Psalm 128
Introduction
Exposition
Verse 1
Blessed is every one that feareth the Lord. The last Psalm ended with a blessing,—for the word there translated "happy" is the same as that which is here rendered "blessed": thus the two songs are joined by a catch word. There is also in them a close community of subject.
Verse 2
For thou shalt eat the labour of thine hands. The general doctrine in Ps 128:1 here receives a personal application: note the change to the second person: "thou shalt eat", etc. This is the portion of God's saints,—to work, and to find a reward in so doing. God is the God of labourers.
Verse 3
Thy wife. To reach the full of earthly felicity a man must not be alone. A helpmeet was needed in Paradise, and assuredly she is not less necessary out of it. He that findeth a wife findeth a good thing.
Verse 4
Behold, that thus shall the man be blessed that feareth the LORD. Mark this. Put a Nota Bene against it, for it is worthy of observation. It is not to be inferred that all blessed men are married, and are fathers; but that this is the way in which the Lord favours godly people who are placed in…
Verse 5
The Loud shall bless thee out of Zion. A spiritual blessing shall be received by the gracious man, and this shall crown all his temporal mercies. He is one among the many who make up God's inheritance; his tent is part and parcel of the encampment around the tabernacle; and therefore, when the…
Verse 6
Yea, thou shalt see thy children's children. This is a great pleasure. Men live their young lives over again in their grandchildren. Does not Solomon say that "children's children are the crown of old men?" So they are.
Explanatory Notes & Quaint Sayings
Verse 1
Blessed is every one that feareth the LORD, etc. Here we have the living fountain of the blessing which rests upon the conjugal and domestic state. When worldly prudence attempts to choose a wife and form a household, it can apply its hand only to so much of the work as has its seat upon earth, and…
Verse 2
For thou shalt eat the labour of thine hands, etc. There is a fourfold literal sense here: Thou shalt live by honest, peaceful labour, not by rapine and violence on that produced by the toil of others, nor yet indolently and luxuriously; thou shalt "eat", and not penuriously stint thyself and…
Verse 3
Thy wife shall be as a fruitful vine, etc. The comparison would perhaps be brought out more clearly by arranging the verse as follows: "Thy wife shall be in the inner part of thy house Like a fruitful vine; Thy children round about thy table Like the shoots of the olive." In the inner part,…
Verse 4
As Haman caused it to be proclaimed (Es 6:9), "Thus shall it be done to the man whom the king delighteth to honour"; so here, Behold, that thus shall the man be blessed that feareth the Lord.
Verse 5
Thou shalt see the good of Jerusalem, etc. What is added concerning "the good of Jerusalem" is to be regarded as enjoining upon the godly the duty not only of seeking their own individual welfare, or of being devoted to their own peculiar interests; but rather of having it as their chief desire to…
Verse 6
Lord, let thy blessing so accompany my endeavours in their offspring, that all my sons may be Benaiahs, the Lord's building, and then they will all be Abners, their father's light; and that all my daughters may be Bethins, the Lord's daughters, and then they will all be Abigails, their father's…
Hints to the Village Preacher
Verse 1. The universality of the blessedness of God fearing men. Circumstances, personal or relative, cannot alter the blessing; nor age, nor public opinion, nor even their own sense of unworthiness. Verse 1. Consider: 1. The union of a right fear with a right walk.
TITLE. A Song of Degrees. There is an evident ascent from the last Psalm: that did but hint at the way in which a house may be built up, but this draws a picture of that house built, and adorned with domestic bliss through the Lord's own benediction.