Our Old Testament Scripture reading tonight comes from Psalm 126. Psalm 126. Let us hear God's Word. When the Lord brought back the captives to Zion, we were like men who dreamed. Our mouths were filled with laughter, our tongues with songs of joy. Then it was said among the nations, the Lord has done great things for them. The Lord has done great things for us, and we are filled with joy. Restore our fortunes, O Lord, like streams in the Negev. Those who sow in tears will reap with songs of joy. He who goes out weeping, carrying seed to sow, will return with songs of joy, carrying sheaves with him. So far, the reading of God's Word. Psalm 126 is one of 15 psalms that all bear the title, Songs of Ascents. Songs of going up. maybe even Songs of Climbing Stairs. And scholars are somewhat divided as to exactly what that title means, but it seems related to the annual pilgrimages that God had said to ancient Israel, faithful Israelites were to make three times a year to Jerusalem. Three times in the year, faithful Israelites, men representing their families at least, were to go to Jerusalem to worship God. And that must have been quite a burden on a lot of people. Three times in the year to leave family and work behind. Many of these people would have been farmers. There would have been concern about the farm. Some of them lived far from Jerusalem, near border areas. There would have been concern about enemies coming in to attack, perhaps, while they were gone. And we may wonder, why did God impose such a difficult burden on his people? Three times in the year, at Passover, the Feast of Weeks, at the Feast of Tabernacles, they were to go up to Jerusalem to worship. And God tells his people why he has laid this requirement on them. In Exodus 34, verse 24, he says, I will drive out the nations before you and enlarge your territory, and no one will covet your land when you go up three times each year to appear before the Lord your God. And that verse is really saying, when you go up three times a year, you will remember that I gave you the land. And as I gave it to you, I will preserve it for you. This is an exercise in which you can remember the blessings of the Lord. In which you can call to mind again, it's not by your protecting borders, it's not by your clever farming, it's not by the work of your hands ultimately, that you have what you have and you are what you are, but it's because the Lord has given it to you. And one of the things that's striking about these 15 songs that may well have been sung as the pilgrims went up to Jerusalem, or some of them may well have been sung once the pilgrims got to Jerusalem, is how they celebrate different ways in which the Lord comes to his people and delivers his people. If we tried brief summaries of each of these psalms, we might say Psalm 120 is that the Lord delivers. Psalm 121, that the Lord guards. We can go on, that the Lord has mercy, that the Lord helps, that the Lord surrounds, that the Lord builds, that the Lord blesses, that the Lord forgives, that the Lord remembers. You see, these relatively brief songs are all intended to draw the mind of God's people back to the Lord and to the various ways in which he remembers and blesses and provides for his people. And this particular psalm, we might well say, could be summarized in the words, the Lord restores. Verse 1, we read, when the Lord brought back the captives to Zion. That word really is the same verb there in verse 1 that we have in verse 4, Restore our fortunes, O Lord. And so we could really translate it as the ESV does. Verse 1, when the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion. God restores blessings to his people. That's part of the character of our God. And the first half of this psalm sort of looks backward, reflecting on the ways in which God restored his people in the past. And the second half of this psalm looks forward to how the Lord is going to restore the fortunes of his people in the future. So I thought it was a pretty good psalm for New Year's Eve. New Year's Eve is a good time to look back and to look forward. to reflect on what God has done and to remember what God has promised that he will do. And so let's think a little bit more about how this psalm draws us to the truth that God is a restoring God, that the grace of God surrounds us as his people to restore us. And the first half of this psalm really invites us to remember. To remember what God has done for us in the past. The psalmist says, or the Israelites as they walked to Jerusalem had many things to think back on, didn't they, that God had done for them. How God had delivered them from slavery in Egypt through his servant Moses. How God had established a kingdom and a holy city for them through his servant David. How God had brought them back out of exile and given them again a land after their sin and disobedience. How God again and again and again had restored his people. We can look back perhaps on the Protestant Reformation as such a restoration. God throughout the history of his people comes from time to time in remarkable power and blessing to restore our fortunes. Fortunes there not meaning riches, but restoring our well-being as his people. And it's good for us from time to time to think back on those times of blessing from the hand of the Lord. But it's not just the blessings, I think, that the Lord brings into the people of God as a whole on a massive scale. I think this psalm also invites us to think more personally and individually about those times of blessing and restoration and renewal that the Lord brings into our lives. I don't think it's incidental that the next psalm is a celebration of family. And the psalm after that is a celebration of prosperity in this world. And I think this psalm encourages us, and certainly this season of the year encourages us, to look back and think, how many are the blessings that I've received from the hand of the Lord in my own personal life? Maybe I wasn't at the Exodus. None of us are that old. Or at the establishment of Jerusalem as a capital, or even at the Reformation. But I see in my own family life, in the life of my friends, in the life of my work, the hand of the Lord's blessing, how he has been with me in the past, how he has restored in so many wonderful ways. And of course, above all, when we think of the restoration of our God, Of his mercies in the past, we think of our Lord Jesus Christ. And that's why I read from Acts chapter 3, the wonderful sermon of Peter, as he had healed the lame man. But he didn't want anybody to misunderstand this wonderful work of God. It was a wonderful work of God that should draw attention to Jesus Christ. And the times of refreshment that come from his hand. It's a phrase we find only there in Acts 3 in the New Testament. Times of refreshment. But that really captures something, the spirit of this first part of Psalm 126, that the Lord comes to his people with times of refreshment. And I hope that for each one of us here at the end of 2008, however difficult this year may have been, that we can also look back and think, the refreshment of the Lord, the grace of the Lord, the mercy of the Lord has been with me in this year. And this psalm is a very happy psalm. You might go through sometime and just underline the number of times the word joy appears in this psalm. When the psalmist, when the pilgrims perhaps as they are heading towards Jerusalem think about what the Lord has done for them, they say, we were like men who dreamed. Have you ever had that experience, something happened to you that's so good it hardly seems real? That's what the psalmist is saying here. When we contemplate those times of refreshing from the hand of the Lord, sometimes we have to just sort of step back and say, how can this be? Was I dreaming that the Lord would be so good, so kind, so merciful to me? Our mouths were filled with laughter, and our tongues with songs of joy. It could even be shouts of joy. This is a more Reformed translation, so it's only songs of joy. But mouths filled with laughter, what a beautiful picture, isn't it? Laughter may not be our greatest strength, especially when we're in church. But this psalm encourages us to think of that joy bubbling up in the heart, so profound that we can't hold it back. Songs of joy. Such blessings that the psalmist says, even the nations, even the Gentiles have to stand back and say, the Lord has done great things for them. Great things. Great things for them. Do you know that in your own heart, that the Lord has done great things for you? Of course, in the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Gentiles just don't have to stand back and observe the great things the Lord has done. The Lord's now doing great things for the Gentiles, too. Praise God for that, or none of us would be here tonight. Almost none of us. We're included in the times of refreshing that have come from Jesus Christ so that we, too, can say with Israel of old, the Lord has done great things for us, and we are filled with joy. Do you feel that tonight? It's okay to feel things. Don't overdo it, but it's okay to feel things. And this is what should well up in us when we think of the work of Jesus Christ in saving us. when we think of God's faithfulness with his people through the centuries, when we think how he overcame again and again the sin and rebellion of his people, we should be filled with joy. We should be filled with thanksgiving that the Lord has done such things for us. The Lord has done great things for us. It's interesting, just a couple of psalms over in Psalm 131, David, in another Song of Ascents, writes, My heart is not proud, O Lord, my eyes are not haughty. I do not concern myself, I do not occupy myself with great matters or great things. It's the same phrase. David, the king, says, you know, great things aren't really for me. Why does he say that? Not to deny that he has responsibilities that are serious. But to confess before the world that even though he is king, great things ultimately always belong to God. It is God who is always the one who is doing great things for his people. And that's why we so rejoice. That's why we are so filled with joy. That's the truth of our past as the people of God. And this psalm goes on to say, that is the truth of our future. as the people of God. Restore our fortunes, O Lord. This implies that in the present, things are somewhat problematic for the people of God. They look back to a great day of blessing. They look forward to a great day of blessing. But they're praying for that blessing because the present is difficult. Restore our fortunes, O Lord, like streams in the Negev. There are several ways we could take that. Streams in the Negev, that's water in the desert. We could take it as unexpected, because water in the desert is often unexpected. But I think probably the psalmist means it more in the sense of delightful. I have friends who love to go out to Borrego Springs in the spring, after there's been a little water in the desert and the wildflowers are blooming, And they always tell me there's hardly anything prettier than wildflowers blooming in the desert in spring. It's way too long a trip for me to take. But I've been told that that's true. And I think that's the image here. The delightfulness of suddenly seeing the desert blooming. That's what it's going to be like when the Lord restores the fortunes of his people. Delightful, glorious, wonderful. Times of refreshing from the hand of the Lord. We should look forward to that. We should anticipate that. We should be confident in that. But there's also a kind of hard realism in this psalm as well, isn't there? Those who sow in tears will reap with songs of joy. He who goes out weeping, carrying seed to sow, will return with songs of joy, carrying sheaves with him. This is, of course, the picture of a farmer, isn't it? A farmer who begins by sowing the seed, and then only months later is able to reap the harvest. And the picture drawn here is of a farmer who finds it hard to do that work knowing that there'll be fruit to it only months later. And then only through the blessing of the Lord. And so the sowing is seen as a kind of hard struggle of weeping. But the promise is that out of that hard struggle will come blessing, fruit, joy. And here's something of a picture of the Christian life, isn't it? Suffering and then glory. It's the picture of David's life as he suffered under Saul and only later enjoyed the fruits of kingship. It was certainly the picture of our Lord Jesus Christ who suffered in this world only later to enjoy the glory of resurrection. And the psalmist says to us, that may well be the pattern of our lives as well. It may well be that in the present, it's not so clearly good, it's not so obviously joyful, it's not so evidently wonderful. This life is a life of weeping, but there's a promise here, isn't there? There's a promise of joy. There's a promise of times of refreshment. But Acts 3 not only promises times of refreshment in this life, but it also calls us to look forward, doesn't it, to a time of restoration of everything. Acts chapter 3, verse 20. Pray that he may send the Christ who has been appointed for you, even Jesus. He must remain in heaven until the time comes for God to restore everything. Beginning of a new year, it's good to remember that a time is coming when God will restore everything, when Jesus Christ returns in glory. That's our ultimate hope, isn't it? No matter how good the harvest of 2009 will be, it won't be a restoration of everything. But a restoration of everything is promised. It's promised one day to us in the glorious appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ. And whatever the weeping of this life has been, the joy of that great day will be unimaginable to everyone in him. Then there will be laughter and shouts of joy amongst the righteous. And so as we remember God's restoring grace in the past, as we look forward to God's restoring grace in the future, what are we to do in the present? Well, this psalm would say to us, we're to pray. Verse 4 is a prayer. Restore our fortunes, O Lord. In this life, one of the great privileges and one of the great tasks to which we're called is the task of prayer. Next year, 2009, is the 500th anniversary of the birth of John Calvin. One year from today, you may be glad that the year 2009 is over and you don't have to hear so much about John Calvin anymore. It should be a great year of celebration. And one of Calvin's more profound statements is that prayer is the chief exercise of our faith. How do we build up our faith? It's by praying. Because prayer is a turning to God with an acknowledgement that he's in charge. That he's the one who can do what we cannot do for ourselves. that he's the one who undergirds us with the loving arms of a father. He's the one who has given us the gift of his own son to save us and to preserve us. He's the one who sends the spirit into our midst to refresh us. And so it is good and right that we should talk to him and plead with him that he might restore times of refreshment and that he might send his Son. And we should be praying, shouldn't we, for one another. We should be praying for the difficult times that some of us face. We should be praying for the church around the world. Some of our brothers and sisters persecuted. Some of our brothers and sisters living in parts of the world where the church has become so old and weak that it seems hardly to function. and we should be praying with the psalmist restore our fortunes oh Lord wouldn't it be wonderful if 2009 was a great day of refreshment for the people of God around the world we should pray for that wouldn't it be wonderful if 2009 was the year of our Lord's return. We should pray for that. Someone will predict it. You know, someone's going to be right some year. All these crazy people predicting it. Somebody's going to be right. Maybe this is the year, 2009. Wouldn't that be glorious? But whether this is a year of great blessing or a year of much weeping. The promise of the Lord stands strong. Weeping may last for a night, but joy comes in the morning. Sowing may be tough in the springtime, but oh, it's sweet in the fall when the sheaves are gathered. And that's the promise. God will restore all things one day. And God, in the meantime, will season our lives with refreshment. Let's pray to that great end for the year 2009. Amen. Let us pray. O Lord, our God, how sweet is your word to us as it reminds us of who you are, how great and glorious you are, how abundantly you provide for your people, how you are the restorer of goodness and grace in our lives. And we would be bold to pray, O Lord, that often in the new year we might be able to say with joy, He has done great things for us. We would pray that even in the times of weeping that must come, we will still say he has done great things for us. And so we do pray, O Lord, for seasons of refreshment for this tired and often sad and sinful world. We pray for seasons of refreshment where the church is persecuted and seasons of refreshment where the church is weak and frail. Oh, Lord, build us up in the faith in Jesus Christ. And we would pray, oh, Lord, come quickly. Come quickly, Lord Jesus, and restore everything and fill our hearts and our mouths with laughter and songs of joy. Oh, we do praise you as a great God. And we pray that in this coming year, our hearts would over and over again be filled with praise and with prayer. For you are great and good beyond our imagining. Hear us, for we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.