Psalm 128
Notes
Transcript
Psalm 128
Let’s take a poll real quick, raise your hand if you want to be happy.
Everyone wants to be happy, these verses tell us that the man who obeys its words will be blessed.
The word translated blessed is a Hebrew word that means a person’s state of bliss.
It is also translated in other verses as Happy.
The first verse begins with an astounding promise, “Blessed is every one that feareth the Lord.”
What a promise!
This psalm, written by an unknown author, is the second of the family psalms of Degrees
If you remember, the songs of degrees, or songs of ascent, are the psalms that were sung as pilgrims would make their way up to Jerusalem for the feasts.
So how do we have happiness in our family, and in our life?
Scripture has a lot to say about happiness, or being blessed.
Jesus began His Sermon on the Mount with a list of qualities that produce happiness.
God wants us to be happy!
But happiness does not depend upon our circumstances, but often our response to our circumstances, as well as our obedience to God.
Knowing the importance of the fear of the Lord, the Psalmist emphasizes it here in this Psalm.
This Psalms shows us four clear evidences of the Fear of the Lord, in the life of your family.
But before we get to the evidences, I want to take a moment and talk about what is the fear of the Lord.
Fear is used two different ways in scripture.
The first is something that is sinful, and the Bible often tells us to “Fear Not.”
However there are other places where fear is praised.
The difference is one is unbelieving fear, and the other is believing!
Where our fear is based on a lack of trust, or faith, in God it is sinful.
26 And he saith unto them, Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith? Then he arose, and rebuked the winds and the sea; and there was a great calm.
The fear of the Lord on the other hand works in tandem with trust in God.
The Bible tells us
10 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom: And the knowledge of the holy is understanding.
I love Andrew Murray’s lesson on the Fear of the Lord.
In it he gives five characteristics of the Christian who has fear of the Lord:
There is a holy reverence before God.
8 Let all the earth fear the Lord: Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him.
There is deep humility in self, and deep confidence in God.
4 By humility and the fear of the Lord Are riches, and honour, and life.
5 I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: But now mine eye seeth thee.
6 Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent In dust and ashes.
There is circumspection or vigilance.
seeks to know the right path
watch against the enemy
guarded against sin, in speech or action
2 That thou mayest regard discretion, And that thy lips may keep knowledge.
11 And thou mourn at the last, When thy flesh and thy body are consumed,
13 The fear of the Lord is to hate evil: Pride, and arrogancy, and the evil way, And the froward mouth, do I hate.
There is holy zeal and courage.
the fear of displeasing the Lord helps us do right
Helps us be faithful even in the small things
2 That thou mightest fear the Lord thy God, to keep all his statutes and his commandments, which I command thee, thou, and thy son, and thy son’s son, all the days of thy life; and that thy days may be prolonged.
Takes all other fear away, and gives courage to do right.
2 Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid: For the Lord JEHOVAH is my strength and my song; He also is become my salvation.
Brings Joy to the heart of the believer.
Fear is the root, joy is the fruit.
23 Ye that fear the Lord, praise him; All ye the seed of Jacob, glorify him; And fear him, all ye the seed of Israel.
So having the fear of the Lord is to stand in awe of God and reverence Him properly, realizing that we are nothing.
It helps us to be watchful of things around us that would cause us to displease Him, and with zeal and courage we press forward, seeing all other fear vanish knowing He is our God.
The end result is true joy.
So now that we have seen what the fear of the Lord looks like, let’s see four clear evidences of the fear of the Lord in our lives according to these verses.
I. We will Obey
I. We will Obey
1 Blessed is every one that feareth the Lord; That walketh in his ways.
This verse definitively connects the fear of the Lord with obeying Him, or walking in His ways.
When we truly fear God, we will obey what He tells us to do.
It is those who do not consciously think about who God is and stand in awe of Him as we walk through this life, it is those that think nothing of disobeying Him.
We want to please the Lord when we fear Him.
9 Wherefore we labour, that, whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him.
10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.
11 Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men; but we are made manifest unto God; and I trust also are made manifest in your consciences.
These verses couple the idea of fearing the Lord and having a realization that we are going to answer to Him with obeying His specific command to tell others about Him.
Look at this verse in Psalm 111
10 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom: A good understanding have all they that do his commandments: His praise endureth for ever.
David here connects fearing the Lord with doing His commandments.
It also helps us to be around others who obey Him as well.
63 I am a companion of all them that fear thee, And of them that keep thy precepts.
Solomon summed it up in Ecclesiastes 12:13
13 Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.
So if we fear the Lord, one of the clear evidences of this will be that we are obeying Him.
II. We will Work
II. We will Work
2 For thou shalt eat the labour of thine hands: Happy shalt thou be, and it shall be well with thee.
When we fear the Lord the Bible says we will work.
And by our work we will eat the labour of our hands.
We will not rest in ease, but rather we will work, but God will bless and prosper that work, and the result will be a blessing for your family…food at the table.
Of course this is a general promise, it does not guarantee that famine or crop failure would never come.
But God will provide, as He always does!
When we fear the Lord, we work…for our family...
8 But if any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel.
But we will also work for the Lord.
12 And now, Israel, what doth the Lord thy God require of thee, but to fear the Lord thy God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul,
Here Moses told the children of Israel that the fear of the Lord is connected to serving the Lord.
There are far too many “Christians” who are content to go about their lives filling a pew, and say “feed me, feed me”, but not do anything for God.
It is the Job of every Christian to serve the Lord!
And we serve the Lord by serving each other!
13 For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another.
If have been saved, you should not seek what your flesh wants, but serve one another!
The whole purpose for us to be saved, is not to gain fire insurance.
We are to serve Him, and become more like Him!
1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.
2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.
A clear evidence that you fear the Lord, is you will Obey Him.
Not only that but you will Work For Him, both in providing for your family, as well as for each other.
III. We Will Be Together
III. We Will Be Together
That is together with our family.
3 Thy wife shall be as a fruitful vine By the sides of thine house: Thy children like olive plants Round about thy table.
A real problem in American homes is that the family is not often together.
Now individual time is important, but so is togetherness.
This is spoken to the husband, the leader of the home...
Husbands that fear the Lord will bless their wives and their children.
If your wife is not happy, we really ought to look more closely at not only our love for our wives, but also our love for the Lord.
This word that is translated as the sides of the house, speaks to being in the inner recesses of the hold of a ship, or a cave, or a house.
We assume that the verse is saying the outside of the house, but it’s not…it is the inner most sanctum.
The wife is really in the home, and she is fruitful.
The verse continues and gives the picture of the family gathered around the table.
When we have such busy schedules it is important to eat together.
But a blessing of fearing the Lord is that the children are established, planted, around your table.
But this is a result of many years of fearing the Lord, training them up in the way they ought to go.
It is not an overnight result…just as it’s not an overnight result…if you love your wife in the fear of the Lord that she will honor you.
In verses 4-6 I see the fourth and final clear evidence of a man fearing the Lord:
IV. We Will Be Faithful
IV. We Will Be Faithful
In these verses we see mention of a long term effects…all the days of thy life…they children’s children, etc.
4 Behold, that thus shall the man be blessed that feareth the Lord.
5 The Lord shall bless thee out of Zion: And thou shalt see the good of Jerusalem All the days of thy life.
6 Yea, thou shalt see thy children’s children, And peace upon Israel.
Verse four the Psalmist reiterates the fact that these things are the result of the man fearing the Lord.
4 Behold, that thus shall the man be blessed that feareth the Lord.
This is how the man will be blessed that fears the Lord.
And he continues in verse 5 saying,
5 The Lord shall bless thee out of Zion: And thou shalt see the good of Jerusalem All the days of thy life.
This verse speaks of a spiritual blessing coming out of Zion - the name given for Jerusalem where they would go to worship, to feast before the Lord.
This man is one of the many who is blessed because of their faithful obedience to the Lord.
The priestly blessing is recorded in Numbers 6:24-26
24 The Lord bless thee, and keep thee:
25 The Lord make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee:
26 The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace.
This is what shall come upon the God fearing man!
He says, “thou shalt see the good of Jerusalem all the days of thy life”
This is a blessing to the nation that is full of men who fear the Lord.
In verse 6 he talks about seeing the peace of Israel.
God wants to bless our nation as well, but we as the People of America must fear the Lord again!
But we, as a nation, do not!
We make laws to kill our unborn
We condone wickedness of every kind
We promote and encourage denying the design of God in our lives by saying we can identify as whatever or who ever we want.
Even when making laws to outlaw drugs, violence, or any other kind of sin, we try to cure the outside, without dealing with the heart.
It is rightly stated that America will cease to be great when America ceases to be good.
WE cannot expect the blessings that are promised here if we do not fear the Lord.
It must begin with us.
Yes, we may be alone, but we will then alone see the blessings of God upon our lives.
We just need to stay faithful.
The key to this, is to Fear the Lord.
Then we too will be able to see our children’s children, and it is a blessed man who is able to.
This list, is not the How to fear the Lord list, no!
But those who fear the Lord will Obey
They will Work
They Will be Together
And they will be faithful!
Do you want to be blessed?
Do you want to be happy?
Fear the Lord!
Remind yourself of who God is, and fear Him...have a holy reverence for Him!
With humility and deep confidence in God liver circumspectly watching to guard against evil.
With a zeal and courage do what God wants you to do, and joyfully do that which pleases Him