December 20 - Psalm 126

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.