Have you ever been held captive? Most of us would probably answer no. We haven’t been enslaved. Most of us haven’t been kidnapped or held hostage, or even been imprisoned. However, there are other ways to be held captive. Our psalm for this third week of Advent speaks of being set free from captivity. Let’s take a look.
Psalm 126 is one of fifteen psalms who are part of the Songs of Ascent, which were psalms said by pilgrims making their way to Jerusalem. Our psalm today, though, was written to celebrate the return of the Jewish people to their homeland following many years of captivity in Babylon (vs. 1). Most of these people would have been born in captivity, and known no other life than one in the Babylonian Empire. They would only know about their family’s homeland and the city of Jerusalem through the stories their parents and grandparents would have told. Perhaps some of the elderly might have memories of living in Judah or Jerusalem, but they were likely young children at that time.
Now they all were returning to their family homeland, and it was like a dream for them (vs. 1). No one would have expected that the emperor would have given a royal decree stating that the Jewish people could return, but that is what Cyrus did. This was a dream come true! This was a cause for celebration and for praise to the Lord (vs. 2-3).
Seventy years earlier the people had been forced out of their homes in Judah. Their cities, including Jerusalem, were burned, and they were taken to Babylon. That was a time of tears and great sorrow. Now they were returning with great joy. Before they were weeping, now they were rejoicing (vs. 5-6).
What brought about their captivity? Was it because their armies just weren’t up to the ability to fight off the Babylonians? Was it because their generals weren’t sharp and shrewd enough to devise good battle plans? No, that wasn’t the reason. All throughout the Old Testament we read how the prophets warned the people that if they didn’t stop worshiping the false gods and religions of the neighboring nations, He was going to punish them, and they would be overrun. The people had sinned. They had felt that the pagan gods were just as good as their God, and joined in worship of them. It was sin that brought them into captivity. However, God was not going to forsake them, and after a period, He brought them back into their homeland.
This is where we can take a look at ourselves. Before we came to the Lord Jesus we were all held captive to Satan and to sin. We may not have felt like we were, but we were under sin and Satan’s power. However, when the Holy Spirit opened our eyes, and we turned to the Lord Jesus, calling upon Him to save us, we were set free. Our tears and weeping turned to rejoicing.
Are we still being held captive by anything? Though we may be saved, all too often we still harbor sin in our life. Is their sin in our life that has us in custody? We might not realize it, or even want to acknowledge it, but the sins we continue to hold on to can hold us captive. In our lives, we can let little, or sometimes even big sins creep in and begin to wrap their chains around us. There are the “big” sins that we know can keep us in their power, such as drugs and alcohol abuse, along with other things like pornography. We can also be held captive by any number of other sins, like anger, bitterness, unforgiveness, gossip, slothfulness, etc. We are also in sin when we put anything ahead of the Lord Jesus, or mix the worship of Him with anything else. We can be held just as captive as the ancient Israelites were in Babylon.
We don’t need to stay in this captivity, though. By returning to the Lord, confession, and repentance, we can be set free from any captivity sin and Satan has us in. We can be revived just like a desert after the rain. When we return to the Lord from a captivity in sin, others will notice the change in us. Our experience may have had sorrow, but we can use it as a witness to others, bringing joy when they, too, turn to Jesus. Our tears can be seeds that will grow into a harvest of joy, because God is able to bring good out of tragedy. Be patient, God’s great harvest of joy is coming.
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