Spurgeon was once criticized for putting too much laughter into his sermons. Frivolous. Lacking gravity. His reply to the woman who had button-holed him was classic: “My good lady, if you only knew how much I restrain myself.” This psalm shows us not only that “laughter” (
Psalms 126:2) and God go together but also God and “joy” (
Psalms 126:2-6). This psalm is written to help you discover the secret of joy.
Mistaken Notions of Joy
When the psalm refers to joy, it does not mean the tendency that some people have, because of their temperament, to be happier than other people. For one reason or another there appear to be people who are more naturally wired to smile, who can wake up in the morning singing a cheery song, and who look at their breakfast cereal and simply clap their hands with delight. You may feel sympathy with the Snoopy T-Shirt that was popular when Charlie Brown was all the rage—“I hate people who sing in the morning”—but then others get up early because they like it. Some people are morning people, some people are evening people, and some people seem to feel happier than others. They are wired that way. However, the joy here is not this matter of temperament.
Nor is this joy about faking it, the sort of pretend joy that plasters a smile on your face while inside you growl. Nor is it imposing joy on others by going up to someone who that moment discovered his best friend had a car accident and telling him to “rejoice in the Lord always,” to which the understandable reply might be, “Let me punch you in the nose and see how much rejoicing you’re doing then.” Nor is it the deep Christian joy that is so deep—soooo deep—that to find it you practically have to set up an oil well. Drilling, drilling, deeper, deeper, deeper. Ah, we have struck oil; there is a smile down there; it was
deepChristian joy.
Living the Dream
No, this joy is not a matter of temperament (your natural predisposition), an experience that must be manufactured for yourself and other people (faking it), or something so deep that it is not really happy (where the smile goes down rather than up). Instead, this joy is a result of being “restored” by God (
Psalms 126:1)—not happy because of your genetics but happy because of what God has done for you. This joy is based upon an objective, real, God-given restoration. And those who have this joy are “like those who dream” (
Psalms 126:1). The ancient world, when it referred to dreams, did not, first of all, mean a daydream. They meant an actual dream, the sort of dream you have when you are asleep. So when the psalmist says this was like dreaming, he is comparing joy to a very good actual dream. He is saying that this joy is like
that. This joy is so good that when you experience it you think, “I am living the dream.” Such is the joy that this psalm is talking about.
So throw away all ideas that joy is found in things apart from God, or that God is the serious, gloomy, despondent, negative, critical sort of religious freak who will smack you over the wrists with a wooden ruler as soon as you step out of line. This psalm, first, describes the dream and then, second, tells you how that dream comes true.
The Dream
First, the dream:
When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion,
we were like those who dream.
Then our mouth was filled with laughter,
and our tongue with shouts of joy;
then they said among the nations,
“The Lord has done great things for them.”
The Lord has done great things for us;
we are glad. (
Psalms 126:1-3)
Zion, as the last chapter explained, stands for the whole story of the people of God that finishes in the heavenly Jerusalem—“When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion,” that is, when God brought back God’s people to where they should have been all along. Notice there is a parallel between
Psalms 126:1 and
Psalms 126:4.
Psalms 126:1 says, “When the Lord restored” or “When God restored.” Verse 4 prays, “Restore our fortunes, O Lord” or “Please God restore.” So the first part of the psalm is the dream, what happened when God restored. The second part of the psalm is how to live the dream, asking God to restore your fortunes.
Being Restored
“Fortune” here doesn’t mean luck or chance. It is not saying, “I’ve been playing the gaming tables and finally I got lucky.” It is not saying, “I’ve been down on my luck and finally I got my lucky break.” The word “fortune” here mirrors the word “restore,” so “When the Lord restored our fortunes” (
Psalms 126:1) means something like “When God
restored us to a
restored situation.” We find the same in the
Psalms 126:4, which is parallel: “Restore our fortunes, O Lord,” meaning, “
Restore us to this
restoredsituation, O Lord.” This matters because people think they are “living the dream” when they have bought a new vacation home or a whole new wardrobe from Savile Row. Truly such people are missing real joy. Joy is not financially living well or looking good. Joy is about being
restored, that is, brought back to who you were designed to be.
Laughter
If joy is being restored, what is being restored like? “We were like those who dream.” What sort of dream? Now the dream is described: “Then our mouth was filled with laughter” (
Psalms 126:2). See the laughter clearly in your mind. This laughter is not a little tweak of the lips. This is not a polite living-room chortle. This is not a snigger behind your hand. This is not a mild happy laugh. This is a slap-your-thigh burst-out in laughter, LOL, giggle fit. “Our mouth was filled with laughter”—wide open, yawning chasm, filled with laughter.
Wide-mouthed laughter is how the psalm describes the dream. This is not one of those church-bulletin blooper jokes you can find online. You know, “The epistles are wives of the apostles,” “The fifth commandment is humor thy father and mother,” “Lot’s wife was a pillar of salt by day but a ball of fire by night,” “Noah’s wife was Joan of Ark,” and the rest. This is tears rolling down your face, laughing out loud, together—not just “my own” but God’s people together—engaged in wide-open-mouthed laughter. This joy makes you laugh so hard that there is no room for anything else in your mouth!
Shouts
“And our tongue [was filled] with shouts of joy” (
Psalms 126:2). Other versions translate this “songs” (not shouts) of joy, but if it is singing, it is the volume you hear that lifts the roof at a sports stadium. This is the fist-pump shout when you score a touchdown, or hit a home run, or score straight A’s on your tests.
Witness
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