Thursday, April 26, 2012
Psalm 126:1-3 When the LORD brought back the captives to Zion, we were like men 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.
IT'S NOT A DREAM
This psalm is a song of joyful thanksgiving to God. It pictures the happiness God's people experienced at the time when He brought them back from the Babylonian captivity. So exuberant were they when this happened that it almost seemed too good to be true, like it was a dream. But it wasn't a dream. It was true! Thanks to the tender mercies of the Lord!
Later, when the Jewish pilgrims trekked to Jerusalem to participate in their annual worship festivals, they sang this song along the road, joyfully praising the Lord for making their deliverance from Babylonian captivity a glorious reality for them.
As God enabled the Jewish exiles to enjoy freedom from the captivity in the land of Babylon, so He has blessed us with a freedom even more important and special. He liberated us from the brutal taskmasters: sin, death, and Satan (from which we could in no way free ourselves). This He did by sending His own dear Son to our world and having Him live the holy life we couldn't live (which the holy God required of each one of us) and suffering the punishment we each deserve for our failure to keep God's Law perfectly. It seems too good to be true that God would do this for people like us, but it IS true! Jesus really did come from heaven to fulfill the righteous requirements of the Ten Commandments for us. Jesus really did die the death we deserved. Jesus really did come alive from the grave on Easter morning to assure us of the victory over death. Even while we were His enemies!
Now we are free to serve our Lord in grateful love. Then, in yonder life, we'll be privileged to praise and worship Him forever in the New Jerusalem above.
All blessing, honor, thanks, and praise To Father, Son, and Spirit,
The God that saved us by His grace, All glory to His merit!
O Triune God in heaven above, Who hast revealed Thy saving love,
Thy blessed name be hallowed.
(The Lutheran Hymnal, 377:10)
