JOYFUL RECOLLECTION - This pilgrimage song is an ode to God’s restoration of Israel to Jerusalem after years of displacement in an alien land. The song is sprightly and almost dancing in its description of going home after the exile. The experience of abandonment and now restoration inspires the psalmist to a renewed trust in God’s faithfulness and concludes with a petition and a blessing. Recalls for me the prayer Paul offers in Philippians 1:6: " . . . God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on that day when Christ Jesus comes back again." Restoration is part of the good work that God initiates and completes in our lives.

CONVERSATIONS ALONG THE WAY - What do you talk about on your way to worship? On your spiritual journey? Geoffrey Chaucer writes of a pilgrimage from London to Canterbury and fills the interim with stories that reflected the character of those who told them. In Dante’s imaginary trip through hell and heaven, he beholds people who are condemned or rewarded by the specific tier to which they are consigned, and he wonders and ponders their end. John Bunyon views the Christian journey as a sort of pilgrimage-though a solitary one-from the City of Destruction to the Celestial City. This psalm opens up a pilgrimage from the various villages throughout Palestine to Jerusalem; the journey opens up songs of another pilgrimage-the earlier one from exile to freedom. What do you talk about on your way to worship?

 

Describe a scene of restoration after a long hiatus caused by suspicions, unforgiveness, or general ill-will. Think about restorations that occur between business associates, between adult children, between husbands and wives, between warring church members. What strategies brought restoration to the various scenarios that you’ve named?

What about your personal renewal? What place do you need to be in order for God to restore you-whether a physical, mental, emotional, restoration? What first steps will begin that journey now?

 

Recall briefly the checkered history between Israel and God that ultimately ends in the sacking of Jerusalem and the deportation of its people to the area between the Tigris and Euphrates.

Recall something from your journey that reflects a rough parallel of that pattern-checkered history, sense of abandonment, yet hope while in a strange place.

Move back to the text and speak to God’s saving help in moving through Cyrus and allowing them to return home. God uses leaders, time, politics, and conquerors to achieve God’s larger purpose of restoration.

Shift to your / or another’s journey of restoration-the joy, the sheer anticipation of returning home to a familiar place in your journey; a fresh start, a new beginning with God and neighbor.

Raise the question of your listeners restoration. Where are there exiles? Where is God inviting them to return home? What steps do they need to take in order for a full and healing restoration to occur?