortunes must start with them.  The phrase: ‘those who sow in tears shall reap with shouts of joy!’ (v5) illustrate that repentance is often the way that the Lord starts to revive his people and indeed that is seen in their history.  Nehemiah’s great reforms started with a serious prayer of repentance (Nehemiah 1:6-8).  If the Lord is going to pour out greater measures of blessing by his Spirit, his people have to be ready for it!

It’s been said there’s three ingredients that are vital for revival to happen.  The first two are prayer and preaching, which is what we’d expect.  Perhaps it is the third that is a greater challenge for the church today, and that is the purity of God’s people!  As there is more and more of a tendency towards easy-believeism in the church today, this is the area that believers need to be challenged on if we are to stand any chance of seeing the extraordinary work of revival in our church and nation today!

Would you like to hear a sermon on this Psalm? New Years Sermon: Restore our Fortunes O Lord!