John Calvin Commentary Psalms 126:2

"Then was our mouth filled with laughter, And our tongue with singing: Then said they among the nations, Jehovah hath done great things for them." — Psalms 126:2 (ASV)

Now shall our mouth be filled with laughter. The adverb of time, אז (az), is commonly translated then; but as the verbs are in the future tense, I have thought that it might not be improper to translate it as: now shall our mouth be filled, and now shall they say. If, however, we admit what some Hebrew scholars affirm, that the force of this particle is to change the future tense into the past, the adverb then will be the appropriate word.

The Prophet's purpose is not at all obscure. He wanted the people to rejoice so much on account of their return that they would not forget the grace of God. He therefore describes no ordinary rejoicing, but one that so fills their minds as to compel them to break forth into extravagant gestures and vocal expressions.

At the same time, he suggests that there was good reason for this joy, a joy that it was fitting for the children of God to indulge in, on account of their return to their own land. Since at that time nothing was more wretched for them than to live in captivity, in which they were, in a sense, dispossessed of the inheritance God had promised them, so nothing should have been more desirable to them than to be restored.

Therefore, since their restoration to their own country was a proof of their renewed adoption by God, it is not surprising to find the Prophet asserting that their mouth was filled with laughter and their tongue with exultation. With similar joy, it is fitting for us today to exult when God gathers His Church together, and it is undeniable proof that we are hard-hearted if her miserable dispersion does not cause us grief and lamentation.

The Prophet goes on to declare that this miracle was seen even by the blind. For in that age of the world, as is well known, the heathen were wandering in darkness like blind men, since no knowledge of God had shone upon them.

Yet God’s power and working were so conspicuous in that event that they burst forth into the open acknowledgment that God had done great things for his people.

All the more shameful, then, was the indifference of the Jews to be considered, if they did not freely and loudly celebrate God’s grace, which had gained such renown among unbelievers.

The form of speech used should also be noted, as it forcibly expresses the intended idea: that the mighty power of God in this deliverance was known by the Gentiles. In the following verse, the Prophet repeats, in his own person and in that of the Church, the words uttered by the heathen in the latter part of the preceding verse.

Let us at least, as if he had said, offer a confession corresponding to that which God has extorted from the unbelieving Gentiles. When he adds that they were glad, there is an implied antithesis between this new joy and the long-continued sorrow with which they were afflicted in their captivity. He expressly declares that joy was restored to them to enable them to better appreciate the dismal condition from which they had been rescued.