This is your daily reminder. God has not run
out of mercy, not for you, not today. Welcome
to the New Mercies Podcast. Welcome back, February
the 28th. Today's reading in our journey together
is in Psalm 126. Now, if you remember, maybe
it was last week, I think, Psalm 127 we read.
And I explained a little bit about that psalm
where it was... packaged in the Psalms. It is
in the Psalms of Ascent or the Psalms of Degrees
or the Psalms of Steps, depending on how maybe
your Bible would translate that. But ultimately,
there are 15 Psalms that are packaged in this
that are small, and they are used in the Hebrew
hymn book or the book of Psalms as... traveling
Psalms or Psalms of degrees that they grow as
you walk up steps to the temple or as you travel
closer to the Lord, right? Psalm 127 was in the
middle of those. Psalm 126, though, is our reading
today, and I'm going to end up reading the whole
Psalm, but I want to share a little bit about
it. I don't want to jump in too much and give
you a full commentary on it. I encourage you
to read it today. Maybe read it from the perspective
in which we saw it written. But I do want to
share just a little bit about the book of Psalms.
The more I'm getting some feedback from our time
together on the podcast, what I'm realizing is
the masses have spoken, right? And you say you
enjoy the idea of giving you a little bit of
context of some understanding of the Scripture.
So I want to kind of share a little bit. little
bit. So the Psalms, specifically the Psalms of
Ascent, are Psalms 120 through 134. So there's
15 of them, and they are packaged together as,
if you can imagine, like a road trip playlist.
Whenever people would travel to Jerusalem for
feasts or for Passover or for whatever, they
would quote these psalms and sing these songs
and proclaim these psalms together, mainly because
they were short, they were easy, they were rhythmic.
So they were psalms that they would sing together,
psalms that they would proclaim together as they
were getting closer to whatever feast or festival.
It was also known that maybe they were, as they
would walk up the... temple stairs, as they would
take a step, they would quote the psalm and take
another step and quote the psalm and take another
step and quote the next one. There was 15 steps
up to where the temple was. So as you think about
that today, another thing I want to say is some
of the psalms, I know a few people, and I know
you're listening today, I know a few people that...
say they don't like the Psalms because they don't
understand them well. Not that they don't like
them, but it's hard to grasp because it's not
just a historical document, right? It's not instructive.
It's more responsive. And part of the thing I
think is pretty awesome about the Psalms is that
most of them, and I won't say every one of them,
but most of them are attributed to one of five
time frames. All right, now get this. Of these
five time frames... There's five leaders that
were in office or in leadership when the five
time frames kind of fell. Now, there's 150 Psalms.
There's a lot of them. But the majority of them
were written during one of those five times under
the reign of David, under the reign of Jehoshaphat,
under the reign of Josiah, Hezekiah, and Ezra.
All right. So you got David, you got Jehoshaphat,
Hezekiah. Ezra, and Josiah. Get this. Each of
those five leaders, God had sent in each of those
time frames an awakening of his people, meaning
that in those five time frames were what we would
consider revivals or awakenings among the people
of God. Now, if the majority of the Psalms are
attributed to those five time frames, there is
something incredibly powerful about what we understand
about worship. When God pours out into his people,
awakens the Spirit, allows the Spirit to move,
allows him to move and operate in ways that we
get to see his hand at work, our response is
worship. That's our response. Now, it is understood,
and this is not, I can't. prove this. I can tell
you why I believe this interpretation. The Psalms
of Ascent, I believe, were compiled by Hezekiah.
Now, that doesn't mean he wrote them. Some of
them were written by David. Some were written
by Solomon. But he is the one that compiled them
together into this grouping. I believe there's
some reasons for that. It doesn't really matter.
What I want you to hear today, though, is Psalm
126. through the Psalms of Ascent, sound like
someone who has been freed from bondage, freed
from some type of stronghold, some type of slavery.
It is powerful. I want you to read it today or
listen to it today as if you just got the best
doctor's report ever, as if you just heard that
your enemy has lost and you have won and you
are now the victor, more than a conqueror. Listen
to Psalm 126 as we read today. When the Lord
restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those
who dream. He said, listen, it was like a dream.
We couldn't even imagine it. It was so amazing.
It was like we were dreaming. Verse 2. Let me
read all the way through it. Sorry, I don't want
to stop again. Then our mouth was filled with
laughter and our tongue with shouts of joy. And
they said among the nations, the Lord has done
great things for them. The Lord has done great
things for us. We are glad. Restore our fortunes,
O Lord, like the streams in the Negev. 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. This is one of the great
praising Psalms. I don't know what you have gone
through, what you've experienced in your life,
what you've had to deal with, the circumstances
that have surrounded you, but I'll tell you this.
He's good to deliver. He's good to redeem. He's
good to take us through. I've heard it said before,
you're either going into a storm, coming out
of a storm, or in the middle of a storm. One
of the three things, you're either on your way
into a storm, you may not know it yet, you're
in the middle of it, or you're coming out of
it. I think that that's a way to look at life.
But I will say this, I think you're either about
to see the deliverance of God, you are experiencing
the deliverance of God, or it's on its way. Or
it's just happened, right? It's one of those
things. God is working in your life. As a believer,
I have faith, I have trust that God is working
in my life. I have faith, I have trust that he
has restored my life, my hope that I have. He's
restored that. Yes, life may be hard. Yes, this
may be difficult. But there can be new streams
of excitement and hope flowing in my life. This
is a psalm of relief. Today, it's the end of
the week. I don't know what your week has looked
like. I'm not sure what all you have dealt with,
but I'll tell you this. No matter what you've
gone through, no matter what you're dealing with,
no matter what your brain is telling you or what
your struggle has been or what lies you've listened
to this week, He is good. He's so good that it
doesn't even seem real. Can you believe God loves
you so much that he sent his only son to die
for you so that he can have you in his family?
Can you believe that? It is so crazy. It is so
amazing. As I look and I hear and I read, sometimes
we need to hear the reason I love the church
body so much. We're gathering together tomorrow.
As we gather together, we're going to hear testimony
of people within our church body, whether it's
in small groups, whether it's sitting across
the pew or wherever, sitting across the sanctuary
from one another. We're going to hear the story.
We're going to hear singers proclaim the truth
of God. We're going to hear as the word is penetrating
the hearts and lives of people. We're going to
hear and see what God has been doing. I love
church for this reason. Every time we gather
together, somebody is dealing with something
difficult. Somebody is celebrating something
amazing. Somebody is going through a hard time,
and then you've got somebody that's been gifted
by God to do something incredible. You've got
all of this overwhelming sense of community that's
gathered, and we need somebody that can Psalm
126. Somebody that can say, listen, he's delivered
me. Look at how he's protected me. Look how he's
brought me through. I had surgery and now I'm
better. I had this sickness and now I'm healed.
I had this and now I'm better. He's brought my
wayward son home. He's brought this. We hear
those great... And the reason we need to hear
that is because somebody is in the middle of
it. And somebody says, well, I have a wayward
child. You're telling me there's hope. Let's
pray together and let's see how God has delivered.
And we're going to see him do it again. We're
going to trust in faith that he's going to keep
working. He's not done with us yet. I hope and
pray that you would Psalm 126 today. I hope and
pray that you would give this shout of joy, this
laughter on your tongue. Let it come out of you
today. Let's worship him today.