It is a song of a sense. When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dream. Then our mouth was filled with laughter and our tongue with shouts of joy. Then they said among the nations, the Lord has done great things for them. The Lord has done great things for us. We are glad. Restore our fortunes, O Lord, like streams in the Negev. Those who sow in tears shall reap with shouts of joy. He who goes out weeping, bearing the seed for sowing, shall come home with shouts of joy, bringing his sheaves with him. The word of the Lord. Grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God remains forever. May he add his blessing to it. You can be seated. Just curious, and I don't know if it's, I doubt it's in our hymnal, but I think there was an old Baptist hymn, Bringing in the Sheaves. Does anyone know what I'm speaking of? Like so many of these psalms, we're not told the author, neither are we told the occasion for its composition. But at some point, of course, these psalms were collected together. They were probably recorded at different times. Some of them I do think were recorded, such as this one, likely around the same time in the return from Babylon. But they were collected together by some editor, perhaps someone like Ezra, the scribe, putting them together in a collection of Psalms. And they came to be used, of course, as we've been seeing during these weeks, on these pilgrim journeys. So on the way to Jerusalem for the for the feasts, as God called them to appear before him three times a year, at least the male representatives, but this being a really big deal, especially as you see in the New Testament, right, with our Lord and what it came to be with those who traveled there for the Passover, for instance. And so they were used on these pilgrim journeys on their way to Jerusalem to worship God in the holy city. Here we read of the holy city having been captive when the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion. So it was captive and now it has been, that captivity has been overturned. Remember we saw last week, it's interesting how last week we saw that Zion, Mount Zion is described as being immovable, abiding forever, and yet here we have a time when it needed to be restored, where the captivity needed to be overturned. Tonight as we consider Zion's joy restored, we'll also see that there's something that's still not quite full. You don't have the fullness of the city being restored, because there's a continued desire in verse 4, for instance, for its continued restoration. So they are thankful for what the Lord has done, and yet they long for more, long for the fullness of this. And I think we find many parallels, don't we, in our own Christian lives for this. So there is Thanksgiving. We see that in verses one to three. There is also a prayer for restoration in verse four. And then finally in verses five and six, what is still sort of a reflection, perhaps of what had happened, yet at the same time, it seems to be a call to perseverance, looking forward, what we are to be doing in the present as we look forward. So I want to consider it in three ways here with this theme of restoration. We'll see the praise for restoration in verses one to three. Verse four is a prayer for restoration. And then verses five and six, we might call persevering for restoration. So let's go back to verse one. and consider this praise that the psalmist offers for God restoring his people. Verses one through three, as it has this looking back, it is a historical reflection. If you have an older translation, one of the older literal translations like the King James or the New King James or the New American Standard, you'll notice this in the translation. We have it in our more modern ones like the ESV here. The Lord restored the fortunes of Zion, but the word restored can be rendered something like this. When the Lord returned our captivity or returned us from captivity, that's there in those older translations. And so with that idea and the understanding of that rendering, it is likely a reference here, even though it doesn't tell us specifically what the captivity of Zion was. We might gather that it was the captivity in Babylon, that 70 years where God sent them away. And then in doing so, he had promised to return them, at least a remnant of the people, to the land. And so it's a reflection, how the Lord had brought his people back from their exile, 70 years of captivity. Even in going away, though, the Lord had encouraged their hope, right? He spoke through Jeremiah, speaking of what would happen. And yet, through Jeremiah, remember, Daniel the prophet is reading Jeremiah and realizes that the days are at hand. It is time for us to be returned. And so here, In these years of captivity, the same prophets who prophesied their going away also prophesied their return. God had given them cane and land for their inheritance. And at the same time, if we think about this, If God had given them this land, like this was their inheritance and not just the physical idea of the location, but also he had promised his blessing and his favor and his presence there in the land. What could be worse than being removed from the land? But it's not just being uprooted from where you were raised or being taken out of your city, but it's the removal of God's presence from the city and God's favor and blessing here from the people. You remember in Ezekiel's days, he saw the glory of God departing from the temple and then resting over Jerusalem for a time and then leaving the city. This was a sign of what was to come. And at the same time, the Lord was gracious. He did fulfill His Word. He did, as we read here in verse 1, He did restore the fortunes of Zion, the fortunes of His people, and return them to Jerusalem, freeing them from captivity. And it was the sort of thing that only the Lord could do. When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion, what did they say? We were like those who dream. I have to confess, I don't really like this statement when people use it. It was a God thing, because what is not a God thing in reality. But at the same time, I understand what people mean by that. If you use that and you do so around me, I'm not going to chide you or think less of you, so don't be concerned with that. But the point people are making when they use a statement such as this is that what happened is so remarkable, right? that it was just the sort of thing. It had to be the Lord, right? There is no other explanation for it. And that's what we find here. When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dream. This is the sort of thing that we ask, is it too good to be true? He caused a pagan king to issue a decree that his people could return to Jerusalem. We were like those who dream. It's too good to be true. It's the sort of thing that maybe you you pinch yourself to see if you're dreaming. Or maybe you don't because you're afraid you might be and you don't want to wake up. Have you had have you had those sort of dreams where I know I've had both of them. I've always some people I know you don't even you don't even dream but I dream like every night I dream. It's pretty bad when you wake up in the morning and you've been, I remember my grandfather talked about working all night because he would dream, even after retirement, would dream about his job and he's like, I'm worn out when I get up in the morning because I've been working all night. But some dreams you wish, you wake up and you wish that those were true. Then there are other dreams and you wake up and you thank God that wasn't true because of the horrible things that happened there. But this is one of those things where it seems to be a dream. It's too good to be true. If I am dreaming, don't wake me. Let me dream on because I want to remain here. But it wasn't a dream, was it? The Lord did fulfill his promise. He did restore the fortunes of Zion. He did overturn their captivity and bring them back from the land. And verses 2 and 3 testify to how remarkable this was. This is the praise for restoration. We read of laughter filling their mouths, shouts of joy being on their tongues. Even the pagan nations recognize this. The nations who worshipped other gods recognized this is what Yahweh has done, Jehovah has done for Israel. It was said among the nations that the Lord has done great things for them. And that statement from the nations finds here in verse 3, an echo in their heart. They say, yes, yes, that's true. The Lord has done great things for us. And so they are filled with gladness. Praise for restoration. We can understand, can't we, why they would want to praise the Lord for this. God had restored them. He had fulfilled His promise. But as much sense as this would make, as we see a praise for restoration, that there has been a restoration, because of this, verse 4 might be a bit puzzling to us. Because not only is there a praise for restoration, there is now, in verse 4, a prayer. for restoration. Restore our fortunes, O Lord. We might think, well, I thought you just said they have been restored. But it's a prayer for a further restoration. Restore our fortunes, O Lord, like streams in the Negev. We have to remember that when this proclamation was made, when the edict came from King Cyrus, the Jews could return to their land. Not everyone, went back. Not everyone returned at the same time. It was gradual and it was only partial. Some of them were afraid to leave. We can understand why. Some of them were comfortable in Babylon. They had established a new life there. Perhaps for many of them this was all they knew as an older generation had died off. The welcome Well, the return to Jerusalem wasn't exactly a welcomed return. Jerusalem was surrounded by the enemies of God's people. It was occupied by strangers. You remember the Samaritans to the north in the hard time that they gave Ezra and Nehemiah in their day. And so this was then, as John Calvin says, a prayer that God would gather the residue of the captives, that he would return them all, even though a a portion of them had returned already. And he prays in this way, Restore our fortunes, O Lord, like streams in the Negev. Now, the Negev was this region to the south, a desert, dry region, pretty much uninhabitable. But sometimes, during certain seasons, there would be such rain, such wetness, that there would be, as it were, a flash flood in the land. that would cause this dry place to be now well watered. And so it's a prayer, O Lord, just as this happens in the Negev, in the place that once was dry and then all of a sudden is filled with water, in the same way, O Lord, act. Act quickly. Return your people. Bring the fullness of your promise to haste. We've seen you act in part, but we long for you to act in fullness. restore our fortunes. At the same time, I don't think it only refers to those remaining captives who were in Babylon. If you can think back now, I know it's been several weeks ago, but if you can think all the way back to Psalm 120, where we started this series, we spoke of how the psalmist here was desiring to be in Jerusalem, desiring to be in in the land, in the presence of God. And at the same time, he had said he had dwelt too long in Meshach, in the tents of Keter, and this represented really the extremes of North and South. In other words, he couldn't have been in those places, both of those places at the same time. It appeared, as we think of men like David and what they suffered, and even our Lord, they were men who were in exile, while geographically being situated in their own homeland and among their own countrymen. And so, even though the Jews had returned, it wasn't a welcomed return, it was a struggle. And for many of them, though they were returned to Jerusalem, and as much as they praised God for this, there was a sense in which they seemed to be remaining in exile. If you remember the rebuilding of the temple. They left off the rebuilding of the temple, got tired of the work as they devoted their time now to repaneling their own houses while the house of God lie in waste. But then even as the restoration and the rebuilding of the temple was finished, it was met with great excitement yet, yes, but at the same time, The young men shouted. Do you remember what the older men did? They wept. The young men shouted, we have completed the temple. We've been restored to the land. God has shown his faithfulness to us, and this is true. And at the same time, the old men could see what the new temple was and could remember being there as young lads before their exile, and they wept because the new temple was only a shell, a shadow of the temple built by Solomon. So there's an interesting, difficult interpretation for us as we're reading the restoration and God's promises. And as we think of what he promised in Ezekiel, for instance, in that temple that he said that he would restore it in this way, and the promises he would make to his people and how he would cleanse them bring them back and they would enjoy his presence forevermore. It's almost like, Lord, you said you would do this, and we've seen how you've done it in part, but is it really true? Are you really going to fulfill your promises? Are you going to bring it to fullness? And so they're asking, restore our fortunes, even though their fortunes had been restored, so to speak. So as verses 1-3 look back with thanksgiving, beginning in verse 4, there's a forward, future orientation for God to bring the fullness of His promises to pass. One pastor says, this is a song for those who have been redeemed, but long for more redemption. Because there was more to be sought There was more to look for. And the reality is this, that the fullness of God's promises to His people, if you read the description of Ezekiel's temple, you'll know very quickly, there's no way this could have ever been fulfilled in a physical, literal temple in Jerusalem. There is something more here than merely a geographical inheritance. And that should lead us shouldn't it? Write to our Lord. To know that the fullness of return from exile could never be fulfilled and completed in transporting a people from one land to another. The fullness of returning from exile, that is to say, the exile not just that Israel faced, but the exile that began all the way back when our first parents were exiled from Eden, exiled east of Eden. And the cherubim was set there with the flaming sword so that they could not return to the garden and who barred the way to the tree of life. This should show us that the only way out of exile and a full return into the fullness of life and communion with God is through God's Son. It's through the Lord Jesus Christ. That's why they're still waiting on a return from exile, though they're in the land. They're waiting on the fulfillment of God's promises, all of which find their yes and amen, their affirmative answer in the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, this idea of being in the land and yet being captive, the Lord Himself emphasized this in His own teaching among the Jews. In John chapter 8, You remember the passage where Jesus said, if the Son makes you free, you'll be free indeed. You'll know the truth and the truth will make you free. And the Jews were offended by this. How dare you speak to us as though we are not free. We are sons of Abraham and we have never been in bondage to anyone. It's like, can you hear what you're saying right now? What about that episode of 400 years in Egypt? What about all of those difficulties in the promised land when the Philistines came and took the Ark of the Covenant? What about the time in the judges when God had to raise up person after person after person, judge after judge to deliver you in that cycle of sin and captivity and God's grace and restoration? What about the Babylonian captivity? What about the intertestamental period as the Jewish promised land Palestine was under all sorts of different occupations? What about the present that they were speaking in where they were still under the thumb of Rome? We've never been in bondage to anyone. But of course, we know that Jesus was not only speaking of that bondage, but the bondage to sin. The bondage that only belief in the Son can make us free from. And the Lord spoke of this idea further in His teaching. If you think of the parable of the prodigal son, that reveals to us, doesn't it, how one can be in the land One can be living in the Father's house and serving Him, but in the heart, though physically there, in the heart is in the far country. Sinclair Ferguson says of this verse, verse 4, that what had happened geographically needed to happen spiritually. They had been restored, but they had a need for their hearts to be brought back to the Lord as well. As Isaiah said, as our Lord said, They speak of Me with their lips. They draw near to Me with their lips, and yet their hearts are far from Me." So regardless of location, they needed the Lord to return them, not just in body, but in their hearts to Him. I wonder if you find commonality here. You know what it is to be redeemed, and yet at the same time, you know what it is to long for more redemption. Do you not long for more? more submission to Christ's reign and His will in your life? Do you not thank the Lord for Him restoring you back to Himself and yet at the same time pray for greater restoration? To pray for more, longing for more of the fullness of God's Spirit and the influence and work of His Spirit in your life? More of the knowledge of God? Do you not long for more Do you not desire more desire for Him? More resolve in pursuit of holiness? More desire for true worship? More power and more of an unwavering commitment to Him? To serve Him, to love Him, and to put sin to death? Longing. Though you know the mercy of God, longing for a fresh showing of God's mercy. So we have a praise for restoration. We have an ongoing prayer for restoration. But verses 5 and 6, I think, show us really the path. I called it perseverance to restoration. Perhaps I could better render it the path to restoration because I think this is the way it truly comes about. It's a work of God, no doubt. The way in which it comes, I think verses 5 and 6 speak to it here. The path to restoration or the perseverance to restoration here. So this is, those who sow in tears shall reap with shouts of joy. The one who goes out weeping, bearing the seed for sowing, shall come home with shouts of joy, bringing his sheaves with him. The desire we saw in verse 4, was that the Lord would act quickly and remarkably, like he does, of course, at times. When it appears that the Lord has acted in just such a remarkable way, it's like the streams in the Negev. It's like a flash flood, so to speak. And the Lord does act in that way at times. But more often than not, what we experience is verses five and six, and not verse four. It's the slow, patient, arduous task of sowing, of planting, of cultivating, watering, and waiting, waiting for a harvest. So this is much like Jeremiah's encouragement. We could, as I said, it is It has something to do with the present, it's looking towards the future, but at the same time we might can see parallels to the past because just as Jeremiah, as he spoke of their going into exile and yet encouraged their hope in the exile, they were to go there and they were to seek the welfare of Babylon while they were there. They were to continue as Daniel and the three Hebrew boys did, they were to continue in faithfulness to the covenant though they were living in exile. And so it's an exhortation here to keep on sowing, though you do so in sorrow. Keep your hand to the plow, be faithful, trust the Lord's promise, even in the midst of hard and sorrowful times. You will go out weeping, but the Lord promises you'll return with joy. You think of a farmer who sows seed, and the way it's described here, he sows seed with tears. If a farmer is hungry, if food is scarce, in a time of scarcity, that seed represents life and nourishment. And to get rid of it is pretty frightening. But the only way to preserve life and to continue life is to sow the seed. It's so precious that it has to be sown, even if it's sown in tears, in order to receive its fruit. And when the harvest comes, where there were tears, now there's joy. Sowing in tears and reaping with joy. Sometimes you hear those ads running down the road. You hear a commercial for a, you won't believe how much money you can make working from home. You know, so and so made $5,000, $10,000, $20,000 a month working from home. You can quit your job, but they're not going to tell you what it's about, right? You got to call the number and they'll tell you what it is. You hope it's not some sort of pyramid scheme or something being advertised, but here's just a general rule of thumb. I'm sure we all know this, but if you hear of a get rich quick scheme, they usually don't work. Now, of course, there may be times like we see in verse four, where the streams and the negev, the flash flood, you know, you inherit maybe an unexpected sum of money and the Lord has blessed you in that way through a relative or something, but that's not what we depend on. What does work? Ordinarily, right? Barring, God forbid, some destruction or catastrophe. Ordinarily, according to God's providence and the way He has ordered the world that He made, is this. It's working hard. It's investing or sowing the seed into honorable ventures. That you're not only working for a living, not only that you're saving part of your living, but you're learning what it is to sow the seed, that is to say, you make your living work for you. And that principle of sowing and reaping is not only in finances. It's not only in agriculture. But that principle of sowing and reaping is a universal principle in our lives. Ordinarily speaking, what we sow we should expect to reap. It's true with relationships. It's true with what we see here. It's true with finances. It's true with life choices. It's true spiritually. The Apostle Paul picks this up in Galatians chapter 6. Don't be deceived. Whatever a man sows, that will he also reap. Children, if you plant a fig tree, what sort of fruit should you expect? Apples? No, not apples, right? Figs. And if you plant an apple tree, do you expect bananas? No, you expect to get apples. That's a very simple principle for us to not only learn, but to carry with us, to know that this sort of thing works, generally speaking, in all of life. And so if you plant, if you sow to the flesh, That is to say, if you sow to sexual immorality, to idolatry, to division, to those things that remember a few months ago that James, as he spoke of the wisdom of the world, the things that are jealousy and strife and bitterness, what John would call the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life. you will reap accordingly. You cannot expect to sow these things and to reap holiness, or to reap God's blessing and favor, or to reap participation in the blessings of God's kingdom. But Paul says if you sow to the Spirit, you will reap the things of the Spirit, God's blessing and eternal life. And the reason why such fruit is guaranteed is because the sowing of our Lord has guaranteed such a reaping of righteousness and joy. And so as we confess this morning, as we share in His anointing as Christians with His name having been put upon us through baptism, that we are those who share in this and who also share in His inheritance. Jesus described Himself as a sower in His teaching, didn't He? The Son of Man is the sower, the seed is the Word of God. And though it finds no root in all sorts of ground choked out by the cares of the world or the scorching sun, persecution, cares of life, or the devil takes it away on the stony ground, at the same time, it finds root in the heart of all of God's elect people. Jesus also described his own death and resurrection in these terms of sowing. He said, unless a seed goes into the ground and dies, it won't bear fruit. And he spoke of his death in this way. His death and his resurrection guarantee the final return from exile. The final return home to the promised land. The new heavens and new earth of the fullness of life and communion with God uninterrupted by sins, enjoying his presence forevermore, never to be banished again. Just as our Lord's path was what we find here, a sowing in tears and a reaping with joy. He was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. He wept over Jerusalem. At the same time, he looked forward to the joy that was set before him. as He endured the cross. And so also we find ourselves on such a path. The cross before the crown. Dying to self before we experience glory. And just as we read of the sower here, we may very well, and we will at times, and for some of us it is prolonged, we will certainly go forth weeping in this veil of tears. We may sow seed in sorrow, but as you continue in faithfulness, understanding that there is a harvest of righteousness and joy coming for the people of God because of Christ, because it's grounded in His death and resurrection, in His sowing and reaping. As you go forth sowing in tears, you don't do so without hope. You don't do so apart from hope. So this is a pilgrim song for our continued sowing, our continued perseverance, the path to full restoration. It speaks to the past. It speaks to the present. It speaks to the future. It speaks to the past and then it looks back to this mighty redemptive act of the Lord. It looks to the future as it prays for further restoration and speaks of this harvest. But while looking forward, it gives us the instruction for the present as we continue to sow, as we sow to righteousness and godliness, as we seek faithfulness personally in our families and in the church. And so we sow. We sow patiently. We sow being grounded in hope. knowing that the sowing is what prolongs and extends life. And if you're sowing with sadness this evening, with tears that are spoken of here, if it seems that the darkness will not lift, you need to know that there is coming a joyful harvest. You need to be encouraged to continue in faith and know that one day that your mouth will be filled, as we see here, with shouts of joy, with praises to God for restoration, with thanksgivings, with gladness, with the coming true of what was beyond your wildest dreams. And it won't be a dream, but it'll be true reality, as God will wipe away every tear from the eyes of his people. And so as we look back to God's faithfulness, as we anticipate the future day of full restoration, as we continue to persevere on the path of sowing in this life that we may reap eternal life, let us put our minds here on the harvest that is to come. Let us set our minds on things above that our sorrows might be overcome, that our sorrows might be overturned by the joy of the Lord. Amen? Let's pray.