Daily Manna · Day 114 · April 24
Great Things
“The LORD hath done great things for us; whereof we are glad.”
Psalm 126 is six verses long and it changes tense twice.
It opens in memory, and the memory is euphoric. When the LORD turned again the captivity of Zion, we were like them that dream. Then was our mouth filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing. Even the surrounding nations said it: the LORD hath done great things for them. And the singers take that up and make it their own in verse 3, which is the line most people know: the LORD hath done great things for us; whereof we are glad.
The psalm turns at verse 4. Turn again our captivity, O LORD, as the streams in the south. That is a request. They are asking for the very thing they have just finished celebrating, which means the return was partial, or has stalled, or has turned out to be smaller than the dream. The streams in the south are the wadis of the Negev: dry channels most of the year that fill in an hour when the rain comes. It is an image of something that is empty now.
And then verses 5 and 6, which are neither memory nor request but a statement about the interval between them. They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing.
So the psalm holds all three at once: what God did, what is still not done, and what is being carried in the meantime. That is the whole shape of it, and it is the answer to the suspicion that gratitude while you are still waiting is a form of lying. It is not. It is verse 3 sitting next to verse 4, in the same song, with no apology offered for either.
Do not do anything with this. Put it down, sit still for a few minutes, and say nothing.
Daily Manna runs on a two-year cycle. The year two reading for day 114 is When Thou Art Full (Deuteronomy 8:11).