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 126:5–6—NKJV)
My junior age youth group would meet before the evening service for an hour each Sunday. Our program consisted of singing from “Youth Sing” books and a Bible lesson. One of the favorites asked for with regularity was the song “Bringing in the Sheaves.” The admonition from the song was that we are to be soul-winners collecting a harvest of souls as good stewards of the Lord.
One cannot help but go straightway to the thought of winning souls when reading the above text, but I believe the application is much broader for the Christian. The themes that this six-verse psalm parades before us are rich with repentance, obedience, solemnity, seriousness about spiritual work, risk-taking, testimony of the saint, total dependence upon the Lord, and the triumph of hard work rewarded.
The occasion of the writing of this psalm is one of the returns from exile which faithful Israelites experienced. Their fathers had been removed by God from the Land of Promise for hard-hearted disobedience to His commands and self-centered, stubborn, willful rebellion despite His faithful warnings. While in the land of captivity, the believing Israelites cried out to God in repentance. He heard them in their distress and paved the way for the faithful remnant to return to the Land of Promise. It is at their return to the devastated, unfruitful land that the author writes. He has grasped the monumental work to be done, and he faces the agonizing recognition of how few were available to set their hand to the plow so that Israel might once again reclaim the vision of a faithful nation. Because God is faithful, the author penned the beautiful words of Psalm 126.
There are six one-word points to the psalm: turn (verse 1), tongue (verse 2), testimony (verses 2–3), trouble (verse 4), tears (verse 5), and triumph (verse 6). These points all develop the meaning of “bringing his sheaves with him.”
Turn speaks to the idea that the Lord brought back the captivity. The air of repentance is crucial to the harvest. There would be no harvest in the Land of Promise without repentance of the wayward people. God is the one who had permitted their captivity; it is only He who can bring them home again. Believers must ever be quick to repent and plea for mercy before the Faithful One. The taste of freedom from the long captivity was delicious. Tongue expresses the idea that when God grants freedom from bondage in sin, the tongue cannot long remain still. The light heart revels in the covenant loyalty of God. You will notice that there is no room for self once contrition for sin has done its work. Testimony refers to the notoriety given to God as others hear of His goodness in the lives of His saints. Trouble bespeaks the heart-cry for more to be obedient to the Lord in returning. The needs were great, the land was overgrown, drought-plagued, desolate, and the laborers were pitifully few with meager resources, yet with great hearts. Tears encompasses their statement of utter dependence upon God, the seriousness of the need, the grave risk in both action and inaction, the recognition that the enemies were numerous—and yet there is the sublime promise that those who sow in tears shall reap in joy. Triumph is the capstone to the psalm. The one going back and forth in his rows continually, carefully taking each precious seed from his seed bag, purposely placing it in the soil watered with his tears, is assured he will come again from the field one day rejoicing, bringing the fruit of his labor with him.
This harvest certainly can be souls saved through planting seeds of the Gospel. In a broader context it is the story of all Christian endeavor as Paul states, “Let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart.” Are you beginning each new endeavor upon repentant knees? Are you being obedient so that the Lord may give you a harvest? Trust and obey.
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So they said, ‘Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household.’ Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house. (Acts 16:31–32—NKJV)
Has anyone ever asked you, “Why don’t you trust me?” Any one of a thousand reasons may have passed through your mind. Perhaps he has already sent the message loud and clear that he cannot be trusted, and so he has taught you how to treat him for you know him all too well. Then again, maybe you did not know him well enough. Either way, you were certainly not willing to do what he asked of you.
To believe is to have faith in something or someone by entrusting yourself to its/his care. Trust goes to the core of human meaning, interaction, and relationships. To varying degrees, we live our lives trusting people and things. We trust our alarm clock, our car, our furniture. We trust our parents, our teachers, our friends. We trust our pastor, our doctor, our investment advisor. To believe, or not to believe, is quite natural human behavior and is part of navigating through life.
The biblical concept of belief raises this very human activity to a higher level. The Greek word signifies a belief which has come through persuasion. It is more than a creedal statement (“I believe God exists and is love”). Biblical belief is to place total confidence in, to trust, and to rely on because you have been fully persuaded (“I believe that Jesus Christ died for my sins, and gave His life so that I might live”). This kind of belief is akin to entrusting, committing, yielding over, and releasing into someone else’s care.
The difference between a creedal statement of belief and saving faith is something like letting your teenager drive your car to a game or to college. There is a vast difference between allowing your teenager to drive himself to a high school football game for the evening, compared to giving the car keys to him and watching him drive off to college for the semester. In the one case you are giving the car with multiple restrictions, and he will be closely monitored in short order, even after he has proven that he is a safe driver and is generally responsible. In the other case you are yielding over and entrusting into your child’s care a car which you will not be able to monitor. There is a sense of finality to it all.
This later believing faith is the one found in our verses. In Acts 16 you find the history of the Philippian jailor who had been given the responsibility of keeping guard over Paul and Silas. He had heard their gospel of salvation, available only through Jesus Christ; he had seen them manhandled and beaten with many stripes for their gospel; he had been charged with keeping them under lock and key in the innermost part of the prison. He had heard their praying and heard their praises. He had also seen the prison doors miraculously opened. He knew that God was at work and that he needed the good news of a transformed life found only in Jesus Christ, and so he cried out, “What must I do to be saved?”
“Believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved” are Paul’s words. He needed to: 1) Consider Jesus worthy of trust in character and motive; 2) Place total confidence in the Lord’s ability to do just what He says He will do; 3) Entrust the salvation of his soul into the hands of Christ; 4) Commit the work of saving his soul to the care of Christ. Acts 10:43 states, “To Him [Jesus] all the prophets witness that, through His Name, whoever believes in Him will receive remission [forgiveness] of sins.”
Is your salvation a purely intellectual exercise, parroting facts, or is it a work of God causing you to yield to His claim on your life through the sacrificial love of Jesus Christ who died in your place? Are you living a believing life? Trust and obey.
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You are all sons of light and sons of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness. Therefore let us not sleep, as others do, but let us watch and be sober…putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet the hope of salvation. (1 Thessalonians 5:5–6, 8—NKJV)
One of the laborious duties of parents is helping our infant children to recognize that darkness is for sleeping and daylight is for living. How many long hours do you remember spending with your precious urchin, awake looking for the party, while all the rest of the world was at rest? It is a valuable lesson for family harmony when everyone understands that darkness promotes sleep and daylight is for activity.
It is no surprise that God labors with His children to help them recognize the difference between darkness and light, and between spiritual torpor and vigor. Thanks to Adam’s sin, all men enter this world in darkness and spiritual death. You do not have to teach a child to be a sinner. The sin nature is active within their little hearts and minds—after all, they got it from you. Diligent parenting is required to form these little sinners into productive members of society. Consistent, personal evangelism must be exerted so that, by the grace of God, the light of God’s love through the sacrifice of His Son on Calvary may be shed abroad in their hearts. Without His light they will abide in darkness. You owe it to your children to take nothing for granted.
In our text the night/darkness and the day/light are in direct opposition. Darkness represents slumber, indolence, laziness, slothfulness, sleepy-time, and self-interested rest. Light represents alertness, sobriety, clear vision, awareness, activity, and usefulness for others. It is no wonder that our God is described in the Bible as the One who never sleeps nor slumbers.
1 John teaches us that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. “If we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.” (1 John 1:6) Light represents truth while darkness represents wrong-doing. God’s born-again children are to resemble the Nature of their heavenly Father. We are light-bearers in all we say and do.
Our text points out that there must be a clear, observable distinction between those who claim to be transformed by the blood of Jesus Christ and those who are yet under condemnation, for the debt of their sin rests upon them. Believers are never to be insensitive to things that are of importance to God, but those who are unsaved have no capacity to see the light in their blindness. Ephesians 5:14 reads, “Therefore He says: Awake, you who sleep, arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light.”
Paul’s challenge here in 1 Thessalonians is that the children of light must live watchfully and soberly. Just as he states in Romans 13:11, “And do this, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed.” There is a sense of urgency, as if the alarm has gone off at the dawning of the day and believers are to shake off their sleepy slumber, regardless of what the rest of the world is doing, and prepare for a full day of service.
The believer is to prepare by clearing his mind for the tasks of the day and putting on the armor issued to every authentic believer. There is the breastplate of faith and love which covers the vitals—the believer is privileged to be armed with the unvanquishable truth of God’s Word, practically applied in his life, along with the unfailing love of God leading to an obedient life. There is the helmet of salvation—the believer is equipped with the unflinching protection of the God-bestowed hope of eternal life.
Are you unable to recognize darkness from light? Come to Christ who is perfect light. Are you slipping back into spiritual slumber? Awaken to righteousness and sin not. Trust and obey.