1Quando o Senhor trouxe do captiveiro os que voltaram a Sião estavamos com os que sonham.
2Então a nossa bocca se encheu do riso e a nossa lingua de cantico: então se dizia entre as nações: Grandes coisas fez o Senhor a estes.
3Grandes coisas fez o Senhor por nós, pelas quaes estamos alegres.
4Traze-nos outra vez, ó Senhor, do captiveiro, como as correntes das aguas no sul.
5Os que semeiam em lagrimas segarão com alegria.
6Aquelle que leva a preciosa semente, andando e chorando, voltará sem duvida com alegria, trazendo comsigo os seus molhos.
📖 Chapter study
Summary
A song of joy and hope about the return from captivity, comparing the experience to a dream, and declaring that 'they that sow in tears shall reap in joy.'
Explanation
This seventh 'Song of Degrees' likely celebrates the return of the exiles from Babylon to Jerusalem (539 BC onward), an experience so unexpected and joyful that it is described as a dream ('we were like them that dream'). The second part of the psalm (v.4-6) shifts tone to a request for this restoration to continue, using the agricultural image of sowing amid hardship (represented by tears) and reaping with joy at the right time. The application for today is that investing effort and faith into something difficult now — even through tears — can yield a harvest of joy in the future, even when the waiting is uncertain.
Fun facts
- The image of 'sowing in tears' and 'reaping in joy' (v.5-6) reflects a real agricultural practice of the time, in which the sower would literally weep from hunger and scarcity while using his last seeds, trusting in a future harvest.
- This psalm is traditionally sung at Jewish celebrations related to restoration and hope, including at wedding ceremonies.