1Cântico dos degraus: Quando o SENHOR restaurou Sião de seu infortúnio, estivemos como os que sonham.
2Então nossa boca se encheu de riso, e nossa língua de alegria; então diziam entre as nações: O SENHOR fez grandes coisas para estes.
3Grandes coisas o SENHOR fez para nós; [por isso] estamos alegres.
4Restaura-nos, ó SENHOR, como as correntes de águas no sul.
5Os que semeiam em lágrimas colherão com alegria.
6Aquele que sai chorando com semente para semear voltará com alegria, trazendo sua colheita.
📖 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.