Psalms 126

Psalms 126:1-6

Psalms 1261. (Psalms 126:1) A Song of the Ascents. in Jehovah’s turning (to) the turning of Zion, we were like (men) dreaming. The church acknowledges the good work of deliverance as joyfully begun, Psalms 126:1-3, and prays that it may be completed, Psalms 126:4-6. For the meaning and construction of the first verb see above, on Psalms 14:7; Psalms 86:4, and compare my note on Isaiah 52:8. Instead of the usual combination return to the captivity, we have here one resembling it in form, but meaning to return to the return or meet those returning, as it were, half-way. Compare Deuteronomy 30:2-3, James 4:8. The Hebrew noun denotes conversion, in its spiritual sense, and the verb God’s gracious condescension in accepting or responding to it.

The great historical example of this condescension, which the Psalmist had immediately in view, was the deliverance from Babylon; but the terms are so selected as to be appropriate to the most intimate personal experience of the same kind. Zion is here put for the church or chosen people, of which it was the local seat or centre. Like the dreamers, or those dreaming, i.e. out of our ordinary normal state, and in an ecstasy or trance, arising from excess of joy. The idea of incredulity may be included, but must not be suffered to exclude all others.

2. (Psalms 126:2) Then was filled with laughter our mouth, and our tongue with singing; then said they among the nations, Jehovah hath done great things to these (people). The Hebrew particle then is followed by the future in the sense of the preterite, in prose as well as poetry. See Exodus 15:1, Deuteronomy 4:41, Joshua 10:12. There is no need therefore of supposing that the writer simply retained the future forms of the passage from which this was copied, namely, Job viii. 21. Laughter and singing, both as signs of joy. Done great things, literally magnified to do, an idiomatic phrase borrowed from Joe 2:21. To these, literally with these, i.e. in his associations and transactions with them.

3. (Psalms 126:3) Jehovah has done great things to us. We are joyful. This last is not a mere appendage to the first clause, we are glad that he has done great things for us, but an independent proposition, containing the proof of that by which it is preceded. He has indeed done much for us, for whereas we were lately wretched, we are now rejoicing, or more closely rendered, have become joyful.

4. (Psalms 126:4) Turn, O Jehovah, to our captivity, like the streams in the south. The prayer is that God will return to, or revisit his people in their bondage or distress, and by necessary implication set them free from it. See above, on Psalms 126:1 where we have a studied variation of this favourite expression. According to the usual interpretation (bring back our captivity), this verse is either inconsistent with the first, or a proof that the restoration is not mentioned there as past already. Like the streams in the south, as the temporary torrents in the dry southern district of Palestine reappear in the rainy season, after having ceased to flow in the preceding drought.

5. (Psalms 126:5) Those sowing with weeping with singing shall reap. Those sowing, literally the sowing, i.e. the (same persons or the very persons) sowing. With weeping, or in tears; the Hebrew noun is a singular collective. See above, on Psalms 6:6; Psalms 39:12; Psalms 56:8. Singing, as a vocal epression of joy. See above, on Psalms 126:2. The figures are natural and common ones for means and end, or for the beginning and the issue of any undertaking. They may have been suggested here by the mention of the parched and thirsty south, where the fears of the husbandman are often disappointed by abundant rains and the sudden reappearance of the vanished streams.

6. (Psalms 126:6) He may go forth, he may go forth, and weep, bearing (his) load of seed. He shall come, he shall come with singing, bearing sheaves. The emphaticcombination of the finite tense with the infinitive is altogether foreign from our idiom, and very imperfectly represented, in the ancient and some modern versions, by the active participle (venientes venient, coming they shall come), which conveys neither the peculiar form nor the precise sense of the Hebrew phrase. The best approximation to the force of the original is Luther’s repetition of the finite tense, he shall come, he shall come, because in all such cases the infinitive is really defined or determined by the term which follows, and in sense, though not in form, assimilated to it. Load of seed, literally drawing or draught of seed, an obscure phrase, probably denoting that from which the sower draws forth seed to sow, or perhaps the seed itself thus drawn forth. The only analogous expression is in Amos 9:13, where the sower is called a drawer (forth of) seed.

The common version (precious seed) has no foundation either in etymology or usage. The contrast so beautifully painted in this verse was realised in the experience of Israel, when “the priests and the Levites, and the rest of the children of the captivity, kept the dedication of the house of God with joy” (Ezra 6:16), “and kept the feast of unleavened bread seven days with joy, because the Lord had made them joyful, and turned the heart of the king of Assyria unto them, to strengthen their hands in the work of the house of God, the God of Israel” (Ezra 6:22). See also Nehemiah 12:43.