Psalm 128
Because families traveled together to the annual feasts in Jerusalem, it is only right that another psalm be devoted to parents and their offspring. The previous psalm pictured children as a rich heritage and as arrows for defeating the enemy (127:3–5). This psalm uses agricultural images for both the wife and the children. In one form or another, the word bless is used four times, but it is the translation of two different Hebrew words. In verses 1–2, it is the word asher, which is often translated "happy" (Gen. 30:12–13), and in verses 4–5, it is barak, which means "blessed of the Lord." The latter word is used by the Lord when He blesses people; the former word is used to describe the good that comes when people do that which pleases the Lord. Like 127 and Jeremiah 29:4–7, this psalm deals with protection (v. 1), working (v. 2), the family (vv. 3–4, 6), and God's blessing on Jerusalem (v. 5). While the writer includes all who fear the Lord (v. 1), the psalm is addressed especially to the man of the house (v. 3). We see a happy man and woman as they go through several stages in life.
Conserving (vv. 3–5) It does no good to build and guard our houses and cities if there are no future generations to inherit them and keep the family, city, and nation going. There were few people living in Jerusalem in the postexilic age (Neh. 7:4), and it was important that the young people marry and have families. Among the Jews, it was unheard of that a husband and wife not want children or that a child be aborted. "Children are the blessing for the Jew," writes Rabbi Leo Trepp. "Each child brings a blessing all his own, our ancestors would say. We rejoice in children because we are a people, a historical
Godly Believers (v. 1) In the ancient Near East, marriages were arranged primarily by the parents, but the stories of Jacob (Gen. 28—30) and Ruth indicate that love was not entirely lacking in these marriages. Here we have a Jewish couple who truly feared the Lord and wanted to establish a home that Jehovah could bless. To fear the Lord means to reverence Him and seek to please Him by
Psalm 128—129
sented in the psalm, and all of them walking with the Lord. We are so prone to remember that God judges the succeeding generations if they imitate the sins of their ancestors, but we must remember that He also passes along the blessings when the ancestors have been godly (Ex. 34:67; Num. 14:18–19; Deut. 5:9–10). It is often the third generation that abandons the faith (Judg. 2), so we must pray much for our children and grandchildren, that the Lord will keep His good hand of blessing on their lives for His glory.
obeying His Word. In the background is the covenant God made with Israel (Lev. 26; Deut. 38–30). If they obeyed, God would meet their needs; if they disobeyed, He would chasten them. This is the Old Testament version of Matthew 6:33. It takes three to form a happy marriage: a man and woman who love the Lord and each other, and the Lord who performed the first wedding back in the Garden of Eden.
Successful Workers (v. 2) It is the Lord who gives His people "power to get wealth" (Deut. 8:18). How easy it is for us to think that our planning, skill, and hard work accomplished it all, but such is not the case. As we saw in the previous psalm, without the blessing of the Lord, all our labor is in vain. Each Jew was required to give tithes to the Lord, but the Lord wanted the workers to share the fruit of their labor. If the nation turned to other gods, one of the first places the Lord would send judgment was in the home and field (Lev. 26:14ff.; Deut. 28:30–34).
"Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord" (33:12).