There are times when God seems cruel and distant. Circumstances, trials, loss can speak confusion, doubt, and fear in our lives, yet God in His Word, ministers life and hope to all who hear His voice and receive His love.
He gives understanding and wisdom to His ways in His Word, (Proverbs 2:6). Instead of being cruel, we learn and experience,
The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead, he is patient . . . not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance 2 Peter 3:9.
Here at Advent, approaching the day we celebrate the birth of our Immanuel, we seek Him and cry out as the hymn cries:
“O come, O come, Immanuel,
and ransom captive Israel, that mourns in lonely exile here
until the Son of God appear” (Translator: J. M. Neale).
Today, in our pilgrimage through the Song of Ascents, as the children of Irael journeyed up to Jerusalem to take time to celebrate the Lord’s faithfulness and deliverance, we look at Psalm 126,
When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion,
we were like those who dream.
Israel was held captive seventy years in Babylon. But throughout the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, we see the stubbornness of His people, disobedience and pride which brought about punishment under evil rulers.
And we also witness throughout Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1st and 2nd Samuel, Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah and more, the great faithfulness of a gracious and compassionate God.
The Lord is gracious, compassionate, slow to anger, abounding in mercy, forgiving iniquity and sin . . . (Exodus 34:6,7).
However, all sin must be punished. The land of Israel had no Sabbath year rest for a total of seventy years.
God warned the people. They were held captive exactly 70 years. His land had rest. The people? They remembered.
Psalm 137 is a song in their anguish:
By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept
when we remembered Zion.
There on the poplars
we hung our harps,
for there our captors asked us for songs,
our tormentors demanded songs of joy;
they said, “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!”
How can we sing the songs of the Lord
while in a foreign land?
If I forget you, Jerusalem,
may my right hand forget its skill . . . Psalm 137:1-5.
And God is faithful and true to His Word:
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 Psalm 126:1-3.
Time in God’s Word gives answers, understanding, and comfort through the “Why’s” and the dark days.
“Dear Lord, we’re broken-hearted. We suffer great loss. Affliction. Trial.
You give warning in Your Word. You give promises. You are faithful to them both.
You are both merciful and just.
You are both Holy yet forgiving. There is none like You.
You are drawing all people to You and Your great name-sometimes through
Help us to hear You every day, the warnings,
“If you are not careful to do all the words of this law that are written in this book, that you may fear this glorious and awesome name, the Lord your God, then the Lord will bring on you and your offspring extraordinary afflictions (Deuteronomy 28:58).
Help us remember Your promises as well.
Help us have ears to hear and hearts to understand You and Your ways and Your love: “We love him, because he first loved us” 1 John 4:19.
Restore our fortunes, O Lord,
like streams in the Negeb!
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 Psalm 126.
“Dear Lord, we weep, but we look up and rejoice in You.
You never abandon Your people. We need Your law written on our hearts, yes, You accomplished all we could never do.
We can never be right, just, true, in and of ourselves.
The arrival of the Messiah was what the people were looking forward to. We are looking to You, our help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth!”
“God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son,
whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds;
who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, Hebrews 1:1-3, NKJV.
“Yes Lord, help us acknowledge You in all our days, in all our decisions.
Though we may “walk in the valley of the shadow of death, we will fear no evil, for You are with us” (Psalm 23).
Help us trust You, the faithful and gracious Lord to be our hope this day and forevermore. You, Jesus, dwell in my heart, and the hearts of all who believe on You:
“Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God” (Revelation 21:3).
Rejoice! Rejoice! Immanuel
shall come to you, O Israel.
O come, O Wisdom from on high,
who ordered all things mightily;
to us the path of knowledge show
and teach us in its ways to go. Refrain
Those who sow in tears
Shall reap in joy.
He who continually goes forth weeping,
Bearing seed for sowing,
Shall doubtless come again with rejoicing,
Bringing his sheaves with him Psalm 126.
Let us climb this mountain rejoicing: Rejoice! Rejoice! Immanuel
shall come to you, O Israel (O Come, O Come, Immanuel Translator: J. M. Neale (1851).