Earlier this summer, we heard Buddy Greene perform his unique Southern-style gospel music at Maranatha. While I enjoyed the variety of music he played, I was struck by the song, Bringing in the Sheaves. The hymn was one that I don’t think I had ever heard before.
The hymn is based on Psalm 126, where the Psalmist records his praise when the workers bring in the “sheaves.” He writes,
Those who sow with tears will reap with songs of joy.
Those who go out weeping, carrying seed to sow,
Will return with songs of joy, carrying sheaves with them.
If like me you have read that psalm and thought, well I don’t know what sheaves are, and I have don’t have a field to sow and the small garden we have doesn’t require much reaping so next psalm please.
But, as Buddy introduced the song he remarked that all of us have fields that we have sown with tears that when they produce a harvest (or “sheaves” – the harvested wheat) result in great joy, which we should direct as praise to God. As I thought more and more about his comments, I saw the beauty of this psalm.
- If you have ever wept over a daughter who feels lonely at school and cried with her and invested hours listening to her and praying for her, sheaves may be the day she comes home and tells you she met a new friend.
- If you have ever cried with a spouse over a cancer diagnosis and spent hours caring for that spouse and the extra responsibilities of the family, sheaves may be a five-year cancer-free diagnosis.
- If you have ever begged God for the spiritual condition of a family member, sheaves may be the joy of watching them respond to God’s grace in their lives.
- If you have ever had a difficult, stressful job that has left you in tears, sheaves may be the provision of a new job.
- If you have ever lived apart from family and felt the pain of separation, sheaves may be having a sister and her family move to town.
- If you have ever begged God for a child, sheaves may be the day you come home with a little boy or girl (or both!), whether from the hospital or an orphanage.
The beauty of the Lord is that he takes the seed of our tears and the hard work of our prayers to produce a harvest of immense joy.
As you are thinking about the fields that have produced sheaves, or the fields that you are currently sowing with tears and toiling over with prayer, listen to the encouragement of Psalm 126 as expressed in Buddy Greene’s version of Bringing in the Sheaves.