Psalm 128 is the ninth of the “Ascent Songs” or “Pilgrim
Psalms” and is a companion to Psalm 127. 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. 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).
Our homes are either a place where we enjoy heaven on earth
or where we experience hell on earth. In our homes with our families, we can
enjoy the greatest pleasures and blessings of life, or we might experience the
worst emotional, mental, and physical abuse, hurt, pain, offenses, and
tragedies in life. In this psalm we also see that the welfare of the state
depends on the welfare of the home, and the welfare of the home depends on the
spiritual condition of the head of that home. An unspiritual father will often
produce unsaved children and unsaved children will build an unstable state.
That is the general principle underlying this psalm. The safety of the state
depends on the sanctity of the home, and the sanctity of the home depends on
the spirituality of the parents. No psalm in the Hebrew hymnbook needs to be
preached in America where our homes are literally falling apart more
insistently than this one.
In verse 1, 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. 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.
In verse 2, we see where the “blessed home” is one where
the family enjoys the fruit of hard-working parents. But who recognize that 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.
In verses 3-4, the family enjoys eating meals together. 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). 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.
In verses 5-6, we go 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. 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
True patriotism begins in the home, where love of God,
family, and country are bound together. "Blessed is the nation whose
God is the Lord" (Psalm 33:12).
God bless!
