Psalm 126 "Holy Laughter" February 18, 2007 We've been looking at the spiritual theology of the Psalter for the last several weeks. Doctrinal theology is about what we are to believe concerning God. Moral theology is about what duty God requires of us. Spiritual theology is about the experience of God. It involves both doctrine and practice because you cannot have a positive experience of him apart from believing and doing what he says!-- but spiritual theology reminds us that the Christian faith is more than just a set of beliefs or a set of practices; the Christian faith is about being part of a new family. And in this family we laugh together, we cry together, we deal with the everyday joys and sorrows together, because our Lord Jesus Christ has passed through sorrow and death, and has come to everlasting joy at the right hand of the Father. Psalm 126 reminds us that in this life joy always comes to us in the context of sadness. We rejoice with Jon and Cinthia today in the birth of little Kayla. But for some of you, your laughter your joy is tinged with sorrow. You had hoped for a child for many years, and every time a baby is baptized you are reminded of that. Proverbs 14:13 says even in laughter the heart may ache. It is right to rejoice in the birth of these little ones, but we need to remember that joy and laughter come in the context of tears. But there is a deeper reason why laughter finds us in the midst of sorrow: because creation itself is tinged with sorrow. Sin has so penetrated our existence, that the joy of childbirth only comes through great pain indeed, even the most glorious, the most joyful event in all human history, the resurrection of Jesus, came to us in the context of the cross the most wicked and horrible event in all human history. Psalm 126 was written for you who mourn, that you might learn to rejoice in the midst of trials, because of what God has done for us.. Psalm 126 is simply titled, "A Song of Ascents." We know nothing about when, where, or why it was written. But that doesn't really matter. Because as a part of Israel's songbook, we can find lots of times when it would have been sung. Last Sunday night we saw how Sennacherib of Assyria invaded the land of Judah. His predecessor, Shalmaneser, had destroyed the northern kingdom of Israel, and now Sennacherib had taken all the fortified cities of Judah. Jerusalem alone remained standing. It was like a great flood had swept across the land, a rising tide that had swept away all the cities of Judah, and only Jerusalem remained above water. The armies of the Assyrians had besieged the holy city, one glimmer of light in the midst of the Assyrian darkness. And in that darkness, Hezekiah the king went to the temple and prayed. And the LORD heard the prayer of Hezekiah, and the angel of the LORD went forth and struck down the Assyrians, even as the angel of the LORD had struck down the Egyptians during the Exodus. After the Assyrian army fled, the people of Judah, emaciated and hungry from the long siege, would have come out of Jerusalem, and out of the caves and holes in the hill country where they had hid, and they would have sung Psalm 126. Psalm 126 is not a song for times of pure unadulterated joy. Psalm 126 is a song for those who have endured great trials for those who see clearly that they have more trials ahead of them but who understand that they have been delivered from the worst of it, and therefore they sing for joy. Their fields are trampled, their vineyards ruined, their cities torn down and their homes in shambles. And yet they sing, 1. Remembering the Laughter (126:1-3) When the LORD restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dream. We couldn't believe it! By all rights Jerusalem should be in ruins, and we should be dead! No other city ever survived the Assyrian attack, and yet the LORD delivered Zion! Then our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongues with shouts of joy; What makes people laugh? When you are telling a joke, what is the key to getting a good laugh? The unexpected. If the punchline of your joke is obvious, then nobody laughs. Laughter is provoked by the unexpected. When the LORD restored Zion, we laughed because it was strange and unusual. The LORD had allowed all the cities of Judah to be taken. No doubt tens or hundreds of thousands of the people of Judah were killed. And just when the people of Jerusalem were ready to give up, God delivered them. Of course that is the other key to getting a good laugh: timing. The holy laughter of Jerusalem is prompted by the last-minute timing on God's part. We were giving up hope but God did not give up on us! But think about the content of what makes people laugh. Much laughter comes at the expense of others. Comedians make fun of people mocking human frailty. Political cartoons make fun of politicians, newspaper comics poke fun at family life. And that's not a bad thing. We should have the humility and the wisdom to laugh at ourselves, because quite frankly, we are silly creatures. Holy laughter in verse 2 certainly includes laughing at ourselves, because we didn't really believe that God was going to deliver us as well as laughing at our enemies because of how ridiculous God has made them appear. [Groves?] In the case of the Assyrian invasion, the Assyrians had mocked Yahweh, and so now Jerusalem is able to laugh at her enemies. But even as the nations are humbled, so also the nations are called to believe in Jerusalem's God: then they said among the nations, "Yahweh has done great things for them." Yahweh has done great things for us; we are glad. (126:2-3) Our laughter is rooted in the great works of God for us. God has done great things. In Hezekiah's day he had delivered Jerusalem from the Assyrians. In our day he has delivered us from the bonds of the devil. But timing is everything. And God's timing is not our timing. You may have experienced the sorrow of the cities of Judah. They waited for the LORD, and he did not deliver them. You may have hoped for a child who never came, or waited for God to rescue you from trouble and he never did. Sometimes God's answer comes in a form that we do not like. Indeed, some people died before God's answer came. They never got to sing Psalm 126 after the Assyrians ran away back to Ninevah. They had to sing Psalm 126 in the middle of the siege. You may be in the middle of the siege. Or, better yet, you have made it through the siege, (God has delivered us from sin, death, and the devil), but we now come home to our village, and it lies burnt and pillaged. When you look at the big picture, the LORD has restored the fortunes of Zion! But then you look around you: you missed the time for planting, and your fields are nothing but weeds. 2. Anticipating the Laughter (126:4-6) This is why part 2 of Psalm 126 is so important for our spiritual theology. Because holy laughter is not merely based in what God has done in the past. We also laugh in anticipation of the joy that awaits us. The second part of Psalm 126 begins in verse 4: Restore our fortunes, O LORD . . . Wait, doesn't the Psalm start, "when the LORD restored the fortunes of Zion"? I thought Zion's fortunes were restored! Psalm 126 is all about the already and the not yet. We have been delivered. But we're not through the woods yet! Our laughter and our joy come in the middle of the story, as times of refreshment even before the final victory. Restore our fortunes, O LORD, like streams in the Negeb! (v4) The Negeb is the dry southern part of Judah. It is a land of wadis wadis are dry stream beds. They only have water when it rains. So psalm 126 is saying "Restore our fortunes, O LORD, like when you send the rain and make the streams run with your grace and favor." Because apart from your refreshing streams, this victory will not last. Those who sow in tears shall reap with shouts of joy! (v5) After the LORD's great victory over the Assyrians, Isaiah promised that Judah would reap a great harvest in the third year. God has won the victory over the powers of sin, death and the Devil in Jesus Christ, but we still sow our seed in tears. But we sow our seed we pursue our daily callings in hope, with great anticipation, because of God's promise: He who goes out weeping, bearing the seed for sowing, shall come home with shouts of joy, bringing his sheaves with him. (v6) We live in between the great deliverance and the great harvest. Our Lord Jesus Christ has been raised from the dead as the firstfruits of the resurrection. Because he has been raised, we know that the full harvest will be brought in. But we don't see it yet. We laugh because Jesus has been raised, and we have been raised in him by faith; but we weep because we are still longing for the redemption of our bodies. Conclusion: Joy in the End The harvest is coming. It has begun in Jesus, and by faith it has begun in you. So let us laugh together even through the tears. Because we know that God works all things together for the good of his people. We know that in the end God will make all things right. After all, that is what our baptism tells us. We are baptized with water in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. God has claimed us as his own. He has put his name upon us. Baptism marks the beginning of the Christian life. Peter tells us in Acts 2 that we are baptized for the forgiveness of sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit. Why does the grace of baptism consist of these things? Because these are the things that we need in order to live the Christian life. Without the forgiveness of sins God's judgment would still be against us. But in our baptism God washes us and cleanses us and makes us new. And the gift of the Holy Spirit is the firstfruits of the inheritance that we share with Jesus. If you partake of the Spirit, you partake of all that belongs to Jesus. When was the Holy Spirit poured out upon the church? On the day of Pentecost. And what was the day of Pentecost? It was the feast of firstfruits. Psalm 126 speaks of shouts of joy of the one who brings the sheaves home. Those are the shouts of joy of Pentecost. The coming of the Holy Spirit upon the church at Pentecost signaled the outpouring of God's last days blessings upon his people. And when the Jews who were in Jerusalem asked Peter, in effect, how can we participate in this great blessing, Peter replied, repent and be baptized, every one of you, for the remission of sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.