We Were like People Who Dreamed
(Psalm 126:1-6)

God whom we believed in and served gives us the absolute hope through Jesus Christ. Therefore, we should believe in and depend on God alone despite of various difficulties. People who believe in and depend on God alone can dream a dream with joy and hope even they are in trouble. Today’s scripture reading says about joy and happiness when Israel people returned to Jerusalem after 70-year enslaved lives as captives for Babylon were ended.

1. God who saved us from despair
Israel people had overjoyed returning from Babylon so they sang “When the LORD brought back the captives to Zion, we were like men who dreamed.”(v. 1) Being free people after finishing 70 years of slaves was same as dream. They confessed it was not because of their feats but because of God’s amazing work, singing “The LORD has done great things for us, and we are filled with joy.”(v. 3) With amazing God doing such great work, we can have amazing miracle like a dream in our life. Therefore, let us not be dismayed by troubles and adversity. Rather we should fix our eyes on God who can save us and achieve wonderful things in our life with singing for hope.

2. God who is working even now
The Israel captives in the Babylon had been returned to Jerusalem for three times but still there were some residing Israel captives there. People who returned first prayed for the rest of captives to come back soon. They prayed, “Restore our fortunes, O LORD, like streams in the Negev.”(v. 4) Streams in the Negev is desert. It is the driest land in Israel. However it turns into the streams once heavy rain pours out. Then, the arid land has even flowers of life. They believed that God made impossible things - making rest of captives free - possible by giving His grace, just like dry land could be changing into streams with the help of rains during rainy seasons. Eventually God saved all Israel people and He is still working for us. So we should pray for God’s grace even we are out into extremely hard moment.

3. God who prepared for the glorious future
With the grace of God, Israel people returned to Jerusalem but it was so devastated. It was not easy to restore the city but they build the walls just like farmers sowing in tears. Finally they could rebuild Jerusalem Temple and have worship service to praise the Lord giving glory to God. Therefore we should endure the difficult moment by looking to God, who prepares the glorious future for us, and we should be patient with sowing the seed of faith so as to reap the harvest with joy.