Responding to Suffering and Sowing with Tears (Psalms 123–126)

When contempt gets loud and courage feels thin, the Songs of Ascent offer a map for the weary. We walk through Psalms 123–126 to face scorn without folding, steady our gaze on the One enthroned in heaven, and find the grit to keep sowing truth when tears blur our vision. The journey is honest about pain, clear about hope, and relentless about God’s faithful presence.

We start with Psalm 123’s raw confession—more than enough of contempt—and learn why expectation matters: hostility is real, but God’s rule is not up for debate. From there we practice concentration, turning from outrage to prayer and from doomscrolling to worship, so our hearts look where our help actually lives. Psalm 124 reorients our memory: if it had not been the Lord on our side, we would not be here. Remembered rescues become present courage.

Then Psalm 125 anchors us like Mount Zion, surrounded as Jerusalem is surrounded. Wicked scepters may rise, but they do not rest forever. Empires come and go, yet God’s promises stand, guiding history toward His good purpose. Finally, Psalm 126 sends us back into the fields: those who sow in tears shall reap with joy. We explore what compassionate, patient gospel work looks like, why burdened prayer bears fruit, and how stories like Robert Murray McCheyne’s show the quiet power of a life poured out.

If you’re carrying emotional baggage, longing for justice, or wondering how to keep going with a soft heart and a steady spine, this conversation will meet you on the road and point your eyes higher. Subscribe, share this episode with a friend who needs courage, and leave a review to help others find the journey.

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Chapters

• 0:00 Framing Suffering And Blessing
• 2:34 Emotional Baggage In Psalm 123
• 4:15 Expectation: God Enthroned Above Scorn
• 6:03 Concentration: Lift Your Eyes To God
• 6:49 Deliverance Sung In Psalm 124
• 7:49 Surrounded Like Mount Zion
• 9:08 Wicked Scepters And God’s Control
• 11:03 Sowing In Tears, Reaping In Joy
• 13:04 McCheyne’s Burden And Our Mission
• 13:44 Benediction And Resources

Transcript

SPEAKER_01: 1:37

Has this year brought you any suffering? Have you shed some tears over the last weeks? Sorrow is part of our lives. But the Bible declared, How blessed are you who follow the Lord? You can know that He's on your side because you're on His side. So opposition, attacks, and ridicule only strengthen your faith when you embrace the promises of God. Here's Stephen Davy with a lesson called Responding to Suffering and Sowing with Tears.

SPEAKER_00: 2:14

Today we're covering four more songs that the Israelites would be singing as they travel up to Jerusalem for their three annual festivals Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles. Now, travel would have been quite difficult for these Israelites as they carried all the baggage they would need for the journey. But here in Psalm 123, it's pretty clear that the travelers who are carrying what we would call emotional baggage are making their journey toward Jerusalem. We read here in verse three, have mercy upon us, O Lord, have mercy upon us, for we have had more than enough of contempt. Our soul has had more than enough of the scorn of those who are at ease. Maybe you can you can relate to this kind of emotional baggage, mental baggage. Maybe you've had these days more than enough of contempt. That word, by the way, carries the idea of disrespect from proud people or wicked people. So the psalmist writes here of the scorn of those who are at ease. That word for scorn refers to mocking or derision. You see, people who seem to have it made in the world often have nothing but ridicule and sarcasm for the followers of God. And this psalm very honestly says to the Lord, we've just about had all we can take. Well, how you how do you, as a believer, uh keep traveling with that kind of baggage? How do you keep your head and your heart above water, so to speak, when you encounter hateful people? Well, first of all, uh it's a matter of expectation. Verse 1 says, To you I lift up my eyes, O you who are enthroned in the heavens. Now for God to be enthroned, well, that speaks of his total authority. And being in the heavens, well, that refers to God having infinite power to execute his authority. Beloved, contempt and scorn against us, they're no match for our God. So so let's lift up uh the eyes of our heart and trust him. Jesus expected to be crucified, didn't he? In fact, he told his followers to expect hatred. He reminded them that the world hated him long before it would ever hate them. John 15, verse 18. We're also told in 2 Timothy chapter 3 and verse 12 that those who follow God will suffer persecution. You know, I think, beloved, much of the discouragement we feel as we live for the Lord comes from unmet expectations. Our expectations need to be anchored in the truth that God is in control, he will one day make everything right. And though our world today might want to disturb us, and frankly, the world is disturbed by us, well the Lord's throne is in heaven. That means his throne is never disturbed. God is not wringing his hands uh in anxiety. He's not wondering what's gonna happen next. I often like to say there there's never been an emergency meeting of the Trinity. So it has to do with our expectation. We're gonna receive scorn, but our expectation is of the power of God Himself. Now, a proper response to the hatred of our world is not only a matter of expectation, I like to think of it as being a matter of concentration. Verse 2 gives us a really interesting picture here. The psalmist says here, our eyes look to the Lord our God. You know, I would recommend that you spend less time looking at the news and talk shows and following the latest crisis or the latest thing that's captured the public's rather fickle attention. And we ought to spend more time serving the Lord, talking to the Lord, looking to the Lord, uh, in fact causing other people to look to the Lord as we talk to them about Him. Now, here in the next Psalm, Psalm 124, which was written by David, this is going to come from David's own personal experiences of deliverance. It's still, by the way, to this day, sung among the Jewish community during the festival of Purim, and that festival commemorates the deliverance of Israel during the days of Queen Esther. Now, like the other psalms of ascent, that is, as they're ascending toward Jerusalem as these families are traveling and they're singing, here in verse one you can almost imagine some father opening the song by singing, if it had not been the Lord who was on our side, let Israel now say, I could see Mom here nudging the children to join her and responding in verse two, if it had not been the Lord who was on our side, and then they'd all sing together here at verse eight, our help is in the name of the Lord who made heaven and earth. Now following this brief psalm, we come to Psalm 125. This one opens with a rather bold statement of faith. Those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion, which cannot be moved, but abides forever. The psalmist makes another statement of faith here in verse two. As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the Lord surrounds his people from this time forth and forevermore. You see, just as the mountains form a natural hedge around the city of Jerusalem, well they're singing, the Lord is surrounding his people. And that's true to this day. He's hedged us in, so to speak. Nothing can touch his beloved unless he allows it through that hedge of protection. Now, what I find interesting about these two statements of faith is that they're sung during a time of great oppression. In fact, verse three says the scepter of wickedness shall not rest on the land allotted to the righteous. The scepter is a reference to those on the throne of authority in the land. Here the psalmist is grieving that that royal authority in the land happens to be wicked. It's unsympathetic to the people of God. It occurs to me that I'm speaking to many people today in other countries who are who are being oppressed and persecuted. I'm speaking today to people who live in countries where it's a crime to convert to Christianity. And let me tell you, the people of God aren't welcome wherever the scepter, the royalty in the land, happens to be wicked. Yet the psalmist, he's not giving up here. He's not about to throw in the towel. In fact, he's making these great statements of faith because he refuses to doubt God's promises to his people. He effectively says here in verse 5 that the Lord is going to lead them away into judgment, those who turn aside in their crooked ways. So here's the point, beloved. The occupying forces of evil, well, they're going to sit on their throne of power just for a little while longer. The ungodly rulers, they well, they appear to be in control, but it's only temporary. Indeed, God is the one, even then, even now, who's in control. He's even using these wicked rulers to guide the ship of human history into the harbor of his ultimate plan and purpose. Everything's under control by his sovereign hand. By the way, consider the fact that Jerusalem and those mountains surrounding that city, they're still there. They've been there for thousands of years, and they're still testifying to the promises of God that will one day fully come true. But in the meantime, have you noticed? There's no Babylonian Empire over there. You can't go visit the palace of the Ninevites, and to this day you've never met a Philistine. But you can go to Israel today. You can see what God has preserved and protected. So what do we do in the meantime while we wait for the Lord to come back and rule the nations with perfect justice as the prophets have declared? Well, Psalm 126 tells us. It uses a proverb to make its point, and here it is in verse five. 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. We might weep today over our wicked and wandering world, but but let's keep casting the seeds of truth. Let's keep planting the seeds of the gospel of Christ, knowing that one day, you know, all those tears are going to turn into shouts of joy. I think of Robert Murray McShane whenever I read a text like this. He moved the nation of Scotland to revival in the mid-1800s, used by the Lord wonderfully, fruitfully. He he pastored less than seven years and died at the age of twenty-nine. Several years after his death, a young pastor visited McShane's church. He bumped into the old caretaker there and asked him if he could tell him the secret of the amazing influence of Robert McShane. Well, the man immediately said yes and invited this pastor to McShane's old office. It was still there. He told him to go ahead and sit in his chair, which he did. Then he instructed the visitor to put his head in his hands and begin weeping. He said that was the secret of the fruitful ministry of Robert Murray McShane. Listen, we can cry about the wickedness of our culture, we can cry about those in leadership positions around the world who don't love God. But are we crying over their lost souls who need the gospel of Christ? Let's focus on that great commission of our Lord, making disciples, sowing seeds with compassion and concern. Just remember the day is coming when the fruit of the harvest is going to be gathered and we're going to celebrate before our Lord with singing and shouting with joy. Well, until then, may the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.

SPEAKER_01: 13:23

Thanks for listening to The Wisdom Journey with Stephen Davey. To learn more about us and access all of our Bible teaching resources, visit wisdomonline.org. Our phone number is 866-482-4253. And you can email us at info at wisdomonline.org. Stephen developed this daily program to help you know what the Bible says, understand what it means, and apply it to your life. So please join us next time to continue the wisdom journey.