The Restoration Song - Introduction

When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dreamed. Our mouths were filled with laughter, our tongues with songs of joy. Then it was said among the nations, ‘The Lord has done great things for them.’ The Lord has done great things for us, and we are filled with joy. Restore our fortunes, Lord , like streams in the Negev. Those who sow with tears will reap with songs of joy. Those who go out weeping, carrying seed to sow, will return with songs of joy, carrying sheaves with them. Psalms 126:1‭-‬6 NIVUK https://bible.com/bible/113/psa.126.1-6.NIVUK Have you ever had a time in your life when you thought something was utterly impossible, but it happened? I have. Several times, in fact. I had prayed for years as a child for Christians being persecuted under Communism behind the Iron Curtain. I had a special sensitivity to their situation. My parents had fed me books about their suffering while I was having a hard time with bullying at school. Then suddenly, and without any warning, the Berlin Wall came down. And during several incredible, heady months, Communist regime after Communist regime toppled. I watched our television completely aghast, tears in my eyes, as I saw my prayers and the prayers of many thousands of other believers answered. Then, after seventeen difficult years in a bad neighbourhood, my family received the news that we were moving house. I'll never forget that first night in our new home. We slept on air beds and mattresses because our furniture had not yet arrived. The walls were in need of redecoration. The place badly needed a deep clean. But we were out of our old neighbourhood at last. I asked my mother, who had problems sleeping where we'd lived before, "So how did you sleep last night?" "Badly." she replied. "There were no drunken fights outside, no-one throwing things at our windows, no police sirens. It was too quiet." I remember the day when a parcel arrived at my wife's office addressed to her. I was there. It was really thick and it came from the British Embassy in Manila. We thought they were returning our documents for the second time. We felt frustrated and feared her visa application had been rejected. She carefully opened the parcel and her passport fell out. "Oh no! Why have they returned my passport?" she cried out. Instinctively I said to her. "Just check it and see." She flicked hesitantly through the pages and there, staring at her, was a UK spouse visa. The visa we had worked towards, spent months collating documents and evidence for, spent nights praying for, had finally arrived. And against all the odds. The squeals of delight and congratulations from her colleagues were unforgettable. And then there's time when we ran like lunatics to an estate agent to put in a bid for a house we'd just viewed before it went on the open market. We got there minutes before the office closed and sat there impatiently praying as the agent called with our bid. I'll never forget the sigh of relief and joy when it was accepted right there and then without negotiation. A few weeks later, we moved into a house in our favourite neighbourhood in the town, having sold our cold flat five years after it first went on the market. Experiences like this are precious and ought never to be forgotten. We should treasure them and store them up like animals store food for winter. Hard times come to all of us like seasons. We need to be prepared to keep ourselves healthy, mentally, spiritually and physically. The idea of storing up blessings like this is nothing new. Psalmists were doing it centuries ago: Then I thought, ‘To this I will appeal: the years when the Most High stretched out his right hand. I will remember the deeds of the Lord ; yes, I will remember your miracles of long ago. I will consider all your works and meditate on all your mighty deeds.’ Psalms 77:10‭-‬12 NIVUK https://bible.com/bible/113/psa.77.10-12.NIVUK I remember the days of long ago; I meditate on all your works and consider what your hands have done. Psalms 143:5 NIVUK https://bible.com/bible/113/psa.143.5.NIVUK This psalm is really precious because it was written for this purpose precisely. This is a Psalm of Ascents, used by the Israelites post-Exile as they went on Pilgrimage to Jerusalem to celebrate their festivals. It commemorates the return of prisoners of war from Babylon to Israel and Judah seventy years after they were captured. It remembers the day their captivity to a foreign power was reversed. It looks both backward to the joy of that precious moment and forward to what God will do again as they rebuilt. We'll explore this psalm under three simple headings that refer to the three glorious events which the Jews had lost hope would ever happen. The first of these, in my next post, is THE RETURN OF FREEDOM.