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December 9, 2024

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Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Daily Bible readings that follow the church liturgical year, with sequential stories told across multiple weeks.

Duration: 1245 days

Psalm 126

Psalm 126^[a]

God, Our Joy and Our Hope

¹^[b]A song of ascents.

When the Lord brought home the captives to Zion,
    we seemed to be dreaming.^[c]
²Our mouths were filled with laughter
    and our tongues with songs of joy.
Then it was said among the nations,
    “The Lord has done great things for them.”^[d]
³The Lord has indeed done great deeds for us,
    and we are overflowing with joy.^[e]
⁴^[f]Once again restore our fortunes,^[g] O Lord,
    as you did for the streams in the Negeb.
⁵Those who sow in tears^[h]
    will reap with songs of joy.
⁶Those who go forth weeping,
    carrying the seeds to be sown,^[i]
will return with shouts of joy,
    carrying their sheaves.

Footnotes

Psalm 126:1 The Jewish community takes pains to be reestablished. But joy fills the people’s hearts. They still resound with the gladness and hope of the caravans returning from the Exile, and every pilgrimage unfolds like a new Exodus (vv. 1-3; see Isa 48:21), a return from the Exile. It is also faith in an even more wondrous future, the gathering together of all by the side of the Messiah. Such happiness is prepared for in the suffering of the present just as the harvest grows out of the grain sown into the earth where it dies (see Jn 12:24; Rom 8:8-25; 1 Cor 15:35-49).
In praying this psalm, we can also be mindful of the wondrous spiritual salvation of sinners worked by Christ in accord with the will of the Father. This salvation constitutes a spiritual Exodus from the sinful world to the divine dwelling of the earthly Church and then of the heavenly Church, a transferral from satanic tyranny to the gentle yoke of Christ and then of the heavenly Father, a conversion from infidelity to fidelity toward Christ and his Father. Such are the wonders that God has worked radically for all in causing Christ to pass from the grave to heaven, from death to glorious life (see Eph 4:8), and that he works effectively for every believer who shares in this mystery through faith (see Jn 5:24).
Psalm 126:1 The edict of the Persian King Cyrus the Great in 538 B.C. that permitted the exiles to return home was totally unexpected despite the oracles issued by Isaiah and Jeremiah. The long period of the captivity had caused many to give up hope. Hence, the joy of their deliverance was indescribable. The Gentiles, too, were impressed by this event; for many nations in the ancient Near East had vanished owing to conquest and exile, and the conventional wisdom was that little Israel would suffer the same fate. When this proved not to be the case, the People of God acknowledged that it was the Lord who had done great things for them.
Psalm 126:1 The restoration of the captives to Zion took place in 538 B.C., in fulfillment of the prophetic word (see Isa 14:1f; 44:24—45:25; 48:20f; Jer 29:14; 30:3; 33:7, 10f; Am 9:14). However, when the actual moment came, it felt like a mirage. When the Lord . . . dreaming: another translation is: “When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion, / we were like men restored to health.”
Psalm 126:2 So great was the act of restoration and the joy of the people that the nations heard about it too (see Ps 98:2; Isa 52:10; Ezek 36:36) and praised the Lord (see note on Ps 46:10).
Psalm 126:3 The psalmist affirms that the Lord has done great things for the people, and they are filled with joy. We Christians can use this verse in our own right to declare the manifold blessings bestowed on us in Christ, especially his Resurrection, which turned the disciples’ sorrow into joy and brought salvation to the world that had previously been in bondage to the devil.
Psalm 126:4 The reality of life in Canaan soon tempered the joy of the repatriates, for they had to eke out an existence in the land that had remained untended for years. So the people cry out to God for a continuation of the restoration: restoration of their well-being in the land (fortunes; see Ps 14:7). And they are assured of God’s continued fidelity to his promise.
Psalm 126:4 The repatriates, disappointed by the limited fulfillment of the prophetic word, turn to the Lord. They beg him to grant them a complete restoration and give them a brighter future even if to do so he has to perform a miracle like creating streams in the Negeb. Restore our fortunes: another possible translation is: “Bring back our people from captivity.” No matter what the text, the prayer is one for a better future. Streams in the Negeb: the wadis of southern Palestine, almost always dry, are suddenly filled by the winter rains and fertilize the earth (see 2 Ki 3:20; Isa 41:18), representing proverbially the sudden coming of God’s blessing.
Psalm 126:5 God will be true to his promise, but the people must also do their part—they must sow the seed in order to have a harvest. God will turn the people’s tears into songs of joy by blessing them in their various endeavors and rewarding their laborious toil.
Psalm 126:6 The psalm concludes on the expectation of another miracle to take place; the people will return with shouts of joy because of the plentiful harvest. The time of exile was like a sowing of tears; it was a time of penance. The time of the harvest has not yet come. But as certainly as in nature the harvest follows upon seeding, so certain is it that a time of joy will follow for God’s people. Thus, the psalm attests to the certainty of the Lord’s promise. Seeds to be sown: “Previously the seed had not sprouted, and the vine and the fig tree, the pomegranate and the olive tree, had borne no fruit. From this day forward I intend to bless you” (Hag 2:19).

Isaiah 40:1-11

The Book of Consolation^[a]

The Lord’s Majesty in Israel’s Liberation^[b]

Chapter 40

Salvation of the Lord^[c]

¹Comfort my people and console them,
    says your God.
²Speak tenderly to Jerusalem
    and proclaim to her
that her time of servitude is over
    and that her guilt has been expiated.
Indeed she has received from the Lord’s hand
    double punishment for all her sins.
³    A voice cries out:
    In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord;
    make a straight path in the desert for our God.
⁴Let every valley be filled in
    and every mountain and hill be made low.
Uneven ground will be made smooth
    and the rugged places will become a plain.
⁵Then the glory of the Lord will be revealed,
    and all mankind will see it together,
    for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.
⁶A voice says, “Cry out!”
    I reply, “What shall I cry out?”
“All mortals are grass;
    they last no longer than the flowers of the field.
⁷The grass withers, the flower fades,
    when the breath of the Lord falls upon them.
    Surely the people are grass.
⁸The grass may wither and the flower may fade,
    but the word of our God will endure forever.”
⁹Climb to the top of a high mountain,
    O Zion, herald of good tidings.
Cry out as loudly as you can,
    O Jerusalem, herald of good news.
Lift up your voice without fear
    and proclaim to the cities of Judah,
    “Here is your God!”
¹⁰See the Lord God approaching with power,
    he who rules with his powerful arm.
His reward is with him
    and his recompense^[d] is before him.
¹¹He will feed his flock like a shepherd,
    and in his arms he will gather the lambs,
carrying them in his bosom
    and gently leading the pregnant ewes to water.

Footnotes

Isaiah 40:1 Over a century had passed since the death of Isaiah. The Jewish people had lost their independence. The process of decline seemed irreversible. Jerusalem fell in 587 B.C., and then came the Exile. Beginning in 550 B.C., a new people entered the scene in the Near East. They were not Semitic but Aryan; they were the Persians and were led by a man who would make history: Cyrus. Within ten years, he made the East subject to him; to the peoples who had been oppressed, crushed, and deported by the Babylonians, he appeared as a liberator. From that point on, stories, oracles, and songs began to appear among the exiled Hebrews that extolled God’s work in the history of the world. The time was now past in which idols held sway; they saw the true God, the only God, in control of events that were leading to the salvation and liberation of his people. This noble idea of God and this new hope of deliverance burst forth in the “Book of Consolation,” which is also known as Second Isaiah or Deutero-Isaiah (chs. 40–55).
In 539 B.C. Babylon fell. Cyrus gave the Israelites leave to return to their homeland and practice their own religion. The most religious among the Jews began to think that the time of the “new covenant” or “new testament” announced by the prophets (Jer 31:33; Ezek 36:26) had arrived. Should they perhaps see in Cyrus the Lord’s messenger, a “messiah?” But God’s Messenger, who would complete his work, was not Cyrus, although Cyrus was a glorious figure in human history. It would be necessary to wait for this Messenger to come in a humbler form, that of a just man who expiates by his own suffering for the sins of all humanity. Thus, amid the cries of hope for a new Exodus, there is already present a purer expectation: the expectation of God’s authentic Messenger, whose portrait is sketched in the four “Servant Songs.”
Isaiah 40:1 A minority among the deportees has reflected on Israel’s extraordinary history: Is it possible that God formerly delivered his people by so many miracles only to see the whole process end in exile? In light of Cyrus’ dazzling military sweep, the idea was born that a new Exodus was on the way, an exodus even more marvelous than the liberation from Egypt and the journey to the Promised Land.
Isaiah 40:1 From the very outset, this second part of the Book of Isaiah has a new tone: that of consolation. An unknown prophet arises in the night of exile. He realizes that God now speaks of love and forgiveness and will never again change his language. The prophet’s most obvious call is to speak to his people about the strength and tenderness of God’s love for them. The day will come when the voice will be that of John the Precursor, who will lead his fellow countrymen on the path of conversion and open the way for Christ.
Isaiah 40:10 Recompense: the liberation of the people.

Romans 8:22-25

²²As we know, the entire creation has been groaning in labor pains until now— ²³and not only creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait for our adoption as children, the redemption of our bodies. ²⁴For in hope we were saved. Now to see something does not involve hope. For why should we hope for what we have already seen? ²⁵But if we hope for what we do not yet see, then we wait for it with patience.

New Catholic Bible (NCB)

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Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Psalm 126[a]

God, Our Joy and Our Hope

Footnotes

The Book of Consolation[a]

The Lord’s Majesty in Israel’s Liberation[b]

Chapter 40

Salvation of the Lord[c]

Footnotes

Psalm 126^[a]

The Book of Consolation^[a]

The Lord’s Majesty in Israel’s Liberation^[b]

Salvation of the Lord^[c]