APRIL 24, 2026
Psalm 128:1-3
Blessed is every one who fears the Lord, who walks in His ways. When you eat the labor of your hands, you shall be happy, and it shall be well with you. Your wife shall be like a fruitful vine in the very heart of your house, your children like olive plants all around your table.
In many ways, this composition is a continuation of the previous psalm. As in Psalm 127, this psalm speaks of the benefits and blessings bestowed upon a man who fears God, particularly when it comes to his home life. In fact, when he says, “It shall be well with you,” the Hebrew word is טוב tov. That is to say that the blessed man will be in the right place doing what God has intended for him to do; in short, he is functioning in his purpose. This man’s household is established by God with a fruitful wife and many children.
Notice that the fear of the Lord is what precipitated this happy result because the fear of the Lord provokes one to seek what is truly important in life. A desire to please God first and foremost compels one to “walk in His ways.” Let’s put it this way: those who don’t fear God will walk in their own way, and in so doing, are more likely to pursue those things that have no eternal value —i.e. wealth and power. In a roundabout way, these verses decry such pursuits, instead encouraging the people of God to consider the value of a happy home filled with children, not to mention physical labor.
When you really stop and think about it, God’s ideal for His people in this life can be summed up in this scene: a husband and wife, surrounded by obedient children living in an adequate home on a piece of land that brings forth its fruit. If you think about it, that is pretty much the scene that was in the Garden before man decided to walk in his own ways. Thus, we are reminded that, to truly be happy and blessed, we must possess a genuine fear of the Lord that prompts us to walk in His ways. If we will do this, “it shall be well with us.”