May 6, 2017: Day 126 – Psalm 126

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFu1MvU0rfo

A total flashback.  Really appropriate for this area of the nation, even if we don’t really have much wheat in this area.  But if look at vs.6 it speaks about the bringing in of the sheaves.  I had no idea where this hymn had come from, but if you listen to the last verse of this hymn you see it comes directly from this psalm.  

The entire psalm is a thanksgiving for the Lord having brought them out of captivity and into the land of Israel.  So, keep in mind that the people of Israel have had a number of times in during biblical history when they were made slaves.  Egypt was probably their best known time of slavery, but there were also a couple of times when nations came into Israel and invaded and took the Israelites in what were called times of exile.  So the restoration of the fortunes of Zion would have been in the times of Nehemiah when the wall around the temple was being built up again after years of exile.  It was a time of celebration, even while at the same time there was some bittersweetness realizing what once was.

I fully recognize that it is called a song of ascents so it would be a psalm that the pilgrims would say as they entered Jerusalem.  But just think if they were coming back to Jerusalem after years and years of exile.  What a celebration, and sadness, that would have been.  

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