Sermon Tone Analysis

Psalm 128.

Peace

The quiet blessings of an ordered life are traced from the centre outwards in this psalm, as the eye travels from the godly man to his family and finally to Israel.

Here is simple piety with its proper fruit of stability and peace.

128:1, 2. A man before God

The ingredients of true happiness (for the psalm should open with the word ‘Happy’, the same word as in 2b) are not far to seek.

Here they are summed up as reverence (the right relationship to God, 1a) and obedience (the habits learnt from him, 1b).

Hard work (2a) is taken for granted, but this psalm makes it as clear as Psalm 127 that enjoyment of its fruits is a gift from God (cf.

Isa.

62:8f.).

If these promises seem modest, and the programme of verse 1 unadventurous, they can be compared with their high-sounding alternatives: ‘You shall be happy’ with ‘ye shall be as gods’ (Gen.

3:5, av); and walking ‘in his ways’ with ‘every one to his own way’ (Isa.

53:6).

Psalm 14 shows what comes of these ambitions.

128:3, 4. The family circle

The vine was a symbol not only of fruitfulness (here explicitly so) but of sexual charm (Song 7:8ff.)

and of festivity (Judg.

9:13).

The strong word for within (cf.

neb, ‘in the heart of your house’), which refers to the wife directly, not to the vine, is in marked contrast to what is said of the promiscuous wife in Proverbs 7:11, as Keet points out: ‘She is loud and wayward, her feet do not stay at home.’

In the psalm the attractiveness of this wife is wholly matched by her faithfulness.

The children … around your table are the hope and promise of the future.

The simile of olive shoots is no more photographic than are the ‘arrows’ of 127:4.

In the two psalms these two aspects or stages of youth, as tender growth to be nurtured and as the embodiment of fiery zeal, make a complementary pair.

Cf., further, 144:12.

128:5, 6.

The wider horizon

If piety can be too individualistic, and a family too self-contained, the final strophe takes care of both these dangers.

Zion, where the faithful gather, is where ‘you’ (singular) can expect to find blessing (cf.

Heb.

12:22ff.); and your family’s future is bound up in Zion’s welfare and that of Israel.

There is perhaps a New Testament echo of the last exclamation, Peace be upon Israel! in .

It is no empty phrase there: it sums up the urgent concern of Paul that God’s people should not put up barriers against each other, but show themselves true citizens of ‘the Jerusalem above’ (), our common metropolis.

It is still a prayer to echo.

128:title See note on 120:title.

128:1–2 The psalmist begins with a general statement connecting obedience and blessing.

He then addresses the audience in personal terms to draw them toward obedience to Yahweh.

128:1 The word ashre (“blessed” or “fortunate”) is used to contrast the righteous and wicked throughout the book of Psalms.

The fear of God is connected to conduct; the blessed person reveres God in belief and conduct.