Your wife will be like a fruitful vine flourishing within your house, your sons like olive shoots sitting around your table. Sermons
I. THE MIND OF GOD IS EVIDENT IN REGARD TO FAMILY LIFE FROM THE NUMERICAL EQUALITY OF MEN AND WOMEN. It is not alone that God, in the beginning, gave one woman to be the wife of one man; but his will is still expressed by the equality which seems perpetual and universal in the numbers of each sex that are born. The histories of patriarchs and kings who departed from this monogamic law are recorded, not for imitation, but for warning. No blessing ever resulted from it, but everywhere and always misery, discord, and strife. So it always has been, and so it ever must be. Family life, in the true sense of the term, was impossible in the crowded harems of men like David, Solomon, and so many more. It is possible only where God's primeval law is obeyed. II. FROM THE FACT OF PARENTAL LOVE, ESPECIALLY THE DEEP SELF-SACRIFICING MOTHER-LOVE, into which it is God's will that children should be born. This is to be the beautiful and wholesome atmosphere of the home as it generally is. The children bring the love for them along with them. III. THE PRESERVATION OF THE FAMILY INSTITUTION. What other institution, civil, ecclesiastical, political, has not had its day and disappeared? But not this. IV. THE TREMENDOUS INFLUENCE OF THE HOME UPON THE CHILDREN. It is not alone their physical existence that they owe to their parents; but their mental, moral, and spiritual characteristics are, though not absolutely, yet almost entirely, dependent upon their parents. No child can escape the influence of its home. V. HOW BLESSED ARE, AS A RULE, THE RESULTS OF THIS DIVINE ARRANGEMENT! What a vast proportion of the whole sum of human happiness springs from it! The very word "home' has a magic power in the hearts of most men. It summons up memories of delight. Our Lord himself portrays heaven itself to us as "my Father's house" - his home. VI. ITS SUPREME PURPOSE. (Malachi 2:15.) Can any one conceive of a more effectual and more beneficent and gracious method whereby the kingdom of God should be set up in the world? The Divine wisdom and love are conspicuous therein. - S.C.
Thy wife shall be as a fruitful vine. There are trailing slatterns, like brambles and nettles, who leave conspicuous in a dwelling what they should conceal, and choke with unsightliness and discomfort what ought to be kept clear; who cause what would be attractive to offend, render what is repulsive more so, and, themselves the most forbidding objects, drive their toil-worn husbands to the seat of the scornful and the bower of sin. The woman pictured in the song is not to be seen lounging at the door, an idle gossip, with something to say to every passer-by, but attends to her duties in the interior of the dwelling, and, like her husband, fears the Lord (Proverbs 9:13, 14; Amos 6:10). The clinging vine is a symbol of attachment, grace, and fruitfulness, dressing the props and walls to which its curling tendrils hold, with leaves that shade the verandah and cool the house, and enriching them with clusters of juicy fruit "that maketh glad the heart of man" (Psalm 104:15). The pious and loving wife, the screen, the adornment, and crown of the God-fearing husband who is her support and strength, so spreads the table that, however plain, it is a feast; so pours the water that it turns to wine; so smiles that all the room shines with comfort and pleasure; so speaks that the house is full of charming music; so lives that the master is happy everywhere because most happy when at home.(E. J. Robinson.) People PsalmistPlaces JerusalemTopics Fertile, Fruitful, Inmost, Inner, Innermost, Olive, Olive-plants, Plants, Round, Shoots, Sides, Sons, Table, Vine, Wife, WithinOutline 1. The various blessings which follow those who fear GodDictionary of Bible Themes Psalm 128:3 4492 olive 5199 womb Library A Treatise of the Fear of God;SHOWING WHAT IT IS, AND HOW DISTINGUISHED FROM THAT WHICH IS NOT SO. ALSO, WHENCE IT COMES; WHO HAS IT; WHAT ARE THE EFFECTS; AND WHAT THE PRIVILEGES OF THOSE THAT HAVE IT IN THEIR HEARTS. London: Printed for N. Ponder, at the Peacock in the Poultry, over against the Stocks market: 1679. ADVERTISEMENT BY THE EDITOR. "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom," and "a fountain of life"--the foundation on which all wisdom rests, as well as the source from whence it emanates. Upon a principle … John Bunyan—The Works of John Bunyan Volumes 1-3 "Thou Shalt Honor Thy Father and Thy Mother. " What the Ruler's Discrimination Should be Between Correction and Connivance, Between Fervour and Gentleness. Epistle Xlvi. To Isacius, Bishop of Jerusalem . Letter xxxiv. To Marcella. Psalms Links Psalm 128:3 NIVPsalm 128:3 NLT Psalm 128:3 ESV Psalm 128:3 NASB Psalm 128:3 KJV Psalm 128:3 Bible Apps Psalm 128:3 Parallel Psalm 128:3 Biblia Paralela Psalm 128:3 Chinese Bible Psalm 128:3 French Bible Psalm 128:3 German Bible Psalm 128:3 Commentaries Bible Hub |
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