Useful Bible Studies > Songs of Ascent Commentary

Psalm 126

· To get the maximum benefit from this study, please open your Bible and read Psalm 126 first.

God is powerful and he is active in the lives of ordinary men, women and children. They ask him for help, and he helps them. He changes their lives. He gives them joy to replace their sad feelings. And they are glad that they belong to him.

Verse 1 shows that something terrible had happened in Jerusalem. It seems that an enemy’s army had attacked Jerusalem. And the soldiers took some people away as prisoners to a foreign country. But in the original language, the words could describe some other trouble. It simply says that something ‘turned round’. Probably it was the people from Jerusalem who ‘turned round’. They ‘turned round’ because their enemy took them away from Jerusalem.

But God did not leave Jerusalem’s people to suffer. He ‘turned round’ too! The poet uses a similar word to the word that described their troubles. God ‘turned round’ to help them! God ‘turned round’ to assist the people whose lives had ‘turned round’. He rescued his suffering people. He brought them back to Jerusalem.

I have said above that these people were from Jerusalem. That is because the poet uses the word ‘Zion’. But it seems that he has chosen the word ‘Zion’ (instead of ‘Jerusalem’) carefully. Zion was the hill in Jerusalem where God’s house, called the temple, stood. So by the word ‘Zion’, the poet emphasises the connection between God and his people. God cared about his people’s troubles. And he acted to rescue them.

When this happened, it seemed like a dream. God had done something that seemed impossible. It was better than the people could even imagine. They sang and they laughed. They felt so happy.

This news even astonished people in foreign countries. People in foreign countries did not usually *worship Israel’s God. They had their own gods (which were really just false gods). But those foreigners heard that the people from Israel were free again. The foreigners heard how the people from Israel had returned home. And even the foreigners decided that Israel’s God did this thing. Even foreigners who *worshipped false gods were giving honour to Israel’s God.

And, of course, the people in Israel gave honour to God too. They did not say that they had saved themselves by their own clever schemes. They knew the truth. The foreigners were right. It was God, Israel’s God, who had again acted to help his people. He had done good things for his people. That was why they were so happy.

Next part: The prayer in Psalm 126

See the word list for explanation of words with a *

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