Psalms 128

Psalms 128:1-6

“ It Shall Be Well with Thee” Psalms 128:1-6 This psalm is the portrait of a godly man and his home in the best days of the Hebrew commonwealth. The husband and father, Psalms 128:1-2. He is reverent and devout. Peace is on his face; he is happy in himself and in his home; respected among his fellows; and garners at the end the results of his work. The wife and house-mother, Psalms 128:3. She is like the vine surrounding the inner court of an oriental house, yielding shade and refreshment. The children, Psalms 128:3. The olive is the symbol of enduring prosperity and joy. The young plants will presently be bedded out to become trees of mature growth. Forebodings Past deliverances, Psalms 129:1-4. Israel’ s youth was spent in Egypt. See Hosea 2:15; Hosea 11:1; Jeremiah 2:6. As the plow tears up the soil, so the lash cuts their quivering flesh. But in such furrows God sows the seed of a blessed “ afterward.” When our case is desperate, God cuts the oxen’ s binding cords, the plow stands still, and the bitter pain ceases. Forebodings and predictions, Psalms 129:5-8. Withered grass, unmourned, fit only for fuel. Such is the fate of those who oppress God’ s people. The reference is to the scant blades which grow on the flat roof of an Eastern house. The usual benediction on the reaper’ s toil will never extend to those withered blades.

On fearing the Lord This Psalm has no authorship or date assigned to it. It is anonymous, as are so many of the sweetest hymns of the Church. But it needs no introduction. It goes on singing through the world, refreshing weary hearts as the Streamlets which run among the hills. The burden is the blessedness of true godliness in the entire range of human life.

Psalms 128:1-4. Blessed is every one that feareth the Lord How continuously throughout the Old Testament do we find blessedness associated with godliness! (Deuteronomy 7:12-14; Deuteronomy 28:1-14; Job 1:10; Psalms 33:12; Psalms 112:1-3; Psalms 115:13-15). Note the words, every one, which hand on the blessing to all, whether Jews or Gentiles, who comply with these conditions. The fear of the Lord is born of love which dares not grieve. It is the inner temper of the devout soul which always reveals itself in the consistent and obedient walk. We walk in his ways when we walk in the Spirit (Galatians 5:16-25). Psalms 128:2. Shall eat the labour of thine hands A gracious promise! Leviticus 26:16-17 and Deuteronomy 28:31-33 present the dark reverse which is the portion of the ungodly.

It shall be well with thee How often do we meet with this pledge, either direct or implied, in the Book of (Deuteronomy 4:40; Deuteronomy 5:16; Deuteronomy 6:3; Deuteronomy 6:18; Deuteronomy 12:25; Deuteronomy 12:28; Deuteronomy 19:13; Deuteronomy 22:7); and it is once repeated in the New Testament (Ephesians 6:3). Faith can grasp this promise, even when outward appearances seem adverse to its fulfilment (2 Kings 4:26). It shall be well amid calamity and sorrow, in the deepest, best and most permanent sense. Isaiah 65:18-25 is the “latter-day” fulfilment of this promise.

Psalms 128:3. In the innermost parts of thine house (R.V.) Reminding us of the beautiful courtyard or quadrangle of an Oriental house, in which the fountain plays and around which the vine trails gracefully. Thy children like olive plants The petition of Psa 144:12 is for such a blessing as this. And it has its response. “I am like a green olive tree” (Psalms 52:8; see also Jeremiah 11:16; Hosea 14:6). Jesus grew up as a “tender plant” (Isaiah 53:2).

Psalms 128:5. The Lord shall bless thee out of Zion! Jerusalem, as the center of religious worship where the temple was, stood as the focus for the religious life and thought of the nation (Psalms 20:2). And its prosperity was intimately associated with that of the people (Psalms 122:2-6). The spiritual and temporal act and interact.

Psalms 128:6. Thy children’s children The promise of Psa 103:17 accords with this verse (see also Proverbs 13:22). Note the word to restored Israel in Ezekiel 37:25. In those days aged men and women shall look with complacency on the boys and girls of a third or fourth generation playing in the streets (Zechariah 8:4-5). Happy are those who, even now, can put their finger on the promise in Isaiah 59:21, and claim it as their own!