Psalm 126: The Poem of the Sower

Today’s reading is Psalm 126.

the Sower’s Shocking Harvest

In Psalm 126, our pilgrim and his compatriots sow in a dry time. The floods have not come, filling the streams with water. When the pilgrim sows, he has no reason to believe the harvest will be plentiful except the Lord’s promise. Yet, though he sows in tears, he believes the shouts of joy will return when he brings his sheaves with him.

I hope we recall another sower. A sower whose sowing seems equally pointless. We find three accounts of Jesus telling and explaining this farmer’s story: Matthew 13:10-23; Mark 4:3-20; Luke 8:4-15. When this sower casts his seed, most of it is completely wasted. Please, don’t make the mistake of so many, thinking this was just the way ancients farmed. They were not so stupid as to waste most of their precious seed on ground they knew would not produce harvest. Yet this farmer sows like a crazy man. He throws the very means of providing for his family everywhere. Most of it lands on soil he knows by looking at it won’t produce. However, he has an incredible harvest: thirtyfold, sixtyfold, and hundredfold.

Certainly, we can learn all kinds of lessons from Jesus’s Parable of the Sower about us. We can make application to evangelism. However, we need to know first and foremost, Jesus is the Sower in the parable. He sows the word everywhere. Most of it is rejected and ignored. In fact, just before He started teaching in parables, He is accused of casting out demons by the power of the prince of demons. We might wonder why He keeps on teaching the Word. But this sower can keep on sowing and expect an incredible harvest. Why? Not actually because at least some ground is good and because the soil of our heart is so amazing we produce a large harvest. Rather, the real point is this sower receives an incredible harvest because this farmer uses incredible seed: the Word of God. Just as Jesus tells stories about tiny mustard seeds that grow into large garden plants and incredible trees, He tells the story of a seemingly crazy farmer wasting the precious seed on useless ground but still has an incredible harvest. When Jesus died, all abandoned Him. After He rose from the dead, He had only 120 followers. Today, millions call Jesus King.

We might even say He sowed in tears, but will reap with shouts of joy. In the Psalm 126 Poem of the Sower, Jesus is the ultimate farmer. Let’s be thankful He kept sowing even though it was with tears. Let’s allow His Word to sink deep in our heart and produce a harvest thirty, sixty, or a hundredfold.

Praise the Lord!

Next week’s reading is Psalm 127.

PODCAST!!!

Click here to take about 15 minutes to listen to the Text Talk conversation between Andrew Roberts and Edwin Crozier.

PATHS:
Discuss Today’s Meditation with Your Family

What do you want to share from Psalm 126?

Psalm 126: Don’t Grow Weary

Today’s reading is Psalm 126.

Sowing in the spirit’s Garden

Our pilgrim’s metaphor pictures a farmer sowing in a dry time. The work is hard. The weather promises little. The dried up ground and cloudless skies suggest sowing is useless. He sows in tears. However, his harvest doesn’t spring from his own work or the good fortune of good weather. His harvest comes from God. As the old saying goes, he prays like it all depends on God and he works like it all depends on him.

Of course, we know the parable of the sower. We are trained to think of farming pictures as metaphors with deeper spiritual meaning. As we apply this today, I can’t help but think how New Testament teaching uses the metaphors of flowing streams and sowing in gardens. Both connect with the Holy Spirit.

In John 7:37-39, Jesus says if we are thirsty, we can turn to Him. He will cause rivers of living waters to flood up out of our very own hearts. Then John explained Jesus was actually talking about the Holy Spirit. In like manner, Paul uses the sowing and reaping metaphor in Galatians 5-6 to speak of the fruit of the Spirit. Connecting these pictures with our psalm, we understand sometimes we’ll feel and know the blessings of the Spirit prompting easy and great joy. Other times, not so much.

In Galatians 5:22-23, Paul presents the abundant life as a cornucopia of incredible fruit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Many have wisely recognized this list is called the fruit of the Spirit, not the fruit of my super-awesome, incredibly-skilled spiritual farming. The Spirit grows this fruit when I follow His lead. However, when we read on into Galatians 6:7-10, Paul returns to this gardening metaphor. He explains while this fruit is the Spirit’s, we must sow to the Spirit. If we sow to the flesh, we will reap corruption. We only reap abundant life when we sow in the Spirit’s garden. At the same time, Paul expects dry times. He expects times in which, if you will, we sow in tears. Times when we sow but it seems the sowing is fruitless. So he encourages us, saying, “And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up” (ESV). In other words, those who keep sowing, though it be in tears, will reap with shouts of joy if they do not grow weary and give up.

May we recall the pilgrim psalmist and keep sowing in the Spirit’s garden. In due season, the Spirit will provide the abundant harvest.

Praise the Lord!

Tomorrow’s reading is Psalm 126.

PODCAST!!!

Click here to take about 15 minutes to listen to the Text Talk conversation between Andrew Roberts and Edwin Crozier.

PATHS:
Discuss Today’s Meditation with Your Family

How does Psalm 126 prompt or improve your hope in God?