12 Dec Songs of Joy

Songs of Joy

words from Psalm 126

When the Lord turned our gaze upon Zion, we thought we were dreaming.
Our mouths were filled with laughter, our tongues with shouts of joy.
Fill us with grace, O Lord, like rivers in a dry land.
They who sow in tears shall reap with songs of joy.
Though they went out weeping, carrying the seed-bag, they shall return with songs of joy, carrying
their sheaves.

[There’s a back story to this. There was a composer named James Simon, which by chance are my first two names; he was German-Jewish from Berlin, like my mother. In 1944, at age 64, he was deported to Theresienstadt. There he wrote his last work, a setting of these words, Psalm 126. He was last seen sitting on his suitcase, jotting down music in his notebook, awaiting deportation to Auschwitz.]