Category: Psalm 126 – “We laughed_We Sang”

Psalm 126:3 (Message)

We were the talk of the nations –
  “God was wonderful to them!”
God was wonderful to us;
  we are one happy people.

“We cannot make ourselves joyful. Joy cannot be commanded, purchased or arranged. But there is something we can do. We can decide to live in response to the abundance of God and not under the dictatorship of our own poor needs. We can decide to live in the environment of a living God…We can decide to center ourselves in the God who generously gives and not in our own egos which greedily grab.” [E. Peterson]

“The joy that develops in the Christian way of discipleship is an overflow…that comes from feeling good not about yourself but about God. We find that his ways are dependable, his promises sure.” [E. Peterson]

Therefore… “Celebrate God all day, every day. I mean revel in him! Make it clear as you can to all you meet that you’re on their side, working with them and not against them. Help them see that the Master is about to arrive. He could show up any minute!” (Phil 4:4 MSG)

Is there a “responsive-joy-in-Jesus” overflowing from you and into your church, missional group, or campus ministry? Are you helping them see the Master? What holds you back?

“Celebrate God all day, every day. I mean revel in him!” How can we ‘practically’ do this celebrating and reveling more in our lives together? What will it look like?

Let’s pray that we will celebrate and make much of Jesus in our churches, missional groups and campus ministries. Let’s ask for Jesus’ contagious joy for one another.

– TR

Psalm 126:4-6 (Message)

And now, God, do it again –
bring rains to our drought-stricken lives
So those who planted their crops in despair
Will shout hurrahs at the harvest,
So those who went off with heavy hearts
Will come home laughing, with armloads of blessing.

“The hard work of sowing seed in what looks like perfectly empty earth has, as every farmer knows, a time of harvest. All suffering, all pain, all emptiness, all disappointment is seed: sow it in God and he will, finally, bring a crop of joy from it. It is clear in Psalm 126 that the one who wrote it and those who sang it were no strangers to the dark side of things. They carried the painful memory of exile in their bones and the scars of oppression on their backs. They knew the deserts of the heart and the nights of weeping. They knew what it meant to sow in tears.

“One of the most interesting and remarkable things Christians learn is that laughter does not exclude weeping. Christian joy is not an escape from sorrow. Pain and hardship still come, but they are unable to drive out the happiness of the redeemed…Christian joy is actual in the midst of pain, suffering, loneliness and misfortune.” [E. Peterson]

What are your ‘killjoys’ in life? What are the things that seem to kill your happiness and discourage you? Why?

Take a moment and evaluate these killjoys in light of who God is and what he provides. Are they true joyous pursuits or momentary pleasantries and escapes?

Spend some time praying for the ‘desert’ moments we may be going through. Let’s ask God for hearts that will trust him and seek him for the ‘rain’ – the resolutions and help we need.

– TR

Psalm 126:3-4 (Message)

God was wonderful to us;
  we are one happy people.=
And now, God, do it again…

“The other side of ‘we are one happy people’ — verses 4-6 — is in the future tense. Joy is nurtured by anticipation. If the joy-producing acts of God are characteristic of our past as God’s people, they will also be characteristic of our future as his people. There is no reason to suppose that God will arbitrarily change his way of working with us. What we have known of him, we will know of him. Just as joy builds on the past, it borrows from the future. It expects certain things to happen.” [E. Peterson]

Psalm 126 “announces the existence of a people who assemble to worship God and disperse to live to God’s glory, whose lives are bordered on one side by a memory of God’s acts and the other by hope in God’s promises, and who along with whatever else is happening are able to say, at the center, ‘We are one happy people.’” [E. Peterson]

How does joy become a powerful witness to the greatness of God?

In what ways can, “And now, God, do it again!” change the way we pray? How can Psalm 126 reframe our passion and hope in prayer? Describe.

This joyful and ‘wonder-filled’ life is our testimony to others. Let’s ask God to empower us this way so we will love and care for those who need God’s impossible miracles. Let’s ask Him to, “do it again,” now in their lives like he did in ours.

– TR

Psalm 126:1-3 (Message)

It seemed like a dream, too good to be true,
  when God returned Zion’s exiles.
We laughed, we sang,
  we couldn’t believe our good fortune.
We were the talk of the nations –
  “God was wonderful to them!”
God was wonderful to us;
  we are one happy people.

“We laughed, we sang, we couldn’t believe our good fortune.” The word ‘fortune’ here is about God’s favor, his restoration and transformation. “That is the authentic Christian note, a sign of those who are on the way of salvation…Joy is not a requirement of Christian discipleship, it is a consequence. It is not what we have to acquire in order to experience life in Christ; it is what comes to us when we are walking in the way of faith and obedience. We come to God (and to the revelation of God’s ways) because none of us have it within ourselves, except momentarily, to be joyous. Joy is a product of abundance; it is the overflow of vitality…It is exuberance.” [E. Peterson]

How do faith and obedience relate to joy in our daily lives?

Ephesians 1:3 (NIRV) – “Give praise to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. He has blessed us with every spiritual blessing. Those blessings come from the heavenly world. They belong to us because we belong to Christ.”

What are the spiritual blessings we have received? How does this spiritual ‘exuberance’ change the way we live and interact with one another?

Let’s take some time to give thanks to the Lord for his blessings. Let’s pray for joyful obedience in our lives and deeper faith that is expressed in love.

– TR

Psalm 126:1-2 (Message)

“It seemed like a dream, too good to be true,
when God returned Zion’s exiles.
We laughed, we sang,
we couldn’t believe our good fortune.

“It seemed like a dream, too good to be true, when GOD returned Israel’s exiles.” Each act of God was an impossible miracle. There was no way it could have happened, and it did happen. “It seemed like a dream, too good to be true.” We nurture these memories of laughter, these shouts of joy. We fill our minds with the stories of God’s acts. Joy has a history. Joy is the verified, repeated experience of those involved in what God is doing. It is as real as a date in history, as solid as a stratum of rock in Palestine. Joy is nurtured by living in such a history, building on such a foundation.” [E. Peterson]

“It seemed like a dream, too good to be true…”In Jesus the ultimate ‘dream’ of life has come true and is continuing to come true. Christian life is joy-filled because the dreams and visions that God reveals to us do become reality. We live in the ‘impossible miracle’ of knowing God and experiencing His presence. Our stories are now wrapped up in God’s stories past, God’s story present, and God’s story unfolding.

What do you dream about? What do we sense will make our lives better?

What has God done in your life that felt like an impossible miracle? Can you trace his miracles and rescue?

Spend some time thanking the Lord for each impossible moment he made possible. Let’s ask the Lord to expand our vision of what he can do in and through us for his glory.

– TR