Songs of the Great Ascent - Living the Dream

Psalm 126

“Mariah Landers grew up with a single mom in California and never knew her father. She was told only one thing about him: he was from Jamaica. Her mom never spoke of him, and yet Mariah could never shake that yearning to meet this man. When she was five, she found in the trash a birthday card from her dad that her mom had thrown away before she could read it. This even further confirmed her desire to meet him. So when she was grown up and moved out of the house, she bought a ticket to Jamaica and went on an exploration. Two locals she met volunteered to help her look. These newfound friends came back to her one day to say they had bad news and good news: the bad news was that her father was dead. Mariah recounts the story to a journalist: “I started crying, started sobbing. They reach over and grab my hands and said, ‘Well, the good news is that you have a grandfather, seven aunts and uncles, lots and lots of cousins, and have ten brothers and sisters.’ And I just started laughing …. It was this emotion that I never felt before. I didn’t know that you could cry from deep sorrow but then be laughing from deep joy.” (Cited by Jonathan Landry Cruse in Worshiping on the Way.)

That is the emotion of this psalm: mourning turned to dancing, tears becoming laughter. Like Mariah’s grief overtaken by good news and irrepressible joy, the psalmist says Israel is so filled with gladness that they cannot stay silent. We know what it feels like to be so overwhelmed that our voices must respond. When was the last time you stubbed your toe or jammed your finger without crying out in pain? Yet how often does joy open our lips in praise, thanksgiving, and delight? We are usually much more hesitant to express those things. Is your mouth filled with laughter? Is your tongue ready to shout for joy?

It should if you are a Christian. God has rescued you from slavery to Satan and from the grave itself. He has taken you from hell and set your feet on the firm foundation of Jesus Christ’s righteousness. It is the most astonishing restoration imaginable. You and I are but mere dust, and the only thing we can claim as our own is that we were cosmic traitors against the Creator who gave us life. Yet this same God loved us so deeply that He died for us, bringing us from dust to glory. What a turnaround! Does that not make you want to laugh? Luther says that “we must earnestly endeavor to learn this practice.”

Join us this coming Lord’s Day as we discover the joy of laughter in Psalm 126 and celebrate that we are truly “living the dream”.

Joy! Joy! Joy,

Pastor Wayne