The Grace of Laughter

Psalm 126 is a psalm of return.

God's people have been in captivity. The long exile is ending. They are being brought back to Zion and the experience is so overwhelming that it feels like a dream. And in that moment of restoration, something remarkable happens.

Their mouths were filled with laughter.

Not polite smiles. Not quiet relief. Laughter. Real, ungovernable, physical laughter that the nations around them could hear and could not quite explain.

Then said they among the nations, the Lord has done great things for them.

The laughter was a testimony. It pointed beyond itself. It was not merely the expression of happy feelings. It was the overflow of people who had come to know that God had acted on their behalf, that the impossible had become real, that captivity was over and that the one who had been with them in exile was now leading them home.

The Lord has done great things for us, they said. And we are glad.

God is not opposed to gladness.

This seems obvious when stated plainly, but it is worth saying. There is a version of religious life that is serious to the point of sourness, that treats laughter as suspect and joy as shallow. But that is not the picture Scripture gives.

The Lord Himself, in the Psalms, is described as laughing. Jesus attended a wedding and ensured the celebration could continue. He spoke of a woman who found her lost coin and called her neighbours to rejoice with her. He told of a father who ran to meet a returning son and called for music and dancing. He promised His disciples that no one could take away their joy.

Clean laughter, gladness, celebration and delight are not departures from the Christian life. They are expressions of it.

When God does great things for His people, the right response is not merely measured gratitude. It is overflowing gladness. It is the kind of joy that wells up and comes out of the mouth as laughter, that fills the room, that the people around you can see and cannot fully account for.

This kind of joy is a witness. The nations noticed what was happening to Israel in Psalm 126. They could see that something real had taken place. They could not account for it except by saying that the Lord had done it.

When Christians are genuinely glad, when their joy is real and full and overflowing in appropriate moments, it bears testimony to a God who gives generously, restores graciously and causes His people to laugh at the faithfulness of His promises.

Think of a moment when you genuinely laughed. Not performed cheerfulness. Real laughter, clean and free.

Give thanks for it.

Thank the Lord that He made the capacity for gladness. Thank Him that the Christian life is not a life of grinding endurance alone, but a life that contains moments of real joy, real laughter and real delight.

And if this season has been heavy, do not be ashamed to ask for gladness. The God who filled returning exiles with laughter is the same God who has redeemed you. The mouths of His people have been filled with laughter before. He knows how to give it.

The Lord has done great things. We are glad.