Psalms 128 · The Lantern

A song of ascents. Happy is everyone who fears the LORD, who walks in his ways.

Blessed are all who fear the Lord. Just as no one can say 'The Lord is my portion' except the one who has no other portion in the world, so the one who fears anything else outside the Lord does not fear the Lord.

"Blessed are all who fear the Lord." The inspired word declared blessed not the one from Abraham's stock or from Israel's seed but the person adorned with the fear of God.

When he says, "Blessed are all who fear the Lord," he shows that they are not blessed who fear with troubled mind the dangers of the world when temporal property is lost. For those dangers make people wretched when they torment them with groundless fear. They have no advantage, but rather a dimunition. They do not know an ascent, but rather destruction.

The Blessed Fear of the LORD

The labor of your palms — when you eat it, happy are you and it is good for you.

Your wife is like a fruitful vine in the innermost parts of your house; your sons are like olive shoots around your table.

But in the Psalms too, finding something similar, they slip into the same error: "your wife", it says, "like a fruitful vine on the sides of your house, your children like young olive shoots around your table", up to that place where it says: "may the Lord bless you out of Zion, and may you see the good things that are of Jerusalem".

Let us now come to the words, "Thy wife" [Psalm 128:3]: it is said unto Christ. His wife, therefore, is the Church: His Church, His wife, we ourselves are. "As a fruitful vineyard." But in whom is the vineyard fruitful?

Next: "Your sons will be as olive shoots around your table." In regards to Wisdom, the wife, rightly are the children called "sons," not "daughters." By the male sex strength of mind is often indicated.

See, so will the man be blessed who fears the LORD.

May the LORD bless you from Zion, and may you see the good of Jerusalem all the days of your life.

And may you see sons of your sons. Peace be upon Israel.

Psalms128

The Blessed Fear of the LORD