Read Psalm 126

This song is sung by the pilgrim in captivity.  It looks back on a captivity experience (v1) but also pleads for deliverance from a current captivity experience (v4).  Captivity is a situation where we find ourselves bound or limited, against our will, by someone or something else.  Israel was captive in Egypt and then in the Assyrian and Babylonian kingdoms.

We seldom speak of being in captivity.  In America we fought a war of independence so as not to be subject to any foreign power. Yet our souls are often captive to any number of powers.

1.    Multiplied troubles may hold us captive.  We have one trial, then another and another until we think nothing else can happen, but it does!  We feel trapped or overcome. 

2.    Spiritual depression may hold us captive. Our days are not merely blue, they are black.  We have no motivation, no friends (it seems).  We go to bed at night to get away from it, but awake to find its frightful yoke still around our necks.

3.    Miserable backsliding may hold us captive.  There may be a wrong we cannot escape.  It may be the disease of alcoholism, an addiction to pornography, or an obsession with our credit card.  But the disease, the addiction, and the obsession are slavery.  I am held and I have no power to break free.

4.    Grievous doubt may hold us captive.  Guilt for any of the above or for some past misdeed may overcome us.  We lack an optimism (hope) about tomorrow and have no confidence to live today.  There is no assurance about our relationship with our Creator.  This too is captivity.

Listen carefully: slavery is not something reserved for a few people that society labels sick or addicted.  When Jesus uttered those well known words, "you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free" (John 8:32), the crowd argued that they had never been held captive by anyone and didn't need freedom.  Jesus' answer was simple: Whoever commits sin is a slave of sin (v34).  That definition of captivity makes us all captive.

Finally, the Maker of Heaven and Earth, Who watches over the pilgrim can deliver the pilgrim from captivity so sorrow is replaced by singing and laughter (v1-3). Jesus says this deliverance involves being true disciples by abiding in His word (John 8:31).  This deliverance is for the one who seeks God (Ps. 126:4).