Then our mouths were filled with laughter, our tongues with shouts of joy. Then it was said among the nations, "The LORD has done great things for them." Sermons
I. JOY AND GLADNESS MAY BE FITTING RESPONSE TO CIRCUMSTANCES. There is a natural and proper response to every set of conditions in which we are placed. We need never restrain those responses. Religion tones them, but does not arrest or crush them. Joy and gladness were befitting to the restored captives. Laughter is the expression of joy; and "Is any merry, let him sing psalms." Some phases of Christian life are too decorous, too restrained, too cold. True religion only flourishes in a warm atmosphere of feeling. And we should find abundant cause for joy and song, if we did but read our lives aright, and recognize the loving-kindness of the Lord. "The redeemed shall come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads." II. JOY AND GLADNESS MAY BE EXAGGERATED, AND BECOME A PERIL. There was a degree of extravagance in the joy of these returned exiles. They were over-excited. In their excitement they imagined a future which could never be realized; and were tempted to play with their new-found liberty as with a toy, instead of being solemnized by its obligations, and urged thereby to high and noble endeavor. 1. Times of overjoy make the prosaic work of everyday life very trying and hard. The beginnings of religious life are often a skipping and dancing and singing of the soul, and it is almost overwhelming to discover that it must pass into a persistent, humdrum walking the pilgrim-path of righteousness. We cannot be always in ecstasy and song, either here or in heaven. Israel found the actual life in restored Palestine soon changed excited song for the quiet strain of daily service. 2. Times of over-excitement are followed by times of undue depression. Israel bravely sang on the shores of the Red Sea, and murmured, ere three days were passed, at what redemption involved. Overstrain of religious feeling in times of revivals and missions, is oftentimes a most serious peril to young souls, because it suggests a false idea of Christian life. And, to some dispositions, it is no less than absolute ruin. - R.T.
Then was our mouth filled with laughter. : —I. THE JOY OF THE RETURNING JEW. 1. Bewildering. (1) (2) 2. Rapturous. (1) (2) 3. Reasonable. II. THE JOY OF A RETURNING SINNER. 1. Look at him before return. (1) (2) 2. Look at his Deliverer. 3. Look at the deliverance. III. TO THE EXPERIENCED CHRISTIAN. 1. Is your piety joyful? 2. Ought it not to be so? (F. Tucker, B. A.) (T. H. Darlow.) Then said I. GOD HAD DONE MANY THINGS FOR HIS ANCIENT PEOPLE. Their exile was a punishment for their great national sin, and their return meant a revocation of that punishment. But greater blessings are possessed by God's Church in these days. In place of mere ceremonialism we have truth itself — naked, transparent truth. Nor should we lose sight of our individuality. The Church is a congregation of individuals, and it may be said of these not only in their corporate condition as a Church, but separately and individually, "The Lord hath done great things for us."II. THESE GREAT THINGS ARE OBSERVED AND ACKNOWLEDGED BY OTHERS. The heathen recognized the blessings bestowed on the chosen people, while to the released captives their return to their old and beloved city seemed too good to be true. Our spiritual blessings are not so easily recognized by others as the return of God's people was by the heathen. But in looking at Christian countries the heathen could not but be struck with the benefits that civilization, liberty and Christianity afforded. It ought also to appear to the ungodly neighbours of Church members, that even in a temporal sense God had done great things for His Church, and that conversion had been followed with blessed consequences of a temporal kind, though they could not see the gift bestowed upon the inner life. But whether outsiders recognized these facts or not, it is your duty to be God's witnesses, and to tell relatives and friends and fellow-townsmen what great things God had done for us. III. THESE GREAT THINGS DEMANDED A SPECIAL RECOGNITION, BOTH FROM OBSERVERS AND RECIPIENTS OF BLESSINGS. There was danger lest the blessings were recognized and the Giver forgotten. Perhaps one of the tendencies of modern times is the exclusion of God from almost every. thing outside the Church — from education, from legislation, from civil and political and national affairs, from commerce, and from many other things besides. There ought to be a recognition of God not only within, but outside the Church. I am thankful that there is a recognition of God in this country. The motto on the Royal arms — "Dieu et mon droit" — shows a recognition of God in the highest place in the State. I am thankful that the Imperial Parliament does not sit on Sundays. What is that but a recognition of the Divine law and of Him who said, "Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy." Every time I pass the Royal Exchange in London I cannot help noticing the inscription, "The earth is the Lord's and the fulness thereof." What a reminder is that place to the merchants, to the Bank of England, and to the Mansion House, the seat of the greatest of municipalities just opposite, that there is a Diviner God than Mammon. One of the most startling statements I ever heard of was that made by a learned scientist, that an examination of nature did not lead him up to God. Just think of some one shying that St. Paul's Cathedral, with its architecture and traditions, did not lead to a recognition of the great architect, Sir Christopher Wren. What are your acknowledgments to God? (T. McCullagh.) People Psalmist, SolomonPlaces JerusalemTopics Cry, Filled, Full, Glad, Heathen, Joy, Joyful, Laughing, Laughter, Mouth, Mouths, Nations, Rejoicing, Shouting, Shouts, Singing, Songs, Tongue, TonguesOutline 1. The church celebrating her incredible return out of captivity4. Prays for and prophesies the good success thereof Dictionary of Bible Themes Psalm 126:2 4945 history 1060 God, greatness of Library The Lost Silver PieceBut, my dear friends, the three parables recorded in this chapter are not repetitions; they all declare the same main truth, but each one reveals a different phase of it. The three parables are three sides of a vast pyramid of gospel doctrine, but there is a distinct inscription upon each. Not only in the similitude, but also in the teaching covered by the similitude, there is variety, progress, enlargement, discrimination. We have only need to read attentively to discover that in this trinity of … Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 17: 1871 The Scattering of the People The Seed Growing Secretly. The Comforts Belonging to Mourners Death Swallowed up in victory Of the Necessity of Divine Influences to Produce Regeneration in the Soul. Introduction. Chapter i. --The Life and Writings of St. Hilary of Poitiers. 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