Psalm 126:2

The Jews, when, by God's mercy, they were once more settled in the land of promise, gave way to the same feelings of which we are conscious when we are excited by pleasure, by prosperity, by unexpected success. Either mirth must be altogether forbidden to Christians, or it must be regulated by the rules of Christ's Gospel, like every other part of our daily lives.

I. Every tendency, and feeling, and desire of which we are conscious was implanted in us by God for some wise and good purpose. The mere fact that our mouth can be filled with laughter seems to prove that God designed us to use the power for good ends. Those ends, no doubt, are such as these: the relaxation and refreshment of the mind after labour or sorrow, or other severe tension; the encouragement of vigorous work by the pleasure attaching to success; the promotion of that spirit of cordial fellowship and goodwill which may be ennobled and sanctified into brotherly kindness and Christian charity. In the Old Testament mirth and laughter are frequently recognised and sanctioned, not in the passage before us only, but in many other places also. And hence we do not hesitate to believe that they are in accordance with God's will; and therefore our duty as His children and servants is to guard them from evil, just like every other gift, or faculty, or advantage which He has bestowed upon us.

II. But it is plain that the abuses to which they are liable are very numerous. Mirth may intrude into times and places from which it should be excluded; it may degenerate into coarseness, into unkind sarcasm and satire, into irreverence, into mere selfish indulgence and excess. But the habit of mind which is especially the degradation of that cheerfulness permitted by God and the result of its unrestrained enjoyment is undoubtedly frivolity. He who is frivolous regards everything in a ludicrous or trifling aspect, whether it is some high effort of the intellect, some sublime truth or noble action, or the very revelations of Christ's Gospel. Such is not the condition of him who remembers the duties which he owes to the kind and loving Father who endowed us with the capacity of enjoyment, who knows that his first duty is to serve God and sacrifice his own inclinations, and so accepts laughter and cheerfulness as merciful recreations to the real work of life.

Bishop Cotton, Marlborough Sermons, p. 285.

References: Psalm 126:3.—Spurgeon, Morning by Morning, p. 161. Psalm 126:5.—Preacher's Monthly, vol. ix., p. 297.

Psalm 126:5-6I. Notice the significance of the emblem here employed. Husbandry is the oldest, simplest, and most heaven-ordained labour of man. It keeps man in his place as a servant, and exercises patience, obedience, and faith. (1) It is a work of homely, wholesome, patient labour. A man can only get from the soil in the proportion in which he puts into it. (2) Submission. God has made a law, "In the sweat of thy brow thou shalt eat bread." God makes man work in submission to His laws for his daily sustenance. (3) Faith. All husbandry is of faith. The seed is trusted to the bosom of nature. Man must cast the care of it on Him who bears the burden of nature, gives security for all her deposits, and is the Trustee of her every hope.

II. The tearful sowing. Is there a needs-must-be for this, and out of what conditions does it spring? (1) Consider the nature of the seed we sow—precious seed, seed which has cost us much, has cost Christ much, how precious is known only to ourselves and God. The seed we sow in human hearts is just the life-bread of our own souls. We sow in tears, because of the preciousness of the seed we are sowing, every grain of it a trophy and the memorial of a pain. (2) The conditions of the field which we cultivate. Every soul is a veiled sanctuary, a shrine impenetrable, to every other soul. No will of ours can lift the curtain, or break the silence, or search the hidden depths. (3) The seed we sow on human hearts, like seed sown on the waters, vanishes from sight and touch; precious as it was, it is gone from us: our effort can help it no more. We have committed it to One who can watch it, but "whose ways are not as our ways, whose thoughts are not as our thoughts." (4) The most precious culture is that which we bestow on the seed-field of our own spirits, and every seed that is planted must be wet with tears ere it germinates there.

III. The joyful reaping. The compensation for the sowing rests on these facts: (1) Every word and work that comes forth from us, born of the inward life, has not only our life, but God's life, in it, a portion of the life which is eternal in it; it cannot, it shall not, die. (2) God establishes this law of tearful sowing just that He may lead us to this fruitful and victorious union with Himself. (3) We are not isolated in this work. We belong to an advancing army; we fight in a field of victory; we serve a Master who must push His triumphs until He has fulfilled the largest purpose of His love. (4) We thus realise the full communion with the Saviour; and that is the highest joy of a spirit—"the joy which the world giveth not and taketh not away."

J. Baldwin Brown, Aids to the Development of the Divine Life, No. 2.

I. The first lesson suggested to us here is that we are often called to labour in which we have little joy.

II. The second lesson is that God rewards us according to our fidelity, and not according to our gladness.

III. Our text speaks not only of sheaves for the sowing, but of rejoicing for the tears. The very tears are a seed that shall have a joyful springing; the sorrow shall return again in joy.

A. Mackennal, Christ's Healing Touch, p. 30.

Reference: Psalm 126:5, Psalm 126:6.— Clergyman's Magazine, vol. iii., p. 167.

Psalm 126:6I. This text, taken in its largest significance, is to be classed with those passages of Scripture which speak of the reward of good works, and use that reward as a motive to their performance. If, then, it be lawful to speak of reward, we may certainly speak of the husbandman who "goeth forth weeping, bearing precious seed," as "coming again rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him." It will frequently happen that we have no means of ascertaining that any beneficial results have been produced by our most earnest and disinterested labours; and it is quite possible that no such results have followed, and that they never will follow. And yet even in this extreme case you can only suppose that the retributions of eternity will abundantly prove the statements of our text. To every action will be allotted a recompense, to every sacrifice a reward.

II. The text is a promise which is admirably fitted for preserving us against becoming weary in well-doing. It meets that feeling of despondency which those who labour for God are often tempted to entertain. There must be no such thing as the giving up in despair because hitherto we seem to have been toiling in vain. We cannot tell that it has been in vain. We are rather bound to believe that it has not been in vain. The text should lead us in every case where there seems no result from our labours to examine whether we have faithfully complied with its precept—whether there has been diligence in sowing the seed, and whether it has been "precious seed" we have sown.

H. Melvill, Penny Pulpit, No. 2460.

References: Psalm 126:6.—A. Scott, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xix., p. 186; Spurgeon, Sermons, vol.. xv., No. 867; A. C. Price, Christian World Pulpit, vol. vi., p. 206. Psalm 126—S. Baring-Gould, One Hundred Sermon Sketches, p. 86; W. Baird, The Hallowing of our Common Life, p. 31. Psalm 126—S. Cox, The Pilgrim Psalms, p. 132; M. R. Vincent, Gates into the Psalm Country. p. 283; M. Nicholson, Communion with Heaven, p. 152.