John Calvin Commentary Psalms 126:1

"When Jehovah brought back those that returned to Zion, We were like unto them that dream." — Psalms 126:1 (ASV)

When Jehovah brought back the captivity of Zion, etc. It is unnatural and forced to suppose, with some commentators, that this is a prediction of what was to come. For my part, I have no doubt that the Psalm was composed upon the return of the Jewish people from the Babylonian captivity; and for this reason, I have translated the verb בשוב, beshub, in the past tense.

Now, whoever was the author of it, whether one of the Levites or one of the Prophets, he affirms that the manner of their deliverance was too wonderful to be attributed to fortune, in order to lead the faithful to the conclusion that the prophecy of Jeremiah, which had assigned seventy years as the term of the captivity, was truly fulfilled (Jeremiah 25:12 and Jeremiah 29:10).

By the verb dream, which expresses the astonishing character of the event, he teaches us that there is no room left for ingratitude. As often as God works by ordinary means, men, through the malignity of their natures, usually exercise their ingenuity in devising various causes of the deliverance accomplished, in order to darken the grace of God.

But the return of the Jewish people from the Babylonian captivity, having been a miracle of such splendor as was sufficient to swallow up and confound all the thoughts of men, compels us to acknowledge that it was a remarkable work of God. This is the reason why the Prophet compares this deliverance to a dream.

“So far,” he essentially says, “is any mind from comprehending this unparalleled benefit of God, that the mere thought of it transports us with amazement, as if it were a dream, and not an event that had already taken place. What impiety, then, will it be, not to acknowledge the author of it.”

Moreover, he does not mean that the faithful were so dull of understanding as not to perceive that they were delivered by the hand of God. He means only that, judging according to carnal sense and reason, they were struck with astonishment. He was apprehensive that, in reasoning among themselves about that redemption as if it were an ordinary thing, they might make less of the power of God than they ought.

The noun שיבת, shibath, translated captivity, might also be rendered bringing back, as some do, which would give greater elegance to the Psalmist’s expression, since in that case שיבת would be a noun from the same verb that is used in the beginning of the verse. However, since this makes little difference to the meaning, it is sufficient to have mentioned it to my readers in passing.