Year 2, Day 272: Psalms 126-128

Psalm 126

Psalm 126 is a Psalm of Ascents that looks backwards and forwards while living in the present.  The beginning of the psalm looks back to when God pulled the Hebrew people out of captivity.  The psalm lives in the present in the recognition that there are people who currently need to be restored.  The psalm looks to the future when the Hebrew people will once again sing with joy at their restoration.

However, the true power of this psalm is in the witness.  When God saves the Hebrew people, there is rejoicing.  But the outside world also takes notice.  The nations say, “The Lord is doing great things among them.”  This goes to demonstrate a really important point.  The Lord ultimately works for His glory. 

We’d like to believe that we can get the Lord to work for our life.  Yes, God does care about what happens to us.  But God ultimately works for His glory above our own.

Psalm 127

Psalm 127 is a Psalm of Ascent on the topic of perspective.  Unless the Lord desires something, our work is in vain.  Isn’t that a really humbling perspective?

Of course, we know that God gives us free will.  We know that we are capable of doing things that the Lord simply does not desire.  So the psalmist isn’t saying that everything that happens is of the Lord.  To make that claim means that we lay all of the atrocities of human history at the feet of the Lord.  That simply isn’t right.

Rather, what the psalmist is saying is that we can build nothing of tremendous lasting value without God.  If God isn’t in something, then what we build will have no enduring effect.

As I read through the opening lines of this psalm, I am reminded of Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 3:10-15.  Paul talks about the things that we spend our life doing and how they will all be judged in the end.  The question becomes: if nothing we can do without God is of any enduring value, why do anything that God is not a part of?  Is our temporary pleasure really worth it in the long run?

The second half of the psalm speaks to the importance of children.  Children are a gift from the Lord.  Children are our greatest resource.  I think about all of the effort that typical churches and the people within them put into the children of the congregation.  To quote an often repeated saying, they are our future.  They are the ones who will pick up the fight when we must lay it down.  They are the ones who will carry God’s evangelistic message to the next generation.  Indeed.  We are wise when we fill our quiver with as many of the next generation as possible!

On an aside, Psalm 127 is at the midpoint of the Psalms of Ascent.  I don’t think it is too much of a stretch to say that this represents the centrality of the nuclear family and the work of the Lord in our culture.  When we destroy the nuclear family and we forget about God … we destroy the central linchpins upon which a good society is built.  I believe the psalmists knew this and made this point symbolically.

Psalm 128

As we continue into the back half of the Psalms of Ascent the first one to which we arrive is a psalm about blessing.  Note the theme.  The one who fears the Lord and walks in His ways will be blessed.  I am reminded of James and his emphasis in the New Testament about faith and works coming together.  I am reminded of Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s wonderful quote from the Cost of Discipleship where he says, “Only those who believe obey and only those who obey believe.”  I am reminded of the old song Trust and Obey, “Trust and obey, for there’s no other way!”

Consistently we hear the message throughout God’s Word.  Faith comes by hearing.  Salvation comes from God’s hand.  We do not earn salvation.  But God desires – even expects – us to respond.  God expects our response to be faith and faithfulness.  Blessed are the ones who fear the Lord and walk in His ways.

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