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I don’t like earthquakes. I realize I reflect the Midwest perspective
of my roots but I don’t like earthquakes just the same. I know Californians
will say that they are more frightened by tornadoes. But you can hide from
a tornado. There are places of refuge and shelter. But an earthquake leaves
you with nowhere to go. There is no safe place, no escape.
There are earthquake experiences in life, too. There are times when our lives
are shaken in such a profound way that every part of our lives is caught in
that unsettling. It could be a divorce, death or a personal crisis or tragedy
that shakes our lives until there is no place of escape, no safe or stable
refuge.
Psalm 126 was written for people in an earthquake with nowhere to run. The
psalmist only alludes to his situation but the character of his crisis seems
clear. It is a time of weeping and sadness, a time of loss and apparent despair.
Yet he finds a way to hope and he is able to envision an end with celebration
and joy. For encouragement and in hope he cries out his request (verse 4),
“restore our fortunes, O Lord.”
His cry is more than a generic call for blessing. He has a specific image
in mind. Eugene Peterson captures his sense well (in The Message) when he
translates the psalmist’s cry as “And now, Yahweh, do it again.”
Do what again? The psalmist is envisioning the result of God’s work that
he refers to in verses 1-3. It has a specific historical point of reference
that can explain what the psalmist is asking God to do – again.
In 587 B.C. the kingdom of Judah was conquered and destroyed by Babylon. Talk
about an earthquake experience! It was an unmitigated catastrophe. The temple
and much of Jerusalem were left in ruins. The best of the nation – at
least those that weren’t already dead – were taken away in chains.
The old and sick were left desolate. We can hardly imagine the hopeless desperation
that must have overwhelmed the people. Things can never be the same again.
All is lost – seemingly forever.
I said that we can hardly imagine the hopeless desperation of that time. But
perhaps that isn’t true. Perhaps the reality is that there are people
present right now who know exactly what that kind of hopeless desperation
feels like. Perhaps their story is – or can be – your story.
The part that the psalmist wants God to do again comes after 587 B.C. In and
through the time of exile God begins to change the understanding of who the
people of God are to be. Prior to the exile the people of Judah tended to
think of themselves as a nation (among nations) with their own God. They understood
him as kind of a local God who “belonged “ to them. But God began
– through the experience of exile – to communicate a greater vision.
He begins to call them more clearly to be a mission people of a God for all
people and times.
Isaiah describes this future (in Isaiah 40) in language that will later be
used to anticipate the coming of Christ. God’s vision for the people
is to be a means through whom “the glory of the Lord will be revealed
and all mankind together will see it”(Isaiah 40: 5). He describes the
vision of the renewed temple as a “house of prayer for all nations”
that will offer a place to the sojourners and eunuchs who had no place before
(Isaiah 56:7, 1-6).
They had gone into exile as a tribal people with a national vision of their
identity and purpose. They would return to a renewed and expanded vision of
God’s mission people to the world, culminating in the coming of the messiah,
Jesus Christ. The restoration recorded in Ezra 3:11-13 describes a jubilant
celebration where “no one could distinguish the sound of the shouts of
joy from the sound of weeping.” God had redeemed their suffering.
The psalmist – in the midst of his own earthquake of suffering –
cries “do it again.” Transform brokenness into blessing. In that
faithful hope the psalmist anticipates tears sowed becoming songs of joy at
their reaping. He sees weeping transformed into rejoicing. He has grasped
the lesson that in the earthquakes of human experience, when there is no solid
resting place, we can trust the Lord of the earthquake. Despite the psalmist’s
distress the tone of this psalm is confident trust.
For those whose lives are being shaken by earthquake experiences, this psalm
and its message are for you. Despite the distress in your experience the status
of your heart can be confident trust. There is peace beyond the reach of the
earthquake.
