Ps 128

Children as a blessing

Warm-up: Is family for you an experience of joy or rather of hurt and pain? Why can it be both, even to the point of breaking people?

Read: Psalm 127:3-5 &128

Did Solomon (or the author who wrote Ps 127 in his name) value multiple offspring simply because this was how his culture valued children, no matter how they turned out? cf Ecc 6:3
128:3 compares godly children to “olive shoots around your table”: Since olive trees make shoots from their roots, what does that image teach about godly parenting?
Olives as a source of oil are laden with symbolism: How so and what is the promise here for godly parents and their kids?

In what sense was this polished arrow ‘concealed in the quiver’ of his Father, and what was his mission? What enemy will be ‘shot’ by this arrow? cf Rev 19:20-21
How would you want your children to turn out so that they can be compared to such ‘arrows of a warrior’? cf Mal 2:15; Eph 6:4; Tit 1:6
How does God’s vision for them compare to yours?

How would you explain what fear of God really is? cf 1Jn 4:18
Is such fear a necessary condition so that life may work out for you the way you wish? Why or why not?
Is blessing the effect or rather the cause of genuine fear of God?
- How did Jesus answer this question? How did he define blessing in his ‘sermon on the mount’?
- Why is blessing more like an inheritance than a commodity that people try to purchase by their devotion?
According to v3, the blessing on a husband is not without influence on his wife: How so?
- Here the metaphor is about vine: Why, what kind?
- How do we expect this to look like in real life?

Why not just for any prosperity, but the prosperity of Jerusalem?
- “May you see…“: What kind of seeing is that?
- “…all of your days”: Why must that include days of sickness and suffering?

Do you know any families that you find an inspiration how such blessing can look like?
- Dysfunctional families are numerous also in religious circles: Why?
- Why is the blessing and prayer by others key to transform family cultures?

As a believing parent, do you think God’s word in Ps 127-128 (or elsewhere) promises that God will take care of saving your children if you trust he will? How does such trust (or lack thereof) influence whether and how you pray for your kids?
How did your own parents talk about this, and how do you think this might have influenced how you did or did not find saving faith?
Why can’t you help your kids find faith in God as the only trustworthy architect of their lives if you yourself don’t trust and beg him to be just that?