They that sow in tears shall reap with rejoicing
Psalm 126 is the song of people who have watched God turn back their captivity, and who now ask Him to finish what He started. Verse 5 answers with a rule: the field watered by tears is the field that yields a harvest.
One commentator explains why Israel still prays, and what "streams in the south" pictures.
Zion is delivered, but Israel is not yet fully established in their land. So they pray that their return from captivity may be like the streams in the south which, starting as a trickling rill, become swollen with the rain into rivers that bring blessing and fruitfulness to the parched land. During long years of captivity they had sown in tears; now they will reap in joy the fruits of all the chastening they had passed through.
The tears are not vague sadness. One writer ties this sowing to a faithful few who keep teaching others through extreme pressure and persecution.
Truly, this chosen remnant of faithful souls, faithful through grace in a day of extreme pressure and persecution, will "sow" in tears. As we read in Daniel, "And the wise among the people shall make many understand, though for some days they shall stumble by sword and flame, by captivity and plunder." But the seed steeped in their tears and sown in sorrow will sprout in its own time, spring up, and bring forth an abundant harvest, when the sower and the reaper will rejoice together.
Another writer notes where such tears end up — not lost, but stored.
They will sigh and cry over the abominations of that city which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt. And those tears will fall into the Lord's bottle as a precious memorial, to be acknowledged in due time.
The verb is future, yet the singers speak as if the harvest were already in hand.
Now it was, so to speak, the sowing time. They would reap the abundant harvest when the Lord had finally taken up the cause of His people. How truly faith gives substance to things hoped for! "Those who sow in tears shall reap with shouts of joy" is the persuasion of their souls.
Two writers trace the sowing back to Christ Himself.
It has been truly said, Christianity was sown in the tears of the Son of God.
If the sowing was His, so is the measure of the reaping.
But in a fuller, deeper sense, the sower in tears is the Man of sorrows Himself. Believers know Him this way. In the deep travail of His soul He has completed the seed time of affliction. That sowing will bear its satisfying harvest when He appears again as the reaper of His own reward. His affliction went far beyond the natural measure of human grief, for He went through the dreadful realities of death and judgment for our sakes. By that same measure, the fullness of His pure delight will excel His people's joy.
The promise is not only for Israel's future. One writer applies it to gatherings so grieved that no one could speak.
I have read of a time when several people met in such sorrow of heart that for a long time they could not say a single word. But the floor of the meeting-room was wet with their tears. If the Lord would grant us such meetings again, it would be our wisdom to visit these houses of tears. "Those who sow in tears shall reap with shouts of joy." It is not only for the earthly remnant that this is true; it is also written for us.
One writer applies the verse to preaching. It describes not just the result but the state of heart behind the work.
How to preach is also important, and Scripture tells us how to do it… "Those who sow in tears shall reap with shouts of joy." I think that is the How. There is a moral state. There is exercise of soul. And so you sow in tears, and reap in joy. That is a beautiful answer to the How, both in the way you go out and in the way you present the truth.
One writer applies the same principle to workers who see little fruit.
Faced with opposition and conflict we may lose heart; seeing little result from "well doing" we may grow weary. But let us press on, waiting for God's "due season."
- Seed — tears are not wasted time. They are sowing: faithful witness under pressure, persecution and long chastening.
- Stored — no tear is lost. They fall into the Lord's bottle, and He will acknowledge them in due time.
- Sure — the singers state the harvest as fact, because faith gives substance to what we hope for.
- Sower — Christ wept first and sowed deepest, and His joy at the harvest will exceed even His people's.
- Season — so keep sowing; the reaping comes at God's due season, not ours.
He goeth forth and weepeth, bearing seed for scattering; he cometh again with rejoicing, bearing his sheaves.
Psalm 126 begins with Zion's captivity turned. It ends with a farmer walking out to his field in tears and coming home with his arms full. The last verse narrows the picture from a whole people to a single figure, and commentators ask who that one Sower is.
The psalm's own moment is the sowing time. One writer shows what faith was sure of while the harvest was still ahead:
It was now, so to speak, the sowing time; the abundant harvest would be reaped when the Lord had finally taken up the cause of His people. How truly faith makes real the things we hope for! "Those who sow in tears shall reap in joy" is the settled persuasion of their souls. The generation then living would see the blessings God had promised His people, and share in them.
The picture comes from real hunger. One writer passes on an explanation that makes the tears understandable:
I have heard that the figure used here is a man with nothing to eat in his home. All he has is some seed, and he faces this problem. Will I grind this seed, make flour and eat it? That fills me now, but then there is no future. Or will I plant it, go hungry for the present, and expect a crop and more food in the long run — not only for myself, but for my wife, my children and others? So he says, "I will plant it," and because his position is so severe, he weeps as he goes out to sow. But then the crop comes and there is enough for all.
Verse 5 speaks of many sowers. Verse 6 speaks of one. Commentators see that change as the key to the psalm:
In the closing verse it seems that the Spirit of God leads the psalmist to see that Christ had gone before them on the path they are treading. He no longer speaks of "those who sow in tears," but of One, "He who goes out weeping." In the days of His humiliation Christ had sown "precious seed," and watered it with His tears. He will come again with a great harvest of souls. He will see the fruit of the anguish of His soul, and be satisfied.
If Christ is the one in view, then the weeping is not a figure of speech. One commentator sets the sorrow and the sheaves side by side:
But there was One above all who had sown precious seed in Israel, in love as well as in righteousness, and continued in both. He had been a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, their faces hidden from Him; but now He filled His arms with the sheaves. Though sown in tears, the seed was indeed precious seed, and the fruit sweet to His taste, and the joy of His labour of love — now He reaped it.
Another writer names what that seed is, and why He came:
He came into the world to throw the incorruptible seed into the soil — the word of God that lasts for ever, for in these last days God has spoken to us in Him. He came to make God known to men, to declare the Father in whose bosom He dwelt as the only Son; and in doing this He was the great Sower of the seed.
Not all weeping counts here. One writer measures the tears by what they are about:
These are not selfish tears... But tears of genuine concern for the blessing of others are of great consequence when the seed of the Word of God is sown. It is of course that seed which produces the sheaves of grain that will cause rejoicing. This applies directly to the reviving of Israel in the last days. But believers today may well take it to heart, and seek the eternal blessing of those who are lost unless they receive the truth of the Word of God.
The verse does not say the sower may come back with sheaves. He shall come home. Older translations read "shall doubtless come again with rejoicing," and that certainty comforts anyone whose work seems to have failed:
Remember this. You may labour all your lifetime and say, "Somehow I have not been allowed to see much result of my labour." If your labour has been in the Lord, you shall see the fruit in the resurrection day, as surely as God's word is true.
- Seed — the seed is the word of God, which lasts for ever; commentators call it precious seed.
- Sower — verse 6 drops from "they" to "He." Commentators see Christ, who sowed that word in tears in the days of His humiliation.
- Sorrow — the tears are the cost of the sowing: not self-pity, but genuine concern for the blessing of others.
- Certainty — he shall come home. Work done for the Lord that looks fruitless now bears fruit at the resurrection day.
- Sheaves — Israel's restoration and every servant's work keep one order: sow weeping, return rejoicing, arms full.