And He Said He Would.
Psalm 128:1-6NKJV
The most-sacred symbol in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, is a tree: a sprawling, shade-bearing—an old American Elm. Tourists drive from miles around to see her. People pose for pictures beneath her. Arborists carefully protect her. She adorns posters and letterhead. Other trees grow larger, fuller—even greener. But not one is equally cherished. The city treasures the tree not because of her appearance, but her endurance.
She endured the Oklahoma City bombing. Before the bombing, the tree was important because it provided the only shade in the downtown parking lot. People would arrive early to work just to be able to park under the shade of the tree’s branches.
Timothy McVeigh parked his death-laden truck only yards from her. His malice killed 168 people, wounded 850, destroyed the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, and buried the tree in rubble. No one expected it to survive. No one, in fact, gave any thought to the dusty, branch-stripped tree.
But then she began to bud. Sprouts pressed through damaged bark; green leaves pushed away gray soot. Life resurrected from an acre of death. People noticed. The tree modeled the resilience the victims desired. So they gave the elm a name: the Survivor Tree.
Cuttings of the Survivor Tree are growing in nurseries all over Oklahoma. Owners of landscape nurseries, arborists, urban foresters and expert horticulturists from across the state and country have come together to work and preserve this piece of history.
None of these people have ever charged the Memorial for their work. Each year, the facilities and grounds crew at the Memorial provides Bays, and the nursery men hundreds of seeds. They plant the seeds and distribute the resulting saplings each year on the anniversary of the bombing. Today, thousands of Survivor Trees are growing in public and private places all over the United States.
It has a lasting legacy in its off-spring.
According to God’s word, you have a lasting legacy, that will go into multiple generations.
Before I read Psalm 128, Let me point out that, Zechariah 8:1–8, has many similarities to today’s text.
This psalm is titled A Song of Ascents. It is another of the 15 songs sung by travelers on their way to Jerusalem, usually for one of the three yearly feasts—Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles. Like Psalm 127, it has a focus on God’s work in and through the family.
Psalm 128:1-6NKJV Blessed is every one who fears the Lord, Who walks in His ways. 2 When you eat the labor of your hands, You shall be happy, and it shall be well with you. 3 Your wife shall be like a fruitful vine In the very heart of your house, Your children like olive plants all around your table. 4 Behold, thus shall the man be blessed who fears the Lord. 5 The Lord bless you out of Zion, And may you see the good of Jerusalem All the days of your life. 6 Yes, may you see your children’s children. Peace be upon Israel!
G. Campbell Morgan Pastor of Westminster Chapel in London from 1904 to 1919,“It is of real significance that these songs of home and of true civic consciousness are found among those which are sung on the way that leads to worship. It is ever good to carry into the place of our communion with God the interests of home and city. It is only by doing so that we can influence these for their lasting good.”
If you don’t hear anything I say today, hear this: If you walk in the fear of God and follow His leadership, you will be immensely blessed. Your wife will walk in favor, she will be known among God’s people, and your children will live in a well cultivated land. They will be fruitful. P.H
Psalm 128:1TPT How joyous are those who love the Lord and bow low before God, ready to obey him!
Fearing and loving the Lord is all about devotion. A devotion that leaves the normal and seeks for the exceptional.
At the beginning of the year I ask you to tell me about your assignment. Your assignment is what you seek, love and go after. P.H
My assignment includes you: I am to walk before my God, To fellowship with Him in many ways—through His word and daily devotion. I am to sit silent before God and listen. I am to read and finish 10 new books this year. I am to lead by example. To walk with reverential fear, I am to walk knowing who and whose I am.
Again verse 1 teaches, those who are joyous love the Lord, this is an ongoing joy, not based on circumstances, but based upon ‘ones’ love and devotion to their Lord.
Love and devotion, produces humility. Humility becomes a lifestyle. An ongoing lifestyle mass- manufacturing spiritual fruit and gifts.
Verse 1,…Ready to obey Him.
Listen to Psalm 112:1-3TPT Shout in celebration of praise to the Lord! Everyone who loves the Lord and delights in him will cherish his words and be blessed beyond expectation. 2 Their descendants will be prosperous and influential. Every generation of his godly lovers will experience his favor. 3 Great blessing and wealth fills the house of the wise, for their integrity endures forever.
Our natural man automatically thinks of works, deeds and law, (what I got to do), but God’s language is loving-devotion using, mind and mouth, mixed with a willing heart of obedience.
Mind—What you think. Isaiah 26:3 Thou will keep thee in perfect peace whose mind is stay on thee.
Mouth—What you say. Proverbs 18:21TM Words kill, words give life; they’re either poison or fruit—you choose.
Heart—Who you are. Proverbs 4:23NIV Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.
Again Psalm 128:1…Ready to obey Him.
The righteous rewards are spelled out in Psalm 128:2-6. So let’s go farther!
Psalm 128:2TPT Your reward will be prosperity, happiness, and well-being.
This well-being is all about living, and believing—it is well with my soul!
Horatio Gates Spafford, born October 20, 1828, in Troy, New York – Date of death, October 16, 1888, he was a prominent American lawyer and Presbyterian church elder. He is best known for penning the Christian hymn, It Is Well With My Soul. It was written following a family tragedy in which his four daughters died aboard a transatlantic voyage.
Say this—Prosperity, Happiness, and Well-being—This is my promise!
Psalm 128:3TPT Your wife will bless your heart and home. Your children will bring you joy as they gather around your table.
The NKJV translation say’s, 3a, Your wife shall be like a fruitful vine, In the very heart of your house.
In other words—She cares about the affairs of her home, she lives in the very center of the home. She’s loved and admired by the whole family. Again, She lives in the very heart of the home.
Psalm 128:3b…Your children will bring joy gathered around your table.
Now listen to, Psalm 128:3b-4TM…your household lush as a vineyard, The children around your table as fresh and promising as young olive shoots. 4 Stand in awe of God’s Yes. Oh, how he blesses the one who fears God!
The children stand in ‘all’ of God’s—Yes. “Oh, how He blesses the one who fears God!”
True fear is, full reverential respect—This is an on-going lifestyle of being the body, in return He’s making His church—the bride of Jesus Christ.
Leviticus 26:2, You shall keep My sabbaths and reverence My sanctuary; I am the Lord.
How do we find and fulfill God’s assignment?
Loving God.
Loving His church.
Being His church—His hands and feet. Holding His keys—total authority in Jesus’ name!
Psalm 128:5TPT May the Lord bless you out of his Zion-glory! May you see the prosperity of Jerusalem throughout your lifetime.
As these Israelites accented (up) upon Jerusalem they would sing verse 5!
May the Lord bless you out of His Zion—glory! May you prosper through your lifetime!
One of the first scriptures I ever memorized: Psalm 112:3NKJV Wealth and riches will be in his house, And his righteousness endures forever.
Claim—Wealth and riches; Claim—His righteousness enduring forever—In my life!
Psalm 128:6TPT And may you be surrounded by your grandchildren. Happiness to you! And happiness to Israel!
As daddy was slipping away—my entire family gathered around him and gave him permission saying—It’s okay daddy.
As my Mother-In-Love passed in July, She held two Bibles in her hand.
In other words, according to Psalm 128:6TM Enjoy the good life in Jerusalem every day of your life. And enjoy your grandchildren. Peace to Israel!
In other words, you are planting trees, and leaving legacies.
EPCOT Legacy
Back in 2000, the Epcot Center had a new feature as you first walk in. There were giant slabs of black granite all over – tons and tons of granite – and a big sign that says “Leave Your Legacy.”
For a certain fee they will take your picture and photo chemically transfer it onto these granite rocks, so that for all of time your picture will be on this granite stone. Thousands of people have put their little, tiny picture on these big granite stones.
Why do we do that? Because, down deep inside, everybody wants to leave a legacy, and everybody wants to feel like their life counts, that their life matters, that we’ve left our mark while we pass through this life.
In Psalm 128:1-6, God said He would. If you serve Him inside and outside of His house, He would bless you!
God say’s, “He will.” The question is—What do you say?
2 Peter 1:3TPT Everything we could ever need for life and complete devotion to God has already been deposited in us by his divine power. For all this was lavished upon us through the rich experience of knowing him who has called us by name and invited us to come to him through a glorious manifestation of his goodness.
Ephesians 1:3TPT Every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realm has already been lavished upon us as a love gift from our wonderful heavenly Father, the Father of our Lord Jesus—all because he sees us wrapped into Christ. This is why we celebrate him with all our hearts!
Benediction.
