The long want of mercies greatly sweetens them when they are returned to us.
When God appears for His people they should give Him the glory and give notice to all about them what wonders He has wrought for them.
Psalm 1
1 When the LORD turned again the captivity of Zion, we were like them that dream.
2 Then was our mouth filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing: then said they among the heathen, The LORD hath done great things for them.
3 The LORD hath done great things for us; whereof we are glad.
4 Turn again our captivity, O LORD, as the streams in the south.
5 They that sow in tears shall reap in joy.
6 He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.
Psalm 1 – J. Vernon McGee
Psalm 126 – “The LORD Hath Done Great Things for Us”
The circumstances under which this psalm was written are evident upon its face. The exiles, lately back from Babylon, are rejoicing in the gladness of their return. But their joy was not complete so long as the larger portion of their nation were still in bondage. The metaphor of streams in the South is derived from the rapidity with which dry water-courses become flushed with torrent streams. The returned exiles longed to see the vacant solitudes of their land suddenly filled with returning crowds. They asked that their tears might be the seeds of mighty harvests. Let not the Christian worker count as lost the seeds he sows or the tears in which he steeps them. That doubtless is God’s guarantee. —Through the Bible Day by Day
Psalm 126:5—They that sow in tears shall reap in joy.
Some husbandmen steep their seeds before they sow them. It is well when Christian workers steep their lessons and addresses with their prayers and tears. It is not enough to sow; we may do that lavishly and constantly, but we must add passion, emotion, tender pity, strong crying and tears, if the second half of the text is to be fulfilled, and we reap in joy.
But what a promise is here! You have sown long and patiently among young or old, sometimes to the point of giving all up in despair; but to give up now would be to miss the harvest and guerdon of all your toils. Be patient, persevere a little longer. God guarantees the harvest. He says, “They… shall reap; He… shall doubtless come again… bringing your sheaves.” Even though you were to die, without reaping, yet in another world you would come again, bringing your sheaves.
We are all sowing tears—tears over our darling Absaloms, tears over our failures and mistakes, tears over our disappointed hopes. But each tear overflowing from a consecrated soul is a seed-germ dropped into God’s keeping, and it shall have its reward. He carefully gathers up our tears for his bottle. God is not unrighteous to forget. He guards the buried seed, and stands sponsor for the harvest. No sigh, no tear, no prayer, inspired by the Spirit of God can positively be lost or unproductive. Like your Lord, you shall yet see of the travail of your soul, and be satisfied.
“For while the tired wavelets, vainly breaking,
Seem here no painful inch to gain,
Far back through creeks and inlets making,
Comes silent, flooding in, the main.” —Our Daily Homily