May 19, 1999

EXPLORE THE BIBLE
God still bringing about
restoration and renewal

___Psalm 126
___By Dillard Wilbanks
___Travis Avenue Baptist Church, Fort Worth
___While in Babylonian captivity, God's people had been taunted by their captors to "sing us one of the songs of Zion" (Psalm 137). They responded, "How can we sing the Lord's song in a foreign land?" Now freed from bondage, the psalmist bears witness that the things done were great; it was the Lord who did them; and they were done for his people. They now had a song to sing and should sing it in celebration of God's work of restoration.
___ Thank you for restoration. (Psalm 126:1-3). Exile turned into ecstasy--banishment into bliss. Their captivity had been great, and great was their deliverance. The resulting joy was so overwhelming that it seemed more of a dream than reality. Cannot we who have been delivered from our own prison-houses identify?
___Whether at the initial point of deliverance from bondage to sin and death at conversion or the subsequent return from backsliding upon repentance and restoration, remember the bliss! It was a small matter for the Jews to be delivered from their physical bondage compared to our deliverance from spiritual bondage to the forces of Satan.
___Just as their silence was a natural expression of bondage, singing was now a natural expression of deliverance. This deliverance was no "dream" to the surrounding nations. It was so evidently the work of God that they, too, acknowledged it as real. Our spiritual blessings are not so easily recognized by others as the return of God's people was by the "heathen." Nevertheless, God's temporal work within our local community of believers called the church should be so evident in the lives of its members that it must be acknowledged by unbelieving neighbors.
___These great things done received acknowledgment from both the observers and recipients. "The Lord has done great things for us (v. 3)." There is always a danger that in the emotion of receiving the giver is forgotten. Think about the economic prosperity of our nation today. To whom is credit given? The president? The chairman of the Federal Reserve? What of God? At a time when this nation is most blessed by him we see the most efforts exerted to exclude him from almost every arena of life outside the church.
___ Praying for renewal (Psalm 126:4-6). From their experience of release from captivity (misfortune) they now pray for God's continuing restoration of good fortune. Just as their fortunes had dried up as the streams to the south in summer heat, they now pray for this reversal of fortune to increasingly flow as did these same streams when swollen by the autumn and winter rains.
___The exiles' march to their native land was a work of toil and tears. Joy, however, awaited them at the end of that journey. Their joy was similar to that of the farmer whose work of labor and sorrow is rewarded with rejoicing at the time of harvest.
___The point is that there is no reaping without sowing. As in the parable of the "soils" (Matthew 13), by "sowing" the gospel to a lot of people who won't respond, we harvest a lot of people who will. Sowing may be a difficult task, but when the seed is "drawn out" and distributed it will bring a harvest. This is true in every endeavor of life. The means may be tearful, but the end will be joyful.
___

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