Like arrows in the hand of a warrior, so are children born in one's youth. Sermons
I. THEY ARE SO FOR PROTECTION. Those children that are born when their parents are young will be of age to help and maintain their parents when these need such help. They defend their home from the attack of poverty and want. Long ere these have reached their home, these arrows have made them turn back. II. FOR HELP IN THE BATTLE OF LIFE. The spur and stimulus which children impart to their parents, the pleasure they give, the love they awaken, the aspirations after good they arouse, - all these things are of vast help in life's battle, even "as arrows are," etc. III. NEED TO BE CAREFULLY PREPARED. Arrows do not grow of themselves: they have to be wrought out with much thought and care. So our children. IV. AND TO BE WELL AIMED. What is our aim for our children? The arrows will go where they are sent. How many parents there are who have no worthy aim for their children! They will be glad for them to "get on," to become rich, and to take good positions in society. If they have aim, it is no higher one than that. And those who profess the higher aim, that their children should be the Lord's, how badly, clumsily, carelessly, they seek that aim! V. SENT FORTH WITH ALL POWER. See the "mighty man," how "he bends his bow and makes ready his arrow upon the string," and then draws it back to its full length, that it may speed with the more force on the way he would have it go; that is a picture of the strenuous, careful endeavor we should make to urge our arrows, our children, in the right way. But what all too little strenuousness there is in this matter! VI. THEY ARE SURE TO WOUND, IF NOT KILL, SOMEWHERE. The foes of the home - want, godlessness, evil reputation and character, strife and ill will, hopelessness and despair, the malice of men, and much else, the children should slay, and not suffer them to come near us; and good children do this. But if we have not so trained them to thus serve the home, then they will turn and wound and pierce their parents to the heart. Bad children do this. Yes, always, they are "as arrows." - S.C.
As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man, so are the children of the youth. Homiletic Review. 1. An arrow is small, but powerful. One slew Ahab. Latent capacities of a child.2. An arrow must be sharpened. A child must-be educated, its faculties developed. Note its natural sharpness. 3. An arrow travels far. Who can measure the influence of a child? 4. Its power depends upon the strength and judgment with which it is sent. A lesson to parents. 5. It is firmly imbedded, is the twig is bent, so it will grow. 6. Let us not send into the world poisoned arrows. (Homiletic Review.) (N. McMichael.). Blessed is every one that feareth the Lord. Homilist. The subject is the blessed tendency of true piety, and the truly pious man is described as one that "feareth the Lord" and "walketh in His ways."I. Its tendency is to make BUSINESS PROSPEROUS (ver. 2). This stands in splendid contrast to the terrible threat which Moses addressed to the Israelites of old, should they break God's law (Exodus 25:35; Deuteronomy 18:40). II. Its tendency is to make THE FAMILY HAPPY (ver. 3). Ungodly families are stars wandering from their orbits, but a truly pious family, small though it be, is an orb rolling round the eternal Sun of Righteousness, and from it deriving its life, its light, and its harmony. III. Its tendency is to make THE COUNTRY BLESSED (vers. 4, 5). "Righteousness exalteth a nation." 1. In material wealth. Truth, honesty, integrity, in a people; are the best guarantees of commercial advancement. Credit is the best capital in the business of a nation as well as in the business of an individual, and credit is built on righteous principles. 2. In social enjoyments. According as the principles of veracity, uprightness, and honour, reign in society, will be the freeness, the heartiness, and the enjoyment of social intercourse. 3. In moral power. The true majesty of a kingdom lies in its moral virtues. IV. Its tendency is to make THE LIFE LONG (ver. 5). There should be a full stop after the word "Children," and the word "and" is not in the original. Genuine piety tends to long life. 1. Long life depends upon obedience be the laws of our constitution, physical, mental, and moral laws. 2. In order to obey the laws of our constitution, those laws must be understood. 3. In order to understand those laws, man must study them. They will not come to him by intuition, inspiration, or revelation. He must study them, study nature. 4. In order to study them effectively he must have supreme sympathy with their Author. (Homilist.) Prevailing distress among the poor, calamitous conflicts between Labour and Capital, call for earnest thought, and wise and faithful utterance from the Church of Christ. Working-men claim their right "to secure the full enjoyment of the wealth they create," and they certainly have a right to a larger "share in the gains of advancing civilization." How is this to be realized?I. Not by Socialistic revolution and Communistic confiscation and redistribution. These methods are contrary alike to nature, reason, revelation and experience. II. Organization, bureau registration, co-operation, arbitration, legislation, etc., are largely empiric and artificial expedients, productive at best of only partial and superficial amendment. III. The Christian religion will secure whatever is good in the above, and, besides, will produce the only radical and permanent cure. 1. It teaches and realizes a Brotherhood of Humanity, embracing rich and poor, in which, it one member suffer, all suffer. 2. Its golden law strikes at the selfishness of the rich in refusing to consider the poor, secures the immediate relief of Christian philanthropy, and the permanent improvement of "things just and equal" (Colossians 4:1). "A fair day's work, etc., fair day's wage." 3. It gives best promise of regulating the labour-market by checking over-crowding in the easier callings, substituting conscientious choice and providential guidance for the unreasoning selfishness which makes time and means for pleasure the great consideration — e.g. City factory and sewing-room always crowded, farm and domestic service rarely if ever fully supplied. 4. It imparts dignity and self-respect through union and fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ, a brother mechanic, and the only perfect model of what the working-man may be and ought to be. Thus alone can he realize his ideal aristocracy of "industrial and moral worth," instead of wealth and birth. 5. It secures him the best of all help, Self-help, and puts him in the way of working out his own salvation. The fruition of such culture will be, from his own stock, trusty and efficient representatives who "shall stand before kings." 6. It will make his home the scene of highest comfort, purest and most stable domestic happiness and family welfare. (W. M. Roger.) Here we have —I. Piety in PRINCIPLE. The love to God that constitutes piety is characterized by two things: — 1. Predominancy. Most men have a kind of love for the Supreme, that flows through them with other natural emotions, but attains no ascendancy over other sentiments, no control over the other faculties. The love to God that constitutes piety must be the controlling disposition. 2. Permanency. Perhaps, in most minds, the sentiment of love to God, of gratitude, adoration, and even of reverence, arises at times: especially when moving amidst the grand and beautiful in nature, or experiencing the enjoyment of some special blessings. But this sentiment, to become piety, must be crystallized, and settled as a rock. It is the embryo of all excellence in all worlds. It is a seed out of which grows all that is beautiful and fruitful in the Eden of God. II. Piety in DEVELOPMENT. How is this principle rightly developed? Not in mere songs and hymns, and prayers, and ceremonies, but in conduct. "That walketh in His ways." "His ways," the ways of truth, honesty, purity, and holy love. True piety is not a dormant element sleeping in the soul, like grain buried under the mountains, it struggles into form, and takes action, it walks, and its walk is onward and upward. III. Piety in BLESSEDNESS. (David Thomas, D. D.) I. RELIGION IS PLEASANT. No man ever performed an action which was wise and good, such as supplying the wants of the industrious poor, relieving the distress of the orphan, or vindicating the character of the worthy from unmerited detraction, without meeting the reward of beneficence in that very hour. He will feel a secret satisfaction, which can never be equalled by the pleasures of sense. He may not be able, it is true, to execute all his laudable designs; but the very consciousness of good intention is more delightful than the triumphs of successful iniquity. "This is the way of religion — walk thou in it."II. RELIGION IS PROFITABLE. The very duties which religion inculcates, it cannot have escaped your observation, have a natural tendency to procure the comforts and conveniences of life. Health, honour, riches, and that good name which is better than riches, are, in many cases, part of the recompense of religion. Religion embraces both the temporal welfare of individuals, and the prosperity of states and of empires. "Blessed is every one that feareth the Lord, that walketh in His ways." Blessed are the young; blessed are the aged; blessed are the prosperous; and blessed the afflicted. (T. Laurie, D. D.) G. K. Chesterton remarks — "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of pleasure." When life ceases to be a mystery it ceases to hold the secret of joy. The world that has banished awe has banished wholesome laughter. The ages that have known most of religious fear are the ages from which have come the most lyrical notes of Christian joy. Those older ages lived and breathed and rejoiced in God amidst their dark theologies. had stern, stupendous ideas of the Deity, and yet it was he who sang —"Jesus, the very thought of Thee, With sweetness fills my breast." Samuel Rutherford was steeped in all the rigours of a Calvinism which touches the very springs of awe in the human breast, and yet from him came the love letters of Christianity — letters too sacred for any except our most solitary moods. The moment we cease to tremble before God we cease to know joy. (W. C. Piggott.) People Psalmist, SolomonPlaces JerusalemTopics Arrows, Born, Hands, Mighty, One's, Sons, War, Warrior, YouthOutline 1. The virtue of God's blessing3. Good children are his gift Dictionary of Bible Themes Psalm 127:4 5199 womb 5668 children, responsibilities to parents Library The Peculiar Sleep of the BelovedThe Psalmist says there are some men who deny themselves sleep. For purposes of gain, or ambition, they rise up early and sit up late. Some of us who are here present may have been guilty of the same thing. We have risen early in the morning that we might turn over the ponderous volume, in order to acquire knowledge; we have sat at night until our burned-out lamp has chidden us, and told us that the sun was rising; while our eyes have ached, our brain has throbbed, our heart has palpitated. We have … Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 1: 1855 Letter xxxiv. To Marcella. The History of the Psalter Or are we Indeed to Believe that it is for any Other Reason... The Great Shepherd Letter Xliv Concerning the Maccabees but to whom Written is Unknown. Psalms Links Psalm 127:4 NIVPsalm 127:4 NLT Psalm 127:4 ESV Psalm 127:4 NASB Psalm 127:4 KJV Psalm 127:4 Bible Apps Psalm 127:4 Parallel Psalm 127:4 Biblia Paralela Psalm 127:4 Chinese Bible Psalm 127:4 French Bible Psalm 127:4 German Bible Psalm 127:4 Commentaries Bible Hub |
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