Deeper Commentary

Psa 128:1

A Song of Ascents-
Or 'degrees'. Hezekiah’s response to being granted another 15 years of life was to edit and produce the Songs of Degrees, so named after the degrees of the sundial. Four of the 15 Psalms were by David, one by Solomon; and the other 10 it seems Hezekiah wrote himself but left anonymous. These ten Psalms would reflect the ten degrees by which the sun-dial went backwards. The point to note is that Hezekiah taught others in an anonymous way in response to the grace he had received. True preaching reflects a certain artless selflessness. These songs of ascents were presumably also intended to be sung by the exiles as they returned to Zion, and then every time they went up to Jerusalem to keep a feast. But there is no evidence this happened. For they didn't return in the kind of faith implied in these Psalms. The plural "ascents" would then be an intensive plural referring to the one great ascent, to Zion. Much of the language of these Psalms is typical of David's language when under persecution by Saul. But the Psalm was reapplied to Hezekiah, and then to the exiles on their return from Babylon, and then by extension to all God's people on their journey zionwards.

Blessed is each one who fears Yahweh, who walks in His ways-
"Each one" reminds the exiles, and all of us, that our response to His call is not just a group experience; each is required to personally believe the call to the restored Kingdom in Zion. God's "ways" were particularly the ways to Zion which the repentant exiles were intended to walk, inviting repentant Gentiles to join them on the journey (Is. 2:3; Jer. 50:5). This has obvious relevance to the exiles singing this "Song of ascent" as they ascended to Zion. The blessings this psalm goes on to speak about are those of the old covenant, but they were conditional upon walking to Zion in God's way. Very few of those who returned did this; and so the blessings weren't experienced. Another pilgrimage psalms speaks of "Blessed are those whose strength is in you, in whose heart are the highways to Zion" (Ps. 84:5); NEV "who have set their hearts on a pilgrimage"; LXX "in his heart he has purposed to go up".

To walk in God's ways refers to our patterns of thinking; "ways" and "heart" or mind are often together in the Bible:

"to walk in all His ways and to love Him and to serve Yahweh your God with all your heart" (Dt. 10:12)

"render to every man according to all his ways, whose heart You know" (1 Kings 8:39)

"Don’t let your heart turn to her ways" (Prov. 7:25)

"My son, give me your heart; and let your eyes observe my ways"  (Prov. 23:26)

"They do always err in their heart. They did not know My ways" (Heb. 3:10).

Life is lived in practice by the ways of our heart; our patterns of thinking result in our actions. God's ways are to be our ways, our path in our heart. We respond to situations and words by being re-stimulated to think in certain ways. And those ways of mental response become very rigid. The work of the Holy Spirit is to soften our hearts to change the mental paths we take. The new covenant was offered to the exiles, with the possibility of God writing His law in their hearts / minds. Most of them refused this. Which is why the blessings for walking in God's ways weren't experienced by the returning exiles.

Psa 128:2

For you will eat the labour of your hands; you will be happy, and it will be well with you-
Eating the labour of the hands, rather than having it taken away by invaders (Dt. 28:33) like the Babylonians (Jer. 3:24), was a blessing for obedience to the covenant. But this didn't happen as envisaged for those who returned; the work of their hands was consumed by drought (s.w. Hag. 1:11 "Hag 1:11 I called for a drought on the land, on the mountains, on the grain, on the new wine, on the oil, on that which the ground brings forth, on men, on livestock, and on all the labour of the hands") because they were not repentant and not truly seeking the restoration of Zion.

Psa 128:3

Your wife will be as a fruitful vine in the innermost parts of your house; your children like olive plants around your table-
This focus upon children in these Psalms is because (as explained throughout Ps. 127), God wished to build the seed / house of His people, rather than having a literal house built for Him. See on :6. A explained on :2 and :4, the impenitence of the exiles meant that these things didn't come true as was potentially possible, and so they were given a different fulfilment in the fruitfulness of the Lord Jesus and His seed. If this is initially Hezekiah's thought, we see here his hope to have children after his life was lengthened. But his children / descendants were to go into captivity in Babylon, and his son Manasseh was a disgrace to him. This was merely fantasy in Hezekiah's case, and it largely was in David's case, whose children tried to slay him. Instead their focus should have been upon the promised seed of Abraham and David, the Lord Jesus, and all in Him. This was the true blessing out of Zion (:5); whether or not immediate family work out or not is unrelated to this.

Psa 128:4

Behold, thus is the man blessed who fears Yahweh-
As noted on :2, these things didn't come true for the returning exiles as was potentially possible. And so the prophecies were reapplied to the things of the Lord Jesus. The "man" is the Lord Jesus; we are the children He has been given (Is. 8:18). Israel, His wife like a vine, will be fruitful in the Kingdom (this is prophesied several times), and we are promised to sit round his table (Lk. 22:30). Israel in the Kingdom will be the vine that blossoms and buds, and fills the face of the world with spiritual fruit (Is. 27:6).

Psa 128:5

May Yahweh bless you out of Zion, and may you see the good of Jerusalem all the days of your life-
The blessing of Yahweh coming out of Zion was what was possible in the restored Kingdom of God; it would be associated with Yahweh Himself dwelling in Zion (Ps. 134:3; 135:21). This would be the time when the temple vision of Ez. 40-48 was obeyed by the exiles, and the city called Yahweh Shammah, "Yahweh is there". But at the time of the exiles' return, it was precluded by their impenitence and refusal to build the temple and city according to the commands of Ez. 40-48, and the fact the majority refused to participate in the program and remained in Persia / Babylon.

Psa 128:6

Yes, may you see your children’s children. Peace be upon Israel-
I discussed throughout Ps. 127 that God wished all interested in building Him a house to realize that this wasn't quite what he wanted. Rather He wanted to build up the seed of David. Peace and blessing would come in the form of generations of David's seed being eternally established in Zion; but this was to be by God's work, and not the result of literally building or rebuilding a temple.

There are several allusions to this Psalm 128 in the restoration prophecy of Zechariah 8: "Old men and old women will again dwell in the streets of Jerusalem, every man with his staff in his hand for very age. The streets of the city will be full of boys and girls playing in its streets... " (Zech. 8:4,5). The allusions of Zech. 8 to these verses show that it was capable of fulfilment at the restoration. But that didn't happen and so we must look to a more spiritual fulfilment. Not so much in happy family life, which in any case is often not the experience of genuine believers, but in the fulfilment of the promises about the blessedness of the seed / family of Abraham under the new covenant that was offered to the exiles.