Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 126:6
He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves [with him].
6. Though one goeth weeping on his way, when he carrieth forth the seed to sow,
He shall surely come with shouts of joy, when he carrieth home his sheaves.
The subject in both clauses may most naturally though not necessarily be taken to be the same: at any rate the thought that “one soweth and another reapeth” (Joh 4:36; Joh 4:38) is not prominent here.
precious seed ] This has been explained to mean ‘costly’ on account of the scarcity of corn, with reference to the bad seasons from which the community suffered after the Return (Hag 1:10 f.; Psa 85:12); but the rendering cannot be maintained. The cognate verb in Amo 9:13 means to ‘draw out’ or ‘trail’ the seed: and the substantive here means the seed which is trailed or cast into the ground, seed for sowing.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
He that goeth forth and weepeth – He that goes forth weeping – still an allusion to the farmer. He is seen moving slowly and sadly over the plowed ground, burdened with his task, an in tears.
Bearing precious seed – Margin, seed-basket. Literally, bearing the drawing out of seed; perhaps the seed as drawn out of his bag; or, as scattered or sown regularly in furrows, so that it seems to be drawn out in regular lines over the fields.
Shall doubtless come again – Shall come to this sown field again in the time of harvest. He will visit it with other feelings than those which he now has.
With rejoicing … – Then his tears will be turned to joy. Then the rich harvest will wave before him. Then he will thrust in his sickle and reap. Then he will gather the golden grain, and the wain will groan under the burden, and the sheaves will be carried forth with songs of joy. He will be abundantly rewarded for all his toil; he will see the fruit of his labors; he will be filled with joy. The design of this illustration was, undoubtedly, to cheer the hearts of the exiles in their long and dangerous journey to their native land; it has, however, a wider and more universal application, as being suited to encourage all in their endeavors to secure their own salvation, and to do good in the world – for the effort is often attended with sacrifice, toil, and tears. The joy of heaven will be more than a compensation for all this. The following remarks by Dr. Thomson (Land and the Book, vol. i., pp. 118, 119) will furnish an illustration of the meaning of this passage: I never saw people sowing in tears exactly, but have often known them to do it in fear and distress sufficient to draw them from any eye. In seasons of great scarcity, the poor peasants part in sorrow with every measure of precious seed cast into the ground. It is like taking bread out of the mouths of their children; and in such times many bitter tears are actually shed over it. The distress is frequently so great that government is obliged to furnish seed, or none would be sown. Ibrahim Pasha did this more than once within my remembrance, copying the example, perhaps, of his great predecessor in Egypt when the seven years famine was ended. The thoughts of this psalm may likewise have been suggested by the extreme danger which frequently attends the farmer in his plowing and sowing.
The calamity which fell upon the farmers of Job when the oxen were plowing, and the donkeys feeding beside them, and the Sabeans fell upon them and took them away, and slew the servants with the edge of the sword Job 1:14-15, is often repeated in our day. To understand this, you must remember what I just told you about the situation of the arable lands in the open country; and here again we meet that verbal accuracy: the sower goes forth – that is, from the village. The people of Ibel and Khiem, in Merj Aiyun, for example, have their best grain-growing fields down in the Ard Huleh, six or eight miles from their homes, and just that much nearer the lawless border of the desert. When the country is disturbed, or the government weak, they cannot sow these lands except at the risk of their lives. Indeed, they always go forth in large companies, and completely armed, ready to drop the plow and seize the musket at a moments warning; and yet, with all this care, many sad and fatal calamities overtake the people who must thus sow in tears.
And still another origin may be found for the thoughts of the psalm in the extreme difficulty of the work itself in many places. The soil is rocky, impracticable, overgrown with sharp thorns; and it costs much painful toil to break up and gather out the rocks, cut and burn the briers, and to subdue the stubborn soil, especially with their feeble oxen and insignificant plows. Join all these together, and the sentiment is very forcibly brought out, that he who labors hard, in cold and in rain, in fear and danger, in poverty and in want, casting his precious seed in the ground, will surely come again, at harvest-time, with rejoicing, and bearing his sheaves with him.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Psa 126:6
He that goeth forth and weepeth.
Tearful sowing and joyful reaping
All life is a sowing. Some sow to the lusts of the flesh. A chosen company sow to the spirit. These often sow in sadness, for such sowing involves self-denial and struggling against the flesh. But their reaping will compensate them. Now this holds good in regard to the whole spiritual life, but it applies also to individual incidents in that life. To prayers offered amid tears. To the daughters of affliction, the sons of pain. But we take the text in regard to every Christain worker.
I. Describe his service. It is said of him, he goeth forth. What does this mean? This, that he goeth forth from God. God has sent him. It is a sin beyond all others to take up the ministry as a mere profession. And this going forth is from the place of prayer. Our truest strength lies in prayer. But the word tells of the whither as well as the whence. And this going forth is away from the world, without the camp, aye, and beyond the range of ordinary Christian labour. He that goeth forth, not he that sits at home, shall win the reward. And weepeth. What means this word? As the former word told of the mode of service, so this tells of the man himself. A man who cannot weep, inwardly if not internally, cannot preach. He must be sensitive, tender-hearted, a man in earnest. Some one asks, Why does he weep? Because he feels his own insufficiency, because of the hardness of mens hearts, because he is often disappointed. Blossoms come not to be fruit, or fruit half ripe drops from the tree. Next, we read, he beareth precious seed. This an especial point of success. There is no soul-winning by untruthful preaching. The Gospel, and that only, will serve. Tell it out as those who know it is precious, not flippantly, or as though we were retailing a mere story from the Arabian Nights. And as those who know that the truth is a seed. Do not speak of it and forget it, or think of it as a stone that will never spring up. Believe there is life in it, and something will come of it.
II. The workers success. He shall come again to his God whence he set out, come in thanksgiving and praise. With rejoicing, yes, even in his very tears, but mainly in his success. Many have asked whether every earnest labourer may expect to have this. I have always inclined to the belief that such is the rule, though there may be exceptions. It seems to me that if I never won souls I would sigh till I did. I would break my heart Over them if I could not break their hearts. I cannot comprehend any one trying to win souls and being satisfied without results. With sheaves. As an old expositor says, he comes with the wains behind him, with the wagons at his heels. They are his sheaves, for though all souls belong to Christ, they yet belong to the worker. God puts it so, bringing his sheaves with him.
III. The golden link of doubtless. The promise of God says so. The analogy of nature assures you of it. God mocks not the husbandman. And Christ assures you of this. Think, too, of those who have already proved it. See the triumphs of missions. Therefore be up and doing. You who are not saved, I ask you not to sin, but to come to Christ. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The sower and his harvest: –
I. The qualities and requirements of the successful sower.
1. He goeth forth. This shows a set purpose, a fixed and definite design. It also suggests that the work is done at some personal cost, some self-denial.
2. He weepeth. The burden of souls is laid upon him. A trifler must fail; this thorough earnestness is essential to success.
3. He bears precious seed. The seed is the living word for a lost world; truth for souls wandering in fatal error; the glorious Gospel of the blessed God. It is precious, because it is the gift of Gods love by Jesus Christ; because of the price paid for it; because of its fruit, peace, love, joy in the Holy Ghost. How does he bear it? Best of all forms, the only perfect mode is in the heart; so that out of the abundance of the heart the mouth may speak.
II. The character of the harvest promised.
1. It is abundant. For seeds in the hand there shall be sheaves on the shoulders.
2. It is gladdening. The sower goes forth weeping; he returns rejoicing.
3. It is sure. (J. McTurk.)
Sowing and reaping
I. The seed.
1. Its origin is Divine.
2. Its vitality.
3. Its value. Precious.
(1) Because it is a Divine gift.
(2) Because it meets human necessity.
(3) Because of its blessed, practical results.
(4) Because it is adapted to all classes.
(5) Because it has no equal, and nothing can take its place.
II. The sower.
1. His energy–goeth forth. He does not waste his precious time in berating other sowers, or in telling what wonders he is going to do in the future; nor does he allow his zeal to evaporate in sentiment or song. But he goeth forth. We have a sufficient number of word-critics and analyzers; we want more men who would rather scatter the seed than argue about its constituent elements.
2. His emotion–weepeth. Why?
(1) Felt responsibility.
(2) Discouragements in the way. Poverty, ignorance, drunkenness, sensuality, a disposition to cling to sins and force their way to perdition.
(3) Lack of appreciation and sympathy.
(4) Meagre results of former sowing.
(5) Inability to reach the masses, who need us most.
3. His errand–Bearing precious seed. The bread of life for a perishing, famine-stricken world. The God-sent sower is a man of one work and one kind of seed. He is not a drawing-room evangelist; he goeth forth. He is not a man of business, he is not a politician, he is not a scientist. He is a worker for God, a sower of the seed. He preaches Christ, not himself; Gods thoughts, not his own.
III. The success.
1. Certain.
2. Inspiring.
3. Remunerative.
4. Individual ownership. Their sheaves.
5. Palpable results. Bringing. Then to sow is to reap. (T. Kelly, D. D.)
The home and foreign fields compared
Some think the mission cause is less popular now than formerly. This opinion may be true to some extent. There may not now be the excitement which, we are told, prevailed at first. For this several reasons may be assigned. The novelty has passed away. Other institutions have sprung up to divide public interest. But the chief reason no doubt is, that experience is bringing out the real nature of the work undertaken as it was never brought out before. Does not very much of the disappointment and complaint which we sometimes hear expressed at the result of mission work arise from wrong expectations?
I. As to the soil, what a contrast this presents to that at home.
1. Look at its extent. Those who know nature and mankind only in small countries like our own cannot conceive the proportions they assume in the worlds great continents. There is not a greater difference between the hills which we call mountains, and the streams which we dignify as rivers, and those elsewhere, than there is between humanity here and humanity there. It may be thought at least the moral greatness is with us. As to superior civilization, much of this is prejudice, which a wider acquaintance with the world dissipates. I confess that the only indisputable point of superiority in us, as far as I know, is in the possession of a pure and true religion. Take this away, and we should be no better than the rest. But as to material size and numbers, we are comparatively insignificant. Place a man on a peak of the Alps or Himalayas, and what an overwhelming astonishment comes over him. A like feeling is experienced by one who finds himself moving among the worlds great populations. In this country we have thirty millions to deal with–thirty millions to save, one by one. But you might divide China alone into twelve such countries, with twelve times thirty millions. You might cut up India into six such countries, with six times thirty millions. The mind is lost even amid such numbers; but what would it be in measuring entire continents? The number of mission-converts is often compared with the total population of the world. But it would be fairer to make the comparison with the number actually brought under Christian influence. Missions, though universal in spirit and aim, are not so in fact. Compare the ground gained with that actually attempted, and the disproportion will appear less.
2. Contrast, again, the nature of the two fields. In this respect the conditions are as opposite as they can be. At home Christian agencies are more nearly adequate to the work to be done. It is true there is much religious destitution. But what sort of destitution? Not so much destitution of ministers and sanctuaries as of the religion which would make more ministers and sanctuaries necessary. Must there not be more religious success and growth before more of these outward products of religion will be seen? But Christian churches are not all. Our whole country is professedly Christian, and has been a thousand years. A thousand years of history are in our favour. Our doctrines are the doctrines generally received. Besides a powerful Christian literature, the general literature of our country is Christian in spirit. The stamp of the Bible is on our national character. All this is an incalculable gain to the cause of truth. The way of the preacher is made easy. Directly you go into a heathen country, this state of things is reversed. When we speak of the wickedness and spiritual apathy of heathen lands, we may seem to mention nothing special. Are these unknown at home? Bad as the state of morality may be here, we assure you there is worse than your worst. Heathenism makes the same sins blacker. If there is so much wickedness where so many checks are at work, what must there be where most of these checks are unknown, and religion herself becomes the patron of vice? Converse with the priests, read the lives of the deities, observe the images of impurity and cruelty–lust hard by hate–which surround you in worship. As to the practical effects of idolatry, its very nature is degrading. In judging of mission work, then, many forget that abroad we meet with all the old hindrances, and others still more formidable.
II. Let us look also at the sowers. In this respect we may think there is no room for difference. The same agencies will suit either field. Let us see. What is the state of things at home? First, the language is the preachers own. He has not to plunge into the difficulties of a new tongue and literature. Again, the machinery is provided to his hand. In both respects how different abroad! In many parts a difficult language, imposing long and hard toil, blocks the very threshold. The labourer may be full of zeal. His soul, like Pauls, may be stirred by what he sees. But he is dumb. For long he is a child learning to speak. Take the other point. Suppose you have a system of agencies formed and at work. Many could most efficiently keep it going who would not be equal to originating it. It is evident that on both grounds the mission-field requires special gifts–mental adaptation, a spirit of enterprise, skill to create and organize. There must be these special qualifications-for the special work which lies before us in other lands. Even the best labourers must often lament their insufficiency. They often feel the terrible disadvantage at which they labour. Every seed as it falls into the earth is wet with tears wrung from earnest, anxious souls. The sun goes down on a life of faithful toil, and little impression is made on the waste, few ears are gathered. What a contrast between the present beginnings and future destiny of the Gospel! The Church goes forth weeping; she returns with sheaves rejoicing. Now wrong has the majority; the triumph seems to be with error; faith struggles for mastery in one place, for existence in another. All this will be reversed. Instead of sowers weeping, you will hear shouts of reapers rejoicing–shouts which ring louder and sweeter for the years of working and waiting which have gone before. Instead of a few bright patches of fruitfulness, enough to keep faith alive, the worlds wide field shall stand thick with sheaves–sheaves of souls dearly ransomed and hardly won. Meanwhile what is our duty? To sow on. Let not weeping hinder sowing. Sow money, sow sympathy and prayer, sow lives of earnest work for Christ. (J. S. Banks.)
The hope of the spiritual sower
If it takes six months for nature to restore to the farmer his reward, how much do you think is needed before this world is made to rejoice and blossom like the rose? We must be patient, we must be generous, we must be far-seeing; and we must remember that all the money that is sunk in schoolrooms and sunk in good teaching, all the money that seems occasionally to be flung away–I do not mean anything foolish–in this field of education, will be bearing fruit when we are dead. And upon the thoroughness of the education in England during the years to come will depend our prosperity and our position amongst the nations of the earth. We ought to be thankful for our army and navy, but in the future nations are to depend less upon armed men and more upon intelligence. Or if you take the ease of social reform in any of its departments, why, it is over fifty years since men began to work at the temperance cause, and sometimes it does not seem to have advanced greatly. But it is advancing, and habits of temperance and self-restraint are spreading amongst the people. We may not in our days see a sober and thrifty nation; but some day, when this land is delivered from the curse of drunkenness and the improvidence which follows it, people will rise up and bless the sowers in the sleet of past days. And, if that be true of education and morality, what will you say to religion–to recast a single soul in the character of Jesus Christ? To recast a whole race will take centuries; but it is going to be done l He that works for a speedy return works for a passing return; he who works for eternal ends must work deeply and wait patiently. He may die before the vessel comes into harbour, but he is going with the tide that is to carry her into harbour. The throne of God is established in righteousness and not in unrighteousness. Did not Christ, living and dying, triumph over this world? It is with such that this man allies himself, whom you may think so foolish and short-sighted. He places himself beside the throne of light; he places himself beside the throne of Jesus Christ. If he is beaten, he is beaten, when every one of us is beaten, and the whole human race is beaten, and nothing remains but ruin and chaos. If there be order, he wins; if there be righteousness, he is going to come out conqueror. Well, you say, I like to see a little. Well, then, my friend, will you remember that your life is not the whole life of the Kingdom of God. And although the class you are going to teach this afternoon in that back street is just a little bit of heaven begun, as well as you can begin it, it is not the whole kingdom of heaven. What do you think of the prophets now, and especially the prophets who prophesied the Messiah in heathen Babylon and decadent Jerusalem, and who died and never saw the promise, and never saw the prophecy fulfilled? And now, behold, we have seen everything they said come true, and generation after generation has blessed them for their words. Courage yourselves with the Psalms, with Amos, with Hosea, and the second of Isaiah! What do you say of the prophets? They gave up all they possessed and went out and preached the Gospel. And some preached in heathen cities, some in Europe, some Asia, and we do not know where some of them preached. And they died. So far as we know most of them were martyrs. (John Watson, D. D.)
Harvest joys:
We are just in the middle of harvest. We are reaping; we are bringing our sheaves home: and we, too, reap with joy, more or less; we bring our sheaves home with rejoicing. There are many good reasons for this. The harvest, you all know and feel, is the end and crown of the year,–the end, not in the same way in which winter is the end of the year, as closing its eyes, and laying it in its grave, but as being its consummation and fulfilment. It is the end for which the seasons roll round in their busy course. It is the end for which the earth opens her womb, and pours out her fatness. It is the end for which the sun looks down with his fostering fatherly smiles upon the earth, and cherishes her day by day more and more, according as she can bear it. Moreover, here, too, there is need of tears: there is need that the bosom of the earth should be torn up by the ploughshare. She likewise must go forth on her yearly way weeping, when she bears her precious seed; or she will never come again rejoicing, bringing her full sheaves with her. God has blessed the work of your hands: He has given you a good harvest: it will bring you in much profit. Let it be your care then that the poor shall also be partakers in the blessings, which Gods bounty has poured out for them as well as for you. When any prosperity betides a household, it is right and fitting that all the members of the household, from the highest to the lowest, should partake in that prosperity, that all should be invited to a fellowship in the same rejoicing. So may the servants in a household be encouraged to feel that they are united to their masters by some other bond than the iron chain of necessity,–that there is something in their faithful services beyond the worth of money, and which no money can repay,–that they are moral beings, with hearts and souls, with consciences and affections,–that they are to show this in their conduct, and that their masters also are to show their conviction of this in all their dealings with them. In this manner does it behove you to show your thankful conviction that the harvest is indeed a blessing, and not to thwart Gods gracious purpose, that it should be a blessing, not to you alone, but to all men, of every class and condition. For this is what renders it truly precious. The earth rejoices because she is made Gods minister to pour forth her treasures for the support of mankind. And this is a further reason why you also may lawfully rejoice in the harvest. Joy for any outward good that befalls ourselves is narrow and selfish and barren. But joy for any good we may be enabled to do to others is of a right kind. It is a joy which has the purifying spirit of love in it, a joy such as the angels feel when they are sent on Gods errands of mercy. This is the great privilege granted to you whose calling is to till the ground. You are employed by God as His ministers for the good of your brethren. It is through your means that the race of man is sustained and enabled to live from year to year. It is at your hands that God gives us our daily bread. For this thought, moreover, should be always present to your minds; that that which you do, you do not of yourselves and by yourselves, through any strength of your own arm, or any wit of your own head, but only through the power of God, as His servants and ministers. When we look at the harvest as the gift of God, then it becomes a ground of pure and unmixed rejoicing. As he who is truly suffering from want and distress is thankful if you give him a small alms, and is the more thankful if your alms be large, so, if we are really convinced that the harvest is the gift of Gods bounty, then, even if the harvest be a scanty one, we still rejoice and are thankful to God, from whom we had no right to claim or expect anything richer; and if the harvest be abundant, we are the more exceeding thankful. Indeed this, you will ever find, is one among the many benefits which arise from the habit of looking at all the events and dispensations of this world as the appointment and ordinance of God. You will be confident that, whatever their immediate appearance may be, they are good, and are designed for good. You will be delivered from all repining on account of them. What, ever they may be, you will be thankful for them. If the dispensation be grievous, you will discern something that required to be chastened and corrected: and for that chastening and correction you will be thankful to Him whose chastening is a sure proof of His love. If, on the other hand, the dispensation be such as even the natural heart welcomes with delight, your rejoicing on that account of it will be doubled, when you look on it as a token of your heavenly Fathers bounty. (J. C. Hare, M. A.)
The certain reward of good works
Our text, taken in its largest significance, is to be classed with those passages which speak of the reward of good works, and use that reward as a motive to their performance. There can be nothing clearer from the Bible than that though man can expect nothing for his works, so that his best actions, if tried by their own merit, would produce only wrath; he will, nevertheless, be judged by his works, and receive a recompense, of which these works will determine the extent. It is impossible that man should gain any reward, if you connect with reward the notion of merit; but it is quite possible that while that which is bestowed is of grace and not of debt, yet there may be a rigid proportion maintained between his actions and his condition, so that his final allotment will be dependent on his works, as though those works could establish a right to some portion of happiness. And when this principle has been settled–the principle that though We cannot merit from God our actions will decide our condition–we may speak of good works as to be hereafter rewarded, because they shall as actually regulate our portion as though that portion were a recompense in the strictest sense of the term. If, then, it be lawful to speak of reward, we may certainly speak of the husbandman who goeth forth weeping, bearing precious seed, as coming again rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him. It will frequently happen that we have no means of ascertaining that any beneficial results have been produced by our most earnest and disinterested labours; and it is quite possible that no such results have yet followed, and that they never will follow. The minister may have toiled in vain; the parent may have striven in vain; the philanthropist may have been generous in vain. Not only may it be true that none of these parties can discern any fruit of their exertions and sacrifices; it may be further true that no fruit whatsoever has been yielded; so that minister, and parent, and philanthropist have apparently spent their strength for nought. And yet, even in this extreme case, you can only suppose that the retributions of eternity will abundantly prove the statements of our text. The precious seed has been sown; the man perhaps weeping as he sowed it, and our decision must be, if we shut out the appointments of the future, that it is utterly lost, and will never, in any fruit, return to its original proprietor. But, if you bring those appointments of the future into the account, you presently discover the falseness of such a decision. You show that God has kept an exact register of our every effort to promote His glory and the welfare of our fellow-men, and that whatever may have been the success of that effort, it will receive a recompense proportioned to its zeal and sincerity. There must be no such thing as the giving up in despair, because hitherto we seem to have been toiling in vain. We cannot tell that it has been in vain. We know that the remark is often made that the children of religious parents turn out worse than those of worldly; but we have no faith in the historical accuracy of this remark. Now and then there will be striking and melancholy cases; and these cases the more noted because occurring in families upon which many eyes have been fixed, are taken as establishing a general rule, and that a rule which concludes against the worth of religious education. But we are persuaded that the sum total of the evidence from fact is immeasurably the other way; and we have no hesitation in appealing to this evidence as corroborating the gracious description of our text. It will sometimes happen that the parents efforts are frustrated, so that neither during his life, nor after his death, is the prodigal child reclaimed from his wanderings. But ordinarily you have the spectacle of the old age of a father and a mother cheered by the piety of their offspring. If the sons and the daughters have been carefully trained in the way they should go, then adherence to it will be generally amongst those rich consolations which God ministers in their last days to parents. (H. Melvill, B. D.)
Better plant than build
If a man builds, Nature straightway sets to work to undo his building. Rust eats into the iron and decay into the wood, and little by little time ravages and destroys. But if a man plants, Nature proceeds to complete his unfinished work. He sows a seed, and behold wheat; he plants a cutting, and behold a tree. Such is the difference between working alone and working with God. He who sows truth in human hearts works with God. The seed drops into the heart; lies there; is long hidden; sprouts; pushes forth the blade and ear, and finally the full corn. Not at once, often only after long delay; but it fails not. Heaven and earth shall pass away; all things material decay. But My words shall not pass away; truth is imperishable. (Lyman Abbott, D. D.)
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Psa 127:1-5
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 6. He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed] The metaphor seems to be this: A poor farmer has had a very bad harvest: a very scanty portion of grain and food has been gathered from the earth. The seed time is now come, and is very unpromising. Out of the famine a little seed has been saved to be sown, in hopes of another crop; but the badness of the present season almost precludes the entertainment of hope. But he must sow, or else despair and perish. He carries his all, his precious seed, with him in his seed basket; and with a sorrowful heart commits it to the furrow, watering it in effect with his tears, and earnestly imploring the blessing of God upon it. God hears; the season becomes mild; he beholds successively the blade, the ear, and the full corn in the ear. The appointed weeks of harvest come, and the grain is very productive. He fills his arms, his carriages, with the sheaves and shocks; and returns to his large expecting family in triumph, praising God for the wonders he has wrought. So shall it be with this handful of returning Israelites. They also are to be sown-scattered all over the land; the blessing of God shall be upon them, and their faith and numbers shall be abundantly increased. The return here referred to, Isaiah describes in very natural language: “And they shall bring all your brethren for an offering to the Lord out of all nations, upon horses, and in chariots, and in litters, upon mules, and upon swift beasts, to my holy mountain Jerusalem, saith the Lord, as the children of Israel bring an offering in a clean vessel into the house of the Lord,” Isa 66:20.
ANALYSIS OF THE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-SIXTH PSALM
The parts of this Psalm are three: –
I. An expression of joy for their strange deliverance from captivity.
II. A prayer for the return of the remaining part.
III. A moral collected by the psalmist from it.
1. The psalmist celebrates their return, and amplifies it three ways: –
1. From the cause, Jehovah. Cyrus gave a commission for it; but it was the Lord who disposed his heart so to do: “When the Lord turned,” c.
2. From the manner of it. It was strange and wonderful they could scarcely believe it.
3. From the joy at it, inward and external. 1. Their “mouths were filled with laughter.” 2. Their “tongue with singing.” A thankful tongue expressed the feelings of a thankful heart.
That God did this for them he proves by two evidences: –
1. The heathen: “Then said they among the heathen.” They saw that they were permitted to return by virtue of a royal edict; that the very king who gave the commission was named by a prophet; that they had rich gifts given them, the vessels of gold and silver restored, c. Who could do all these things but GOD?
2. The Jews. It is true, said the Jews, what you acknowledge. 1. “The Lord hath done great things for us.” Beyond our merit, beyond our hope. 2. “Whereof we are glad,” for we are freed from a galling yoke.
II. But there were some Jews left behind, for whom they pray.
1. “Turn their captivity also.” Put it in their hearts to join their brethren. Several, no doubt, stayed behind, because they had married strange wives, c.
2. “Turn it as the streams in the south.” Or, as some read it, streams of water on a parched land. Judea has been lying waste we need many hands to cultivate it. When all join together in this work the land will become fruitful, like the parched ground when powerful rivulets are sent through it in all directions.
III. The benefit of this will be great for although it may cost us much hard labour and distress in the beginning, yet the maxim will hold good – “They who sow in tears shall reap in joy.” Which the psalmist amplifies in the next verse.
1. “He that goeth forth and weepeth.” The poor husbandman, for the reasons given above and in the notes, bearing precious seed – seed bought with a high price, which augments his grief, being so poor.
2. “He shall doubtless come again” – in harvest with joy, having a plentiful crop; for every grain sown at least one full-fed ear of corn, with at the lowest thirty-fold. Some maxims are to be gathered from the whole: Penitential sorrow shall be followed by the joy of pardoning mercy; he that bears the cross shall wear the crown; and, trials and difficulties shall be followed by peace and prosperity.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
He that goeth forth; the husbandman that goeth out into his field, and walketh hither and thither to scatter his seed, as the manner is.
Weepeth, for fear of the loss of his seed, and of a bad harvest.
Precious seed; seed-corn when it is scarce and dear. Or, the basket of seed as it is rendered in our margin, as also by the Chaldee paraphrast, and some ethers.
Shall doubtless come, Heb. coming shall come; which manner of expression may note either the certainty of the thing, or the frequency and customariness of it. This verse is only an amplification of the former.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
6. He that goeth forthliterally,better, “He goeshe comes, he comes,” c. The repetitionimplies there is no end of weeping here, as there shall be no end ofjoy hereafter (Isa 35:10).
precious seedrather,seed to be drawn from the seed box for sowing literally,”seed-draught.” Compare on this Psalm, Jer31:9, &c.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed,…. Which he sows in tears. This is but a repetition and confirmation of what is before expressed in different words; and may be applied, as to a praying saint, so to a faithful preacher of the word. The word is the precious seed which he bears, which he takes out of the granaries of the Scriptures; and carries from place to place, and scatters and sows, Lu 8:11; compared to seed, because of its meanness in the eyes of those that know it not; because of its generative virtue and increase, which it has from God, and which, unless sown in the earth, produces no fruit: and it is called “precious seed”, because either bought at a great price, when grain is dear; or because it usually is the choicest wheat that is the sowing seed; and so may denote the preciousness and value of the Gospel, dispensed by Christ’s faithful ministers, which is called a sowing of spiritual things, 1Co 9:11; which should be done plentifully and constantly, and with the same sort of seed or doctrine, and which requires art and skill; and is often performed weeping or with tears, because of their own insufficiency, through fear of success, and through want of it; and because of the badness of the ground, the hardness of men’s hearts they have to do with. The allusion seems to be to a poor husbandman, that has got but little seed to sow, and this bought at a dear price; and which he buries under the clods, and fears it will rise no more; and weeps as he sows, because of the badness of the weather, or of the soil, doubting of success. Aben Ezra, by the words rendered “precious seed”, or, as they may be, “a draught of seed” r, understands the vessel in which the sower carries his seed, the seed basket, from whence he draws and takes out the seed, and scatters it; see Am 9:13; so the Targum,
“bearing a tray of sowing corn;”
shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves [with him]; the seed he has been to and fro in sowing springs up under a divine blessing; and, beyond his expectation and fears, produces a large and plentiful crop; which he reaps, and returns home, not with his arms full of sheaves only, but with his cart laden with them: so a faithful minister, sooner or later, is blessed with converts, who will be his joy and crown of rejoicing another day: see Joh 4:35 1Th 2:19.
r “tractionem seminis”, Montanus, Piscator, Gejerus.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(6) The original is very expressive, by the idiom of infinitive combined with finite verb.
He shall walk, and walk and weep,
Bearing the handful of seed:
He shall come, and come with singing,
Bearing his sheaves,
where we must certainly see an extension and not a mere repetition of the former figure, for the very form of the expression suggests the long patient labour of the sower, and the reward which patience and perseverance always bringa harvest in proportion to the toil and trouble of seed-time. The words of the prophet Haggai (Hag. 1:10-11; Hag. 2:19), contemporary with the Return, should be compared. The word rendered precious in the Authorised Version may be correctly represented by handful. Its meaning is drawing; and from Amo. 9:13 (see margin) we see that the sower was called the drawer of seed, no doubt from the hand being repeatedly drawn out for the cast from the bag or basket containing the seed. Others render seed-basket here. The contrast so beautifully painted in this verse was certainly realised when the priests and Levites, and the rest of the children of the captivity, kept the dedication of the house of God with joy (Ezr. 6:16; comp. Ezr. 6:22; Neh. 12:42).
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
REFLECTIONS
READER! in the perusal of this Psalm, I would beg of you, as I desire to examine myself, to look and see whether we really bear a part in the triumphs here recorded. The effects of this deliverance are very strikingly defined; the joy of the soul was such, that from its greatness it seemed but as a dream. Such is the real joy when Christ converts, and brings the sinner from the captivity of sin and Satan. Convinced of sin, and converted by the Holy Ghost to the belief of salvation by Jesus; no sooner is the soul made sensible of the mighty redemption, but light, and life, and joy, and peace, appear in the heart through the power of the Holy Ghost. Reader! what saith your experience to these grand concerns? Are you still in bondage and prison-frames to the thousand evils of a fallen Babylonish state; to sin, to divers lusts, and pleasures; to the alarms of conscience, the fear of death, and judgment to come? Or hath one like the Son of man made you free, and brought you out? Oh! to grace, what mercies do the redeemed owe! And what will they eternally owe when grace is consummated in glory! Though now, if needs be, they sow in tears, and are in heaviness through manifold temptations, yet are they looking forward to the certainty of reaping in joy. These light afflictions, which are but of a moment, are working out for them a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Psa 126:6 He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves [with him].
Ver. 6. He that goeth forth and weepeth ] Heb. he that going goeth, &c., which Luther interprets of temptations continued, and mutually succeeding one another; taking their turns upon a poor soul.
And weepeth
Bearing precious seed
Shall doubtless come again with rejoicing
Bringing his sheaves with him
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Sowing in Tears, Reaping in Joy
Though he goeth on his way weeping, bearing forth the seed;
He shall come again with joy, bringing his sheaves with him.Psa 126:6
This is a song of grateful remembrance celebrating the return of the Jews from exile. But though it begins, as so many of the psalms do, with a local reference, it ends with a general application to universal human life. The end of the Captivity came unexpectedly; the singer declares that it was like a dream to them; they could hardly believe at first that it was true. But when they were sure that they were awake, and that the long exile was really over, that they were going home again to rebuild the Temple, and the city of their pride and love, their mouths were filled with laughter and their voices burst forth into singing. Gratitude towards God swelled their hearts; they gave God all the glory; they bore testimony before the heathen that it was God who had done these great things for them. Studying this signal illustration of the sweetness of victory after defeat, of the blessedness of home after exile, of the glory of the harvest after the long seedtime and waiting, the singer bursts forth into inspired poetry, drawing from this illustration a beautiful truth applicable to human life in general, and of special spiritual significance to those who seek to bless and uplift human hearts. They that sow in tears, he sings with confidence, shall reap in joy. Though he goeth on his way weeping, bearing forth the seed; he shall come again with joy, bringing his sheaves with him.
Some one has said that the finest example of the use in English literature of a quotation from the Bible is the reference to this text in Thackerays Esmond. Entering Winchester Cathedral on his return from the wars, Harry Esmond sees again the widowed Lady Castlewood, who in his youth had been to him more than sister and mother, and whom he now loves as a woman. The period of their separation is ended. I knew, she says to him at the close of the service, that you would come back. And to-day, Henry, in the anthem, when they sang it, When the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion, we were like them that dream, I thought, yes, like them that dreamthem that dream. And then it went, They that sow in tears shall reap in joy; and he that goeth forth and weepeth, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bring his sheaves with him; I looked up from the book, and saw you. I was not surprised when I saw you. I knew you would come, my dear, and saw the gold sunshine round your head. But nownow you are come again, bringing your sheaves with you, my dear. She burst into a wild flood of weeping as she spoke; she laughed and sobbed on the young mans heart, crying out wildly, Bringing your sheaves with youyour sheaves with you!1 [Note: W. M. Thackeray, The History of Henry Esmond, Bk. ii. chap. vi.]
I
Sowing in Tears
1. The sower is represented as weeping. The language here is very strong. One commentator puts it in this form may indeed weep every step that he goes. It has also been rendered, takes no step of his way without weeping. Dr. Thomson, the author of The Land and the Book, in giving an interpretation of the Psalmists words, says: I never saw people sowing in tears exactly, but have often known them to do it in fear and distress sufficient to draw them from any eye. In seasons of great scarcity, the poor peasants part in sorrow with every measure of precious seed cast into the ground. It is like taking bread out of the mouths of their children; and in such times many bitter tears are actually shed over it. The distress is actually so great that; government is obliged to furnish seed, or none would be sown. Ibrahim Pasha did this more than once within my remembrance.
In all of this there is much to make sowing sad work. Again, the extreme danger to which the sower was exposed made his labour one of sadness. Dr. Thomson tells us that the sower was often obliged to drop the plough and seize the sword. His fields were far from his home, and so near the lawless desert. As in Jobs day, when the oxen were ploughing and the asses feeding beside them, the Sabeans came and took them all away, so often since fierce hordes from the deserts have swept down upon the peaceful husbandman, and robbed him of seed and implements, sparing only his life. In all of this there was much to make the work of sowing also a work of weeping. Again, the frequent fruitlessness of the labour made it sad toil. The land had gone to weeds. The ground was fallow. It was no easy task to break up this stubborn soil. Their once fruitful land was barren, and its cultivation was a work of the utmost toil. Their implements were poor and inefficient, their oxen were small and weak, and their own skill was very unlike that of the farmer of modern days. For these and similar reasons the sowing of the seed might literally be called a work of weeping.
2. It is a law of the spiritual life that through tribulation we enter into the joy of the Kingdom. God means us to reap in joy, but first we must sow in tears. See, for example, how this law meets us at the very threshold of the Christian life. Great though the blessedness to which Christ invites us is, the beginnings of His life in the soul come to us amid tears. Then for the first time we see the mystery of the cross; and what strikes us, in what we see, is the spectacle of a Saviour there for us. We see the wounds in His body, but, behind these, wounds in ourselves, for the healing of which He died. No one ever truly opens his eyes on these facts who does not weep. Sharp and into the very heart goes the pangs; It is I who have crucified the Lord!
Contemplation of Christs sufferings, combined with prayer, will do more than any other exercise to cause genuine sorrow for having offended the love of God. In following the scenes of the Passion, contemplate our Lord as the sin-bearer, and think of each insult, or indignity suffered by Him as representing to us the penalties due to our own offences. Thus we come to feel the stirrings of real sorrow for having rejected Gods love. Moved by that sorrow, we take our place beside Him in His Passion, enduring; our small sufferings cheerfully, uniting our half-hearted penitence with His Divine, all-comprehensive sorrow, whereby it can be deepened, and strengthened, and purified.1 [Note: Bishop Chandler, Ara Coeli.]
3. Then the thought of the shortcomings of our service is enough to moisten the driest eye. That in a sin-stricken world so much needs to be done is bad enough, but that we should so often leave undone the very little we can do, that we should let the ground around us lie fallow or run to weed, that we should permit the forces of sin to do their worst while we are content to do nothing at all, is infinitely worse. We must be stony-hearted indeed if such thoughts as these never cause a pang at our breast or a tear in our eye.
There is nothing more grateful in the service of Christ than spontaneitynothing more welcome to Himself, nothing more welcome to His servants. To have some services offered, to know of some kind deed done, quite apart from any pressure or appeal or even suggestionthat is so like Jesus that it is a joy to think of it. We are so ready to wait till someone moves, instead of following unbidden the first impulse of our hearts; we are so inclined to act only under the spur or the whip; we are so ready to criticize instead of helping, that willingness is a cardinal virtue indeed.1 [Note: R. W. Barbour, Thoughts, 86.]
4. Lastly, there is the sorrow of disappointment. All earnest labourers are liable to fits of despondency, Christian labourers certainly not less than others. Overwork, perhaps, is followed by reaction, or the too eager hope is disappointed because we do not see any results for all our doing. We think that our fellow-labourers are not as earnest as we, that we alone are bearing the burden and heat of the day. Then there comes up the question, What is the use of all our toil? the murmur, Verily I have laboured in vain, I have spent my strength for nought, and in vain. The whole world seems weary; all effort appears but restlessness; there is no profit to all the labour that is done under the sun. One generation passeth away and another cometh; life is too short for hope, too short for any effective effort. The sun also ariseth, and the sun goeth down; all the rivers run into the sea, yet the sea is not full; all things are full of labour; man cannot utter it; the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing. The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.
We pass; the path that each man trod
Is dim, or will be dim, with weeds:
What fame is left for human deeds
In endless age?
Therefore we hate life; because the work that is wrought under the sun is grievous unto us; for all is vanity and vexation of spirit. Yet for all our despondency, the call to labour ceases not. If we would not be faithless to all we have known of duty and of God; if we would not be false to all we have learnt of life, and to every principle by which our souls are moulded, we must do the work that lies ready to our hands. We have taken up the basket, and the furrows are still yawning to receive the seed: we must sow, though we sow in despondency and in tears. Gods great call to us is to labour, and His call to labour continues though there is no joy to us in working. But it is still Gods call, and not our gladness, that is to give character to our lives; the claim of duty ceases not with our impulses of joyful work.
Lessons of persevering toil, of contented doing of preparatory work, of confidence that no such labour can fail to be profitable to the doer and to the world, have been drawn for centuries from the sweet words of this psalm. Who can tell how many hearts they have braced, how much patient toil they have inspired? The Psalmist was sowing seed the fruit of which he little dreamed of when he wrote them, and his sheaves will be an exceeding weight indeed. The text gives assurance fitted to animate to toil in the face of dangers without, and in spite of a heavy heartnamely, that no seed sown and watered with tears is lost; and further, that, though it often seems to be the law for earth that one soweth and another reapeth, in deepest truth every man shall receive his own reward, according to his own labour, inasmuch as, hereafter, if not now, whatsoever of faith and toil and holy endeavour a man soweth, trusting to God to bless the springing thereof, that shall he also reap. In the highest sense and in the last result the prophets great words are ever true: They shall not plant, and another eat for my chosen shall long enjoy the work of their hands.1 [Note: A. Maclaren, The Book of Psalms, 321.]
I saw in seedtime a husbandman at plough in a very raining day; asking him the reason why he would not rather leave off than labour in such foul weather, his answer was returned to me in their country rhyme:
Sow beans in the mud,
And theyll come up like a wood.
This could not but mind me of Davids expression, They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him. These last five years have been a wet and woful seedtime to me, and many of my afflicted brethren. Little hope have we, as yet, to come again to our own homes, and, in a literal sense, now to bring our sheaves, which we see others daily carry away on their shoulders. But if we shall not share in the former or latter harvest here on earth, the third and last in heaven we hope undoubtedly to receive.1 [Note: Thomas Fuller, Good Thoughts in Worse Times.]
Sow;while the seeds are lying
In the warm earths bosom deep,
And your warm tears fall upon it
They will stir in their quiet sleep;
And the green blades rise the quicker,
Perchance, for the tears you weep.
Then sow;for the hours are fleeting,
And the seed must fall to-day;
And care not what hands shall reap it,
Or if you shall have passed away
Before the waving corn-fields
Shall gladden the sunny day.
Sow; and look onward, upward,
Where the starry light appears
Where in spite of the cowards doubting,
Or your own hearts trembling fears,
You shall reap in joy the harvest
You have sown to-day in tears.2 [Note: A. A. Procter, Legends and Lyrics, i. 134.]
II
Reaping in Joy
Now comes the promiseHe shall come again with joy, bringing his sheaves with him. We have here in the Hebrew a striking form of expression. It is the combination of the finite tense with the infinitive; it is difficult in our idiom to bring out the exact thought. In some versions it is rendered, Coming, he shall come. This, however, conveys neither the peculiar form nor the precise sense of the Hebrew phrase. Luthers repetition of the finite tense, most scholars are agreed, gives us the best approximation to the force of the original, He shall come, he shall come. The certainty of His coming again is the thought; this is what our common version, with its shall doubtless come again, clearly teaches.
1. The sower shall shout in the joy of his harvest. He goes forth in the dull winter when leaden clouds hang overhead, and the wild winds moan dismally, and the rain-showers sweep suddenly upon him, and the dead leaves are swept by every gust, and the trees stretch up their bare black arms to heaven. But though it begins thus, it has another ending. There comes the happy time when the row of reapers bend over the falling corn; when they that bind the sheaves are busy, and others pile the shocks; when the laden waggons go homewards with the precious burden, and about the farmsteads are they who build the stacks. Then shall the sower come again. He who went out with handfuls shall come back with armfuls. He who scattered seed shall gather sheaves. He who went out with a basket shall come with a waggon-load.
At Clanwilliam he heard some wonderful and well-authenticated instances of the marvellous fertility of the soil near the Oliphants River, where in good seasons the land yields even two-hundredfold. Mr. Fryer, one of the churchwardens, had himself seen a stool of wheat which, after successive cuttings, had thrown out 320 stalks; and knew of a particular crop which was even more wonderful: A farmer sowed 1/4 of a muid, or sack, of corn; the river overflowed and he reaped 57 sacks! He found rather a difficulty in disposing of it all, and next year he did not sow. But grain shed by the harvest of the previous year, and escaping the appetites of the birds, actually produced, after another overflow of the river, a self-sown harvest of 72 sacks; i.e. the farmer, with one sowing and one ploughing, reaped in two years, from 1/4 sack of seed 129 sacks of corn! 516 fold! This is vouched for by several persons.1 [Note: A Father in God: W. W. Jones, Archbishop of Capetown, 93.]
2. The spiritual harvest is assured to us on the same authority as assures the earthly harvest. He who has never broken His first promise, seedtime and harvest shall not cease, will never break His second, they that sow in tears shall reap in joy. There is no joy like that which comes from successful work for Christ. All the joys of earth are nothing when compared with this. This endures; this allies us to angels and God. This awakens the purest and noblest instincts of the soul. In this joy we feel the throb of Christs heart. The promise to Him is that he shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied. This joy is mingled even with the gloom of Gethsemane and Calvary. It was for the joy set before Him that He endured the cross and despised the shame.
Most of the thoughts that cluster round the season of autumn are worn and common enough. No new ones can be spoken; we can only vary the key of the old. So when we think of harvest time, and of lifes harvest being similar to it, we think a well-worn thought; but its very worn condition makes it dear, for it has been the constant thought of all our brother men. It is bound up with a thousand lovely poems in which the thoughts of solitary men took form, with a thousand lovely landscapes in which, by vintage and by cornland, human energy and human joy, the long days labour and the moonlight dance were wrought together into happiness. Few sights are fairer than that seen autumn after autumn round many an English homestead, when, as evening falls, the wains stand laden among the golden stubble, and the gleaners are scattered over the misty field; when men and women cluster round the gathered sheaves and rejoice in the loving-kindness of the earth; when in the dewy air the shouts of happy people ring, and all over the broad moon shines down to bless with its yellow light the same old recurring scene it has looked on and loved for so many thousand years.1 [Note: Stopford A. Brooke.]
3. They that sow shall reap. The seed is Gods, and Gods too is the increase; only let us cast Gods seed into Gods soil, it matters not though we sow in tears, He will bless us with the harvest. God has His purpose in every call of duty; His purpose is to give us the blessedness of what we do. Were the work ours alone, were we left to do it by ourselves, were success dependent on our efforts or skill, then as we think how imperfect we are, and as we contemplate the powerful influences at work to hinder and mar the cause which we have at heart, we might well despair. But the word of the Lord standeth sure; Gods promise cannot fail of fulfilment. The shall come again of the Omnipotent absolutely ensures success. Only sow faithfully, and you shall reap abundantlyhere, if God sees it wise and well, hereafter, beyond all question. Yes, the harvest will come, must come. There may be cloudy skies, and dark days, and cold winds firstmuch that makes the sower anxious, and even causes weeping and painful fear; but still, the harvest will come.
Every promise of God hath this tacitly annexed to itIs anything too hard for the Lord?1 [Note: John Owen.]
The Methodist Chapel at Shotley Bridge, of which Mr. MCullagh became minister in 1849, was the only place of worship in this small village. One very interesting member of the congregation, a most godly woman, was the sister of that brilliant man of letters, De Quincey, the English opium-eater. A local preacher of much originality was also a prominent figure in the congregation. Mr. MCullagh in after years wrote of him: Hendersons prayers were sometimes remarkable. Once I heard him quote the passage, The promise is unto you and to your children, thus, The promise is unto Henderson and his children. Some years afterwards I met one of his children in the ranks of the ministry, and I thought of the good mans faith in wedging his own name and his childrens into the promise. Once when I was preaching on the text, Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises, as I quoted one promise after another, Henderson half-audibly said, That is mine! and that is mine! and that is mine! And when I uttered the words, Having nothing, and yet possessing all things, he said with added emphasis, and that is mine. 2 [Note: Thomas MCullagh, by his Eldest Son, 62.]
Literature
Banks (L. A.), David and His Friends, 224.
Davies (T.), Sermons and Homiletical Expositions, ii. 455.
Devenish (E. I.), Like Apples of Gold, 47.
Hare (J. C.), Parish Sermons, i. 347.
Henderson (A.), Sermons, 190.
MacArthur (R. S.), The Calvary Pulpit, 103.
Mackennal (A.), Christs Healing Touch, 30.
Macleod (A.), A Mans Gift, 117.
Milne (W.), The Precious Things of God, 45.
Skrine (J. H.), The Mountain Mother, 126.
Sowter (G. A.), Sowing and Reaping, 1.
Spurgeon (C. H.), Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, xv. (1869), No. 867.
Taylor (W. M.), The Boy Jesus, 277.
Thomas (J.), Sermons (Myrtle Street Pulpit), ii. 263.
Voysey (C.), Sermons, xxxii. (1909), No. 37.
Christian Treasury, xxx. (1874) 601 (P. Fairbairn).
Christian World Pulpit, vi. 206 (A. C. Price); xix. 186 (A. Scott); lx. 241 (J. Watson).
Sunday Magazine, 1888, pp. 613, 696 (M. G. Pearse).
Fuente: The Great Texts of the Bible
that goeth: Psa 30:5, Job 11:13-17, Isa 61:3, Jer 50:4, Jer 50:5, Gal 6:7, Gal 6:8
precious seed: or, seed basket
shall doubtless: Isa 9:2, Isa 9:3, Luk 15:18-24, Act 16:29-34, Rev 7:15-17
Reciprocal: Lev 23:32 – afflict Num 29:7 – afflict 2Sa 15:30 – weeping Ezr 3:12 – wept Job 8:21 – he fill Psa 51:8 – Make Psa 56:8 – put Psa 90:15 – Make Psa 97:11 – sown Psa 129:7 – he that bindeth Pro 11:18 – but Ecc 3:4 – time to weep Ecc 7:3 – is better Ecc 7:8 – Better Ecc 11:1 – for Jer 31:9 – come Hos 10:12 – Sow Mat 5:4 – General Luk 6:21 – ye that weep Luk 7:38 – weeping Luk 22:62 – and wept Joh 16:20 – your 1Co 7:30 – that weep 2Co 7:7 – mourning Phi 3:8 – doubtless Heb 6:7 – receiveth Jam 4:9 – afflicted
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
126:6 He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing {e} precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves [with him].
(e) That is, seed which was scarce and dear: meaning, that they who trusted in God’s promise to return had their desire.