Psalm 128, A Song of Ascents.
1 Blessed is every one who fears the Lord, Who walks in His ways. 2 When you eat the labor of your hands, You shall be happy, and it shall be well with you. 3 Your wife shall be like a fruitful vine In the very heart of your house, Your children like olive plants All around your table. 4 Behold, thus shall the man be blessed Who fears the Lord. 5 The Lord bless you out of Zion, And may you see the good of Jerusalem All the days of your life. 6Yes, may you see your children’s children. Peace be upon Israel!
God authorizes parents, governments and churches to rule within their spheres. Sometimes they overstep their boundaries. In June of 2025, for example, the supreme court, “ruled that a group of Maryland parents have a right to opt their elementary-school-aged children out of instruction that includes LGBTQ+ themes.”
Clashes of authority can happen between churches and families also. Sometimes churches trespass on familial rights. At other times, families deny the church their mission.
Psalm 128 helps us. The Holy Spirit shows us that God blesses the covenant family through the husband and the church. That same healthy family gives back to the congregation.
God Blesses the Covenant Family through the Husband
God blesses the covenant family through the god-fearing husband. You can see this in verse 4: “Behold, thus shall the man be blessed Who fears the Lord.” The Hebrew word for man in verse 4 is geber. It is not the general word for human or humanity. It is the word for male or husband. It is, moreover, not just any man who causes these blessings, but the one who fears the Lord. Bruce Waltke—in his commentary on Proverbs— wrote that you cannot understand “fear of the Lord” by defining each separate word anymore than you can understand the word butterfly by defining ‘butter’ and then ‘fly’. Fear of the Lord is a concept of both rational and emotional aspects. Charles Bridges, a 19th century theologian, captured this well by defining the phrase as, “that affectionate reverence, by which the child of God bends himself humbly and carefully to his Father’s law.”
It makes sense that God would bless a family through a man like that. The blessing is mediated through the life of the husband. The good husband is the means which God deploys so that the wife and children would flourish as seen in verse 3. With the husband as the trellis, the wife as a vine is heavy with fecundity and the children feast. The man who bends himself humbly and carefully to His law, this is through whom God works.
The good husband is the means which God deploys so that the wife and children would flourish as seen in verse 3. With the husband as the trellis, the wife as a vine is heavy with fecundity and the children feast.
God does bless families in other ways. In cases of singleness, divorce, or if a husband dies leaving behind a widow, God works through other means. In Psalm 128, God works through the god-fearing husband.
This is serious business. If you are discipling a young man, prepare him for this responsibility. If you are disciplining a young woman, you can help her to know what kind of man she should desire. If you are a husband, now would be a good time to ask, “Is my family cursed because I refuse to walk in God’s ways?” If so, then go to the Lord in prayer asking for forgiveness and repentance. Call your elder. Tell them you want to be God’s blessing to your family. Ask them to help you.
God Blesses the Covenant Family through the Church
God not only blesses the covenant family through the husband but also through the church. The Psalmist says this in verse 5, “The Lord bless you out of Zion.” In Hebrews 12, we learn that Zion and Jerusalem are figures of speech for the church. “But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem,…to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven..,” God intends to bring his blessings through both church officers–deacons and elders–and the congregation. Christ gives church government as a vital aid to his people. In Ephesians 4, Paul labels officers a gift from Jesus Christ to his congregation. In Titus and Timothy, Paul assumes that officers guard and build up the flock. The congregation is another divine aid. The Shorter Catechism says “And being united to one another in love, they have communion in each other’s gifts and graces; and are obliged to the performance of such duties, public and private, as do conduce to their mutual good, both in the inward and outward man” (WCF 26).
Christ gives church government as a vital aid to his people. In Ephesians 4, Paul labels officers a gift from Jesus Christ to his congregation. In Titus and Timothy, Paul assumes that officers guard and build up the flock.
The Covenant Family Blesses the Congregation
We come now to the final verse of our Psalm. “And may you see the good of Jerusalem All the days of your life. Yes, may you see your children’s children. Peace be upon Israel!” The strong household is not strong only for itself, but for the larger community of saints–the congregation. When you walk into a church narthex or sanctuary and see all of the children, remember this. As they are raised in Christ’s name, our hope is that God will make them men and women who contribute to church society. Through them, God will cause the congregation to flourish. Timothy (2 Timothy 1:5) is a good example. Raised up by his mother, Eunice, and grandmother, Lois, in the Lord, the Lord sent him to maintain Paul’s church plants.
Conclusion
When I married Holly, I was still young in my faith. It showed in how I conducted myself as her husband. A friend from church noticed my behavior. On a walk, he rebuked me and gave me a vision for what a Christian husband should look like—Jesus Christ. He is the good husband walking in the ways of His father. He is the bridegroom making a way for his bride—the church—to flourish. God used that conversation to put me on a different path. By God’s work of grace, I started blessing my wife and children as Christ blesses the church.
A few years ago, I even noticed that God was using my children to bless the congregation. When my oldest daughter received her driver’s license, she visited a woman who was unable to leave her house. Recently, that dear sister went home to be with the Lord. My oldest daughter stood by her in the hospital when she took her last breaths.
Truly, God blesses the covenant family through god-fearing husbands. Truly, God aids families through the church. Truly those same families bring life to the congregation.
