We continue our journey through Psalms of Ascent. Today, Psalm 126:

It seemed like a dream, too good to be true, when GOD returned Zion’s exiles. We laughed, we sang, we couldn’t believe our good fortune. We were the talk of the nations— “GOD was wonderful to them!” GOD was wonderful to us; we are one happy people.

And now, GOD, do it again— bring rains to our drought-stricken lives So those who planted their crops in despair will shout hurrahs at the harvest, So those who went off with heavy hearts will come home laughing, with armloads of blessing. (1 – 6)

Growing up I was taught to quote verse 6 in the context of “soul-winning.” (You go out weeping for the lost and carrying the gospel and come home with the fruit – new believers!)

He who goes out weeping, bearing the seed for sowing, shall come home with shouts of joy, bringing his sheaves with him. (Psalm 126.6, ESV)

So I, fixated on weeping, wondered what what Peterson’s theme would be… Duh, read the text! It’s JOY!

• We laughed, we sang, we couldn’t believe our good fortune.
• We are one happy people.
• Those who went off with heavy hearts will come home laughing.

The fruit of the Spirit is…joy. (Galatians 5.22, ESV)

Our former Pastor, Dave Jordan-Irwin, who passed a little over a year ago from pancreatic cancer epitomized joy. From our first meeting, laughing over jokes in the Babylon Bee and Wittenburg Door to his last public appearance, he radiated joy.

Dave Jordan-Irwin greets June at a receiving line at his last public appearance.

Ironically, Dave was a Presbyterian pastor, a tribe erroneously known for no joy. Eugene Peterson, another Presbyterian pastor, opens his Psalm 126 homily this way:

Ellen Glasgow, in her autobiography, tells of her father who was a Presbyterian elder, full of rectitude and rigid with duty: “He was entirely unselfish, and in his long life he never committed a pleasure.” Peter Jay, in a political column in the Baltimore Sun, described the sober intensity and personal austerities of one of our Maryland politicians and then threw in this line: “He dresses like a Presbyterian.”

I know there are Christians, so-called, who never crack a smile and who can’t abide a joke, and I suppose Presbyterians contribute their quota. But I don’t meet very many of them. The stereotype as such is a big lie created, presumably, by the devil. One of the delightful discoveries along the way of Christian discipleship is how much enjoyment there is, how much laughter you hear, how much sheer fun you find.

Peterson clarifies for the benefit of those who for whatever reason don’t experience joy. (Another pastor I had once talked about “summer Christians” and “winter Christians.” He was definitely a “winter,” consumed with the trials of people he counseled all week long.) Peterson writes:

Joy is not a requirement of Christian discipleship, it is a consequence. It is not what we have to acquire in order to experience life in Christ; it is what comes to us when we are walking in the way of faith and obedience…We cannot make ourselves joyful. Joy cannot be commanded, purchased or arranged. But there is something we can do. We can decide to live in response to the abundance of God and not under the dictatorship of our own poor needs. We can decide to live in the environment of a living God and not our own dying selves. We can decide to center ourselves in the God who generously gives and not in our own egos which greedily grab. One of the certain consequences of such a life is joy, the kind expressed in Psalm 126.

Amen.