religiousaffections

I am studying the Psalms of Ascent and today Psalm 126 has been especially encouraging.  It is sung by the people of God who have been turned upside down by the joy that comes when God pours out his mercy in difficult times.

Joy is the authentic Christian note, a sign of those who are traveling the way of salvation.  Joy is not a requirement of Christian discipleship, it is a consequence of it.  It is not what we have to acquire in order to experience life in Christ; it is what comes to us when we are walking in the way of faith and obedience. Psalm 126 is a song of joy, of the joy that the Lord’s mercy brings his people.  It is only a joy which his people can enjoy.  In our earthly existence we pay for joy, we buy the vitality of another’s imagination to enlighten our lives.  This is the kind of joy that a good meal or a beautiful painting brings.  That kind of joy is powerless to penetrate our lives, it leaves no lasting mark on our souls.

Joy cannot be commanded, purchased, or arranged.  The one who wrote Psalm 126 and those who sang it were no strangers to the dark side of life.  They carried the poisonous memory of exile in their veins and the scars of slavery on their backs.  Christian joy is not an escape from sorrow.  Pain and hardship still come, but they are unable to drive out the joy of the redeemed.  Laughter is a result of living in the midst of God’s great works.  Enjoyment is not an escape from boredom but a plunge by faith into God’s work.  The joy that develops along the Christian way is an overflow of spirits that comes from feeling good not about yourself but about God.  These people knew the joy that God’s mercy brought them and here in Psalm 126 they beg for more.  

*adapted from Eugene Peterson’s “A Long Obedience in the Same Direction”