Psalm 127:3-5 See, children are an heritage of the LORD: and the fruit of the womb is his reward.… Children come not into the world by chance or fate. God sends them as His gifts. I. They are gifts of GREAT VALUE. 1. They are of great value in themselves. (1) The intellectual possibilities of a child. In the babe which the mother for the first time presses to her bosom, there may be powers that will work out into the greatest of poets, sages, apostles, reformers, even angels. (2) The emotional possibilities of a child. What capabilities of love and hate, wrath and tenderness, rapture and misery. 2. They are of great value to the parents. (1) Look at the influence of a child on the mind of a parent. It unseals a new fountain of love. It creates a new world of interest, it supplies new motives for diligence, sobriety, and virtue. (2) Look at the power of a child to bless the parent. It comes with the filial instinct deeply planted in its nature, an instinct which, as it rightly develops itself, makes the parent the object of its strongest and purest affection, its most loyal and devoted service. When God gives to parents a loving and loyal child, He gives that which is of more worth to them than lordly estates, or even mighty kingdoms. II. They are gifts INVOLVING GREAT TRUSTS. III. They are gifts that may BECOME GREAT CURSES. Man has a faculty of perversion. In nature he can turn food to poison, make the quickening sunbeam his own destroyer, and transform the blessings of Providence into curses. Thus he can deal with his own child, his choicest gift from God. (D. Thomas, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD: and the fruit of the womb is his reward.WEB: Behold, children are a heritage of Yahweh. The fruit of the womb is his reward. |
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