How Joy Follows Sorrow with the Hope of Restoration
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The Hope of Restoration
We need hope when we are in a difficult or dark period of life. A hope beyond whatever suffering or turmoil we are in. After a crisis, we are still in a place where hope is essential. We need restoration.
Restoration brings us beyond hard, dark times. We need to move beyond a neutral state to a better one. Many words are connected to the idea of restoration, but joy is what stands out to me. It isn't an emotion, but a state of being.
Joy is far more than happiness. It's deeper than any pleasant emotion. It fills the mind and heart of a person who may even sense it physically. The joy of restoration is almost indescribable except through a song.
My wife is not a talker nor overtly expressive, but she's a person of joy. I often hear her humming a praise song and singing along with a tune on the radio. Joy flows out of her when she hums or sings a song of praise and worship.
We’ve endured plenty of difficulty in our fifty-plus years of life and ministry together. After a crisis of trying time, she often reminds me to have hope and joy and to expect the blessings that come with restoration.
The hope of restoration brings joy, and joy is also the overflow of restoration in our lives.
Scripture
A song for going up to worship.
When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion, it was as if we were dreaming.
Then our mouths were filled with laughter and our tongues with joyful songs. Then the nations said, “The Lord has done spectacular things for them.”
The Lord has done spectacular things for us. We are overjoyed. [vss 1-3]
Restore our fortunes, O Lord, as you restore streams to dry riverbeds in the Negev.
Those who cry while they plant will joyfully sing while they harvest.
The person who goes out weeping, carrying his bag of seed, will come home singing, carrying his bundles of grain. [vss 4-6]
(Psalm 126:1-6 GW) [Context– Psalm 126]
Reflections and Insights
Psalm 126 is the seventh of a group of psalms sung during annual pilgrimages to Jerusalem (the Song of Ascents—Psalms 120-134). It was written after the seventy-year exile and restoration of Israel to their homeland.
Here is how the psalmist describes their joy of restoration — It was as if we were dreaming. Then our mouths were filled with laughter and our tongues with joyful songs. (Psa 126:1-2 GW)
Notice the pathway to this restoration expressed at the end of this psalm—
Those who cry while they plant will joyfully sing while they harvest. The person who goes out weeping, carrying his bag of seed, will come home singing, carrying his bundles of grain. (vss 5-6)
Brokenness and grief aren’t pathways we would choose on our own, but are often what precede restoration. Just as darkness heightens the brilliance of a sunrise, so also sorrow makes joy all the sweeter.
The people of Israel needed to grieve over their sin of rebellion that brought their 70-year exile from their land. They needed to turn to the Lord in prayer and repentance. God promised restoration to Israel when they turned to Him in repentance.
This is true for us as individual believers. We need to come to a place of brokenness because of our need for restoration before restoration takes place.
God often allows and uses times of trial, grief, or hardship to gain our attention. He wants us to turn to Him, to trust in Him rather than ourselves or anything else.
When you find yourself in a place of grief, brokenness, or enduring a time of testing, the Lord wants you to look to Him. God is our true source of hope and joy. He is the One whom you can trust for restoration.
Reflection—
When you go through a time of brokenness or grief, turn your heart fully to the Lord. You will experience the fullness of God's joy when you turn to Him in true repentance with an expectation of restoration.
Prayer Focus—
Are you going through a time of brokenness or grief? Have you turned your heart fully to the Lord? Seek the Lord in prayer! If you need to repent, then confess that to the Lord. Seek Him for genuine hope, for He alone is your faithful source of hope, joy, and restoration.
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