Tears and joy

“Those who plant in tears will harvest with shouts of joy. They weep as they go to plant their seed, but they sing as they return with the harvest.”
‭‭Psalms‬ ‭126‬:‭5‬-‭6‬ ‭NLT‬‬

This psalm was one of the psalms of ascent, written for the return of the children of Israel from captivity. They had been 70 years in Babylon, a foreign land. Daniel had read the scripture and knew it was time for them to return. He went to prayer and after three weeks and angel came to tell him his prayers were answered. He did not go back with those who returned, by this time he was an old man and had served in the kings court.

Imagine returning home after 70 years. I am 72 and to have spent all that time in a foreign land and knowing I was returning to a land God gave to His people and where He resided would have been special. I would have grown up hearing the stories from afar. Yet I would return to a land that had been descimated by the same enemy who took me captive.

Going out to once again sow grain, as my fathers had, in the land they once lived in would be unbelievable. The emotion would be mixed: tears of sorrow for those who never returned, for the cause of the exile and joy for the sight of that precious land.

Jews are still returning to Israel. Even though war is raging against it, Ethiopian Jews only recently returned. The joy of being in the promised land would be mixed with tears.

Sinners finding the Lord and even those who had gone away and now return experience tears of joy. Tears for the sin and joy for the salvation.

As a Christian I find comfort in these verses.!I hear the Lord speak: “blessed are those who mour for they shall be comforted”. I have been in times of mourning and my God has been there with me. He is so good! Amen!


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