Word Live: Happiness Is
Bring to mind situations where you would dearly love the Lord to pour out healing, restoration and blessing.
Bible passage
Psalm 128
A song of ascents.
1 Blessed are all who fear the Lord,
who walk in obedience to him.
2 You will eat the fruit of your labour;
blessings and prosperity will be yours.
3 Your wife will be like a fruitful vine
within your house;
your children will be like olive shoots
round your table.
4 Yes, this will be the blessing
for the man who fears the Lord.
5 May the Lord bless you from Zion;
may you see the prosperity of Jerusalem
all the days of your life.
6 May you live to see your children’s children –
peace be on Israel.
Holy Bible, New International Version® Anglicized, NIV® Copyright © 1979, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Explore
This song, which was often sung at Israelite marriages, paints a picture of a contented man surrounded by his family. But within this psalm of domestic bliss is a reminder of the blessings promised to Israel after they had been rescued from Egypt (Deuteronomy 6:1–3; 28:1–14). Those who obeyed God (v 1) would be allowed to stay in the Promised Land which gave them all they needed to flourish (v 2).
Flourishing meant living in peace, free from enemies or oppressive leaders who might rob you of the ‘fruit of your labour’. It meant living free from war and disease in conditions stable and healthy enough for your wife to give birth safely, for your children to survive the perilous early years (vs 3,4) and for you to see the family line continue (v 6).
Although obedience starts with each individual (v 1), there is a sense in verse 5 of corporate responsibility and national leadership as the psalmist points to Israel’s communal worship point (the Temple) and the seat of the king in Jerusalem. The psalm suggests that God’s blessing flows down through wise leadership (in government and in the family unit) as his people obey his commands.
Author
Penny Boshoff
Respond
Pray for God’s people to obey him in the small and large matters of life so that God’s blessing of safety and flourishing would flow through homes, communities and nations.
Deeper Bible study
Psalms 128–130 take us from simple pleasures to the depths of despair. Pray for grace, wherever we may be just now on this spectrum.
This brief psalm contains a classic expression of one aspect of the core beliefs of ancient Israel, that reverence for God and a determination to obey his will are the foundation of human well-being and happiness. Elsewhere this conviction is related to large issues concerning the peace of a city or the security and prosperity of an entire nation, but here the focus is narrowed right down to the domestic sphere of family life. The psalmist wants us to recognise that simple, taken-for-granted pleasures and joys are the consequence of the life of faith, so that the gifts of God are bestowed ‘in the little happinesses of everyday life’.1
Of course, the psalm does not address situations in which godly people encounter tensions and breakdowns in family relationships, although this reality is clearly recognised elsewhere and the Bible is completely realistic about experiences which seem to contradict the scene of intimate family joy depicted here. Nonetheless, the basic conviction of this text is that the family unit, when shaped by the love of God and his righteousness, is both the sphere within which children experience joy and security as they mature into adulthood and the basis upon which wider social harmony and communal well-being rest. The psalm may take a restricted view of things, but it serves to remind us that the blessing of a nation begins at the place where the family eat together ‘round your table’ (v 3).
Give thanks for the love shared in your family; remember all who lack such blessings and suffer as a result.
1 Artur Weiser, The Psalms: Old Testament Library, Fortress Press, 1962, p769
Author
David Smith
