Psalms 128:1 - Meaning and Application

Here it is shown that godliness carries a promise for this life and the life to come. Again and again, the psalm teaches one clear truth, those who are truly holy are truly happy. The people described here are those who fear the Lord and walk in his ways, people who have deep reverence for God and show it by steady obedience.

Where the fear of God rules the heart, life will show it. It is empty to claim we fear God if we do not carefully keep to his ways and do not drift away from them. Such people are blessed, and they will continue to be blessed (Psalm 128:1, 4). God blesses them, and when he declares them blessed, that makes them so. They are blessed now, they will still be blessed, and they will be blessed forever.

This blessedness is promised to all the saints, to everyone who fears the Lord, whatever his rank or place in the world. In every nation, the person who fears God and does what is right is accepted by him, and so is blessed, whether high or low, rich or poor. If religion rules a person, it will guard and enrich that person. The promise also applies to each believer personally, not just to the church as a whole. We are meant to take it to ourselves: “Happy shall you be” if you fear God and walk in his ways (Psalm 128:2). That means, it will go well with you. Whatever happens, good will come out of it. It will be well with you while you live, better when you die, and best of all forever.

The psalm also calls attention to this promise: “Behold, this is how the man will be blessed” (Psalm 128:4). Look at it by faith in the promise. Look at it in the way God fulfills the promise. Look at it with assurance, because God is faithful. Look at it with wonder too, because we deserve no such favor or blessing from him.

The psalm then gives particular promises to godly people, so far as they serve God’s glory and the person’s good, and that is enough. First, by God’s blessing, they will earn an honest living and be able to live comfortably on it. The promise is not that they will live without work, care, or effort. It is that they will eat the labor of their hands. They will have work to do, which is better than an idle life, and they will have health, strength, and a sound mind to do it. They will not be forced to depend on others for daily food, as disabled poor people often must. It is both a mercy and a duty to work quietly and eat our own bread (2 Thessalonians 3:12).

The promise also is that their work will succeed, and they and their families will enjoy what they earn. Others will not come and take the food from their mouths, and it will not be taken away by cruel rulers or invading enemies. God will not ruin their work or cause it to fail, as he did in Haggai 1:9. His blessing can make a little go far. It is a glad thing to enjoy the fruit of your own labor. Just as sleep is sweet to the worker, so is the food.

Second, godly people will have much comfort in their family life. A wife and children bring a man great care, but when God’s grace shapes them as they should be, they are also a great delight, one of the richest comforts in life. The wife will be like a vine by the sides of the house, not only beautiful, but fruitful and useful. Her fruit will honor both God and man, as in Judges 9:13. A vine is a weak and tender plant and needs support and care, but it is valuable. The wife’s proper place is in her husband’s house, where her work belongs and where she is safe.

She is not to be trampled on, and she is not to rule harshly over the house either. Her place is beside the house, like a rib taken from the side of the man. She will be a loving wife, clinging to the house-side like a vine, and an obedient wife, pliable and ready to grow as she is guided. She will also be fruitful, not only in children, but in wisdom, righteousness, and good management. Her branches will run over the wall (Genesis 49:22; Psalm 80:11), so to speak, because her good fruit will be seen beyond the home.

The children will be like olive plants, which in time grow into olive trees. Though by nature they are wild, they can be grafted into the good olive tree and share in its root and rich life (Romans 11:17). It is a joy to parents, even with plain food, to see their children gathered around the table. They are glad to have many children close by, not scattered away from them. Job counted this among the chief signs of his former prosperity, that his children were around him (Job 29:5). Parents love to have their children at table, to brighten the family conversation, to see them healthy, and to have them like olive plants, straight and green, soaking up the good instruction they have received, and likely to become useful in time.

You will see the good of Jerusalem as long as you live, even if you live many years, and your private joys will not be spoiled and made bitter by public troubles. A good person can take little comfort in seeing his children’s children unless he also sees peace in Israel and has hope of passing on the full inheritance of pure religion to those who come after him. That is the best inheritance.