Marching to Zion
Scripture Reading: Psalm 126:4
“Restore our fortunes, O Lord, like streams in the Negeb.”
In this brief prayer, the psalmist invokes the image of the Negeb desert, a dry region in southern Israel. Although barren most of the year, seasonal rains would flood its dry beds, creating sudden rivers where there had been none. This imagery beautifully reflects the psalmist’s hope for revival—a sweeping restoration from God, bringing life where it seemed impossible.
This psalm, a song of ascent, was sung by pilgrims traveling to Jerusalem for the annual feasts. After 70 years in Babylonian exile, the familiar roads to Zion had fallen silent, as though the “streams” of God’s people had dried up. Now, with the people returning, it was time for those roads to flow again with worshippers heading to Zion. The psalmist’s desire for “fortune” was not wealth or possessions; it was the vision of multitudes streaming back to God’s presence.
We can make this prayer our own. Let us pray for God to move in our time, to bring people streaming into His kingdom as He restores people to Himself through Jesus Christ. The words of Isaac Watts’s hymn capture this hope:
“We’re marching to Zion,
Beautiful, beautiful Zion.
We’re marching upward to Zion,
That beautiful city of God.”
May our lives, too, reflect the joy of people streaming toward the heavenly Zion, a river of pilgrims led by the grace of God.
This is one of my favorite songs.