Turning then to Psalm 126, and as I said, I'll read the Psalm through. When the Lord turned again, the captivity of Zion, we were like them that dream. Then was our mouth filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing. Then said they among the heathen, the Lord hath done great things for them. The Lord hath done great things for us, whereof we are glad. Turn again our captivity, O Lord, as these streams in the south. They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. He that goeth forth and weepeth bearing precious seed shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.

And I want in particular to look at that final verse of the psalm concerning he that goeth forth and weepeth bearing precious seeds and the promise shall doubtless come again with rejoicing bringing his sheaves with him.

I was struck yesterday morning at home in our reading. We were reading the 89th Psalm. It's a wonderful Psalm, Psalm 89. It's so evidently a Messianic Psalm. As I'm sure you're well aware, the verse 3, I have made a covenant with my chosen. I've sworn unto David, my servant. And then later at verse 20, I found David, my servant, with my holy oil have I anointed him. With whom my hand shall be established, mine arm shall strengthen him. So it speaks so plainly, so clearly. of the Lord Jesus Christ.

But I was also struck by other verses that we find here in the psalm. For example, verse 29, this seed will I make to endure forever and is thrown as the days of heaven. As I say, it's clearly a psalm that speaks not so much of David but of David's greater son and two verses really in the psalm came so forcibly to me indicating just who it is that's being spoken of verses 18 and 19 the psalmist says for the Lord is our defense and the Holy One of Israel is our King.

Now those are parallel statements. One of the features time and again of the Psalms, these statements in the verses that stand side by side and declare the same truth in different ways. And so here we read of the Lord who is also spoken of as the Holy One of Israel, for the Lord is our defense. The Holy One of Israel is our King. And then, in verse 19, Then thou spakest in vision to thy Holy One, and saidst, I have laid help upon one that is mighty. I have exalted one chosen out of the people. I have found David my servant with my holy oil, have I anointed him.

And so immediately we find the Lord God, as it were, addressing Himself. We read of the Holy One in verse 18, and then in verse 19, then spakest thou, the Lord speaks in vision to the Holy One. It's the Father, as it were, addressing the Son. There is that covenant between Father and Son in the eternal covenant together with the Holy Spirit, that great purpose of salvation.

But then again, those words at verse 29 where we read of his seed, the seed of the Holy One, the seed of David's greater son will I make to endure forever. And having read that psalm, later in the day I was reading the 126th psalm. And then again here in verse 6 we have mention of this seed. He that goeth forth and weepeth bearing precious seed shall doubtless come again with rejoicing bringing his sheaves with him.

And I thought it might be profitable just to examine these words for a little while before we turn to prayer this evening. dealing with some three points really first of all to try to identify just who it is here that he's being spoken of who is the one that we see in this opening masculine pronoun he he that goeth forth and one can think in terms of the Lord Jesus and even his eternal generation as the Son of God. We read of Him again, do we not, in Micah chapter 5 and verse 2, whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting. The one who is spoken of then is here going forth. We can think in terms of that one who is the eternally begotten Son of the Father. Remember the language, and we've looked at it in times past, there in the 8th chapter of the book of Proverbs, concerning wisdom. It's the Lord Jesus. When there were no depths, He says, I was brought forth. When there were no fountains abounding with water, before the mountains were settled, before the hills, was I brought forth. He is that One who has been brought forth, going forth, eternally.

How He is spoken of in the New Testament, as that one who is the only begotten, all his eternal generation. The language of John 1.14, and the word was made flesh and dwelt among us, says John, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. Isn't this the Lord Jesus Christ himself? You can think of the the language of Philip there in the Gospel in the 14th chapter of John. Remember how here in chapter 14 of John the Lord is beginning to prepare his disciples for his going away. In chapters 14, 15 and 16 he speaks much of the coming of the Comforter, the Holy Ghost. But how at the beginning of that 14th chapter We read the words that Philip speaks. In verse 8, Philip says unto Christ, Show us the Father, and it sufficeth. Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? He that hath seen me, hath seen the Father. And as sayest thou then, show us the Father. Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me?

He is one with the Father. He is that one who is eternally begotten of the Father. God of God. Light of light. Very God of very God. Begotten not made.

The language of course of the ancient Crete He says again, there in John 16, and verse 28, I came forth from, or literally, I came out of the Father, and am come into the world, His filiation. He's coming forth of the Father in terms of the great doctrine of the Trinity, the Father begetting the Son, the Son begotten of the Father. and the Holy Spirit proceeding from the Father and from the Son all the coming forth and the going forth of the Son in terms of that relationship that he has to God the Father and the language of John who is of course having to contend so much for the truth of the of the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ the eternal Son of God and even in that little second epistle of John and there at verse 9 he says, whosoever transgresseth and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ hath not God, he that abideth in the doctrine of Christ he hath both the Father and the Son the eternal Son of the eternal Father

and then whilst he does as it were come forth out of the Father his eternal generation, yet we know in another sense, of course, in the outworking of the covenant, that covenant of redemption between the persons in the Godhead, in the outworking of that, he comes forth into this world in the fullness of the time God sends forth his Son, made of a woman made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law. All the wonder of His coming forth. I proceeded, He says, forth and came from God as He comes into this wicked world.

We're told, aren't we, unto us a child is born. Unto us a son is given. The son is given, He's the eternal son. But the child is born. The human nature, all that human nature joined to the eternal Son of God that holy thing that shall be born of thee says the angel to Mary the Virgin that holy thing shall be called the Son of God in everything that he does then we see him God incarnate in everything he is God and man and here he is I assert at the beginning of this verse tonight he that goeth forth He that goeth forth, he goeth forth in the sense of his eternal generation in the Godhead, and he goeth forth, he cometh forth in the fullness of the time.

And what do we read with him here? Well, we see Christ in his sorrows, and we see Christ in his seed, having established who he's being spoken of. Let us consider then his sorrows, and his seed all the sorrow he endured he that goeth forth it says and weepeth wasn't the Lord Jesus the man of many tears a man of sorrows we're told and acquainted with grief the familiar words of Isaiah 53 and we see him During the days of his incarnation, he weeps.

He weeps over the city of Jerusalem. There in that remarkable 23rd chapter of Matthew, which is full of curses upon the scribes and the Pharisees. But now at the end of the chapter we see Christ as He beholds the city. He's made His final journey up to Jerusalem. And now, as it were, He looks over the city. And He's moved. He's moved clearly with compassion. And we have those words recorded in Matthew 23, 37, O Jerusalem. Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathers her chickens under her wings, and ye would not."

It's interesting, isn't it? He is speaking of the city, how he would have gathered them, but you know at the end there in that last clause, and ye would not, It's not so much that he is addressing the city, throughout the chapter he is clearly addressing the scribes and the Pharisees. We go back to verse 15. Go unto you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, he says. And he keeps repeating those words so solemnly throughout the course of the chapter. Verse 23, Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites. Verse 25, Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites. Verse 27, Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites. It's these whom He addresses at the end of that 37th verse, and ye would not. He's addressing a particular people And it's these people you see, it's the leaders of the Jews and the influence that they're having upon the people there in Jerusalem.

Now the Lord weeps, he's a real man. Of course he's true Almighty God, this is the wonder, isn't it, of the Incarnation. He is a man, as I said, of many, many tears. We see him at the grave of Lazarus in John chapter 11. And we're told how he groaned in spirits and was troubled. He's a man with a human soul and he is aware of what's taken place. Lazarus has died. And there's great lamentations and his sisters Mary and Martha are there. And they're broken hearted. And the Lord sees the scene. And what do we read? We have that short verse, John 11, 35, Jesus wept. or they were real tears. Many a time we read of him being troubled. Even as he comes to the end and he begins to contemplate the sufferings that he must endure there upon the cross in John 12 and 27, now is my soul troubled, he says. And what shall I say, Father, save me from this hour? but for this cause came I to this hour father glorify thy name he's no stoic he's a man of real emotion of deep compassion the Lord Jesus Christ that's our comfort touched he is touched with the feeling of all our infirmities

we knew nothing of our sinful infirmities we have many sinful infirmities but he was without sin but he knows our human infirmities because he's a real man, he's a true man and so there when we see him in the garden of Gethsemane he wrestles in prayers to the father he has a human will and that human will is in submission to the divine will how he cries to the father being in an agony says Luke in his account being in an agony he prayed more fervently and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground if it be possible let this cup pass from me nevertheless not my will but thine be done

we see it in the gospel who is this man then that spoken of he that goeth forth and weepeth it's the Lord Jesus Christ himself who in the days of his flesh when he offered up prayer and supplication with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death and was hurt in that he feared though he were a son yet learned he obedience by the things that he suffered says the Apostle there in Hebrews 5 he's the eternal son of God and yet He knows what human sufferings are. And this is the one I say that is being spoken of here in this text.

I said back in that 89th Psalm, He is the Holy One. He is equal to the Father. God is the Holy One of Israel. And that's the Lord Jesus Christ.

But then, not only the sufferings, but also the seed is bearing precious seed. Bearing precious seed. Now, what is the seed? Well, in the context, of course, we can't deny this, the seed is clearly to be understood in terms of the harvest. Because, ultimately, It's sheaves that are being brought forth. And we think of the parable that Lord Himself tells in the Gospel. And He uses that figure, doesn't He? Of the sower sowing his seed in Luke 8, amongst other of the Gospel accounts. And we're told, aren't we there, that the seed is the Word of God. The seed is the Word of God. And this is what He He sows in his ministry the great truth that he comes to declare.

Oh, never man spake like this man. For what does he say? My doctrine is not mine, but he is that sent me. He is that one who is the great prophet of the Lord. But there's another way in which we can think of the seed. Because the word that's used doesn't just on occasions refer to the sowing of seed, but the word seed is used many times, isn't it, in Scripture in terms of the offspring, the progeny. Christ himself is referred to as the seed of the woman. That's one of the names that's given to the Lord Jesus. He is the seed of the woman. He's the seed of Abraham. He's the seed of David. In other words, He's descended from these people.

The first great promise of the Gospel back in Genesis 3.15. I will put enmity between thee and the woman. Thou shalt bruise his Herely shall bruise thy head. The promise, and what it meant to Eve, that promise, that she would bring forth a son. The seed of the woman. But then, is also, in time, the seed of Abram. We read those words in Galatians 3.16, there to Abram and his seed. where the promise is made, he saith not unto seeds as of many, but as of one, unto thy seed, which is Christ. Christ is the true seed of Abraham. Of course, Isaac is the promised seed, the promised son. But Isaac is that one who's a wonderful type of the Lord Jesus. Unto thy seed, which is Christ. but then also he comes in the line of David we see that in the genealogies that we have in Matthew and Luke but also at the beginning of Romans he's spoken of as that one who is made of the seed of David according to the flesh and declared to be the son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead in his birth he is brought forth as the seed of David his human mother and he derives his human nature only from Mary but she's of the house of David as was her husband Joseph of the seed of David he's the seed of David and it's interesting isn't it because at the end of Isaiah 59 we read of Seeds, seed. I find that a fascinating portion really, right at the end of Isaiah 59. Again, a prophecy, clearly a prophecy of Christ.

And the Redeemer shall come to Zion, and out of them that turn from transgression in Jacob, saith the Lord, As for me, this is my covenant with them, saith the Lord. My spirit that is upon thee, and my word which I have put in thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seed's seeds, saith the Lord from henceforth even for ever. So the Lord Jesus has seeds down the generations. He has a progeny. Behold I, he says, and the children. which God hath given me.

And what of this seed? Well, it's a precious seed. It must be a precious seed. He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed. What is that precious seed? These people that were given to him in the eternal covenant. Oh, they're precious. Why? Because they're bought, aren't they, with precious blood. now the purchase of precious blood when the fullness of the time was come God sends forth his son made of a woman made under the law to redeem them that were under the law and Peter says redeem with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without spots or blemish Oh, this is, you know, that precious seed.

If ye be Christ, then are ye Abraham's seed. Christ himself is that true seed of Abraham, but all those, you see, they're his seed's seed. And then, of course, here, what do we see, ultimately, when we have mention of the sheaves, the great success of his gospel? the promise that we have at the end of the verse shall doubtless come again with rejoicing bringing his sheaves with him or the fruit of Christ's offerings he doesn't he doesn't suffer in vain it's an accomplished salvation look at the language that's used why do we have the word doubtless there? and we're told he shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him. It means that this is something sure and certain. He is to see of the travail of his soul and he shall be satisfied. As many as he shed that precious blood for there is precious seed. its particular redemption.

Dear dying lamb, thy precious blood shall never lose its power. Till all the ransomed church of God be saved to sin no more.

They're all saved, their salvation is secure in Christ. There's no doubt here, upon this rock he says, I will build my church. What is the rock? Well, it's Christ Jesus. The foundation can no man lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ the Lord. And Peter's confession, thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. That one that we spoke of at the beginning, He that goeth forth.

But then also, isn't there, isn't it a promise really, that He will come again? bringing his sheaves with him, bringing his sheaves with him. And we're told of the great promise of his coming again many times, but there in the fourth chapter of the first letter to the Thessalonians, Well, as Paul says here, verse 13, I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.

For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him. For this we say unto you by the word of the law, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent or shall not go before them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first.

Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them, that's Christ, and those who've been raised again, caught up together with them in the clouds and you see the language here bringing his sheaves with him even as he returns and so shall we ever be with the Lord wherefore comfort one another with these words do we comfort ourselves really comfort ourselves with that glorious prospect he's coming again with rejoicing bringing his sheaves with him

But how can we know that we are those who are amongst those sheaves, that we're those who are the precious seed? Well, we must be Christ-like. It's interesting, isn't it? We have the singular pronoun here in our text, he that goeth forth and weepeth. The previous verse, we have the plural, they, that sow into us. He and they, they that sow in tears shall reap in joy. Do we know what it is to weep and to weep over our sins? Do we know what it is to be those who are ever a repentant people? We were reminded the other day of something that Matthew Henry's father said. Philip Henry, he was of course a Puritan minister, in Chester and I know Matthew Henry was in Chester but Philip Henry was also a minister and he said he was asked what he would wish to be doing when the Lord returned and he said he would wish to be repenting over his sins he would repent over his sins daily oh are we those who know what it is to weep over our many sins, our failings, our sins of omission, our sins of commission.

There can be no communion between a broken hearted saviour, and that's what Christ is, he goeth forth weeping. There can be no communion between such a saviour as that and a hard, wholehearted sinner. Or are we those who are broken hearted because of our sins, the sacrifices of God? What is it? a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise. O the Lord favour us then with such a spirit as that, to know that real evangelical repentance, to be sorrowing over our many sins, and yet at the same time rejoicing. The Lord, he weeps and he rejoices, doesn't he, in the text. He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him. Oh, the Lord then, bless his word to us.

Well, before we come to pray, let us sing our second praise. the hymn 114, and the tune Trentum, number 73.

The sons of earth delight to spread their fame abroad,
to glory in their worth and might,
but such are not of God.
The heavenly word declares, and faithful is the word,
that Israel's seed, the royal heirs,
shall glory in the Lord."

The Hymn 114, Tune 73.