August 12: Those who Sow in Tears will Reap with Songs of Joy

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Restore our fortunes, O Lord.... Those who sow in tears will reap with songs of joy. He who goes out weeping, carrying seed to sow, will return with songs of joy, carrying sheaves with him. -Psalm 126:4-6

For seventy long years the Jews had been in exile away from their homeland, having been taken into captivity by the Babylonians. “By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept when we remembered Zion,” the captives said (Ps 137:1). Three generations had known the pain of being separated from their homeland. There was a yearning to once again inhabit the beloved land that the Lord had given their ancestors. They were sowing in tears, but a day would come when they would reap with songs of joy.
At the end of their exile, it was time to finally return to Jerusalem (Zion). Psalm 126 is a song of ascent–a song that was probably sung as streams of post-exilic Jews “ascended” to Jerusalem for the Jewish festivals. It describes what it was like for those who experienced the return to the homeland: When the Lord brought back the captives to Zion, we were like men who dreamed. Our mouths were filled with laughter, our tongues with songs of joy (vs1-2). Because of the tears that had been sown in a foreign land, returning “home” was like a dream–and a dream-come-true. What had been sown in tears was now being reaped with songs of joy.
As the Jews sat by the rivers of Babylon and wept, there was no singing. They had hung up their harps and refused to sing, even when prodded by the Babylonians to sing one of the songs of Zion. Their answer to their captors was, “How can we sing the songs of the Lord while in a foreign land?” (Ps 137:4). They were sowing in tears. They would not sing. They could not sing. But a day was coming when they would sing the songs of Zion with joy.
God knows the end from the beginning. For those he calls his own, there is the hope that they who sow in tears will reap with songs of joy. It’s not over until the Lord says it’s over. Not all tears are necessarily redemptive, but those which are sown as intercession to him will never go unnoticed. They will produce a harvest of joy for those who look to the Lord to restore their fortunes.
Yes, it does seem at times that the Lord allows too much suffering. But it also apparent that those in the kingdom who have suffered the most and sown the most tears are the ones who return with the most joy when redemption comes.