December 20 - Psalm 126

December 20, 2025
December 20 - Psalm 126

In Psalm 126, the Psalmist is remembering back to a time when God delivered His people from captivity. He remembers the weeping and grief that the people of Israel (Zion) experienced. It was a time where they were not living in their homes, a time when family was separated, a time when security was gone.

And yet, in remembering, he is not reflecting on the hardship that he endured, but on the joy of the gift of deliverance that God gave to Israel. The joy that filled their hearts resulted in laughter and joyful shouting, like children on Christmas morning who get the very gift they want and let out a loud shout of joy!

At the time of this Psalm, the joyful restoration is just a memory. In verse 4, the Psalmist calls on the Lord to bring a new deliverance into their lives. While there are good memories of great rejoicing, a sad reality is also present. He feels grief, but he has great expectations of future joy.

For those who belong to the Lord, no period of grief compares to the great final deliverance that we have in Christ. For those, like the Psalmist, who belong to God, we can weep and grieve in this world, yet we have great expectation of endless joy because of Christ. Take time to recount a time that the Lord has given you great joy. This is but a glimmer of the joy that we have and will have in Christ forever!

Take a moment and remember a favorite Christmas memory. One that brought you a lot of joy. Maybe it was one of your kids opening up a gift that you bought them, or maybe it was a gift yourself, or maybe it was just being around a bunch of family. And when remembering these moments of great joy, or joining the psalmist in Psalm 126 where he is recounting a deliverance that God brought them from exile, that their mouths were full of laughter, that they gave out shouts of joy, at the end of verse 3, he says, we are glad. And when we remember these things, we're glad as well, we're joyful. But we need to remember what the psalmist is talking about, that they weren't just delivered from something good. They were delivered from a very horrible thing of being exiled, that they were away from their homes. They were away from their family. They were away from security. And they're glad because God delivered them from something bad. And in verse 4 it kind of shifts where he's remembering this great moment, but now he's asking the Lord to bring a new deliverance. He's going around sowing in tears. He's in grief. But he says, as he's trusting in the Lord, and remembering the great deliverance that God has given him already in his people already. He said, the one who sows in tears will be joyful once more. And we know that in Christmas season that we're here to celebrate the birth of Jesus, the ultimate deliverer, our God in flesh, who bore our sin, who lived a perfect life that we could never live, and died the death that we deserve, paying the price for our sin, that we know that as we put our faith in him, we have ultimate deliverance, that we do not have to be afraid of what tomorrow has, or we don't have to be sad for what today has, because we know that we have an ultimate deliverer in Christ forever.