Since our sense of gratitude is quite often related to our mood and/or emotions, we can get stuck on the lows of life and might never be thankful. Or, should I say, we are only thankful for what we see and/or immediate reality.
There is an aspect of gratitude or being thankful that we almost never think about it. We are almost never thankful for things we have not received or have not happened.
One of the aspects of thanksgiving found in the Psalms is to be thankful and joyful for what is not happening. I know it sounds delusional and countercultural. Yet, there are a number of Psalms in which the sense of gratitude is not based on the immediate circumstances. I believe one of these Psalms is Psalm 126. I mean, Psalm 126 is one of the Psalms in which the words thank you are not present. Yet, the Psalmist’s attitude in Psalm 126 is an attitude of thanksgiving,
“When the Lord brought back his exiles to Jerusalem, it was like a dream! We were filled with laughter, and we sang for joy. And the other nations said, ‘What amazing things the Lord has done for them.’ Yes, the Lord has done amazing things for us! What Joy!’” (Psalm 126: 1 – 3).
Let’s say you have never heard or read this Psalm before, what are the first images that come to mind? Well, the first image that comes to my mind is of someone who is grateful and joyful. Moreover, I would say that this person is so thankful for everything that God has done that he/she is honestly expressing his/her excitement. Right? Well, yes and no. The Psalmist in Psalm 126 is living in an unhappy time of his people’s history. Some say that Psalm 126 is a lament. They say that what the Psalmist does is to re-tell what he read and/or heard about the Golden age of his people, Israel. They say that the Psalmist laments as he re-tells and remembers when everything was going well for Israel. They say it is a lament…But I believe what the Psalmist is saying in Psalm 126 is beyond lament. To me, what the Psalmist does is forecast a new golden age in which there will be shouts of joy again. More precisely, what the Psalmist does is sacrificially give a shout of thanksgiving for the circumstances that are not happening.
When it comes to being thankful, sometimes society, culture, and even the church can cause us to go with the flow. Literally, there is peer pressure for us to pretend to be thankful when we don’t feel thankful. What the Psalmist does in Psalm 126 is not pretend that he is thankful. But it is what I call sacrifices of thanks. The Psalmist painfully and sacrificially portrays an exciting and joyful moment in the life of Israel. You might call him delusional. Well, I call the Psalmist’s attitude divine insanity.
The Psalmist heard what people said about the Golden age of Israel. In other words, his divine insanity partially comes from remembering that if God did great things in the past, He is powerful enough to continue to do great things in the future despite the present circumstances. You see, his thanksgiving is based on what God has already shown He is capable of doing. Also, the Psalmist’s divine insanity comes from God’s promises to His people. Through the prophets, God promised that despite apparently hopeless and not so joyful circumstances, He will produce joy and peace, “You will live in joy and peace. The mountains and hills will burst into song, and the trees of the field will clap their hands! Where once there were thorns, cypress trees will grow” Isaiah 55: 12 – 13.
The Psalmist does not portray this divine-insane picture of joy and excitement in the midst of dryness and desolation based on human optimism and positive thinking. Neither does he portray such a scenario because he is being pressured to say nice words to please his people. But I believe the Psalmist portrays a joyful and exciting scenario in the midst of desolation based on the promises of God. The promises of God are not disposable. Once used, they cannot happen again. But the promises of God are very much a part of God’s essence – His promises remain forever.
The Psalmist deals with two sharp realities. He deals with the unseen reality of God who did great things in the past and He can do it again. But the second part of Psalm 126 portrays the sharp reality of what the Psalmist can see (that is tangible). The dry reality of the unfertile soil,
“Restore our fortunes, Lord, as streams renew the desert. Those who plant in tears will harvest with shouts of joy. They weep as they go to plant their seed, but they sing as they return with the harvest” (Psalm 126: 4 – 6).
Whenever we deal with two different and sharp realities, our tendency is to gravitate towards one or the other. What is interesting about the Psalmist is he does not use the unseen reality as a denial of his dry and immediate reality. Neither he dwells in the dryness of his immediate circumstance. Instead, he seems to merge the unseen with what he can see (with what is tangible). It is as if, by him thankfully and joyfully saying that the unseen reality of God can and will do great things, causes the heavens to kiss the earth. It is not that the process changes things drastically and immediately. But the process of thanking for what he does not see seems to promote healing and hope within him in the midst of a dry and unfertile soil.
While spending time with Psalm 126, I thought about my own life. I thought about how much I feel that the situation around me represents this dry and unfertile soil on which the Psalmist finds himself. Furthermore, I thought about what I know what God has done in my life in the past. I know that He has filled my life with laughter and with joy. I know He did in the past and He can do it again. I know that His promises are not disposable but remain forever. Despite all of that, I must confess that I quite often find it very difficult to connect the reality of what God can and will do (promises) with the dry streams of my life. Have you ever felt that way? Have you ever felt that your reality is too painful and too dry for you to portray a joyful and exciting scenario of what God can and will do?
If so, I must say that you and I are in the same boat. Don’t feel that you are the only one. Since we are in this together, I have a suggestion. I want us to think about something that, in our immediate reality, seems to be dry and unfertile (e.g. marriage, job, relationship with God and others, etc). Then I want us to apply what the Psalmist implies in Psalm 126. I want us to sacrificially offer thanksgiving for what is to come in our immediate reality…As we do so, I believe He will start a process of healing and restoration in our immediate reality.
Did you mean to spell “Restoration” as “Restauration”?