Sunday, 1 January 2017

Psalm 126 - God has promised us a joyful harvest

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Psalm 126:5-6 "Those who sow in tears, shall reap in joy. He who continually goes forth weeping, bearing seed for sowing, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him." NKJV

The Hebrew word for "sow" is the same root (no pun intended) as the Hebrew word for "seed", Z'roah. So, as expressed in the first word of verse 5 the translation is literally, "the seeding." (Makes sense, no?)

The seeding in verse 5 is done in tears. In Judaism, tears are frequently the first step toward redemption. Here too, sowing in tears leads to a harvest in joy. Own it!

The first two words of verse 6 are actually forms of the same word. Remember what we learned about how Hebrew repeats a word or thought for emphasis. Thus the translation "continually goes forth" (literally "he who walks around, will walk around") and weeps. How does he weep (and this word for weeping is a completely different word from the weeping in the previous verse) literally "going forward, carrying a burden."

And what is the burden? Seed for seeding. (Do you have the sense that you are the one about whom the priests are singing?) The Hebrew Meshech-HaZarah literally means "bearing (acquiring) offspring."

The Bo-Yavo couplet is another use of repetition for emphasis, literally, "coming he will come" in joy (same word for joy as in verse 5). There is a lot of "going and coming" here. Going with seed and coming with harvest.

Why, if I didn't know better, I would think this is describing the making of disciples. The "sheaves" at the end of the verse are offspring of offspring.