Psalms 126: The laughter remembers, and the tears are still sowing

Psalm 126 remembers a restoration so astonishing that the people felt like dreamers, then turns around and asks the LORD to restore them again. The Book of Psalms lets laughter and unfinished need remain in the same chapter. Mouths once filled with laughter and tongues with singing became public evidence of a great divine act, even to the nations. Yet the community still needs another turning. Two images explain how renewal can come. Streams in the dry south suggest a sudden filling of channels that seemed empty, while sowing and reaping suggest a slower process in which tears accompany the labor until joy arrives with the harvest. The final return with sheaves echoes the opening return of Zion. Remembered joy does not deny present tears, and present tears do not erase the reality of what has already been done.