SONGS OF DEGREES

Psalm 126 is not only a Psalm in which God’s children declare the praise of the Lord about that which He did, but it also speaks of a prayer from a heart made lowly. To this is added a sound of hope which echoes throughout the entire Psalm. The people of the Lord have been delivered from Babylon, just like Israel one time was freed from the hand of the Egyptians.

Both deliverances point to the redemption of God’s children from the sin-house of bondage in which we all reside by nature. Drawn out of Satan’s power they are translated into the Kingdom of God’s grace—and that only because Christ has come and has bruised Satan’s head. He paid the ransom so that people, guilty of death and damnation, may know that He is the great Deliverer and Redeemer of His own, whom the Father has given Him from eternity.

Augustine has written of this Psalm that it is the song of the Travelers to the heavenly Jerusalem.

Out text states that the captivity of Zion has been turned again. The Zionites in bondage had been brought back. The land which they had to leave on account of sin, they may again enter on account of grace. Cyrus was stirred up by the Lord to give back freedom to the captives. So they might return to Jerusalem and rebuild the temple.

My reader, has your captivity in Babylon been turned again? Has it become too oppressive there for you so that you had to lament day and night?

O God, give ear unto my cry,
And to my voice attend;
Though far from home and from Thy house,
To Thee my prayers ascend.

(Psalm 61, Psalter 160)

We are all in Babylon on account of our sins and we can only be delivered from our deep misery by the mighty hand of the Lord. Truly blessed is he who learns not to be able to leave Babylon by himself, but who learns that his captivity must be turned again. He learns that we cannot go back; we must be brought back.

For such it is as if they dreamed. Someone can have a dream, wake up, and then ask himself, “Now, did that really happen?” And when things clear up in his mind he realizes, “It was a dream, it was no reality.” The wonder of deliverance for this people was so great that they were “like them that dream.”

When the Lord fetches one out of the Babylon of his religion or brutish sin, and brings him on the way to Jerusalem, well, then it sometimes seems a dream to them. Impossible on their side, and look, now it has become reality that the Lord still wanted to have something to do with such a one.

Were there but more people, also in our midst, who not only agree somewhat to the Truth with their understanding, but who, by grace, might learn to believe that the Lord Himself brought them on the path of life on account of that free favour which moved Him from eternity!

“Then was our mouth filled with laughter,” may the delivered captives sing. Seventy years they had had to mourn: led away from city and temple—and it was their own fault. But now? Yes, now it has become true:

My grief is turned to gladness,
To Thee my thanks I raise,
Who hast removed my sorrow
And girded me with praise.

(Psalm 30, Psalter 77)

Did you mourn already about missing God? Did you weep already in secret before the Lord about the far distance which exists between you and your Maker? Indeed, this will always precede a mouth filled with laughter because of deliverance. Then it becomes necessary that the Lord Himself brings you on His way. When you then may experience at the commencement or in the advancement that the Lord wants to have some dealings with you, yes, then there can be gladness in your heart at times, more than in the time that the corn and wine of the wicked increase (Psalm 4).

Then it also becomes true, “our tongue with singing.” Yes, then the tongue of the stammering sometimes becomes skillful to speak well of the Lord and to declare His wondrous deeds.

Even though that people will come to know that they can never praise the Lord in such a way as is the desire of the new life, there is nevertheless the need at times to acknowledge Him before the ears of others.

Blessed if sometimes that may still happen from the uprightness of heart. Even the heathens noticed at that time that “The LORD hath done great things for them.” It is no different if we in truth are brought on that way and we may render unto Him the honour in our speaking, but also show in our actions and walk, that a different goal has come to fulfil our life. The world still has always respect for true work. It shows, therefore, in our life that we are not talk-Christians, but, through grace, travelers towards Zion.

Do you lack this knowledge? Then ask the Lord for the opening of your blind soul-eyes, so that you come to know the necessity to be delivered from captivity.

Chilliwack, B.C.

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