Psalm 128:1-4 (ESV)
Blessed is everyone who fears the LORD, who walks in his ways! You shall eat the fruit of the labor of your hands; you shall be blessed, and it shall be well with you. Your wife will be like a fruitful vine within your house; your children will be like olive shoots around your table. Behold, thus shall the man be blessed who fears the LORD.
On some Sundays in the not too distant past we had all of our kids around the table for Sunday Brunch and oftentimes they bring a friend or two. We usually made scrambled eggs, sausage, a fruit salad, and either pancakes or biscuits & gravy. The mood was light and the volume loud and many a laugh were had…and they provided some of the sweetest days of the year in the Noble household. God provided the resources we needed through my efforts (v. 2). My wife flourished in all that she did for our family (v. 3). Our children, though at different stages in life and spiritual maturity, were trending in the right direction but not without serious challenges and setbacks. (v.3). Life was far from perfect, and none of us feared the Lord all the time, but we certainly were blessed…and that’s the point of Psalm 128.
Our family is no Brady Bunch—no family truly is—but God has always provided for His people, despite their sin and shortcomings. Psalm 128 might seem unachievable to many who read it due to serious problems at home or in the workplace, but we all must strive to count the blessings that we DO HAVE, rather than focusing on the ones we don’t. And while Psalm 128 is not a promise that comes with specifics, it is one that can be relied upon, because what good father will give his son a rock when he really needs some bread (Mt. 7:9)?
Psalm 128 is not limited to those who are married and have a lot of children but brings with it the promise of God’s blessings on anyone who fears Him and walks in His ways. God will bless your hard and dutiful labor, be it with the brow or with the brain. If you get married, walking in His ways will yield a good choice for a spouse who will bless you. And if you have children and seek to raise them in the fear and admonition of the Lord (Eph. 6:4), they will be like olive shoots, who can take a long time to mature, but will grow into strong and productive people if they choose to follow God as well.
And let us not limit the blessings of God to the here and now, but every child of His must remember what has already been secured for him through the shed blood of a crucified, buried, and resurrected Lord and Savior. Many of our blessings are made manifest today, in various gifts of different types and sizes, but the greatest gifts are yet to come, and are hardly imaginable as we look through the glass dimly today (1 Cor. 13:12) towards what will be ours one day in the New Heaven and New Earth (Rev. 21:1)! Spurgeon captures this reality well when he said:
“Some think that this life is an evil, an infliction, a thing upon which rests a curse; but it is not so; the God-fearing man has a present blessing resting upon him. It is not true that it would be to him” something better not to be.” He is happy now, for he is the child of the happy God, the ever-living Jehovah; and he is even here a joint heir with Jesus Christ, whose heritage is not misery, but joy. This is true of every one of the God fearing, of all conditions, in all ages: each one and every one is blessed. Their blessedness may not always be seen by carnal reason, but it is always a fact, for God himself declares that it is so; and we know that those whom he blesses are blessed indeed.”
Amen and Amen to that!
