Chapter One Hundred Twenty-Five

The first verse of the psalm clearly indicates the time of its composition – upon the return from the captivity, when the Hebrew people were full of the most joyful feelings and expectations.

Upon the return from the captivity we were full of joy and thanksgiving to God for the great deed of liberation (1–3). Return, O Lord, from the captivity all those who remain there. We hoped that the Lord would abundantly reward our labor on the native fields by sending an abundant harvest (4–6).

Psalm 125:1. When the Lord brought back the captivity of Zion, we were like dreamers: Those returning from the captivity were “like dreamers,” that is, there were presented to them pictures of extraordinary contentment and well-being, which they hoped to find on their native land. Since the return from the captivity was an act of God’s mercy, which was marveled at even by the pagans (verse 3), the Hebrews could dream that these mercies would be abundantly poured out on them especially in their land of blessing, and therefore those returning from the captivity were full of dreams, of dreams, were as if in a dream.

Psalm 125:4. Return, O Lord, our captives, as the streams on the south. Not all Hebrews returned from the captivity, but only the poorest part of this people, while the majority remained to live among the pagans. For the return of the latter those who came out of the captivity pray: return, O Lord, all that mass of fellow tribesmen that remain in foreign lands just as You return water to the earth through the south winds, which bring abundant and necessary water for the earth from the sea.

Psalm 125:5. Those who sow in tears will reap with joy. Psalm 125:6. He who carries seed with weeping will return with joy, bearing his sheaves. The content of the dreams and expectations of the Hebrews. Those returning from the captivity had a very insufficient quantity of seed for their fields, which is why the sowing they produced covered an insignificant area of land, from which by ordinary economic calculation could be obtained only an insignificant harvest, but the Hebrews hoped that the Lord would reward their labor far beyond their expectations, which is why “he who carries seed with weeping” into the earth when sowing “will return with joy” at harvest time.