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When I first read Psalm 128 earlier this week,  the first thing that came to mind was an Instagram post.  You know the one…the one with the family enjoying a perfect day at the beach?  Or, the last day of school pic where all the kids are shown with perfect grades and honors?  Or, the mom whipping up the gourmet dinner and making it look so easy?  Or, (last one) the picture of the remodeled, perfectly decorated house?  These are glimpses into people’s lives that we are exposed to daily, especially if we look at any social media.  They have the opportunity to encourage and motivate us, but they also have the ability to make us feel “less than.”  

Read through Psalm 128 (it’s only 6 verses:)

1Blessed is everyone who fears the Lord, who walks in his ways!  2You shall eat the fruit of the labor of your hands;  you shall be blessed and it shall be well with you.  3Your wife will be like a fruitful vine within your house;  your children will be like olive shoots around your table.  4Behold, thus shall the man be blessed who fears the Lord.  5The Lord bless you from Zion!  May you see the prosperity of Jerusalem all the days of your life!  6May you see your children’s children!  Peace be upon Israel!

Psalm 128 (ESV)

Wow!  Reading through the Psalm we see the picture of a perfect family.  Kind of like looking at Instagram posts.  This is where reality hits because, none of us have this ideal or perfect family! None of us have a perfect family here on earth, but we will all experience the blessing of an ideal family in heaven.

God may or may not bless you with marriage or children in this life.  But, the promise of Psalm 128 remains – “Blessed are all who fear the Lord.”  God has promised to bless all those who fear him and walk in His ways.  When you long for the same things God longs for, you will see your desires fulfilled.  

This Psalm teaches us that there is a direct relationship between our attitudes and actions and God’s blessing in our life.  God’s blessing is available to everyone, we can choose to welcome it or chase it away.  It all comes down to fearing the Lord.

But, that always confuses me.  What does it actually mean to fear the Lord?  Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines “fear” as “an unpleasant, often strong emotion caused by anticipation or awareness of danger;  anxious concern; or unpleasant alarm”, but it also notes it means “profound reverence and awe, especially toward God.”  

Fear of the Lord means to have a heart that is in awe of who God is, who he has created, and who he has made us to be.  To create lives for ourselves that make God proud.  To accept ourselves and love ourselves the way he made us, because we are made in his image.  Fear of the Lord simply helps us become the best version of ourselves.  

How we live our life matters.  There is a ripple effect that flows outward and touches those around us.  Our attitudes and actions impact our personal lives, our family life, our community and future generations.  Psalm 28 teaches us that the influence of a godly person is great.  God’s blessing flows outward from the individual, to the family, to the church, and to all the people of God.

Recently, during a pretty typical conversation at work with my manager, she asked me this question: “So what’s been motivating you lately?” A fairly innocuous and usual question, but I’d been thinking about Psalm 127 and, playing this conversation back in my head later, it got me feeling as though God was asking me that question about my walk with Him. What has been motivating me in life lately? Has it been my own ambitions, pursuits of my own accomplishment and provision of my own supply; or has it been pursuing God, and what He has given me? Have I been thankful for & driven by the works of my own hand, or by the works of His hand guiding me?

Psalm 127 lays out the simple fact that if we’re motivated solely by our own work and the whim of whatever we can find to bide our time, we’re pouring ourselves into temporary distractions that will be crushingly disappointing. Anything we can do is done in vain, when we do it because we only trust the work of our own hands over God’s. My mind goes to Ecclesiastes – all is meaningless and vain if you don’t remember the Creator. But on the flip side, any work and labor we do to honor our portion graciously given to us & to glorify Him and His kingdom becomes an act of glorification and thankfulness.

Verses 1 and 2 of this passage repeat this idea of toiling in vain; this makes me think of Jesus’s words in Matthew 6:25-27: “Do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?” When we needless run ourselves way too thin doing as much as we can because we misplace all the burden of providing on ourselves, are we reflecting Jesus’s assurances against our anxieties? When we stay up at night losing sleep because we’re worried about our work, our family life, our finances, our house, etc., who should we be listening to: Satan whispering lies of failure and fear into our ear, or God telling us He’s got it handled? Rather than needing to dwell on our concerns alone, God offers a reprieve from the shackles of worry through trusting that He provides what is fair and necessary.

And yes, this includes trusting God’s plan for your children! The latter half of this passage goes into the blessings of growing your family – and it’s no mistake these two topics going together. I’m not a parent myself, but between my own parents, my mentors with now-adult kids, and my younger friends having children right now, I’ve seen how raising your children to grow into good, God-centered people can be difficult at all steps. As this psalm says, the end result a blessing and reward from God. But this increasingly stressful path is one that requires putting your trust in God, that He has great plans to grow and watch over your young. You can put all the effort into your parenting possible and worry endlessly over your children, but no matter what you do, Christ alone saves His followers (John 10:28, “I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand”). Knowing Jesus is watching over your loved ones as they walk through life with Him has been a valuable encouragement for me – I pray it would be for you too.

Now, this is convicting for me to write, because I am definitely not without sin in this area. Almost everyone I know gets too worried about something from time to time. But I know God speaks through the most opportune moments – and I pray he would remind you to offer up your need for control as well today. Pray for conviction to recognize the need to surrender our feelings to God in times of toil; for wisdom and insight into how His word and His Scripture can deliver peace and spiritual rest; for a radical trust that will allow God to shine a light of unfailing hope through your life; and that in whatever you do, you would do it for the glory of Christ.

Psalm 125 is a praise song that the Israelites sang together while walking to Jerusalem for the Feast of Jehovah. This feast was celebrated every year. The people would make the trip so they could worship and celebrate together. Can you picture the scene?… a steady stream of people joyfully singing as they make their way up towards the city surrounded by mountains and hills. The temple sits at the highest point of the city so as they march up, praising God together with this song, their eyes are on the temple. The imagery is stunning and I get goose bumps thinking of the sound of masses of people praising God with this song on their journey. I wish I could hear the melody that goes with these words.

This tribute to God shows the people’s reverence toward His holy name. It speaks of His long-suffering, His goodness and grace, and it shouts thanksgiving for His everlasting mercy. These people had witnessed God’s faithfulness in the past. They were confident in His continuing goodness and grace toward them in the future. They recognized that God’s loving-kindness is unsurpassed and that His strength is matchless. They knew with certainty that God’s promises to His people last forever so they publicly and shamelessly raised their voices in this song to thank God.

“Those who trust in the Lord are as secure as Mount Zion; they will not be defeated but will endure forever. Just as the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the Lord surrounds His people, both now and forever.”

The promises in this Psalm are meant for us just as they were for the Israelites. We can look back through our own lives and see God’s goodness, faithfulness, grace, kindness and strength. We can recall the times He protected us, intervened on our behalf, and loved us beyond what we can comprehend. We should also look forward to the fulfillment of His promise to complete the good work He has started in all of us through Jesus. His promises last forever so He will not abandon us in our partially “finished” state. He will continue to shape us, renew our hearts, and complete the work of making us more like Him. This is praiseworthy! This makes me want to get to a mountaintop so I can shout out my thanks! There is hope for the things I am struggling with and the flaws in my person. He is working in me and changing me. He will complete the good work He has begun in me!!!

I have been contemplating pain and suffering and why God allows bad things to happen.

Psalm 123, our reading for today, has four verses.

1 Unto You I lift up my eyes,

O You who dwell in the heavens,

2 Behold, as the eyes of servants look to the hand of their masters,

As the eyes of a maid to the hand of her mistress,

Until He has mercy on us.

3 Have mercy on us, O Lord, have mercy on us!

For we are exceedingly filled with contempt.

4 Our soul is exceedingly filled

With the scorn of those who are at ease,

With the contempt of the proud.

The readings and verses of the Old Testament of the Bible, Genesis to Malachi, are the depiction of God’s first covenant with man.  The Books are complex, the names hard to read, and sometimes, the sadness and outlandish nature of the stories are hard to comprehend.  Book after book in the Old Testament is about people suffering great loss, murder, famine, sadness, and devastation.

I find the brutality of stories in the Old Testament (sacrificing animals, death of children, destruction of cities and civilizations) makes it hard for me to relate and dare I say causes me to struggle to find meaning in my faith in God.   The Old Testament stories many times don’t seem to make sense.

With that said, Christianity has brought about standards and expectations of morality in our society, rights to women and children, and has advanced the betterment of society.  Yes, there are sinful Christians who do bad things.  But Christians know that our God does allow bad things to happen.  There are moments that tragedy stops us in our tracks.

Our brains are wired to try to understand and find meaning.  We cannot help but feel loss and devastation when we are hurt or sad.  We try to leave feelings of sadness and despair behind as quickly as we can.  Certainly, when family or friends suffer during a health episode or unfortunately, sometimes death, we yearn to find meaning.  We want to end the hurt and feel better with a sensible explanation.

Here is why I choose to turn to God during times of despair, suffering, or loss.  Pastor Andy Stanley stated in a recent sermon that “God allowed the worst possible thing to happen to the best possible person.”   Why should I question God’s judgement about terrible things?  God sent His only Son to experience grave and unimaginable suffering as a demonstration to us that if we believe that Jesus died on the cross for our sins, we will live in eternity in Heaven.   Yes, very bad things happened to our Savior, Jesus.  How can we expect that the God we believe in doesn’t have meaning or purpose for the bad things that happen?

Faith grows through challenge.  Faith grows through sacrifice.  We appreciate the good times more when we have experienced the bad.

Our text for today is only 7 verses long.  Don’t let the length, however, shortchange the impact of its message.  The Psalmist is calling out to God for help overcoming the impact of slander.

Slander – words falsely spoken that damage the reputation of another (vocabulary.com).

One of the hardest things about dealing with the impact of slander is that you don’t even know it has happened until after the damage is done.  Have you ever experienced this?  I have, and I will attest that the scars run deep.  It is an incredibly hard experience to overcome especially when the perpetrator was someone you trusted and/or thought was on your side.

As I was preparing for today’s post, I consulted my Life Application Study Bible to see what insight it had on Psalm 120.  Its message was just what I needed to hear today.  Rather than focusing on the sin and its harmful impact, the notes for this chapter focus on a God-honoring response – peacemaking.

Peacemaking is not always popular.  Some people prefer to fight for what they believe in.  The glory of the battle is in the hope of winning, but someone must be a loser.  The glory of peacemaking is that it may actually produce two winners.  Peacemaking is God’s way, so we should carefully and prayerfully attempt to be peacemakers (Tyndale House, 1996).

Deciding when to fight for what is right and when to simply pursue peace, especially in the face of slander, isn’t easy.  On one hand, you don’t want to be perceived as a pushover.  But on the other hand, you also don’t want a bad reputation, to be seen as confrontational or viewed as closed-minded.  This may also mar your reputation.  I know peacemaking is supposed to produce two winners, but I will attest, it still feels like losing a lot of the time.  My fourteen year old daughter and I often talk about “taking the high road” and “turning the other cheek”.  It is hard in junior high, but even harder as an adult.  Think about it, the stakes are higher when a bad reputation has the potential to impact things in which you’ve made long-term investment (like your career or long-term relationships).

The Bible gives Christfollowers clear direction on how we are to respond to those who sin against us – return good for evil.  Turns out this is even harder than turning the other cheek and walking away!  Fortunately we have a God who is willing to help us do the right thing even when we don’t feel like it.  Can making peace with those who have sinned against you help repair your reputation?  Perhaps.  Even if it doesn’t though, obedience to the ways of the Lord will always produce a better outcome.  It may not change your reputation, but it may change your heart.

Do not repay anyone evil for evil.  Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone.  If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.  Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord.  On the contrary:

Located in the middle of the Bible is Psalm 119. It is the longest Psalm and the longest chapter in the Bible. It is written as an Acrostic poem and it is broken down into 22 sections. Each section starts with a letter of the Hebrew alphabet and each verse in the section starts with the same letter. Of course this is more noticeable in the original Hebrew writing, but it is significant because this structure made it easier for people to memorize and pass along to others.

Each verse in Psalm 119 could stand on its own. Matthew Henry, who was a Bible commentator in the 18th century, grew up meditating on a verse per day from Psalm 119. His father taught him to do this and told him, “That will bring you to be in love with all the rest of the scriptures”. Perhaps this is why Matthew Henry went on to write Bible commentaries. We become very close to what we meditate on every day.

I thought of this while I read through all 176 verses of Psalm 119. Almost every verse mentions God’s Word.  The author refers to the word as precepts, commands, principles, laws, commandments, ways, truths, and decrees. He is constantly redirecting all things back to God and His truth. There are verses of praise, anguish, despair, trial, and blessing. And after each proclamation of these human feelings there is a reminder that God’s word is the firm foundation that we stand on in the midst of struggle and praise. It is the answer to all things if we will recognize it and ask God for help.

Psalm 119:25-32 “I lie in the dust, completely discouraged; revive me by your word. I told you my plans, and you answered. Now teach me your principles. Help me understand the meaning of your commandments, and I will meditate on your wonderful miracles. I weep with grief, encourage me by your word. Keep me from lying to myself; give me the privilege of knowing your law. I have chosen to be faithful; I have determined to live by your laws. I cling to your decrees. Lord, don’t let me be put to shame! If you will help me, I will run to follow your commands.”

Do you hear yourself in any of the above verses? There is hope when we take all of our cares to Him and look for His guidance and not our own. There have been many opportunities to draw close to Jesus over the past year. It has made all the difference in my life. I pray the same for you!