Psalms 128
The Blessings of Fearing the Lord 1–2
Prosperity in Home and Family 3–4
Blessings from Zion and for Israel 5–6
Bible text: King James Version (1769 Blayney text) · Public domain
Study Notes for Psalm 128
Verse 1
feareth the LORD… walketh in his ways — Yare, fearing, is reverence, and ‘walketh’ (halak) in his derek, his road, is its practice. ‘Blessed’ is esher, the word that begins Ps 1:1, and the same blessing is given to the one who ‘feareth the LORD’ in Ps 112:1. The two halves of the verse name one person.
Verse 2
thou shalt eat the labour of thine hands — Yegia is toil and also what toil produces; the hands are kaph, the palm. The promise reverses the curse in Deut 28:33, ‘The fruit of thy land, and all thy labours, shall a nation which thou knowest not eat up’. Isaiah gives it to the righteous: ‘they shall eat the fruit of their doings’ (Isa 3:10).
Verse 3
a fruitful vine by the sides of thine house — Yarekah is the recess or inner side of the house, so the wife is placed within the home. Her fruitfulness is pictured by the vine (gephen), and the children by shethilim, olive shoots set ‘round about thy table’. The olive is called of one who trusts the LORD: ‘like a green olive tree in the house of God’ (Ps 52:8).
Verse 5
bless thee out of Zion — The blessing is given from the place of his house, as in ‘The LORD that made heaven and earth bless thee out of Zion’ (Ps 134:3) and ‘strengthen thee out of Zion’ (Ps 20:2). ‘The good of Jerusalem’ (tuv) is the city’s welfare, which the pilgrim is told to pray for (Ps 122:6), and he is to see it ‘all the days of thy life’.
Verse 6
thy children’s children — Literally ‘sons of thy sons’. Joseph ‘saw Ephraim’s children of the third generation’ (Gen 50:23), and ‘Children’s children are the crown of old men’ (Prov 17:6). The psalm ends as it began, with a blessing that reaches the nation: ‘peace upon Israel’ (shalom), the words that end Ps 125:5.