Lent
March 30, 2022
Scripture Reading: Psalm 126
When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion,
we were like those who dream.
Then our mouth was filled with laughter,
and our tongue with shouts of joy;
then it was said among the nations,
‘The Lord has done great things for them.’
The Lord has done great things for us,
and we rejoiced.
Restore our fortunes, O Lord,
like the watercourses in the Negeb.
May those who sow in tears
reap with shouts of joy.
Those who go out weeping,
bearing the seed for sowing,
shall come home with shouts of joy,
carrying their sheaves.
One of the gifts of Bible study is learning what one assumes but does not know. In my understanding, the word fortune implies a lot of money. Not even close to being the whole truth, I discovered. The first definition of fortune in the Merriam-Webster dictionary is a hypothetical force or power that unpredictably or capriciously determines events and issues favorably or unfavorably for persons or causes*. I had to read down to the fifth definition to find this, condition in life as determined by material possessions. Furthermore, when I checked Strong’s Concordance for the meaning of the Hebrew word translated as fortune in the scripture above, I discovered there was no word for what appears as fortunes above only an untranslatable mark of the accusative case**. I do recall understanding that there is both good fortune and bad fortune.
What I can glean from this scripture is that the people were wanting to return to what they considered to be a better state of being probably in a time of peace and prosperity. We can never turn back the clock to a better time. Even if we could return to the good old days, we would realize that we had moved on from them. What did we do before cell phones?
What the author of the above Psalm tells us is that when the bad fortunes that have set us back are conquered we are freed to plant new seeds, produce a new harvest and find new sources of peace and a new definition of prosperity from our times of bad fortunes. I see that forward-looking desire in the eyes of the Ukrainians longing for peace, I see it in the actions of people whose homes have been destroyed by the weather and understand that God is always with us in the good times and the bad comforting us and encouraging us to step out in faith to plant new seeds and grow a better world.
Prayer: Lord, we pray for all those whose lives are upside-down from all kinds of calamity. Show us how to love them as they struggle to survive. Amen.
*https://unabridged.merriam-webster.com/unabridged/fortune
**https://biblehub.com/hebrew/853.htm
All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.