Latest / Reformed Thinking / Those Who Sow in Tears Shall Reap with Joy (Psalm 126) | Charles Spurgeon

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Those Who Sow in Tears Shall Reap with Joy (Psalm 126) | Charles Spurgeon · Reformed Thinking

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Imagine you are trapped in a collapsed mine.
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That is a terrifying scenario to start with.
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Yeah, it really is. Total darkness surrounds you,
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the air is thinning out, the walls are pressing in, and well,
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you have accepted the grim reality that this is the end.
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You have made your peace with the dark.
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Yes, but then, without any warning at all, a massive beam
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of sunlight breaks through the ceiling and a hand reaches down
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to pull you up into the fresh air.
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That would be staggering. It is.
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It happens so fast and the shock to your system is so severe that
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your oxygen deprived brain just refuses to accept.
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It you assume you are hallucinating.
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Right. You assume it is a mirage.
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That feeling, that staggering shock of a rescue you did not
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orchestrate and you know could not earn, is the precise
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starting point for our discussion today.
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It is a great starting point. Welcome to Reformed Thinking.
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I am your host and I am thrilled you have joined us.
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It is great to be here. Today we are taking a deep dive
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dive into the source material of Charles H Spurgeon's phenomenal
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work, The Treasury of David. Specifically, we are looking at
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his commentary and the collected historical notes on Psalm 126.
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Yes, our mission for you today is to examine the theology of
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sudden deliverance, the paradox of holy laughter, and, well, the
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divine guarantee that sorrowful labor yields A joyful harvest.
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It is an incredible text. I'm sitting here looking at
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these historical notes and I have to tell you, the sheer
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weight of what these theologians have uncovered in six short
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verses is massive. It really feels like a huge
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discovery hiding in plain sight. It does.
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We are going to look at how a historical event for the ancient
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nation of Israel points directly to the spiritual rescue of your
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own soul. Which is such a vital connection
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to make. I am buzzing with anticipation
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to get into this well. It is a remarkable piece of
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literature, yeah. The theological weight it
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carries is immense, and the way Spurgeon curates these notes
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provides A rigorous, consistent theological framework.
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He really pulls from the best. He does.
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The commentators he draws from, spanning several centuries, all
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recognize that this text is far more than a simple historical
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footnote. Right, it is not just a history
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lesson. No, it is a detailed, granular
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description of how a sovereign God interacts with a completely
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helpless people. Which is very relevant for us.
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As we examine the text together, we will see patterns of divine
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action that completely up and our human assumptions about how
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grace operates. It flips everything upside down.
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It really does. The progression of the text
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moves from a staggering past deliverance to a desperate plea
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for present grace. And then it concludes with a
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definitive, unyielding promise about the future.
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It forces the reader to confront the reality of their own
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spiritual condition. Yes, and the total sufficiency
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of God's intervention. So let's start the very
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beginning of the text. The title identifies it as a
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song of degrees. Specifically, this is the
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seventh step. Right, I was reading Augustine's
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interpretation of this and he has a brilliant way of framing
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it. What does he say?
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He views the songs of degrees as songs of drawing upwards toward
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the heavenly Jerusalem. I like that.
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It is this idea of an ascent moving from blessing to
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blessing, but the text itself in verse one sets a very specific
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scene. Right when the Lord turned again
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the captivity of Zion, we were like them, that dream.
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It details the Lord turning the captivity of Zion, resulting in
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the people feeling completely stunned.
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Yes. Now we have a note from Lancelot
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Andrews that asks a very specific question.
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OK, he asks why Zion's captivity?
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Why not the captivity of Jerusalem or Judah or Israel?
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That is a great question because those places and people were LED
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away captive too. Exactly.
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Or well, spot on. Andrews points out that Zion was
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just a hill on the north side of Jerusalem.
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Right, just a geographical feature.
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But it was honored above all the rest because it held the temple.
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There it is. The sorrow over Zion was not
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just sorrow over lost physical land.
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Right. Losing your farm or your house
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is terrible. It is, but the sorrow over Zion
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was sorrow over God's church and the loss of true worship.
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That distinction regarding Zion clarifies the entire nature of
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the captivity. The rescue of Zion was the
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rescue of the place where God's name dwelt.
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This is far beyond a geopolitical event.
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When we look at John Hume's commentary from the year 1628,
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he lists all the times Israel was delivered throughout their
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history. And he makes a crucial
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theological point with that list.
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Yeah, he does. He knows they served in Egypt
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for 400 years and it was Jehovah, not Moses, who actually
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brought them out. Right, Moses was just the
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instrument. Yes, they were vexed unto the
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Canaanites, and Jehovah, not Deborah, freed them.
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OK, they were oppressed by the Midianites, and Jehovah, not
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Gideon, delivered them. So the pattern is very clear.
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Hume's point is that while God employed human instruments, the
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policy and the execution were entirely divine.
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Like with Cyrus the Great. Yes, Cyrus issued the historical
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decree to let the Jews return from Babylon, but the text
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attributes the action entirely to the Lord.
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God weakened the loins of kings and opened the brazen doors.
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Therefore, the turning of Zion's captivity is an act of sovereign
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grace focused on the restoration of true worship.
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The physical restoration of the land was secondary.
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Secondary to the restoration of the people's relationship with
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God at the temple, it is a divine initiative from beginning
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to end. That brings us back to the
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phrase like them, that dream, right?
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The joy was so sudden and overwhelming it felt like an
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illusion. The commentators give us several
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historical parallels to help us grasp the psychology of this
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moment. Think about Peter in the book of
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Acts. You know the narrative.
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He is locked in prison, heavily guarded.
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Awaiting execution the next morning, an Angel wakes him up.
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His chains fall off, the iron gates open on their own, and
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Peter walks out into the street. But the text explicitly says he
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thought he was seeing a vision. He did not think it was real.
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Or think about the patriarch Jacob.
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He spent decades mourning his son Joseph.
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Oh, that is a great example. When his other sons come back
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from Egypt and announce that Joseph is alive and governing
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the entire country, Jacob's heart froze.
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He could not process the information.
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It was too massive a reversal of his known reality.
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Another commentator, John Leclerc, mentions a secular
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example. Oh, right, the Greek history.
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Yeah. When the Greeks were conquered
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by the Romans, a Roman consul named Flaminius suddenly
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declared them free at the Isthmian games.
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The historian Livi wrote about that.
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Yes, he wrote that the Greeks were stunned into silence.
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They looked at each other like sleepers waking from an empty
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dream. The news was simply too good for
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their brains to process. We also need to consider an
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alternative translation provided by William Bridge.
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He was a prominent thinker from the 17th century.
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Right. And his translation adds another
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layer to this psychological state.
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He points out that the Hebrew word translated as dreaming can
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also mean restored to health. Which is a very different image.
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He references Isaiah 38, where King Hezekiah recovers from a
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terminal illness. And he uses the exact same root
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word to describe being made to live again.
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Bridge argues that translating it as restored to health shifts
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the metaphor. How so?
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Well, when a person is in a good dream or a bad dream, their
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mouth is not filled with conscious, intentional praise.
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Right, they're just sleeping. But when a person is suddenly
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restored to physical vitality after a long wasting sickness,
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they are filled with conscious, waking gratitude.
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Oh, I see. Both interpretations carry
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massive theological weight. They do.
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Whether it is the cognitive shock of a seemingly impossible
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rescue or the sudden infusion of life into a dead body, the focus
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remains on the dramatic, instantaneous nature of the
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change. The condition of the captive was
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hopeless. And the intervention was
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absolute. OK, let's unpack this.
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I have a modern analogy, but I want to make sure it tracks with
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the theology we were discussing. No, for it, if someone goes to
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the store, buys a lottery ticket, and wins $100 million,
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they might say I feel like I am dreaming.
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Sure, but that feeling is based on blind chance.
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They took a risk, the numbers lined up, and they got lucky,
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right? The shock in this Psalm seems
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completely different. Here.
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The shock comes from the sheer unmerited grace of a sovereign
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God acting when all human hope was entirely we lost.
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Yes, Israel had rebelled, they had been judged, they had been
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deported, and their temple was burned to the ground.
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They had 0 leverage. They had no lottery ticket.
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They have nothing to offer. And yet God acts.
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He steps into human history and reverses the irreversible.
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Yes. So how does this historical
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rescue of a small ancient nation translate to the spiritual
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rescue of the person listening to us right now?
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The connection to the individual listener is where the theology
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becomes intensely personal. Thomas Stent, writing in 1621,
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makes this connection explicit. What does he say?
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He argues that this text should not be applied only to Jewish
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captivities. OK, he views the temporal rescue
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of this small nation as a direct, prophetic shadow of the
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massive redemption of mankind. Just as the Jews were delivered
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from physical bondage in Babylon.
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Humanity is delivered from a far worse bondage.
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The general captivity of mankind under sin, death, and the devil.
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Yes, the deliverance purchased by the death and bloodshedding
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of Christ is the highest fulfillment of this Psalm.
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Stan asked a rhetorical question about this right.
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He asks, what great matter was it for a little handful of
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people to be delivered from temporal captivity in comparison
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to the incomparable deliverance from eternal death and the
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powers of darkness? So the historical event is a
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type. Yes, pointing forward to the
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work of Christ. The shock the believer
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experiences at conversion, realizing they are justified
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entirely by grace through faith, mirrors the shock of the Exiles
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realizing they are free to go home.
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The lottery analogy falls short precisely because the believer
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brings nothing to the transaction but the sin that
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made the rescue necessary. That transition from cognitive
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shock to a physical reaction is where the text goes next.
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Verse 2 yes. Verse 2 says then was our mouth
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filled with laughter and our tongue was singing.
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The people could not contain themselves.
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The mercy was so unexpected that normal speech was too dull a
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thing to express it. They had to laugh.
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And this laughter is observed by the surrounding nations.
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They. Heathen look at this situation
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and are forced to declare the Lord hath done great things for
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them. The outsiders recognized the
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divine origin of the rescue because it defied all historical
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precedent. No other ancient empire ever
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voluntarily restored a conquered people to their homeland to
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rebuild their capital. When the Assyrians or the
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Babylonians conquered a people, they scatter them to erase their
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national identity. Right.
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Returning them was geopolitical insanity.
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It was so clearly supernatural that even the Pagan nations had
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to admit God was behind it. Then in verse 3, the Israelites
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hear the outsiders talking and they echo the statement, but
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they make it personal. They boldly claim the Lord has
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done great things for us, whereof we are glad.
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The reaction of laughter requires careful analysis here
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because it is not trivial amusement.
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No, it is not. Martin Luther provides a
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brilliant insight on this specific point.
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He writes that the gospel is nothing else but laughter and
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joy. He states that this joy properly
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pertains to captives. Those who feel the captivity of
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sin and death. Yes, whose hearts are terrified
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with the feeling of the wrath and judgment of God?
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For a person who understands the severe demands of divine
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justice, the realization that Christ has overcome Satan,
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destroyed death, and taken away sins produces an irrepressible
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joy. Luther Contrast this with the
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terrifying burden of the law. Which he describes as being full
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of Wormwood and the bitterness of death.
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When the crushing weight of the law is lifted, the resulting
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relief is expressed as holy laughter.
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Furthermore, the public nature of this joy is a core component
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of their worship. Spurgeon warns against a poor
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modesty which attempts to hide joy under a Bush.
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He argues that true Gratitude loudly claims the blessing.
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When God has done great things, it is practically a robbery of
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God to hide that light. Believers are commanded to avow
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their joy and state the reason for it clearly to the watching
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world. But wait, here is where it gets
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really interesting. Let's look at that for a second,
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OK? Claiming that the Creator of the
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universe did something magnificent for us might sound
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extremely arrogant to modern years.
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It can definitely sound almost boastful.
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You hear people say things like God bless me with this new house
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or God gave me with this promotion and it can rub
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outsiders the wrong way. Right.
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They can seem like you're claiming you are somehow better
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or more favored than the person who did not get the house or the
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promotion. When the Israelites said the
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Lord hath done great things for us, they were making an
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exclusive, massive claim about their relationship with God.
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They were. How do believers reconcile their
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own undeniable unworthiness with such a bold, triumphant claim?
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How is it not just religious arrogance?
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That is a crucial distinction to make, and Malachi Harris, in a
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sermon from 1639, addresses the perceived arrogance perfectly.
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What is his insight? He states that the meanness of
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the receiver actually magnifies the glory of the giver.
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I see. The Israelites were not claiming
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they deserved the deliverance. On the contrary, their history
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was marked by constant unfaithfulness, idolatry and
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rebellion. Which is precisely why they were
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sent into captivity in the first place.
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Harris asks. Was it because they were so
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faithful? No.
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They had provoked God and forfeited His covenant again and
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again. So the realization of their own
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total unworthiness combined with the massive unmerited grace of
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God is what triggers the joy. The bold claim is not about
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their merit. It is about God's staggering
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condescension. When a believer says God did
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this for me, they are simultaneously saying I'm dust,
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I'm a rebel, and I deserve nothing but judgement.
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It is the juxtaposition of total depravity and sovereign grace
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that makes the claim an act of real worship rather than an act
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of arrogance. So it is the exact opposite of
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arrogance. It is radical humility resulting
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in radical joy. I love that it.
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Is a beautiful paradox. Now the text makes a sharp turn
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in verse 4. It shifts from praising God for
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a past rescue to pleading for a present one.
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It says turn again our captivity, O Lord, as the
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streams in the South. We need to establish the
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geographical context here to understand the plea.
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Right. The South refers to the Negeb, a
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desert region South of Hebron. It is a harsh, sun baked, arid
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landscape. The terrain is carved with these
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dry channels, waddies that sit completely empty, cracking in
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the sun for months on end. But when a sudden massive
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rainstorm hits the mountains miles away, those dry waddies
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turn into raging torrents almost instantly.
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A dry, dusty ditch becomes a rushing river in a matter of
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minutes. The psalmist is looking at a
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situation that feels completely dry and dead.
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And asking God to send a flood of deliverance, just like those
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sudden flash floods in the Negeb.
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The geographical imagery here is highly specific and carries
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significant theological weight. Joseph Carroll, a 17th century
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thinker, unpacks the implication of these southern streams.
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He notes that people living in the Negeb do not look for
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underground springs. They know the earth there will
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not yield water. Instead, they look to the
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clouds. The water comes entirely from
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above, bypassing all natural earthly sources.
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Carroll referenced This is the story of Elijah's servant on
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Mount Carmel. Oh, that is a perfect parallel.
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The servant looks toward the sea during a massive, prolonged
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drought and sees a clear sky with nothing but a tiny cloud
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the size of a man's hand. Yet within a very short time the
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heavens grow black with clouds and wind, and there is a great
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rain. The theological principle is
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that deliverance often comes when there is no visible earthly
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mechanism to produce it. The believer is taught to look
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entirely to heaven, recognizing that God can produce a flood of
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grace in an instant. Even when the immediate
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environment offers no evidence that relief is possible.
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Let me try another analogy here. Please do.
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Imagine you buy a house out in the middle of nowhere.
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OK? There is no plumbing connected
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to a city water line. There is no well on the
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property. So you are completely off the
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grid. Right.
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If you turn on the faucet in the kitchen, absolutely nothing
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happens. Because there is no water
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source. You are relying 100% on a water
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truck driving out to your property and dumping water into
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a tank from the outside. You have 0 internal resources to
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draw from. If the truck does not show up,
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you are out of luck. This text seems to be saying
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that spiritual deliverance is like that.
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You cannot just dig deeper inside yourself to find the
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water. It has to drop from the sky.
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So how does this reality inform the way a person should pray
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when they are walking through a season of absolute spiritual
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dryness? When they feel like that
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cracked, empty riverbed in the Negeb.
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Yeah, exactly. What is fascinating here is the
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relationship between memory and faith.
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How do they connect in those moments?
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The prayer and verse 4. Again, our captivity relies
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directly on the praise in verses one through 3.
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Memory of past grace fuels present faith.
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Oh wow, they use that established historical fact as
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the foundation to ask for the completion of the work.
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Exactly. Matthew Henry notes that the
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beginnings of mercy are encouragements to pray for the
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completing of it. When a believer feels completely
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depleted, their prayer should not be based on their current
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dry feelings. Right, but on the objective
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reality of what God has already done.
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They recall their initial conversion the first time their
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captivity was turned. And they appeal to the same
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sovereign God to act again. It teaches the believer to trust
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and divine timing. Knowing that relief is not
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dependent on a slow, gradual accumulation of human effort.
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It can arrive in a sudden, unannounced torrent from heaven.
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That is the hope of the sudden floods.
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That makes perfect sense. We have looked at the suddenness
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of grace and the floods of Deliverance, but the text now
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moves into a very harsh, gritty reality.
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Verse 5 says they that sow in tears shall reap in joy.
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This is an incredibly famous line, but the historical notes
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show us this is not just poetic imagery about feeling sad.
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No, this was a brutal agricultural reality.
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The author, WM Thompson, provides some incredible context
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here. Ancient farmers in the Near East
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faced immense life threatening danger.
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Their fields were often located far away from their fortified
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villages. Making them prime targets for
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lawless raids. Thompson points out the story of
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Job where his were out plowing the fields and the Sabines fell
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upon them. They stole the livestock and
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murdered the servants with the edge of the sword.
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Sowing seed meant leaving the safety of the town walls and
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risking your life. Furthermore, they were sowing
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precious seed. In times of severe famine,
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taking grain and throwing it into the dirt meant literally
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taking bread out of the mouths of your starving children.
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It was an agonizing decision, requiring immense faith that the
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buried seed would eventually multiply.
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The physical reality of the ancient sower provides the
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necessary foundation for understanding the spiritual
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application. Thomas Adams divides this
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spiritual sowing into 4 distinct categories.
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Sowing in faith, in obedience, in repentance, and in charity.
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Each of these requires A sacrifice that feels like a loss
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in the present moment. For example, sowing in charity
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means parting with resources that could secure your own
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comfort. Trusting the promise that the
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one who sows bountifully shall reap bountifully.
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Adam's makes a brilliant observation regarding the
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difference between how nature operates and how grace operates.
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In the natural world, a farmer desires a dry, fair seed time to
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get the crop into the ground smoothly without the seas
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rotting. But in the realm of grace, the
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wettest seed time produces the best harvest.
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The tears of the believer water the spiritual seed.
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Xander Henderson also notes the hazards involved.
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The seed is precious, the labor is agonizing, and the crop is
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subject to many dangers before the harvest.
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The believer must resolve to undergo these hazards, risking
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property, comfort, and even life itself for the sake of the
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Gospel. I'm looking at a quote from
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Matthew Henry here. Weeping must not hinder sowing.
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It means that when you are suffering, you must still be
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doing the work you are called to do.
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But I want to ask about the mechanics of this.
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Are the tears themselves the actual seeds being planted?
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Or are the tears just the emotional weather that
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accompanies the action of obedience?
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Right. If someone is just crying
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because life is hard, or they lost their job, or they're
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dealing with physical pain, are they automatically going to reap
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a joyful spiritual harvest? Or does the weeping have to be
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attached to a specific kind of Labor?
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That is my question. That distinction is vital.
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General earthly sorrow does not automatically produce a
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spiritual harvest. The tears themselves, when they
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are tears of a specific nature, are indeed seeds of comfort.
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Matthew Henry clarifies that these are tears of sorrow for
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sin. Our own and others tears of
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sympathy with the afflicted Church, and tears of tenderness
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and prayer. Chrysostom adds a beautiful
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insight here. He says that if you would be
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cheerful, you must be sad. He notes that Christ came into
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the world to comfort those who mourn.
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Thomas Watson, referencing Chrysostom, uses the miracle at
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Cana to explain this. Christ caused the earthen
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vessels to be filled with water to the brim, and then he turned
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the water into wine. In the same way, when the human
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eye, an earthen vessel, is filled, brim full with the water
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of holy morning and repentance, Christ turns that water into the
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wine of eternal joy. Therefore, the tears are not a
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byproduct of general earthly hardship.
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They are the specific agonizing expressions of a heart breaking
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over sin and longing for righteousness.
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It is this specific kind of tearful sowing that guarantees
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the harvest. If these agonizing tears are the
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water for the seed, then what exactly does the harvest look
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like? Is it just a return to the
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status quo? Verse 6 answers that by shifting
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the grammatical focus from the plural to the singular.
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It says, He that goeth forth and weepeth bearing precious seed,
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shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves
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with him. This verse is a magnificent
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promise. The linguistic structure of the
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original Hebrew is fascinating here.
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A scholar named Joseph Addison Alexander points out that the
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Hebrew uses an emphatic double verb.
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Literally, it translates to coming, he shall come.
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This grammatical construct is designed to remove all
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contingency. It guarantees the harvest.
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There is no might come or could come if everything goes right.
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It is an absolute certainty. And while this applies to any
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believer or gospel minister sowing the seed of the Word,
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Arthur Priddim points out that the truest, highest fulfillment
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of this singular sepeter he is Christ himself.
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Christ is the ultimate Man of Sorrows.
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He went forth weeping. He sweat drops of blood in the
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garden. He sowed the precious seed of
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his own perfect life, allowing himself to be buried in the dark
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earth of the tomb. And because he did that, he will
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return as the victorious Reaper, gathering the redeemed as his
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sheaves. The word doubtless in the
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English translation captures the spirit of that Hebrew double
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verb perfectly. Humphrey Hardwick in 1644
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commented on the absolute affirmations in this text.
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He notes there is no item of contingency or possibility.
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Heaven and earth shall pass away, but a jot of God's word
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shall not fail. This certainty is grounded
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entirely in the character of God.
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The harvest of a laborer in Zion's Vineyard cannot be
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prevented by any earthly or demonic force.
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When we look at Christ as the ultimate sower, we see that his
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affliction surpassed the natural measure of human grief.
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Because he underwent the dread realities of death and the
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Father's judgement for the sake of his people.
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Consequently, His pure delight is the eternal blesser of His
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people will excel all joy. He will fill his bosom with
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sheaves in that day of joy, and the garner of His gladness will
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be filled to overflowing. So what does this all mean for
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the person listening to us today?
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If we connect this to the bigger picture, the application is
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massive. If you are in the middle of a
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brutal, tearful season of obedience, if you feel like you
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are throwing the last of your precious seed into the dirt and
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you cannot see any green shoots coming up, you are not
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experiencing a failure of the system.
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You are participating in the exact pattern set by Jesus
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Christ Himself. You are walking the exact same
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path the Man of Sorrows walked. The pain of the sewing is not an
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indication that God has abandoned you.
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It is the pre requisite for the harvest.
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The tears are the irrigation for the crop.
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You're holding onto a promise written with divine authority.
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The return with rejoicing is not a probability, it is a
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guaranteed fact. The guarantee is what sustains
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the believer through the winter of the soul.
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George Horne uses the imagery of the changing seasons to
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illustrate this. The seed lies dead and buried
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during a dark and dreary winter, and all seems to be lost.
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But at the return of spring, universal nature revives.
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The believer laborers amidst persecution, affliction,
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sickness, pain and sorrow, and often no profit seems likely to
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arise from those laborers. The believer will drop into the
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dust of death, and the storms of winter will Passover them.
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Yet the day is coming when they shall reap in joy.
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Christ arose, and he is now in heaven, from whence he shall
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doubtless come again with rejoicing.
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With the voice of the Archangel and the trump of God bringing
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his sheaves with him. The harvest is an eschatological
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certainty. It is the final, undeniable
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triumph of grace over the curse of sin and death.
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The progression of this text is a master class and theological
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structure. We started by looking at the
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shock of sudden grace, where a rescue from captivity feels like
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an impossible dream. We saw how the heathen nations
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were forced to recognize the hand of God and the deliverance
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of His people, and how the believers loudly claimed that
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blessing with holy laughter. We discussed the arid geography
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of the Nageb, learning to pray for sudden floods of divine
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intervention from the clouds when the earth offers nothing.
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We faced the severe, gritty reality of the ancient farmer,
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learning that the tears of repentance and obedience are the
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actual seeds of our future comfort.
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And finally, we looked at the absolute unbreakable guarantee
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of the harvest secured by Christ Himself.
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Who sowed his life in tears so that he could return with the
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sheaves of the deemed. It moves from the objective
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historical reality of God's sovereign deliverance in the
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past to the subjective, desperate need of the believer
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in the present. And concludes with the
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unshakable certainty of the future.
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The believer is commanded to look backward with gratitude, to
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look upward with desperate dependence, and to look forward
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with absolute confidence. The tears of the present moment
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are not wasted. They're carefully measured and
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utilized by a sovereign God to produce a yield that will last
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for eternity. The work of sewing is agonizing,
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but the promise of the harvest is written in the blood of the
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ultimate sower. I want to speak directly to you
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as we wrap up this deep dive. When you feel like your
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resources are entirely depleted, when your spiritual fields are
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dry, cracked dirt, and when every act of obedience feels
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like taking food out of your own mouth, recall that your tears
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are precious. They are held by a sovereign God
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who does not waste a single drop of your sorrow.
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To leave you with a final thought, consider the connection
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made by HT Armfield. He points out that this Psalm
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begins with the word dream and ends with the word sheaves.
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This perfectly mirrors the story of Joseph in the book of
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Genesis. Joseph had a prophetic dream
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featuring sheaves of wheat bowing down to him.
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Because of that dream, he was thrown into a pit, sold into
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captivity and endured years of tearful sowing in an Egyptian in
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prison. But God turned his sorrow into a
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literal salvation for the known world.
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His captivity was the exact mechanism God used to produce a
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harvest that fed starving nations.
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Consider how your current captivity, your current season
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of tearful sowing in the dark, might just be the setup for a
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harvest that God will use to feed others.
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Think about that sudden beam of sunlight breaking through the
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collapsed mine. The hand is reaching down, the
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rescue is certain. The harvest is guaranteed.
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We will see you next time.