Psalms 126:2

Then was our mouth filled with laughter.

The rapture of deliverance

I. The joy of the returning Jew.

1. Bewildering.

(1) The suddenness of it.

(2) The instrument of it. Cyrus--a heathen.

2. Rapturous.

(1) Babylon left behind.

(2) The exiles nearing home.

3. Reasonable.

II. The joy of a returning sinner.

1. Look at him before return.

(1) A wanderer from his home.

(2) In bondage.

2. Look at his Deliverer.

3. Look at the deliverance.

III. To the experienced Christian.

1. Is your piety joyful?

2. Ought it not to be so? (F. Tucker, B. A.)

The laughter of the ransomed

God’s glorious deliverance always seems too wonderful to be real. Even the apostle who finds his fetters dropped off and his dungeon door swung open, is like unto them that dream: “he wist not that it was true, but thought he saw a vision.” So in modern times, when Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton, the abolitionist, heard that the long fight was at last finished and every slave on British soil was a free man, he broke out instinctively into the joyful verse: “Then was our mouth filled with laughter and our tongue with singing.” (T. H. Darlow.)

Then said they among the heathen, The Lord hath done great things for them.--

Heathen and Christian witnesses for God

I. God had done many things for His ancient people. Their exile was a punishment for their great national sin, and their return meant a revocation of that punishment. But greater blessings are possessed by God’s Church in these days. In place of mere ceremonialism we have truth itself--naked, transparent truth. Nor should we lose sight of our individuality. The Church is a congregation of individuals, and it may be said of these not only in their corporate condition as a Church, but separately and individually, “The Lord hath done great things for us.”

II. These great things are observed and acknowledged by others. The heathen recognized the blessings bestowed on the chosen people, while to the released captives their return to their old and beloved city seemed too good to be true. Our spiritual blessings are not so easily recognized by others as the return of God’s people was by the heathen. But in looking at Christian countries the heathen could not but be struck with the benefits that civilization, liberty and Christianity afforded. It ought also to appear to the ungodly neighbours of Church members, that even in a temporal sense God had done great things for His Church, and that conversion had been followed with blessed consequences of a temporal kind, though they could not see the gift bestowed upon the inner life. But whether outsiders recognized these facts or not, it is your duty to be God’s witnesses, and to tell relatives and friends and fellow-townsmen what great things God had done for us.

III. These great things demanded a special recognition, both from observers and recipients of blessings. There was danger lest the blessings were recognized and the Giver forgotten. Perhaps one of the tendencies of modern times is the exclusion of God from almost everything outside the Church--from education, from legislation, from civil and political and national affairs, from commerce, and from many other things besides. There ought to be a recognition of God not only within, but outside the Church. I am thankful that there is a recognition of God in this country. The motto on the Royal arms--“Dieu et mon droit”--shows a recognition of God in the highest place in the State. I am thankful that the Imperial Parliament does not sit on Sundays. What is that but a recognition of the Divine law and of Him who said, “Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy.” Every time I pass the Royal Exchange in London I cannot help noticing the inscription, “The earth is the Lord’s and the fulness thereof.” What a reminder is that place to the merchants, to the Bank of England, and to the Mansion House, the seat of the greatest of municipalities just opposite, that there is a Diviner God than Mammon. One of the most startling statements I ever heard of was that made by a learned scientist, that an examination of nature did not lead him up to God. Just think of some one shying that St. Paul’s Cathedral, with its architecture and traditions, did not lead to a recognition of the great architect, Sir Christopher Wren. What are your acknowledgments to God? (T. McCullagh.)