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A Pilgrimage

In 2020, many of us may feel like we are on a long journey. A close friend and I joked over text message last night to encourage each other:

So what does all of that have to do with today’s verse and study?

Those who sow in tears shall reap with shouts of joy!
Psalm 126:5 ESV

Psalm 126 is 7th in a series of 15 Psalms that were for pilgrims coming to Jerusalem. There are several instances where Jerusalem (Zion) was restored from captivity, so tying this to a specific event like after the return from exile under Ezra and Nehemiah or after David’s brief exile from Jerusalem in Absalom’s coup is probably speculation rather than hard proof. However, the point of knowing “exactly when” isn’t nearly as valuable as recognizing the pattern. These pilgrims had been away from Jerusalem themselves — either from real captivity — or from things they might consider a season of symbolic captivity from their beloved Zion.

We are reminded by this verse that great joy is often preceded by a season of tears. Some joy may come suddenly like in verse 4 (like the dried up desert streams when the rains come like a pure gift from heaven) — while other comes slow like in verses 5 and 6 (where our laboring proves complimentary with God’s promised renewal). By nature, most of us want to reap the joy without sowing the tears — but would prove a fat, lazy, and ineffective faith that bears little fruit.

For me, this term “sowing in tears” can most often be tied to my prayer life — that place of “spiritual labouring”. I find that there have been seasons where my prayer life has “felt” like a sort of captivity, a time where my heart hasn’t been fully into my prayers and they aren’t “tearful” for the burdens and cares and pains of those around me, but they are a bit more repetitive, distanced, isolated, and cold.

And when I find myself clearly in this place because I realize that I don’t really know the details or circumstances of someone else’s hurt, pain, struggle that I would consider a close friend or family — not because I didn’t have the opportunity to ask, but because I did not care enough to share in their burdens because I was too worried with my own — I realize my own need to make that pilgrimage back to Zion with my people. I realize my own need to put in the work of sowing in tears.

F.B. Meyer noted that some farmers soak (steep) their seeds before sowing them, and then applied the idea: “It is well when Christian workers steep their lessons and addresses with their prayers and tears. It is not enough to sow; we may do that lavishly and constantly, but we must add passion, emotion, tender pity, strong cryings and tears.”

And Spurgeon has this to say: “He drops a seed and a tear, a seed and a tear, and so goes on his way. In his basket he has seed which is precious to him, for he has little of it, and it is his hope for the next year. Each grain leaves his hand with anxious prayer that it may not be lost: he thinks little of himself, but much of his seed, and he eagerly asks, ‘Will it prosper? shall I receive a reward for my labour?’ Yes…doubtless you will gather sheaves from your sowing.”

And VanGemeren: “The people were not to sit by idly, waiting for God to come through. They had to go out and sow, praying that the Lord would be true. The phrase ‘seed to sow’ (v. 6) is reminiscent of Haggai’s encouragement to the people to sow whatever little they had left, because the Lord will bless them.”

More available here: https://enduringword.com/bible-commentary/psalm-126/

Lord, I fear how often I have let a word spoken, a lesson written, a prayer lifted go out as seed cast idly wherever it may fall — with not so much care and love as you clearly demonstrated towards each individual circumstance you encountered during your travel through this land as a pilgrim returning to Zion. But in my repeated and obvious weaknesses, your strength and power and glory is made all the more evident to me. Forgive me for my wanderings away into captivity, and my expecting the rains to “just come again” like they always do, and my forgetting that I have a blessed opportunity to participate. Forgive me for fearing the vulnerability that true intimacy with others and their challenges and faults will reveal so many of my own challenges and faults. Help me to instead long for renewal, fellowship, and relationship — both with my brothers and sisters — and most importantly, with you. Amen.

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Loosen Up

The first thing that our dogs do when I get up to take them outside — is that they stretch. Even if they were already moving around and making noise to wake me up, once they see that it is actually time to get up and go — they stretch.

Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.
Romans 12:12 ESV

Harvard Medical School has this wonderful article on the benefits of stretching: https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/the-importance-of-stretching

And beloved, when we start our day rejoicing in Christ our hope, we have stretched spiritually in the way that prepares us to be patient in tribulation — The Way that starts the marathon of our day in that constant, abiding prayer of an enjoyable walk with the Lord.

Even though it is wrongly attributed to Confucius all over the Internet, my mind is brought to the quote first attributed to Princeton Philosophy professor Arthur Szathmary:

An old-timer I knew used to tell his students: ‘Find something you love to do and you’ll never have to work a day in your life.’

It is amazing how a stretch, a preparation, an attitude adjustment to start our day can have such a powerful impact — it is a right alignment with God’s grace.

Lord, thank you for so many blessings. Thank you for beloved friends, family, coworkers, neighbors, and a job and calling that allows me to serve others in a way that isn’t burdensome. I know that this freedom wasn’t free and that you have bought me out of that old life where I looked at things wrong and dreaded what lay before me — mainly because I did not start by surrendering, humbling, remembering what curses I truly deserve as opposed to what blessings I have received. Your grace is so deep, so wide, so strong. Thank you. Amen.

Side Note: This is a pretty good practical application video that I watched last night that you might find interesting and helpful: https://youtu.be/B1kMj5fIUNY

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See the Error, Prepare the Way

As it is written in Isaiah the prophet, “Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way, the voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight,'” John appeared, baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.
Mark 1:2‭-‬4 ESV

We see John “preparing the way”, proclaiming a baptism of repentance — and that Jesus did not do away with the message of repentance but expanded it.

From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
Matthew 4:17 ESV

Look at how John himself contrasts the baptisms of water, spirit, and fire:

“I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”
Matthew 3:11‭-‬12 ESV

Repentance is seeing the error in our own ways and turning to go a different way. But how blind is a person who justifies and excuses and accepts and continues in his own sin? And how blind is a person who doesn’t even think he is sinning?

Many are blind who do not look and examine themselves. And many are blind who look, see, and do not repent — who see their ways but do not accept the error in them. They might acknowledge that it is called sin, but not accept that “the wages of sin are death” and “unless you repent, you will all likewise perish”.

And true repentance isn’t a one time event where a preacher scared us enough to get us to accept John’s baptism of water so that we could return to our hellish ways — like a fool who goes to a car wash once and months later sues the car wash when his car is dirty again. No, the grace and mercy of God’s extending forgiveness is meant for a deeper purpose:

Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?
Romans 2:4 ESV

Do we see how kind He has been towards us?

Do we believe what He says about the presson of sin?

Cam we both admit wotrh our mouths and accept in our hearts and minds the roots of our own ways and choose to walk in The Way?

Yes, this is His will being done on earth as it is in heaven,  that people like you and I should humble ourselves, pray, seek His face, and turn from our wicked ways.

And beloved, He delivers us to the freedom of walking in a different way — not just by our own consciousness of our error (this isn’t just weak philosophy and dead religion), but by the supernatural strength of His Holy Spirit according in us.

Lord, I can be willful, foolish, and even blind at times. I am sorry, and I see the error of my ways. Help me, Lord. You are mighty even when I have proven myself weak. Thank you. Amen.