Psalm 126:5 They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. Thomson says, "I never saw people sowing in tears exactly, but I have often known them to do it in fear and distress sufficient to draw them from any eye. In seasons of great scarcity, the poor peasants part in sorrow with every measure of precious seed cast into the ground. It is like taking bread out of the mouths of their children, and in such times many bitter tears are actually shed over it" Compare the tears at the laying of the foundation of the second temple (Ezra 3:12), and the joy when it was complete (Ezra 6:16, 22). And keep in mind the strain and anxiety through which the first returned company of exiles had to pass. I. SAD SOWING-TIMES OF SCARCITY. Such always followed on famine years, when the old corn stores were used up, and the harvest of the year allowed no proportion to be reserved for seed, and, if reserve was made, the quality guaranteed no good coming harvest. Then the spring seed-sowing was an anxious time. It involved a serious loss of what was immediately needed. And experience of past famine made the harvest from this seed-sowing seem unusually uncertain. It is thus in Christian work. "We have toiled all night, and taken nothing," and it is hard to put down the net again. When the Church is cold and dead, even preaching the gospel comes to be sad and heartless work. Yet it must not be given up. Weep we may, but sow we must. We never know Where God's showers of blessing fall. II. SAD SOWING-TIMES OF INSECURITY. Travelers tell of seeing sowers in the East sowing with one hand, and holding a musket in the other, for the Bedouin will steal the seed-corn, as well as rush in and sweep away the harvest. How anxious the farmer will be until his precious seed is safely in the soil! This may suggest those circumstances which so often hinder the success of our Christian work; things beyond our control which render our work fruitless. Spite of them, we must persist in sowing, if it must be sowing in tears. III. SOWING-TIMES OF ATMOSPHERIC PERIL. The weather is but seldom just to the farmer's mind, and in some seasons the sowing seems hopeless: what can the seed do but rot in the ground? This may suggest the dispositions both of the Christian workers, and of those among whom they work. These often make a sort of atmosphere, in which the seed-sowing seems hopeless. Nevertheless, we must go on sowing, even if it must be in tears. - R.T. Parallel Verses KJV: They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. |
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