Fruitful Vine and Olive Shoots (Psalm 128: 1-6) Mission Blessings

Your wife will be like a fruitful vine within your house; Good morning! Here is today’s word of blessings for you. Psalm 128: 1-6 1 Blessed are all who fear the Lord, who walk in obedience to him. 2 You will eat the fruit of your labor; blessings and prosperity will be yours. 3 Your wife will be like a fruitful vine within your house; your children will be like olive shoots around your table. 4 Yes, this will be the blessing for the man who fears the Lord. 5 May the Lord bless you from Zion; may you see the prosperity of Jerusalem all the days of your life. 6 May you live to see your children’s children— peace be on Israel. Today’s title is “Fruitful Vine and Olive Shoots” The Bible shows us many characteristics of God. He is righteous. He is loving. He is all powerful and all knowing. There are many other characteristics of God that the Bible shows. These characteristics all show diff aspect of God. These characteristics and are all important and are closely interrelated. But to me, there is one nature of God that seems to be the foundation of all these charactristics of God. It is that He is living God. All the characteristics of God are futile if our God is not living God. God is loving because He is living. How can God be righteous if He is not living? I believe that’s exactly why the ten commandment emphatically rejects lifeless idols and strongly warns against treating God as if He is another lifeless idol. Since God is living God, God not only give us life but also cares for how we live. Even the sacrifice that God takes the greatest joy is living sacrifice. So how can we offer God the living sacrifice? The best way to do it is through our family life I believe. I personally believe that when God said that He is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, it implies in part that God has great concerns for our families. Family is God-designed channels through which the knowledge and love of God passes down from one generation to another. So God blesses families and cares for the needs of the families. Today’s psalm shows how God cares for the families that love God in most beautiful ways. It is no wonder that this is called as the family hymn by bible scholars. This psalm shows that God blesses the families with the plentiful fruit of the labor, happy wife and husband relationship, and multiple children around the table. Such care and provision of God never ceases as it says “May the Lord bless you from Zion; may you see the prosperity of Jerusalem all the days of your life. May you live to see your children’s children— peace be on Israel.” What more can a family ask? God indeed cares and provides more than what we need as long as our families love and fear God. Does your family enjoy such bountiful blessings? Is your wife like the fruitful vine? Are your children like olive shoots around the table? Just make sure that you and your family fear the Lord, and walk in obedience to him. Amen!