Psalm 126 - Change The Landscape // 5 July 2026

David Cason

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:04

Good morning, everybody. My name's David. I'm one of the pastors here at one church. What another beautiful day it is out there. It's enough to fill our hearts with joy. Or is it? Hands up if you're enjoying the good weather. Hands up if it's too hot for you. No pleasing some people. Does that sunshine make us feel happy or joyful? And if so, what is the difference? For the next um couple of weeks, we're going to be looking at Psalm 126. And it's a short psalm that starts with joy, ends with joy, but there are tears in the middle. Now I know what you're thinking, that sounds a bit like one of my sermons. But those of you with good memories will recall that Scott started this year looking at Psalm 126, and the line that he spoke around was, Those who sow with tears will reap with songs of joy. And so before we get deeper into the psalm, I just want to spend a little moment actually considering that question because it underlies what we're going to look at for the next couple of weeks is what is the difference between happiness and joy? And you may have heard this talked about before, and as I look round this room, I see lots of wise, mature Christians that can probably answer that question, but they were not around when I was preparing yesterday, so I asked Chat GPT. And it stated this joy and happiness are closely related, but they are not the same. And then it gave the following table of comparison. If I could have that up behind me, please, guys. So this is the tab the table that ChatGP produced. Happiness often depends on circumstances. Joy can exist despite difficult circumstances. Happiness usually comes from getting what you want or experiencing something pleasant. Joy often comes from a deeper sense of meaning, purpose, gratitude, or connection. Happiness can be temporary and even fluctuate throughout the day. Joy tends to be more enduring and resilient. Happiness is more of an emotional response, but joy is more of a state of being or inner disposition. So it's quite a good comparison to just keeping our minds as we're talking about joy. And I'm sticking with my weather analogy for a moment and theme. You can think of happiness as the weather, but joy is the climate. The weather can change and fluctuate from sunny to stormy, sometimes even really quickly, but the climate has this overall pattern that remains the same over time. I would imagine that analogy works much better if you don't live in the UK, where we tend to have a lot of weather and not much climate. But you understand the difference that I'm trying to make here. From a psychology perspective, it says this happiness is associated with pleasure, comfort, and positive emotions. And psychologists use the term hedonic well-being. Whereas joy is associated with fulfillment, meaning, authenticity, and deep connection. And so, from a Christian perspective, we can also even then add in another level of difference, and really simply put, happiness depends on what happens to you. What happens makes us happy. But joy is an inner strength that comes from something on a solid foundation, a relationship with God, and that joy can remain even through suffering. And this is why when we're facing hardships as Christians, we can still say we have joy, even though we might be deeply unhappy with the circumstance. And as Marcus has already shared today, the joy of the Lord is our strength. As I was reading about the psychological differences between happiness and joy, I also came across this quote which I thought was interesting. So this is what a psychologist had written. And to have joy without happiness, finding peace and purpose in hardship. And I thought that statement actually captures so well the reality of the human condition. For so many people, they search for happiness in things, in experiences, in relationships, friendships, money, drink, drugs. But eventually they realise that it doesn't satisfy. They never find this true deep peace or joy. And reading that also then reminded me of a quote from Jim Carey. Jim Carey is a famous comedy actor for anyone who's younger, who probably already, because he's getting old and out of date now. But he says this I think everybody should get rich and famous and do everything they ever dreamed of so they can see it's not the answer. It's possible to have happiness without joy, and it's also possible to have joy without happiness. And if I had to choose, I think I know which one I would rather pick. But we're just going to read now from Psalm 126, if you've got your Bibles with you, but it will come up on the screen behind me as well. So it's quite a short Psalm. That's all Psalm 126. 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 the streams of 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. I just want to give a little bit of context to that psalm. And the nation of Israel at this time, God's people, had been taken off into exile by the Babylonians, and Jerusalem had been all but nearly destroyed. And they had had over 50 years at this point being captives in a foreign land under a foreign ruler. And the reality is they had pretty much given up all hope of ever returning home. It seemed to them entirely impossible. But then Cyrus the Great conquered the Babylonians and he allowed the Jewish exiles to return and start to rebuild Jerusalem. And that's why we read in that line, it's like a dream for us. That it was something that was just so impossible in their mind that this could ever happen. But they're saying, This is like a dream, but God has done it. They even say, even the nations around us are saying, Look at what God has done for these people. So that first part of that psalm is the people reflecting, looking back, and remembering what God has already done for them, this miraculous deliverance, and they are joyful about it. But then we hit their present time where it says, Restore our fortunes, Lord. You know, it's amazing that they're back in Jerusalem, but Jerusalem is not what it once was. Half the city still lies in ruins. Um, there's like you know, mess and stuff around them, they've got very little in the way of food and supplies, and the fields that they would have cultivated had been allowed to have just run wild for like 50 years of neglect. So here they're crying out to God, restore us again. So God had started a work, he had delivered them back to Jerusalem, but he had not yet finished the full restoration. And they want to see further transmit transformation, and they talk about the streams of Negev, and I'm going to come back to that in a little while. And then finally we get to the end of the psalm, which is when they're so they've kind of looked back, then they're in their present position saying, Lord, please restore us, and now they are looking forward. And so they take what little grain they have that they could have just kept and eaten because their supplies would have been scarce, but they plant with tears. And at this point, they are planting into an unknown future, but they do it with a trust in God, a continued trust in the God that had delivered them this far, and so they now trust Him for the future. And so again, they choose joy, despite their feelings and their tears, they choose to believe that the harvest of that God will give them. And so at that little moment, the people of God are not happy, they are sowing in tears, and the tears are real, the pain is real, the worry about their future is real. But despite the temporary storm that they are facing, they're holding on to the fact that God still controls the climate. They know that God can do something for them. So this psalm starts with joy and it ends in joy. And my question for us today is are we feeling joyful today? Perhaps for some of us the sun is shining, it's warm, not too warm, everything's just as it should be. And um, but you know, even those things are temporary. It has been really nice weather, but we live in England, it could be pouring down in a couple of weeks' time. In a few months' time, it'll be dark and miserable and rainy. Not to put a downer on things. But you know, in the same way, our lives are not going to be plain sailing in fine weather all the time. But we can take assurance on this that if God has started a work in us and if we have placed our trust in Jesus and invited him to our lives, we can hold on to that deep-rooted sense of hope and joy. So when Scott started the year and said we're going to be a church that had joy, he didn't mean that we were going to all be happy all the time. He didn't mean that all of our problems were suddenly going to just evaporate. But we can still choose joy. The joy of the Lord is our strength. That's from Nehemiah, comes a little bit later in this story. But this is a powerful reminder that the true strength and resilience doesn't come from our own circumstances, but from resting in God's unwaving presence, his love and his promises. You know, we can choose each day to choose faith and trust over fear and anxiety. And our faith is based not on our feelings, but it's based on who God is. And that's what we can be confident in. Our feelings do change, like the weather, they go up and down, but our God is constant. So there are a few things I think the Lord wants us to take away from this today. And the first is that I think there probably are those here this morning that are facing real difficulties, and I don't want to in any way belittle the struggle that you may be facing. Your tears are real, okay, they're perfectly valid. But in faith, I believe that in this hard season you can still know joy and peace. The circumstance might not shift immediately, but you can know joy and peace. And the other part of the message this morning is that the Lord is not finished yet. They were in Jerusalem, they were full of joy about the fact they were there, but there was still a restoration and a process to go through. The Lord is not finished in your lives yet. And that psalm references the streams of Negev, which that picture there is the streams of Negev. And it's an area in southern Israel, it's a great desert area, it's still there to this day. And for most of the year, the entire place looks completely desolate, totally dry, arid, rocky, almost lifeless. And all across the desert, there are these lots of interconnecting streams, and they're called waddies, and for months they contain no water at all. They basically look completely dead. But then at a certain time of year comes the rain. Rain falls, and suddenly water rushes through these channels, and amazingly, within just hours, dry valleys become rivers that are flowing. And within just a few days and months of that water getting there, flowers grow, grass appears, shepherds can bring flocks, the whole landscape changes, and you see life emerging. And that change, it can be it's almost miraculous. If you imagine looking at this dry, arid, dead landscape for month after month after month, and yet when that rain comes, bang, life is there. So when the psalmist says, Restore us like the streams of Negev, he's not asking God for some slow, gradual improvement. He's not saying, Oh Lord, just help me cope a little bit, or could you just improve things slightly? He's saying, Lord, do what only you can do. Transform it. Transform the landscape. Bring hope where there is despair, breakthrough where there is barrenness, bring life where there was death. And he is able to breathe life into places where other people have given up. He is able to change the landscape. And this morning he reminds wants to remind you that he can still do that today. And as I've reflected on Scott's challenge for us to be a joyful church, I've realized it doesn't mean that we're going to be happy all the time. But those of us that know Jesus, we know that deep sense of peace and joy that it gives. And so we are called to be carriers of hope and joy. And just like that psalm, we can kind of think of those three things. We can spread joy as we remember and share what God has done in our lives. We just have to reflect back, those of us that have been Christians for a while, and we can share that with joy. We can also speak words of hope and encouragement into present situations. We carry something with that knowledge. There was a little message that V, I think, put on the prayer chain this week where she had met some lady on a dog walk on a park bench, and that lady was going through real difficulty and illness. But Joy spoke, um V spoke something into her. She said, We'll pray about that. She carried hope and joy to that stranger who didn't know it. And then finally, we can also display and model trust and faith in what the Lord will do. So, as a church that understands joy, we can help shift the landscape in the lives of the people around us. Those streams in the desert that are interconnected pathways, they're actually all quite small, like this. They're not like one big raging river, they're lots of little intricate interconnected areas. And if we as people can just be spreading that joy, trickling from one to the next, encouraging one another. Ash said to us earlier, even in that song, about encouraging one another. And we can encourage people beyond here as well. So even when we are in times of challenge, we can be sowing in tears but reaping with songs of joy. I just want to spend a moment thinking about what that means spiritually to sow in tears, and it's I think continuing to do the right thing even when we're experiencing grief, disappointment, pain, or hardship. It's choosing to continue to pray when we don't see answers. Remaining faithful and holding on to our joy even in our suffering. It's choosing to continue to love and serve others even when our own heart is hurting. It's continuing to trust God when circumstances haven't yet changed. And it's continuing to hope when you feel discouraged. The tears are real, and the psalmist doesn't pretend that they're not, but the tears are only the middle of the story, they're not where it ends. The last line says, He who goes out weeping, carrying seed to sow, will return with songs of joy, carrying sheaves with him. There's something of this pattern of God that is established all through Scripture. In Galatians 6, verse 7 to 9, Paul writes this, Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. James 5, 7 to 8 says, See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop, patiently waiting for the autumn and spring rains. You too be patient and stand firm. And Paul in Romans 8 says, Our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. You know, even Jesus himself followed this pattern of Psalm 126. Jesus endured suffering, grief, and endured the cross, looking ahead to the joy that would come through his sacrifice, basically redeeming us. Our salvation was his joy. That's why we read in Hebrews 12, for the joy set before him, he endured the cross. Jesus perfectly embodies what it means to sow in tears and to reap with songs of joy. The people in Psalm 126 had walked into their fields with their seed in their hands and tears in their eyes, but they were hoping for the harvest that was coming. And as Christians, we're called to live in that same way. We've seen enough of God's faithfulness in Christ to trust him with the things we can't see. We hang on to what he's already done. We look at what Christ has already done, and we have a hope for the future. We sow, we wait, and we hope. Not because the harvest is immediately visible, but because the one who has promised is faithful. And as for the tears, you know, some of those, as we pray, as we seek the Lord, some of those tears the Lord will deal with. I believe that 100% as I stand here before you that God can change the landscape. But maybe some things we'll continue to carry. We may still continue to carry some tears. But ultimately, we know this that in Revelation, speaking about a new heaven, it says, Look, God's dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain. For the old order of things has passed away. And that's the ultimate hope and joy that we hold on to. That one day we will be with God in glory. There won't be any tears or crying or pain or mourning or death. At the moment, we're in this incomplete place. But one day in glory with Him, God's restoration won't be partial, but it'll be full and complete. And so that's the tension that we live in as Christians. We know deep in our spirit that one day we will be complete and we'll be enjoying eternity with our Saviour. But right now, in life's troubles, we can still choose to hold on to that joy even through the hard times. If the worship team would like to just come back. You know, I'd also just like to encourage anyone here this morning that if you don't know who Jesus is yet, or you haven't invited Jesus into your life, just come and talk to me or to someone after this service. Because without that anchor, that hope, that joy rooted in our lives, you are at the mercy of the weather and the storms. And I don't know, perhaps some of you here have been chasing happiness. Just the next thing that's going to make you happy. If I just get that job, if I just get that promotion, oh when I'm married, when the kids are a bit older, then I'll be happy. None of those things give you happiness. What you really are searching for is joy and peace, and that is only found in Jesus. Jesus wept and knew pain and suffering. He was even called the man of sorrows, but for the joy set before him, he endured the cross. That joy set before him was relationship with us, it was a relationship with you. And you know, I'm not really entirely sure how to end today, but I've just got two thoughts. That one, if you are currently blessed to be happy and full of joy, then I just encourage you to spread that joy to those around you, both inside these walls and beyond them. Ash called us to do that as he was singing worship, come alive in the name of Jesus, in this place and outside. So if everything's great for you at the moment, be a blessing. But if you're currently facing struggles, you need to know this morning that you're that Jesus is with you. Stand firm and hold on to the joy that can only be found with him. And I'd encourage you, if you are really struggling with something this morning, come forward for prayer. There'll be people here that would just be delighted to pray with you. It'll bring joy to their hearts to pray with you. Because the psalmists, you know, they were back in Jerusalem, but the psalmists still cried out restore our firmitudes, Lord. They cried out to God. And so I just encourage you this morning if you need prayer, just come and cry out to Him and let Him change the landscape.