Psalm 128. Psalm 128. Blessed
is everyone that feareth the Lord, that walketh in his ways, For thou shalt eat the labor
of thine hands. Happy shalt thou be, and it shall
be well with thee. Thy wife shall be as a fruitful
vine by the sides of thine house. Thy children like olive plants
round about thy table. Behold, that thus shall the man
be blessed that feareth the Lord. The Lord shall bless thee out
of Zion, and thou shalt see the good of Jerusalem all the days
of thy life. Yea, thou shalt see thy children's
children and peace upon Israel. Let's pray. Lord, we come into your presence
in the name of thy son, and we're so very grateful for the salvation
that's in him and our great desires that we might be found in him.
Not having our own righteousness, which is of the law, but that
which is through the faithfulness of thy son, the righteousness,
which is of God by faith. Oh, that we might be found in
him, that you would cause your gospel to be preached and the
power of your spirit and that you'd give us hearing ears and
that you'd unite our hearts together to fear thy name. Lord, we thank
you for the forgiveness of sins. We thank you for the acceptance
we have in the beloved. Bless us for the Lord's sake. Be with all your people wherever
they meet together. Lord, those that are going through
trials in whatever way, we ask for your blessing upon them.
Bless us for Christ's sake. In his name we pray. Amen. Now, this psalm states three
states of being that most people would count a great blessing.
If you noticed in the reading of this song, he talked about
thou shalt eat the labor of thine hand. You'll be successful in
your work, in your job. You're going to benefit from
that. And it shall be well with thee.
Then he says in verse three, thy wife shall be as a fruitful
vine by the sides of thine house. Thy children like olive plants
round about thy table. That's a good family life, good
marriage, nice relationship with your kids as they sit around
your table like olive plants. It's a beautiful picture. And
then he speaks of national security. Verse five, the Lord shall bless
thee out of Zion and thou shalt see the good of Jerusalem all
the days of thy life. Yea, thou shalt see thy children's
children and peace upon Israel. Now he speaks of three things.
He speaks of doing well at what you do. I want to do that, don't
you? He speaks of a great home life. I want to have that. He speaks
of national peace. I want to have that. But is that
what this psalm is talking about? It kind of reminds me of somebody
that's, I've never been on Facebook, so I don't know how to say this.
I'm not a Facebook person, but as I understand it, a lot of
times young people have a struggle because they see these things
on Facebook where everybody's having such a wonderful life.
The job's going great, family life's fine, national security,
everything's great. And they see these people, these
young people that they said, why is my life like that? That's
almost what this psalm can seem like. If you're, it's almost
like this is good karma. If you, if you are, if you do
right, if you walk in the ways of the Lord, Then you'll do well
on your job. You'll eat the fruit of your
labor. You're going to succeed and you're going to have a great
family life. Everything is going to be fine. You're going to have
a wonderful marriage, wonderful kids. They're never going to
do anything wrong. They're going to be sitting right
there at your table like all the plants. Everything's good.
Everything's good. The national security is good
as long as we're walking in the ways of the Lord. And if you're not, it won't be
that way. If you're not walking in the
ways of the Lord, then you're probably going to fail in your
job. You're probably not going to succeed in your marriage and
your kids are going to be wild Indians. You'll probably end
up having war in the world, you know, because you're not doing
right. Now that is kind of the way People have looked at this
psalm, kind of a good karma. If you do right, everything's
gonna be good. And if you don't, you're in trouble. Now, if I look at this psalm
this way, I've looked at it in a terribly wrong way. Now, look what is said. Blessed
is everyone that feareth the Lord. That's where he begins. Blessed is everyone that feareth
the Lord. You know, I have people say to
me frequently, I'll say, how are you doing? They'll say, I'm
blessed. I'm blessed. Well, I, you know, I think, well,
I hope you are. I'm not saying that facetiously,
but you're blessed if the Lord's blessed you. That's who's blessed. The person is blessed whom the
Lord has blessed. I think of Ephesians chapter
one, verse three, blessed be the God and father of our Lord
Jesus Christ who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings
in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Now that person has been
blessed. That person the Lord has blessed in Christ Jesus. I think of the Beatitudes. The
Lord tells us who's blessed, who God has blessed. Blessed
are the poor in spirit. Do you know that if you don't
have anything but Christ, you've been blessed by God? That's his
blessing. Blessed are they that mourn,
that one who mourns before God over their sin. They're blessed. Blessed is that person who's
meek before God. He believes that whatever God
does is right and he bows before him. Person has been blessed
of God. What about that person, blessed
are they who hunger and thirst after righteousness. Now, the
only reason you're hungry and thirsting because you don't feel
like you have any in yourself and you know it must come from
outside of you. Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after
righteousness. That's the blessed person. Somebody
says I'm blessed. Well, if you're like this, you
are. A lot of times people mean, you know, material prosperity
or no trials in my life. That's not necessarily God's
blessing. You might have it easy and be under God's curse. Who
is blessed? Blessed is everyone that feareth
the Lord. Now let me give you some Psalms. Psalm 1-1, blessed is the man
that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly. There's a blessed
man. He doesn't walk in that counsel
of the ungodly, the way of the ungodly. Psalm 212, blessed are
they that put their trust in him. If you trust Jesus Christ
as your only ground of acceptance before God, you've been blessed
of God. This is the work of God's grace
in your heart. I love this Psalm 32 verses one
and two, blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven. whose
sin is covered. Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord will not impute sin, and in whose spirit there is no guile. That's a blessed man. That's
a man God has blessed. Psalm 41.1, blessed is he that
considereth the poor. And that's not just talking about
poor and purse. The Lord is the one who considered the poor,
and blessed are all those who are poor. They're blessed in
him. Psalm 65, 4, blessed is the man thou choosest. Oh, what
a blessing that is. Blessed is the man thou choosest
and causes to approach unto thee. Psalm 84, 4, blessed are they
that dwell in thy house, that dwell in the Lord Jesus Christ.
He's the house of God. The church is the house of God.
My dwelling is in him. Psalm 89.5, blessed are the people
that know the joyful sound. What a blessing it is if you
know the gospel. When you have the discernment
to hear what is of God and what's not, you know the joyful sound.
Psalm 94.12, blessed is the man whom thou chastenest. Whom the
Lord loveth, he chastens. And he scourges every son whom
he receives. Psalm 106.3. Blessed are they
that keep judgment, and he that doeth righteousness at all times. Psalm 119.2, blessed are the
undefiled in the way. That speaks of every believer.
Psalm 146.5, blessed, happy is he that hath the God of Jacob
for his help, whose hope is in the Lord our God. And in this
Psalm, Psalm 128, blessed is everyone that feareth the Lord. What a blessing to fear the Lord. Now turn to Psalm 130 for just
a moment. Psalm 130, verse three. If thou, Lord, should mark iniquities,
O Lord, who shall stand? But there is forgiveness with
thee that thou mayest be Now that verse of scripture tells
us what the fear of God is not. Most people's thought of the
fear of God is I'm afraid if I do wrong he'll put some kind
of horrible trial on my life. I'll wreck my car, my kids will
get sick, I'll get sick, something bad will happen and I want to
do everything I can to prevent that from happening. Is that
the fear of God? No. That's a mistrust of God. That's a suspicion of God. That's
a wrong view of God. But it's not the fear of God.
You don't know anything about the fear of God and I don't know
anything about the fear of God unless I understand the forgiveness
of sins. When I understand how God forgave
my sins through his work of his beloved son on the cross and
how he put away my sin, when I understand the forgiveness
of sins, That's when I have this awe and reverential fear of God. All this fear of God that makes
you have such an awe of Him that you would not look anywhere but
Christ alone. You can't separate the fear of
God and faith in Christ. If you have the fear of God,
you look to Christ alone. Nothing more. Nothing less and
nothing else. Blessed is everyone that feareth
the Lord. Oh, the fear of the Lord is clean,
the scripture says, enduring forever. The beginning of wisdom
is the fear of the Lord, that respect, that awe of his person. I love the way this psalm starts
out. Here's who's blessed, Psalm 128.
Blessed is everyone that feareth the Lord, that walketh in his
ways. Well, Christ said, I am the way. We read in the scriptures of
the way of righteousness. Christ is my righteousness, the
way of peace. Christ is my peace, the way of
truth. Christ is the truth on and on. His ways are the ways of the
gospel, the way of Christ, and what a blessing it is to be allowed
to walk in His ways. Verse two, four. Now here's what
is for that person who walks in His ways. Four, thou shalt
eat the labor of thine hands, happy shalt thou be, and it shall
be well with thee. I want to do well at what I do,
and you do too. Every one of us do. I don't want
to settle for mediocrity. I want to do well at what I do.
But is that what this is talking about? No. I hope you do well at whatever
you do. And it'd be God's grace and blessing
on you if he enables you to, to perform well and so on. But,
but here is the, whose labor of thine hands thou shalt eat
the labor of thine hands. I want to eat the fruit of Christ's
work. I want to be found in him so
that what he did, I did. And so that I love that scripture. Thus it becometh us to fulfill
all righteousness. I want to eat the laborer with
my hands or what he did. He did it because he did it.
I did it. That's all I want to appear before
God and I want the labor of his hands to be the labor of my hands.
I don't wanna bring anything that has my thumbprint on it. I simply want the labor of his
hands to where it's me doing it because he did it because
I'm in him. Now that's what he's asking. This person who walks
in the ways of the Lord, oh, he's gonna eat the fruit of the
labor of his hands, the hands of the Lord Jesus Christ. Happy
shalt thou be, and it shall be well with thee. Now, happy is
blessed, blessed. I said this before, I don't,
this might have something to do with my personality, but I
want to be happy. Well, I want to be in Christ.
Somebody says, well, I want to be happy. It's much more important
that by the grace of God I do what's right. And this desire,
I want to be happy. Well, no, I want to be in Christ. And this word happy is blessed.
Blessed. That person who eats the fruit
of Christ's labor and hands, and that's their work, that's
the person who's blessed of God. And it shall be well with them.
It's all gonna be good. It's all gonna be fine. It's
all going to be well. That is the blessing of being
in Christ. Now, that person, wow. You'll eat the labor of your
hands. Happy shalt thou be, blessed shalt thou be, and it shall be
well with thee. Turn to Isaiah chapter three.
Hold your finger there. Turn to Isaiah chapter three. Verse 10, say ye to the righteous. Now
who are the righteous? Those in Christ, those who have
his righteousness. Oh, there's two kinds of people,
the righteous and the wicked. Every believer in Christ, everyone
in Christ is the righteous. Everybody outside of him is the
wicked. Now look what it says in verse 10, say ye to the righteous
that it shall be well with him for They shall eat the fruit
of their doings. You see, the doings of Christ
are my doings. If that's talking about my personal
doings, I don't want to eat the fruit of those doings. Do you?
As far as your sins? No. But if I'm in Christ, all
my doings are good. I don't simply have a righteousness
counted to my charge. Although I do, I am righteous
in Christ and I'll have the fruit of all my doings. They've all
been good. Woe, verse 11, woe unto the wicked,
it shall be ill with him, for the reward of his hand shall
be given him. He'll be given exactly what he
deserves, what he merited. Now back to our text in Psalm
128. Here's the promise, for thou
shalt eat the labor of thine hands. Happy shalt thou be, and
it shall be well with thee. Verse three, thy wife, shall
be as a fruitful vine by the sides of thine house, thy children
like olive plants round about thy table. Behold, that thus
shall the man be blessed that feareth the Lord. Now, not only
do we want to do well on our jobs, don't you want to have
a good home life? Don't you want to have a happy, blessed marriage
where your spouse is your best friend and you love each other
and enjoy each other and your kids are well-behaved and they're
sitting there around the table in good shape, planted like olive
trees. Everybody would desire that,
but that's really not what this is talking about. This is talking
about the bride of the Lord Jesus Christ, a fruitful vine. This is every believer having
the fruit of God, the Holy Spirit. Now fruit's so important. There
is no salvation apart from fruit. What was the good ground here?
What was the difference between the good ground here and all
the other ground here's? Fruit. fruit, some 30 fold, some
60 fold, some a hundred fold different, uh, degrees of fruit. And that's all by grace. But
every believer has this fruit, this beautiful fruit of God,
the Holy spirit. And that is what every believer
has as he, um, the, the bride of Christ is a fruitful vine. The fruit of the spirit is love.
Love to God. Love to his people. Joy. The
joy there is in simply being found in Christ. Peace. The peace
of justification. Long-suffering. This is toward
other people by the grace of God. Patience. Long-suffering. Gentleness. Graciousness. Goodness. This is how you are toward other
people. That's the fruit of God, the Holy Spirit, and every believer
has the fruit of God, the Holy Spirit. The one second old believer
has all the fruit of God, the Holy Spirit. It develops over
time, it grows, but every believer is a fruitful vine. The fruit
of faith toward God, meekness before God, temperance, control
from within because of the Holy Spirit. This is beautiful. Every believer is a fruitful
vine. And I love this picture of your
children like olive plants round about that table. The point of
an olive plant is the root goes deep. It goes deep. And here
they are around the table. This is the church in fellowship,
in unity, sitting around the table of the Lord. And what a blessed thing that
is. thy wife shall be as a fruitful
vine, by the sides of thine house thy children, like all the plants,
round about thy table." Now, like I said, I realize we want
our homes to be like this, don't we? I mean, we want our homes
to be according to this description, but that's really not what that's
talking about. And there are people who fear
the Lord. who walk in his ways, that have such difficult times
in their homes, and they have even difficult times in their
jobs. I mean, there's trials, troubles. If this meant that
if you're walking right, good karma, you'll have a good home
life and you'll do well on your job. That's not necessarily the
case. I'm thankful when it is the case,
but if it's not, don't think, well, I must not be serving the
Lord because I got a bad home life and doing bad on my job.
This is talking about The Lord's bride, the Lord's work, the Lord's
bride, the Lord's people sitting around his table in unity, fellowship,
blessed in him. And I'm thankful it's that way.
I'm so thankful. I wanna eat the fruit of his
labor, don't you? Verse four. Behold, that thus
shall the man be blessed that feareth the Lord. Now, every believer fears the Lord. No unbeliever fears the Lord. Now, they may fear the consequences
of sin. They may fear hell. They may
fear that if I don't live right, the Lord's going to blast me
and sin trouble and trial my way, they may feel that way,
but that's not the fear of the Lord. The fear of the Lord is
seen in that there is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be
feared. That awe and respect of his person
that only the believer has. No unbeliever has the fear of
the Lord because they don't know who he is. They don't know anything
about salvation by grace. They don't really have an understanding
of sin. They're ignorant. Uh, there's no fear of God. This
is what the Bible says. There's no fear of God before
their eyes. It is the believer who fears
God. And like I said, the one evidence
of fearing God is looking to Christ. If you trust only Christ
as the, as all you have, that'll bring you into heaven, just Christ.
You're somebody who fears God, somebody who has respect and
reverence and all for God. Now here we're talking about the
national peace and national security, and that's on everybody's mind
right now with the election coming up next week. You know, I have
such joy to know that whoever the Lord has purposed, that's
who's going to be hired, or elected, I mean. I have such joy in that.
I'm not worried about it. The Lord's purpose will be done. Somebody says, well, what if
this person gets elected? What if that person gets elected?
God's will's being done. He's an absolute sovereign control
over everything. And what a joy that is. I mean,
I've got my opinion, who I want to be elected, Whoever I want
to be elected is not elected. That's fine. That's good. That's
the Lord's will That's the Lord's purpose and we rest in that Everybody
I want you to everybody's God's puppet Doing God's will He's
an absolute control of everybody and everything. He's sovereign
over the thoughts of men even The things that are going through
your mind right now, he's completely sovereign over. You're doing
what you want to do. You're thinking about what you want to think about,
but he's sovereign over because he's God and it's not difficult
for him. Now here he's talking about national
prosperity and national peace. That's not really what he's talking
about, but that's the way that people look at this. Verse five, the
Lord shall bless thee out of Zion and thou shalt see the good
of Jerusalem all the days of thy life. Now, wait a minute.
What's going on in Jerusalem right now? What's going on in
Israel right now? It's not a very peaceful place,
is it? There's all kinds of wretched
things going on in war and strife. But yet, he says, the Lord shall
bless thee out of Zion. Now, hold your finger there and
turn to Hebrews chapter 12. I love this description of Zion. He had been talking about Mount
Sinai. And here's what Moses had to
say about it in verse 21. And so terrible was the sight
that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake. But you are come
unto Mount Zion, unto the city of the living God, the heavenly
Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general
assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven."
It's talking about the Lamb's Book of Life. Here is the church role that
I want to be on. The General Assembly and Church
of the Firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. I want
my name to be on that church role, don't you? To the General
Assembly and Church of the Firstborn, which names are written in heaven,
and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of just men,
made perfect." That describes every believer. They're a just
man made perfect by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. He
hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. Somebody says,
well, isn't that Doesn't that mean when we're in heaven we'll
be perfect? Well, yeah, yeah, but that's not what that means.
Every believer is perfect in Christ Jesus. He hath perfected
forever them that are sanctified. And to Jesus, the mediator of
the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaketh
better things than that of Abel. Now that's Mount Zion. And what
did Abel's blood cry? Remember when the Lord said your
brother's blood cries to me from the ground? It cries justice,
vengeance. What does the blood of Christ
cry? Pardon, forgiveness, justification. That's better than anything Abel's
blood had to say. Now, back to our text in Psalm
128. The Lord shall bless thee out
of Zion, the church of the living God. And thou shalt see the good
of Jerusalem all the days of thy life. That's another way
of saying, and we know that all things work together for good
to them that love God, to them who are the called according
to his purpose. We're gonna see the good of Jerusalem
all the days of our life. Now, it's all good. It's all
good. Whatever it is with a believer,
It's all good. The Lord is in absolute control
of everything. And we have this promise, all
things work together for good. To them that love God, to them
who are the called according to his purpose. Thou shalt see
the good of Jerusalem all the days of thy life. Yea, thou shalt
see thy children's children. and peace upon Israel. Now, is that saying you'll even see
your grandchildren prosper? Now, I hope our grandchildren
do prosper with the Lord's blessing. But what that's talking about
is turn to John chapter 17. He says in verse nine, I pray
for them, I pray not for the world, but for them which you've
given me, for they are thine. Now look in verse 20. Neither pray I for these alone,
but for them also which shall believe on me through their word. Now that's what he's talking
about, these children's children, these ones who shall believe
on me through their word, through the preaching of the gospel. Yea, thou should see thy children's
children and peace, peace upon Israel. Now, peace is a great
feeling, not feeling conflict, but you can have a feeling of peace
and it'd be a false ground of peace. This is talking about
the peace of justification that Christ worked out. Here's what
gives me peace. that everything God requires
of me, he looks to his son for. Peace. Peace. Now, if you tell me some work
that I must do before he can do something for me, I have no
peace. I have fear and dread and even
resentment. But oh, if you tell me that all
God requires of me, I have in Christ Jesus, that in him dwells
all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and I'm complete in him,
I have peace. The Psalms are the gospel, aren't
they? Amen.