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Jeremiah 31.7-9; Psalm 126; Hebrews 7.23-28; Mark 10.46-52

Open the Word

Ways to help all ages engage with the readings

Adult & All Age

Bible Study on Psalm 126

For Adults and Young People

  • Read and print out a copy of the Bible study sheet for each group member. Click here for additional Bible notes.
  • In the session, read the Bible passage together, look at the Bible notes and Make connections sections. Use this conversation spark to provoke first reactions from the group: If you could live anywhere in the world, with anyone, where would you go and who would you be with?
  • The Explore section guides individuals through the passage to discover what it might reveal to them.
  • End with the Live in faith and Send out prayer items for the week.

Young people

  • Encourage the group to respond to their discussion using one of the respond activities in the CYP Respond to the Word section. There is a specific activity for Young People which you may like to look at first.
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Sermon ideas

Ideas for sermon preparation based on Psalm 126

  • Recently we have seen many military homecomings. The cortèges passing through Royal Wootton Bassett have marked a succession of terrible tragedies, the deaths of young people cut down in their prime. But there have been many other returns – of units and regiments restored to their families – marked by great joy, both personal and communal. There have been no winners in the wars fought by the service personnel, but there have been great achievements. We might consider that such celebrations, which, in the 1940s might have marked triumph, today rather mark a kind of fulfilment.
  • Every great achievement is an accumulation of smaller achievements. In restoring an old car, for example, or a house, the worker has many small triumphs, sometimes arrived at with great patience, before the whole job, which may take months or even years, is fulfilled. Psalm 126 embraces both the past and the future. The psalmist recalls the Lord’s activity, condent that it will be experienced again.
  • How can we define joy? In what he called his ‘spiritual autobiography’, CS Lewis describes being Surprised by joy (see Further Resources). In his critical summary of the book, Bruce Edwards suggests that by ‘joy’, Lewis meant not mere pleasure but the sublime experience of the transcendent, the glimpse of the eternal that is only fleetingly available in earthly loves and aesthetics’.
  • What will be discovered by the government’s ‘happiness agenda’, and its attempts to measure how happy Britain is? One opposition politician suggests there is a ‘danger ofpromoting “middle-class” materialistic aspirations and ignoring the urgent need to help people cope with life’s peaks andtroughs’. Might a ‘joy agenda’ be a better aspiration?
  • Total fufillment can be only a future event, of which the present will sometimes offer glimpses, often drawn from past experience. Psalm 126 captures this, rooting it in the experience of exile and return and an ongoing journey. The event recalled here, and the memories we have of fullment and restoration in our lives, all lead us to consider what Jesus would describe as a concern for the kingdom, the overarching concern of the lectionary gospel readings for November, as we approach the end of the year.
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Present the reading

A presentation of Psalm 126

You could read this all together from a shared set of Bibles, prayer books or service sheets or by projecting the words so that people read with their heads up.

Offer a little preparation, explaining that ‘Zion’ refers to Jerusalem, the holy city, but by extension to the Hebrew people. The ‘Negeb’ is a desert. ‘Sheaves’ represent the harvested wheat. Allow people a few moments to look through the passage and then read together.

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Explore the reading

Explore together the idea of being ‘restored’

Explore together the idea of being ‘restored’. You might watch a YouTube clip of scenes of a British regiment returning from service in Iraq to be restored to their families (see the Further Resources section).

Then make the rest of the psalm your own. Think of your congregational and community circumstances, and mould the psalm to fit your needs and what is going on at the present time: ‘Restore our fortunes, O Lord, like the Clyde down by the docks; may those who sell poppies for Remembrance be blessed with success...’

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Children

Story: Sing and shout for joy

Story for children based on Psalm 126

With children

An idea for presenting the story to children

  • Ask the children to think of different words people might use to say they feel happy. Invite the children to choose words they would use to say they felt happy.
  • Explain that, in today’s psalm, the people have returned to their home country and they feel happy. Ask the children to repeat the words in bold in the story. How do they think the people might say these words? Would it be quiet or loud? Do they think the people would stand still or dance?
  • Practise saying or shouting the phrase with the children and encourage them to move as the people may have moved.

Link to story

Talk about

After reading the Bible story to your group, use these discussion points.

The Israelites dreamed of coming back to their homeland, and in this psalm they are celebrating the fullment of that dream.

  • What dreams or hopes do you have for your future?
  • What was the Israelites’ dream?
  • How do you think they felt when they arrived back in their homeland?
  • How did they express their happiness?
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For very young children

With very young children

A chance to discover restoration and joy

You will need: building bricks e.g. LegoTM, DuploTM, wooden bricks.

You might use this simple paraphrase and actions.

God helps us to rebuild and make new
(make building action with fists).

Alleluia (wave arms).

Shout for joy (shout ‘hurray’).

  • Show the children a tumbling pile of bricks and invite them to rebuild a beautiful building.
  • Invite them to shout (or wave their arms) with joy when it is completed.

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