Reflections on Psalm 128

Psalms 128 (Contemporary English Version)


1. (A song for worship.) The LORD will bless you if you respect him and obey his laws.
   
2. Your fields will produce, and you will be happy and all will go well.
   
3. Your wife will be as fruitful as a grapevine, and just as an olive tree is rich with olives, your home will be rich with healthy children.
   
4. That is how the LORD will bless everyone who respects him.
   
5. I pray that the LORD will bless you from Zion and let Jerusalem prosper as long as you live.
   
6. May you live long enough to see your grandchildren. Let's pray for peace in Israel!
   

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The previous psalm was written to a young man just starting out in life. This psalm seems to be a continuation of that one. They are a "Psalm to the Family." "How happy is everyone who fears the Lord," says the psalmist. In so doing, you will eat what your hands have worked for and your wife will have many children. I think we need to see these benefits as a general rule rather than a specific promise to everyone. Certainly everyone who fears the Lord and walks in His ways will be happy in so doing, but in reality not everyone who does so is recipient of the blessings mentioned here. If we understand our relationship with the Lord to be a guarantee of such benefits we have the wrong motivation for our relationship with Him. The relationship itself is a blessing and benefit sufficient in itself. Everything else is a bonus.

Generally speaking, those who walk in the Lord's ways live a lifestyle that promotes many of the blessings that come as a result of our relationship with the Lord. That is what the Ten Commandments are about: outlining a lifestyle that will promote a life of blessing rather than a life that is cursed by its practices. True, the Lord does bless us in specific ways at times that are special to us, but in general He blesses us by guiding us on a pathway of life, when we walk in His ways, that reaps its own reward.

The psalmist asks in verses 5 & 6 for further blessing beyond those mentioned in the first verses. He asks that as a people they would prosper all the days of their life and that they might have a long life in which to enjoy the children and grandchildren with which they have been blessed. Longevity is not always a blessing, particularly for those who have not enjoyed the blessings mentioned here. A lifestyle that has brought ill health and family dysfunction is not one that is blessed with more and more years of suffering from ill health and bad family relationships. True, many who do not fear the Lord life a lifestyle somewhat similar to those who do and thus do not suffer from poor lifestyle choices. Yet they miss out on many blessings that come from a relationship with the Lord.