It is well known in Judaism as the preliminary psalm recited before the Birkat Hamazon (Grace After Meals) on Shabbat and Jewish holidays, and as such is sung to a wide variety of melodies.

Parts of this psalm have been singled out, for example They that sow in tears shall reap in joy is included in Ein deutsches Requiem by Johannes Brahms.

[4] Alternately, modern Jewish commentators suggest that the second half of the psalm refers to the redemption of the land of Israel from agricultural drought.

[5] The Talmud (Ta'anit 23a) mentions this psalm in the context of the famous story of Honi ha-M'agel, who slept for seventy years.

The Talmud begins, Rabbi Yohanan said: This righteous man [Honi HaMa'agel] was troubled throughout the whole of his life about the meaning of the verse from Psalms 126, "A Song of Ascents, When the Lord brought back those that returned to Zion, we will be like dreamers."

[As it is written, "For the Lord said: When Babylon's seventy years are over, I will take note of and I will fulfill you to my promise of favor -- to bring you back to this place" (Jeremiah 29:10).

Psalm 126 is customarily recited by Ashkenazim before the Birkat Hamazon (Grace After Meals) on Shabbat, Rosh Chodesh, and Jewish holidays.

The psalm lends itself to a wide variety of melodies due to its simple, repeating structure,[14] and as such has many musical versions popularized by synagogue groups, youth organizations, summer camps, and others.

[22] Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin recited Psalm 126 on the White House lawn when he signed the second of the Camp David Accords with Egyptian President Anwar Sadat on March 26, 1979.

[23] The complete psalm was set in Latin as a motet for a cappella choir by composers including George de La Hèle,[24] Lorenzo Perosi, Jean-Noël Marchand,[25] Dmitri Bortnyansky (1777).

[28] Heinrich Schütz composed a setting of a metred paraphrase in German of the psalm, "Wenn Gott einmal erlösen wird", SWV 231, for the Becker Psalter, published first in 1628.

Johann Sebastian Bach used the second verse in German as the text for the opening movement of his Christmas cantata Unser Mund sei voll Lachens, BWV 110 (1725).

[29] The psalm is also sung to secular melodies such as "Waltzing Matilda", "The Longest Time","It's a Small World", Beethoven's Ninth, and college football songs, among many others.