Psalm 128
Blessed is everyone who fears the Lord,
who walks in his ways!
You shall eat the fruit of the labor of your hands;
you shall be blessed, and it shall be well with you.
Your wife will be like a fruitful vine
within your house;
your children will be like olive shoots
around your table.
Behold, thus shall the man be blessed
who fears the Lord.
The Lord bless you from Zion!
May you see the prosperity of Jerusalem
all the days of your life!
May you see your children's children!
Peace be upon Israel!
WWelcome to Getting ready for Sunday, a podcast of first Lutheran Church. Each week I introduced the readings for the upcoming Sunday with some notes and explanation so you can be ready for worship when you arrive. I look at the Old Testament, song, epistle and Gospel reading for the upcoming Sunday and offer a few notes and explanation. The psalm for Sunday, November 19, is Psalm 128. A song of a sense, blesses everyone who fears the Lord who walks in his ways. You shall eat the fruits of the labor of your hands, you shall be blessed, and it shall be well with you. Your wife will be like a fruitful vine within your house, your children will be like all of shoots around your table. Behold, thus shall the man be blessed who fears the Lord. The Lord bless you from Zion, may you see the prosperity of Jerusalem all the days of your life, may you see your children's children, peace be upon Israel, Here ends the reading. The song begins with the superscription a song of a sense, the songs of a sense are these songs that you would sing or repeat or say, as you're heading up to Jerusalem, the idea is that you are going up to the temple of the Lord, and you would reflect on his promises. Similarly is my eyes lift up to the hills from where does my help come? My help comes from the Lord who made heaven and earth. So you're looking up as you're ascending to go worship at the temple. And this one talks about the gifts that God promises His people. Bless it as everyone who fears the Lord who walks in his ways, you shall eat the fruit of the labor of your hands, you shall be blessed, and it shall be well with you. So God is promising blessing for us. Now for ancient Israel, the promises of God for those who followed him included material blessings. When Moses was preaching to the people in Deuteronomy, he laid out the blessings and the curses on the blessings of following God included all sorts of material goods and wealth and such. And the curses included material curses and poverty and death and sickness and all sorts of terrible things. And so, as they went up to the hills, they would say, yes, we know Moses promised us these good things like a wife as a fruitful vine, children like olive shoots around the table, and blessing from some someone who fears the Lord. And while often when you live a good and quiet life, in humble service, good things do happen to you. That's not always the case for Christians. What we look forward to, it's a blessing that comes from God that is, is perfect and eternal, that on the day of Jesus's resurrection, all things will be made new. And we will have all the labor of our hands being blessed, because everything will be perfect and wonderful. This is not always the thing that happens for Christians. In fact, we are promised as Christians that what we get is what Jesus got when he went up a hill to the top and was nailed to a cross outside the city of Jerusalem. That is our fate often in this world. As much as we would pray for the joy of having a fruitful vine in our house and children like olive shoots around a table, and all of those blessings. We know that sometimes that's not what happens for those of us who are in Christ. But we also know that we will see prosperity from Jerusalem in the light, it closes up with the Lord bless you from Zion, may you see prosperity of Jerusalem all the days of your life. May you see your children's children Peace be upon Israel. In this passage, we're seeing a blessing that does come to us from Jerusalem, a blessing that comes to us through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ that happened on a hill just outside of Jerusalem, and a tomb near where he died on a cross. The prosperity of Jerusalem then points us to the new heavens and the new earth, where John in Revelation sees Jerusalem descending from heaven, like a bride dressed for the groom. And we look forward to when we see the new heavens and the new earth and the new city that God will create for us, where we will live forever and see our children's children and all the children of of Jesus Christ, the children of the Father gathered together in perfection. We're looking forward to that. That's it for today. We'll see you on Sunday. Bye
Transcribed by https://otter.ai