When the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion.
A political fact that is emblematic, and a human experience that is common
I. A political fact, emblematic of moral restoration. The political fact here celebrated is the return of the Jews from Babylonian thraldom, through the interposition of Cyrus.
1. The political restoration was great. It was a restoration from exile, bondage, and destitution of religious privileges. And are not souls in their unregenerate state exiles alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, slaves “carnally sold under sin,” destitute of true religion, without God and without hope in the world?
2. It was Divine. Who else can effect the salvation of the soul?
II. A human experience common to most men.
1. A great difficulty to realize at once a great and unexpected event (verse 1). There is mercy in this. Could we fully realize such events as they occur, our nervous systems would be shattered, our mental powers would be paralyzed. Thank God for this dreaming faculty, a faculty which weakens the force of terrible events.
2. The irrepressibility of strong emotions (verse 2). There are emotions to which souls are susceptible that cannot always be suppressed; they are electric, and must break in thunder and flash in lightning. These emotions are useful, they clarify the atmosphere and bring in the sunny and serene.
3. The inspiring force of success (verse 2).
4. Love for others increasing with increased blessings (verse 4). He who practically appreciates the blessings he receives from Heaven will desire that others may participate in the same. He who is good will do good, he who is truly pious will be philanthropic.
5. True happiness comes out of suffering (verse 5).
(1) It comes out of the sufferings of others. How much of the enjoyments of the men of this age have come out of the sorrows and tears of the men of past generations!
(2) It comes out of the sufferings of ourselves. Godly repentance is the essential condition of spiritual enjoyment. “Through much tribulation,” etc.
6. Genuine work for others, however painful, will be prosperous (verse 6).
(1) Philanthropic acts are seeds. There is a germinic life in every noble act, a life capable of indefinite multiplication.
(2) The sowing of these seeds is often very painful. “Sow in tears.” Parents, ministers, missionaries, all will attest this.
(3) However painful, their harvest will reward the sower amply. They will yield “sheaves.” They fall into the soil of human souls, and this soil is fecundant and imperishable. (Homilist.)
Captivity and deliverance: -
I. Our state by nature.
1. Captivity to sin.
2. Captivity to the law.
II. Our deliverance. The regenerating Spirit does not create in us new faculties. He rather purifies the old. He gives a right tendency and direction to those which already exist, and causing the wandering affections to flow in their proper channel. One immediate result of this Divine work is that of our being “turned again” unto God.
III. The emotions by which this deliverance is accompanied.
1. The emotions which are produced in the bosom of those whose “captivity is turned again.”
(1) Surprise. To feel that sin which had hitherto exercised so powerful a sway over our hearts, and found us at all times so easy a prey, has now “no more dominion over us”; is not this matter of surprise? To find that Satan, that cruel taskmaster, who had so long led us captive at will, has lost his tyrant-power, and is now beaten down beneath our feet; is not this matter of surprise?
(2) Joy. Because Satan is foiled. Because the soul is saved. Because the glory of God is secured.
(3) Praise.
2. The emotion which is produced in the mind of those who merely observe this deliverance. (John Gaskin, M. A.)
Captivity turned
I. The captivity of Zion.
1. A degraded state.
2. A wretched state.
3. A guilty state.
4. A helpless state.
II. Deliverance from captivity.
1. Cyrus was a type of Christ, the great spiritual Deliverer; and if we are ever brought out of our spiritual bondage we must be content to owe our liberty to Him alone.
2. This deliverance is openly proclaimed and freely offered.
3. None are excluded.
III. the feelings with which they received the tidings of this deliverance.
1. Joy.
2. Manifested in praise.
3. Prayer. (R. Davies, M. A.)
A psalm of deliverance
Luther refers to the great and universal captivity of men under hell and the devil, and says it was a small matter for the Jews to be delivered from their bondage compared to our deliverance from these enemies. Sure I am that when the Lord so suddenly and wonderfully, and beyond their expectation, turned their captivity and took them home, our friends were, on that morning,. “like men that dreamed,” even those who had good understanding of the promises. To be delivered in the awful moment of death from sin, and sorrow, and pain, to enter in at the gates of the city with the sound of trumpets in their ears, must have seemed to them a too blessed dream. We know the men and women of whom we speak, and we know something of how happy they must be now. Loyal as they were to us and home, we know their roots were struck deep in another homo than ours. While they sat with silent harps by the rivers of Babylon, they thought of the sweetness, the beauty and blessedness of that far-off city. We saw them as if they were in a dream, and we could not hide from ourselves how ripe they were to have their captivity turned. Neither can all the sorceries and incantations of the great Babylon so intoxicate and seduce us, but that we shall take our places with them. Can it be that they have forgotten us? Are they so full of joy and so happy that this world and those they loved before never come into their minds? No, we cannot believe it. They have not forgotten us. They are now priests to God, and sometimes we can almost read our own names on their breastplates. As often as the High Priest says, “Father, I wish that they may be with Me where I am,” we may hear them cry, Amen. While they were yet on this earth, when they saw a new sight, or read a new book, or heard a good sermon, have we not their letters at home where they write, “I thought all the time of you. I did not half enjoy them because you were not there. I must stand on that hill-top, see that gallery, read that new book again with you”? And as they walk the streets of the New Jerusalem this night thinking of us, they ask, How long shall it be? When shall it be? They think how our hearts will swell at the sound of the trumpets; and as they walk by the living waters, they cry, O that they were hero to share my cup! Too literal critics find an enigmatical contradiction between the beginning and, the end of this psalm; but there is no enigma here. The hands of the redeemed trembled on the harp-strings when they thought of those they had left behind. It was not for those who pined in their captivity for whom they feared, but for those who prospered. John Calvin says that Daniel raised his banner in Babylon that believers might hold themselves in readiness to return. Paul has given us a banner with words inscribed in blood and gold, “for our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory,” and as it waves in the wind, we see on the reverse scroll (2 Corinthians 5:1). (A. Whyfe, D. D.)