RESPONDING TO THE STORY…
PSALM 126
Introduction:
In a northern section of Berlin lies a Protestant church whose front yard used to straddle the Communist wall. Its ironic name: the Church of the Reconciliation. The building itself used to be in East Berlin, while the sidewalk was in the West. A 10-foot brick wall stood between. However, the church seems to have lived up to its name as it finds itself on the very border of what was once separated but is now reconciled.
We have all, I’m sure, experienced the emotion of reconciliation – that which happens within when something or someone is restored to us. Perhaps the greatest biblical example of this is to be found in the parable of the prodigal son who returned home to a joyous welcome, as he was reconciled with his father.
One Sunday night the famous American preacher, Dwight Moody, shared on this very text of the prodigal son. After he had finished, a little boy was brought to the platform by an officer who had found the child wandering in the crowd. Mr. Moody took him in his arms and asked the crowd to look at the lost child. He said: “The father is more anxious to find the boy than the boy is to be found. It is just so with our Heavenly Father, for long years He has been following you. He is following you still!”
At that moment a man elbowed his way to the platform. The boy saw him and, running, threw himself into his father’s outstretched arms. The multitude that witnessed the scene broke into a mighty cheer. “Thus,” cried Mr. Moody, “will God receive you if you will only run to Him today.”
Perhaps the greatest moment of reconciliation occurs when we turn to Jesus and are restored to a real relationship with our heavenly Father.
My message this morning is about restoration, the story of our restoration in the birth of Jesus and the response which that story so naturally and powerfully evokes. In order to deal with this we are going to take a close look at Psalm 126 and ask ourselves how the response of the Jews, to the story of their restoration, should be mirrored in our own lives as we respond to our own restoration in the Christ event.
Now, let’s read Psalm 126…
1 When the LORD brought back the captivity of Zion,
we were like those who dream.
2 Then our mouth was filled with laughter,
and our tongue with singing;
then they said among the nations,
“The LORD has done great things for them.”
3 The LORD has done great things for us,
and we are glad.
4 Bring back our captivity, O LORD,
as the streams in the South.
5 Those who sow in tears
shall reap in joy.
6 He who continually goes forth weeping,
bearing seed for sowing,
shall doubtless come again with rejoicing,
bringing his sheaves with him.
Message:
Charles Spurgeon once said that this Psalm divides itself into four sections: 1) A Narrative, to be found in verses 1-2. 2) A song of joy, to be found in verse 3. 3) A prayer of thanksgiving, to be found in verse 4. 4) A promise of hope in verses 5-6.
In this Psalm, in the first section, we have an introductory story that sets the scene, the reason as it were, for Israel’s response. This story deals with the restoration of freedom to the captive nation of Israel. Whether this be freedom from Egyptian slavery or Babylonian captivity, no one is certain, but this one thing is clear, the Lord has brought them out of darkness and restored their freedom to them. This is an account of how God set his people free and the response that it brought about. I would like us now to consider, briefly, the threefold response that was shown by the Jewish nation.
I. Song of Praise…
The first response we come across in verse 3 is that of a song. A song of joy and praise for what God has done. The natural response to being set free from bondage is one of gladness and we see this clearly in the case of the Israelites.
John Hume writes about this verse, “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks; and if the heart be glad, the tongue is glib; Joy cannot be suppressed in the heart, but must be expressed with the tongue.” In truth, the nation of Israel was so deeply overcome with joy that could not contain themselves but broke out in songs of praise.
II. Prayer of Thanksgiving…
The second response of the Jewish people can be found in verse 4 and takes the form of a prayer. A prayer of thanksgiving, clothed in a desire for God to do more of what he has done. Their experience of freedom led them to pray for those that have not yet experienced it and to ask God to affect the same goodness for those as he did for them.
The Jews came to know God’s restoration, they had seen his power and mercy, and would not let him go until they saw more of it. In God’s act of restoring their freedom, their response is a thanksgiving of such height that they are completely confident that he will do the same for those that need it still.
III. Promise of Hope…
The third and final response to this story of God restoring their freedom is one of a promised and real hope. See, God does not act miraculously and then disappears to see how they fair on their own. He acts in such a way that they are led to a hope for more of his activity and a promise that this hope will be met.
God promises that even in those times that are far less joyous than these, they may hope for his continued presence and activity and trust that this hope will not be left empty.
I do believe that each one of us have heard of an even more dramatic story than the one these Jews did. A story so powerful and real that it’s changed much of the world for the better part of two thousand years. A story that tells of God’s activity in such a way that it has been described as the pinnacle of God’s involvement in the history of the world. A story concerned with the freedom not of one isolated, albeit chosen, nation, but of the world as a whole. The freedom restored to all of creation and experienced so deeply by the human race A story that is known as the Christ event, the incarnation, the birth of Jesus, the coming of God in such a way so as to do that which only he could have done – to set us free. To restore to us, completely, that freedom which we once knew before the fall.
I would like us to move on now to a consideration of how the responses shown by the Jewish nation can, and very well should be, mirrored within our own lives as we remember the story of how God has set us free in the Christ event. The story of Christmas, for it was the birth of Christ that signalled the beginning of the great restoration of mankind.
Lets look again at these three responses, but this time, in light of the Christ event and how these should be expressed in our lives today.
1. A Song of Praise…
We have established already that the natural response to such a great effecting of one’s freedom must be one of joy, what’s more is that this gladness cannot be kept hidden, it must and will break forth from the mouths of those who know it for “out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks”.
One cannot possibly have experienced the restoration God offers and be silent about it. When God comes to us in such a miraculous way we will, of necessity, respond with gladness and ‘in song’, as it was. We see the Biblical example of this in the song of Mary. When Mary heard that she would bring the saviour into the world she was overcome with joy and broke out in a song of praise. We read in Luke 1, as she sings, “My soul glorifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour…for the Mighty One has done great things for me…”
My question is this; do we experience such joy when we are told the story of Jesus? Have we grown so used to hearing it that we have become numb to the majesty of its truth? I sincerely hope we have not yet reached that cold state.
Charles Spurgeon was emphasizing to his class the importance of making one’s facial expression harmonize with one’s speech.
“When you speak of Heaven,” he said, “let your face light up, let it be radiated with a heavenly gleam, let your eyes shine with reflected glory. But when you speak of Hell—well, then your ordinary face will do.” Do we have hearts that radiate this unspeakable joy of restoration when we hear the story of Christ? Or, has it become so plain to us that our hearts remain dull and would far better reflect hell than this great story?
2. A Prayer of Thanksgiving…
Our second response to hearing this story must surely be one of thankfulness, a prayer born out of gratitude for what God has done. I understand that we live in a world that teaches us to think we deserve all the good that happens to us, but friends, are so bold as to think that we deserve the goodness of Christ’s coming to earth. We did not deserve him willingly giving up his majesty and glory to come and live amongst us.
When we hear this story we ought to be compelled to respond in thankful prayer! In the Scriptures we see this response in the prayer of Simeon, when Jesus was presented in the Temple. Simeon lifted his eyes and prayed, “Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you now dismiss your servant in peace. For my eyes have seen your salvation…” Simeon was so grateful for this small glimpse of Jesus that he was ready to now forfeit all else – this small glimpse was enough for him.
Has the story of our restoration grown so stale to our ears that we have no sense of gratitude for it? When we hear of our restoration are our hearts filled with thankful prayer or are we simply subjecting ourselves to a nice tale of a little baby hoping that our emotions will be stirred to some level of sentimentality?
It was on Thanksgiving Day several years ago that a certain Mrs. Helen Hayes cooked her first turkey. Before serving it she announced to her husband and son: “Now I know this is the first turkey I’ve ever cooked. If it isn’t right, I don’t want anybody to say a word. We’ll just get up from the table without comment, and go down to the hotel for dinner.”
Then she went to the kitchen. When she returned to the dining room, bearing the turkey, she found her husband and son seated at the table—wearing their hats and coats.
I fear that this is often the level of gratitude we have for the story of our restoration, we appreciate it enough to bear sitting through it, but we would as readily get up and leave as soon its over – forgetting the essence of it as soon as we step outside the door.
3. A Promise of Hope…
The final response to this great story is one of receiving and believing a promised hope. Jesus Christ is the hope of the world. In a world plagued with violence, immorality and self-indulgent philosophies, Jesus is the only one that can bring us hope. In the hearing of this story, we must respond by taking that hope to a broken world.
Robert Ingersoll, when standing at the grave of his brother, said, “Life is a narrow vale between the cold and barren peaks of two eternities. We strive in vain to look beyond the height. We cry aloud, and the only answer is the echo of our wailing cry. From the voiceless lips of the unreplying dead there comes no word. But in the night of death hope sees a star and listening love can hear the rustle of a wing!”
I believe that this is the hope that the story of our restoration would offer. A hope that sees a star and hears the wings of grace, even in the darkest of night. And it is this great hope that we must take to the world in response to the hearing of this story.
I’ll not harp on this point. I simply ask another question, “Have we been so deeply influenced by the selfish nature of society that we will keep to ourselves even this great gift of hope?”
Conclusion:
In conclusion I would like to suggest one thing… The response of the Jews was a natural and powerful one for the simple reason that their experience of the story was a very real one. It was a reality to all of them that God had set them free.
It is the same with us. If we are to have a natural and powerful response to the story of our own restoration, we must experience this story in terms of the reality that is. My challenge to us all is this – that if we are not inwardly compelled to make an expression of joy, thanksgiving and hope, then perhaps we have to seriously ask the question of whether we know the subject and the author of this story.
I leave you with a simple and short story of a young female student who undertook to read a book. She came to her professor and declared that it was the worst book she had ever read and was thoroughly bored by it. A few days later she met a young man and continued to develop a friendship with him. This friendship eventually led to love and soon they were engaged… One evening they were sitting in her lounge and she said to him, “Isn’t it strange, I have a book in my library who’s author shares your surname and initials.” His answer was, “not really, because I am the author.” That night she picked up the book again and read it with new energy. The following day she went back to her professor and asked why it was that now she suddenly enjoyed it more than any other book. The professor simply smiled at her and said, “You know the author dear, you know the author”. If we are not moved to respond by the story of Christmas, perhaps we need to ask, “do we really know its author?”
AMEN
