God’s Word for You
Psalm 128:3-6 Peace
by Pastor Timothy Smith on Friday, March 6, 2026
3 Your wife will be like a fruitful vine
all through your house.
Your children will be like young shoots of an olive tree
around your table.
4 Look! This is how the man is blessed who fears the LORD!
The greatest gift any person can give to the world is godly children. Even if a set of parents never did anything else, what a legacy they would leave to bless mankind, if only they would raise children for God’s service. Luther asks, “For what are the hungry, the thirsty, the naked, the sick, the alien (Matthew 25:35-36) if not the souls of your own children? With these God makes a hospital of your own house.”
But parents must remember to be parents, to have authority over their children, and not become slaves to the whims of their children. To serve a child who needs to be served, like a sick man or a dying woman, is a noble thing, and when a child who needs special care is cared for properly by a noble parent, this gives glory to God. But to give up on a child and give in is no help to that child. There is an old story from someplace about a blind traveler who becomes aware of a good-looking boy who made life miserable for his parents. The traveler struck the child and broke his nose, thereby breaking his pride in his beautiful looks, and made the parents forever grateful to the traveler. This is not the way we would treat our children physically, but the lesson is one to be remembered. A child who has everything is probably lacking in humility, gratitude, ethics, morality, and even, perhaps, true faith.
There is a terrible story from the time of Isaiah that King Manasseh sacrificed his own son to the idol Molech (2 Kings 21:6). This happened on the hills to the south of Jerusalem, “in the ravines under the rugged cliffs,” as Isaiah says (Isaiah 57:5), the “high places of Topheth in the Valley of Ben Hinnom” (Jeremiah 7:31). If it’s a horrible shock to think of a father killing his own son as a prayer to a false god, then what else is it when parents train their children to love the world and forget about the love of God or faith in God, and allow whatever faith those children had to be blown out like a jittering candle flame? Isn’t it the same kind of sacrifice, condemning that child to eternal death in hell by their own failure as parents? When parents try out the excuse, “I’ll let them decide for themselves about their religion” it is a lie and a copout, like saying that they will let their children decide for themselves whether to eat or drink or sleep or be clothed—or breathe. They have damned their own children. Surely there is a certain kind of punishment waiting for such parents in hell’s catacombs and dungeons. Blessed is the parent who fosters faith in their children. This gives glory to God.
5 May the LORD bless you from Zion,
so that you see the prosperity of Jerusalem
all the days of your life.
6 May you see your children’s children.
Peace be on Israel.
The Psalm ends with a prayer, a prayer for blessing. Although the request seems like it’s for earthly blessings, those blessings are also spiritual. What is the true prosperity of Zion? It is first of all knowing that the true Zion is not a mountain in south-central Israel a few miles west of the north end of the Dead Sea, but rather the true church of believers, the Holy Christian Church, the Communion of Saints. The prosperity of the church is not financial or in terms of any earthly thing, but rather the souls within. When they are blessed, when they are convinced of their forgiveness and place with God forever in heaven, this is the true meaning of “life” here on earth. It is living and knowing that we have a place with God forever in Paradise.
Another blessings is seeing your grandchildren and the generations that come after them, “your children’s children.” While seeing your grandchildren is something that parents delight in (or yearn for), it is not just their flesh, their adorable smiles, their chubby little cheeks that are the source of joy, but knowing that these are souls, too, that will be with us in heaven.
Half of my father’s grandchildren live under my roof. I’m happy that all of them know and love their grandpa. But I’m happier still that all of us, my dad, my sons, and myself, will all be together in heaven. Rescued by Christ. Forgiven by him. We will be resurrected by him. This is the true meaning of “peace.” Peace be to the true Israel, the true Zion. The communion of all saints.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in New Ulm, Minnesota. To receive God’s Word for You via e-mail, please visit the St. Paul’s Lutheran Church website.