Psalms 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.

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 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.

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).

Both the vine and the olive tree were important to the economy of Israel, the vine providing wine and the olive tree supplying fruit and oil (104:14–15). A husband’s love for his wife is illustrated by the vine and the olive tree (Song 7:6–9). Jewish couples wanted large families and considered each child a blessing from the Lord. The phrase “within your house” refers to the wife’s apartment at the back of the tent, as far from the tent door as possible. The faithful wife is not unhappy in her own house, caring for children she dearly loved. The unfaithful wife leaves the safety and sanctity of her apartment and goes seeking for victims (Prov. 7:10–13). The olive shoots around the base of the parent tree, fresh and vigorous, picture the children around the family table. It takes patience to care for them as they grow, but the efforts are rewarding. How shocked those ancient families would be if they visited a modern home and watched parents and children scattering in all directions and rarely eating a leisurely meal together.

The Jewish people are proud of their heritage and want to see God’s very best blessings come to Jerusalem. They realize how enriched they are from Zion. They long for each of their children to bring honor to Israel, and they pray for the peace and prosperity of Israel and Jerusalem. Many of the psalms end with a prayer for the land and the city (14:7; 25:22; 72:18–19; 106:48; 130:7–8; 125:5; 131:3; 134:3; 135:21; 148:14). True patriotism begins in the home, where love of God, family, and country are bound together.

From bride and groom to grandparents in just six verses! How time flies! Three generations are represented 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. “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord” (33:12).