Psalms 128:1-6 - Homilies By C. Short

A sunny picture of the life era good man.

"Blessed is every one that feareth the Lord," etc.

I. THE GREATEST , MOST INFLUENTIAL , RELIGION IS COMPOUNDED OF " THE FEAR " OF THE CONSCIENCE AND THE TRUST AND LOVE OF THE HEART . "The fear" is the elevating fear of offending against the highest law, and the strongest, tenderest love—one of the holiest feelings that Christ has generated in the new life.

II. SUCH A CONTINUATION RESULTS IN THE BEST , MOST OBEDIENT , LIFE . "That walketh in his ways." The "walking" in the ways of God is the habitual life of God-like ways—not any occasional outburst of righteous impulses or endeavors. The walk of a man in his settled character.

III. SUCH A LIFE GIVES HIM A LOFTY INDEPENDENCE . "He eats of the labor of his hands." He enjoys the satisfaction of living upon his own labor, and not upon what others have done for him. This entails health , competence , and the highest prosperity . "Happy shalt thou be, and it shall be well with thee."

IV. AND PRODUCES ALSO THE HAPPINESS OF THE HOME LIFE . The wife is the image of rich abundance; the children, of vigorous health. This is supposed principally to spring from the life and influence of the good man—his life is reproduced in the life of the wife and children; and they depend upon him, as the vine depends upon that to which it clings. The whole passage is richer in what it suggests than in what it pictures.

V. SUCH A MAN STANDS IN USEFUL AND HAPPY RELATIONS WITH THE CHURCH AND THE CITY . ( Psalms 128:5 .) He is blessed out of Zion, and sees the good of Jerusalem. Individual character is the center of all life, both in Church and State; and when each is filled with the power of Christ in his personal life, he helps to flood the life of the Church and of the State with the only enduring elements of the highest prosperity.

VI. HE REJOICES IN A HAPPY OLD AGE , AND IN THE COMPANIONSHIP OF HIS CHILDREN 'S CHILDREN . The good man, whose affections and sympathies remain pure down to old age, takes great delight in children and grandchildren, and sees in them the pledges of future peace to the Church and the country.—S.