The Captive Set Free

Psalm 126

A lifetime spent as a slave or spent in prison is not a pleasant one, as we can surely imagine.  Picture then how relieved the prisoner is when the warden comes to tell him that his sentence is over, he’s done his time and he is free to go.  The cell door is opened, he’s given his belongings, and walked to the front gate. There is rejoicing with the slave when the master comes and tells him that he is set free, free to go where he wants and do what he wants.  The slave is now a free man. Our psalm for today tells of the rejoicing when the captive people of Israel were set free to return to their homeland.

The kingdom of Babylon had taken the kingdom of Judah into captivity in the year 598 BC.  In 538 BC, after the Persian king Cyrus conquered the Babylonian Empire, the Jewish exile ended, and the first group of exiles returned.  Many more followed over the next several decades. This was a time of great rejoicing for the people. Their release from captivity was so unexpected, it seemed like a dream (vs. 1).  When the Hebrew people were released from their captivity and allowed to return to their homeland, the surrounding people and nations took notice of what God was doing (vs. 2). This was not something that could be kept hidden, nor was it anything that the people wanted kept secret.  They acknowledged to themselves and to each other the marvelous things the Lord was doing for them (vs. 3).

Today, most likely you are not being held captive as a slave to anyone.  Perhaps someone has spent some time in prison for one reason or another. However, there are other ways one can be held captive.  People can be held captive to all sorts of addictions, whether drugs, alcohol, pornography, gambling, etc. Before one is saved, we are all servants or slaves to sin, as Jesus tells us in John 8:34. When we come to Christ, though, accepting Him as our Savior, He sets us free from the captivity to sin. We no longer need be held in bondage by whatever Satan has held us captive. God’s power not only releases us from sin’s captive hold, it brings us back to Him.  Like the Hebrews in our Psalm, we can rejoice. And like them, we should let others know, especially the unsaved, what a change in our lives Jesus has made.

As we continue reading in our Scripture passage, the Hebrew people prayed to God for Him to bless them, and to restore their fortune (vs. 4).  God promised in the prophet Joel 2:25, that He would restore to us what Satan has stolen. It might not necessarily be in the same way, and it might not necessarily be restored in material blessings. However, what the Lord will give us will make up for the years that the devil stole.

As we conclude our psalm, the psalmist writes about sowing and reaping, sowing in sorrow, but reaping in joy (vs. 5-6).  We can have tears because of the wasted years in our life when we were captive to sin. There are also certainly tears we shed from the trials and afflictions we endure all throughout our life, even after salvation. Our tears can be seed that will grow into a harvest of joy because God is able to bring good out of tragedy. Our life will not be free from all hardship, but our tears are seeds that will one day bloom into joy.

Jesus often spoke of the seed being the Word of God, and bringing forth a harvest of souls for the kingdom of God, that the harvest was ready, but laborers being few.  As believers we are to work for the Lord to bring in that harvest of souls into the Kingdom. The work can be difficult, and we may often weep over our lost family, friends, or loved ones.  Do we weep over the lost condition of a son or daughter, over a spouse or parent? Do we weep knowing our friends are unsaved? They may turn a deaf ear to us, or even mock or ridicule us. All the more we should cry out to God for their salvation. We are promised that if we sow in tears, bearing the seed while weeping, we shall come again with rejoicing, bringing in a harvest.