Psalms of Ascent_Psalm 128
Sermon Passage: Psalm 128 – Happy: The Fruit of a Well-Ordered Life
Sections, Quotes, Scripture References:
The quiet blessings of an ordered life are traced from the center outwards in this psalm, as the eye travels from the godly man to his family and finally to Israel. Here is simple piety with its proper fruit of stability and peace. – Derek Kidner
If my private world is in order, it will be because I am convinced that the inner world of the spiritual must govern the outer world of activity. – Gordon MacDonald, Ordering Your Private World
128:1-2 – Life before God: True Happiness
The easiest thing in the world is to be a Christian. What is hard is to be a sinner. Being a Christian is what we were created for. The life of faith has the support of an entire creation and the resources of a magnificent redemption….In the course of Christian discipleship we discover that without Christ we were doing it the hard way and that with Christ we are doing it the easy way. It is not Christians who have it hard, but non-Christians. – Eugene Peterson
128:3-4 – Life with Family: Faithful and Fruitful
128:5-6 – Life in Community: A Wider Horizon
“New Creation…And as for all who walk by this rule, peace and mercy be upon them, and upon the Israel of God.” – Galatians 6:16
Justice Seeker – acts as an agent of change and seeks justice by responding to others who suffer from unfair treatment and broken relationships. They care for the hurting, feed the hungry, welcome the visitor, and encourage the overlooked.
“What does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” – Micah 6:8
How to fight for a well ordered / blessed life
*Receive the blessing – TRUST CHRIST
*Fight sin and its sources – Triple threat of the flesh, the world, the devil
*Walk the happy road – live according to God’s ways and in God’s presence
Everyone wants to be happy, to be blessed. Too many people are willfully refusing to pay attention to the One who wills our happiness and ignorantly supposing that the Christian way is a harder way to get what they want than doing it on their own. They are wrong. God’s ways and God’s presence are where we experience the happiness that lasts. Do it the easy way: “All you who fear GOD, how blessed you are! how happily you walk on his smooth straight road!” – Eugene Peterson