Gods Gift of Children -- Psalm 127

Open your bibles with me to Psalm number one hundred and twenty seven. Psalm one hundred and twenty seven, a very familiar psalm to us here at GFBC. Whenever we have parents whom we commission here in front of the church, there is a reference to this passage of scripture as they bring their children. It has been read often. But as we read this passage scripture, do we really understand it? Do we really have a grasp on what it is that's being communicated here in Psalm one seven. In order to do that, in order to grasp this psalm, we have to understand it in its historical context. We have to understand it in its redemptive historical context. And in an effort to do that, we'll read this psalm. Remind ourselves that this is another one of the psalms of assent, just like the one that we looked at on last week. And it may seem odd that this is a psalm of ascent. Last week, it makes a lot of sense that you would, you know, sing Psalm one hundred and twenty one as you are on your way ascending to Jerusalem. But Psalm one hundred and twenty seven not so much, maybe not so much. Someone twenty seven a song of a sense of Solomon that's important as well. Solomon known as the great builder, the one who built really the temple of temples, if you will. Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city. The watchman stays awake in vain. It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil, for he gives to his beloved sleep. Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb, a reward. Like arrows in the hands of a warrior. Are the children of one's youth. Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them. He shall not be put to shame when he speaks with his enemies in the gate. I have to admit this is perplexing on a number of levels. Just at first Blush. It's perplexing at first Blush. It's perplexing because we're making our ascent and preparing our hearts and this doesn't seem to fit. Secondly, it's perplexing because the two halves at first Blush almost don't seem to go together. We go from architecture to child bearing. It just it just doesn't seem to fit. Not apples and oranges, it's apples and golf balls. It just it doesn't seem to go together. So the question is how do these things align themselves. Well, first of all, understand that this is a psalm of ascent. It's attributed to Solomon, and as they're ascending to the temple, they're ascending to arguably the most impressive architectural feet in the world. As they're heading to the temple, they are going to come to a point where they look across, look onto the temple mount and see Solomon's Temple in all its splendor and be in awe because there's nothing in the world like it. The most wealthy leaders from around the world came to Jerusalem and stopped in jaw, dropping awe and wonder as they looked at this structure. And here these pilgrims are headed to this structure, and the author of the psalm wants to remind them that apart from God, it is just a structure. Unless the Lord builds the house, they who build it labor in vain. Unless the Lord watches the city. The watchman stays awakened. Unless the sovereign Lord of the universe has his hand in what it is that is being done, it will not succeed. So the implication here is, as you go to this place and look at Solomon's temple, don't stand there in awe of Solomon, because according to this psalm attributed to him, he's saying, unless God built that temple, who wouldn't stand. This is not about my greatness, but the greatness of the God whom we serve. So we get that as we ascend, we get that there's this picture of coming to this mount where we're going to worship and seeing this awe inspiring structure and being reminded that it's not the structure that we worship, nor the one whom God used to bring the structure about, that there is something more significant than that. Then we come to that second half, and in that second half it's a parallel to the first half. The first half points to the sovereignty of God in the building of structures and of towns, and then the protection of structures and of town and there's a promise attached, and that promise is God gives his people rest. So there are those who don't know God, who don't serve God, and they build houses, and they build cities, and they do everything they can, and anxiously they attempt to complete their work and to protect their work. But God is not part of it. So it's not going to stand, it's going to fall. But He gives his beloved rest. Why do we rest. We rest in the sovereignty of God. Now look at the second half. In the second half, behold children in our heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb, a reward. So here we see a picture of children, the same way we see houses in buildings. Here's what you put in houses, in buildings, families and so. On the one hand, he says, these buildings and these structures, unless the Lord builds them, we labor in vain. And then in the same breath next paragraph, these families of ours, unless the Lord builds them, we labor in vain. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior, are the children of one's youth. Again, parallel to a watchman watching over a city. Blessed as a man who fills his quiver with them, he will not be put to shame when he speaks with his enemies at the gate, equivalent to the rest that God gives to his people who trust in him. The message here is clear that the Lord is the architect of life. That's the message. God is the architect of life. That's why you have these two halves. You are about to go to this architectural wonder. And as you're going to this architectural wonder, the author of the psalm, the Psalmis, takes your eyes away from this wonder, from this building, to the source of this building, to God himself, and then uses it as an opportunity to remind you of something more intimate. But but we still don't fully understand the connection between the two. First, we do understand that the message is that the Lord is the author and architect of life. How these two things fit together, that question still hasn't been answered yet. But for now we know that here's the statement. The Lord is the author and the architect of life. Calviny. Nothing seems more natural than for men to be produced of men. The majority of mankind dream that after God had once ordained this at the beginning, children were thenceforth begotten solely by a secret instinct of nature. God ceasing to interfere in the matter, and even those who are endued with some sense of piety, although they may not deny that He is the father and creator of the human race, yet do not acknowledge that his providential care descends to this particular case, but rather think that men are created by a certain universal motion. It's just biology. That's what we're prone to think. It's just biology, and we become deists when it comes to children. We believe about children like the deists believe the world they got created the world. He put these laws in motion, but then he took his hands off of it. We believe God created men and he put these biological laws in motion, but then he took his hands off of it and said, you guys, figure out this child bearing thing on your own. The Psalmist would disagree. The Lord is the author and the architect of life, just as he's the author and the architect of this glorious temple, just like he's the author and the architect of this glorious city. So what that means is a couple of things we have to get into our heads that we don't really understand. The first is this God is not obligated to give us children. Let me say that again. God is not obligated to give us children. I say that, and we can say amen to that. At least one of us can say amen to that. But for most of us, that's not what we believe. We believe God is obligated to give us children. So if we want children and children aren't coming, we shake our fists at God as though he has somehow become negligent because he owes us this. God is not obligated to give us children. If he were, then we wouldn't be talking about them as a heritage from the Lord, as a reward from the Lord, as a blessing, as a gift, if you will, from the Lord. If somebody's obligated to give you something, it's not a gift. Amen. Secondly, if God has given us children, obligated to give us more Amen. The Lord is the author and the architect of life. When we get out, when we wrap our heads around this, it changes the way we think even about this issue of childbearing. Unless the Lord builds the house, unless the Lord watches over the city, that's our theological disposition when it comes to children, or at least it ought to be. Instead. Our theological disposition is I'm a good person. I'm a good Christian. God owes me children. I'm a good person, I'm a good Christian. God owes me more children, or God owes me children that aren't troublesome to me, that aren't difficult to raise. God owes me better children than the children that I have. If you can't say amen, you want to say ouch, God doesn't owe us. We have to understand that. Secondly, children are indeed a blessing. They really are. And it's not until we understand the first that we understand the second that children are indeed a blessing. That it's a blessing when God gives us children. Now, by the way, the text doesn't say that certain children, some children, or even a certain number of children are a blessing. It speaks generally and objectively. This is a general, objective reality that children are a blessing. They're a heritage from God, They're a reward, They're a gift from the most High. Amen. That's good. And we need to be able to say that. By the way, our ability to say that is connected to the first thing, because sometimes we're hindered and being able to say that sometimes we're hindered and being able to believe that. So if I'm having a problem with the first that the Lord is the author and architect of life, I'm having a problem believing that, and I believe either God owes me children or God owes me more children, then I may have a problem with making that second declaration that children are a blessing just in general. How could that be? His heart could be I want more kids, not having more kids. Somebody else had kids. My tendency may be to not see what God did for my brother or sister as a blessing, but instead see it with me at the center of the universe, as God not being kind to me. I can't even rejoic when God gives other people children because I haven't settled this first issue that God's not obligated to give me children, and then if he has, he's not obligated to give me more. So I can't even look at other people with babies. I can't even celebrate when other people have babies because I haven't settled that first issue. Listen, unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain, who build it? But why is this given to us as an objective reality. And he noticed he doesn't even just say that just for people, you know, in the community of faith, just in general, it's an objective reality that children are a blessing. Let's look at this just from the standpoint of general revelation. Children represent hope for the continuation of the human race. That's a blessing. Amen. They represent hope for the continuation of the human race. There was recently a book and it was later made into a movie and kind of the premise was that people had stopped having children, and the movie kind of took a look at it, kind of explored that idea, what would happen in the world if nowhere on Earth people were giving birth, and it imagines the kind of culture of the cave that will happen. All of a sudden, the youngest people in the world had celebrity status. There's a scene in the movie where there's fighting that has broken out, and you know that people are warring with one another, and a woman, after years and years and years of nowhere on planet Earth, she gives birth and people hear the cry of a baby and hostility cease because everybody understands you don't have to be saved to understand that children represent the hope of the continuation of the human race. We stop having babies, we stop existing. Secondly, children represent the hope of the continuation of particular families. Children represent the hope of the continuation of particular families, that an individual family will go on, that a family name will go on, for example, that it will not end, that it will not be wiped out. There are some cultures in the world where this has taken on a lot more significance, where they have so called four to two to one families, places like China with their one child policy. What's family well, generation grandparent, there's four people, there's two marriages. There's a marriage over here and a marriage over there. Each of them is allowed to have one child. Next generation there's two people. They get married and they're allowed to have one child. Next generation there's one person. Hence the idea of the four to two one family and eventual extinction of family lines and family names, which is why girls in such cultures are often thrown away and completely disregarded, because it's boys who carry on family names. Thirdly, children represent hope for the strength and future of particular nations. Again, this is just general revelation. You don't have to be saved to get this. Continuation of the human race, continuation of particular families, continuation and strength of particular nations makes sense. But what about special revelation. Here's what we connect the two halves. I believe, here's where what the psalmist is saying begins to cohere and make sense. First, children represent hope for the expansion of the dominion mandate. This just look back in Genesis, that we'd be fruitful and multiply, that we'd subdue the earth. How is that going to happen with just Adam and Eve. It's not. It's only going to happen to the degree that children are born, and hordes of children are born, and the image of God is spread abroad throughout the entire globe, and it is subdued by them. Secondly, in Genesis three, children represent the hope of a promised redeemer. Remember the promise. The first time we hear the gospel is Genesis three fifteen. I would put inmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed. You will bruise his heel, he will bruise your head. So here is this promise that God makes that he is going to bring a deliverer, But how is he going to bring a deliverer? God is going to bring a deliver through the womb, so that the hope of mankind is connected to childbearing. That's how the first half and the second half are connected, because the last one is that children represent hope of the strength of future Israel. So now Israel as a nation, as the people of God, if they are going to continue, God is going to do this by bringing children through the womb. A redeemer has been promised through the nation of Israel. How is this going to happen through the womb. So as you're going up to this temple, you're recognizing that this temple is not the be all to end all. But God has promised a messiah. Yeah, that a Messiah is going to be born. Unto us, a child is born, unto us, a son is given. This is the promise that's being held onto. So every time a woman gives birth, there is a reminder God is going to redeem us, and that redemption is going to come from one born of a woman. Lest the Lord builds a house the labor in vain who build it lest the Lord watches over a city. This is not just about the house the temple. This is not just about the city Jerusalem. This is just about Israel, the nation. This is about the Messiah Christ. That's the connection between the first half and the second half of the psalm, that a redeemer is coming. God could have chosen any number of ways to redeem us, but what he chose was pregnancy and delivery, and the Son of God, not just wrapping himself in flesh, but being conceived in a wound, a pregnancy, come into fruition, being a child cared for in a family, crowing up into a man laying down his life and dying, obeying the law perfectly, or the first Adam did not, and taking upon himself said of his people where his people could not, so that our sinfulness could be imputed to him, and his righteousness could be imputed to us, and God could reach deem us. God connects this reality to a baby being born. So now there's a new significance. We still retain those common grace benefits. That's still important to us. By the way, just because we understand the bigger picture doesn't mean that those common grace implications aren't important to us. That children represent the continuation of the human race. Amen. We're made in the image of God. Better we thrive. Amen, that's good that children represent the hope of the continuation of particular families. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. We ought to have a desire to pass on who and what we are to raise children, and the discipline and instruction of the Lord, to seek Christ to have the fullness of the reward for which he laid down his life and died. We ought to desire that. Amen. And for the hope and strength of particular nations. God has made us citizens. You know, Paul talks about this in Acts chapter seventeen. God has determined the boundaries of our habitation. God has made us a part of this republic. Praise the Lord for that. Amen. And I want this republic to thrive. So we hold on to all of those things. And yet there's more. Because Christ experienced all of life, from conception to death, his dignity to all of life and of the human experience is thereby validated and sanctified. Set apart, if you will. We're not only made in God's image, but the son of God. Clothed himself fully in our humanity, so that there is now a member of the Godhead who is one of us forever, uniting those two natures in the one man, the god Man, Jesus Christ. And every child born is potentially a fellow heir with Christ. So we hold with us all of those common grace realities, and bring with us these significant realities when we look at children. Thirdly, when we put all this together, we realize that we have neither the right nor the responsibility to dictate terms. Where does that come from? Look at the progression. Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain. The author in the architect is God. And then we come to the second half. The whole children are heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb reward like arrows in the hands of a warrior, or the children of one's youth, blessed the man who fills this quiver with them. We have neither the right nor the responsibility to dictate terms. God is sovereign. Again, Calvin's words I believe are worth mentioning here with the view of correcting this preposterous error, Solomon calls children from the heritage of God and the fruit of the womb his gift. For the Hebrew word Sakar translated reward signifies whatever benefits God bestows upon men, as is plainly manifests from many passages of scripture. The meaning, then is that children are not the fruit of chance, but that God, as it seems good to him, distributes to every man his share of them. Moreover, as the prophet repeats the same thing twice, heritage and reward are to be understood as equivalent. For both these terms are set in opposition to fortune or strength of men. We have neither the right nor the responsibility to dictate terms what I mean by that, or here's some ways, some very common ways that we try to dictate terms when it comes to children that I believe ignores. You have of this passage coming together the way it does the newlyweds who need to wink a year or two before they start having kids. You heard this one. I hear this one all the time when you do marriage counseling. You hear this one a lot. We get married and you know, maybe eventually down the line. In a couple of years, we'll start having children. And you can talk to people who've done marriage counseling with me and just ask them what's pastor vote say. If you bring something like that up, they'll tell you. He tells us, if you're not ready for kids, you're not ready to get married. Amen, hallelujah, Praise the Lord. God knows you need time. That's why it takes forty weeks to make one of those jokers. Okay, it's built in folks. Amen, But what do you need the time for? People say, we need the time so that we can get to know each other. Really, if you want to really get to know somebody, watch how they react at three o'clock in the morning when the baby wakes up and you have to decide who gets up. You'll know them. Then there's another problem here. The problem is the idea that marriage is all about gratification. So we need to maximize our gratification and our footloose, fancy free fund as much as we can before we're quote unquote saddled with the responsibility and obligation of children because there's absolutely no joy in that right, to which the Psalmists would say, unless the lord builds the house, they labor in vain, who build it. You're trying to protect your marriage, protect your union, protect your oneness by telling the sovereign god of the universe that you know best when children ought to come? Another example, trying to dictate terms spacing your children properly. Have you heard this one? This ideal spacing And depending upon the source, you'll hear that it's two years or two and a half years or three years between children. So we're going to space our children properly so that we can maximize the benefit of that. Come on, now, who do you think you are? Again? God's got built in mechanisms for spacing children. Amen. Thirdly, avoiding the Dugger syndrome. You get this one a lot. You get people who say, well, no, no, no, no, no, we gotta take the reins of this thing because you know, I don't want to end up with twenty twenty five kids. You know what presumption there is in that? Do you realize that almost nobody has that kind of fertility? And the world is filled with couples who will gladly bend your ear and tell you we thought we knew best, We assumed we knew best, and then it turned out we weren't able to have children, or I thought I was that kind of person, and it was bam, bam bam. Three kids in three years. Haven't been able to get pregnant since unless the lord builds the house, they labor in vain, who build it? Another one only having as many children as you can quote afford. As though there's some kind of formula. You take a certain amount of money and divide it up a certain way, and that'll determine how many children you can afford to have. By the way, it's a certain amount of money, certain lifestyle that you want to have, and then divide that up a certain way, and that gives you how many children you can afford to have. And then the last one avoiding or eliminating medical risk. This is another common one. My doctor said to me, if I get pregnant again, there's a ninety nine percent chance that I'll die first trimester. Now, again, nobody talks quite that extreme, but when you sit down and have conversations with people, it's almost that bad. We're not going to do this. Why, because we do this, we're going to die. Now listen to me, folks, I'm not saying to you that none of these things should be talked about or thought about. My point is that every one of these issues has to be taken to the word of God and not just merely to the whims of men. Here's basically what we're saying. If we trust God in this area, it will inevitably result in having too many children, too soon, too close together, and ultimately result in poverty and misery, ending in premature death during the birth of the twenty five child. That's how we think about children instead of behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb, a reward Like arrows in the hands of a warrior. Are the children of one's youth. Blessed is the man who fills its quiver with them. He shall not be put in to shame when he speaks with his enemies at the gate. That's how the scriptures speak about children. It's the complete opposite of the way that we talk. And every one of these things has the same idea that children are not a blessing, they're a burden. Worse than that, they're a danger or they're a hindrance, and we need to make sure that we're careful because there's a god out there who wants to harm us, and this principal means of harming us as children, and we just can't let him do it. He must be stopped. You have to laugh when you say it like that, don't you. But that's the way we think about children. And I'm talking about in church, folks, all of these things. I'm not talking about the world here. I'm talking about what you hear in church. Here's what I didn't say. I didn't say I know how many children you should have. I didn't say that's the right question to ask. I didn't say that every person who's ever prevented a pregnancy has necessarily been wrong. I didn't say any of that. Here's what I am saying. The Lord is the author and the architect of life, and we need to treat pregnancy like we believe that. So when we ask questions about children, and when we ask questions about welcoming them and receiving them, we must start from that point, and that point only when we have the discussion, and wherever we go from there, there had better be an open Bible while we're having the discussion. Here's the fourth thing I want to say. The blessing of children is not contingent upon outcome. The blessing of children is not contingent upon outcome. If you have a healthy child who lives a healthy life, has a healthy future, that was a blessing. You have a child who's sick needs perpetual care, that's not a blessing. You have a child that doesn't survive to adulthood, that was not a blessing. You have a child who breaks your heart, that was not a blessing. You have a pregnancy that doesn't come to fruition, that was not a blessing. Folks, the text doesn't say any of that. It's a blessing. It's a blessing to get pregnant. It's a blessing to have a baby. It's a blessing to raise a child. It's a blessing. Does that mean that it's always convenient? Does that mean that it's always Does that mean that you always enjoy it? Absolutely not. But it's a blessing. By the way, length of years is also a blessing. But getting old is hard, amen somebody. But it's a blessing, is it not? How many things does God give us that are blessings? That are difficult. Salvation is a blessing, but it's a war every day. Children are a heritage from the Lord, whether they bring you years and years of joy and delight and lay you to rest in your old age, or whether you have to stand over a little casket one day. Children are a blessing. And if you can only think of that first ideal picture as the blessing, then you don't understand children in the redemptive historic context. You don't understand the goodness of God. Here are a few pastoral concerns. One, we have to understand that more children does not necessarily equal more blessing. More children does not necessarily me equal more blessing. Sometimes we do that as well. You know, well, children are in heritane from the Lord for the woman's the reward. You know, God rewarded me with one, rewarded somebody else with twelve. You know, he likes them more than he likes me. Listen, New York has more people than Houston. God likes us more. Amen, It's just as ridiculous, wouldn't it be ridiculous? New York is a more blessed city. Los Angeles is a more blessed city. Why because they have more people, and more people automatically equals more blessing. That's ridiculous, So is it ridiculous? God bless us with one jib? God bless somebody else with twelve. He loves them more than he loves us. No, God distributes children, and he does so in connection with his redemptive purposes. Secondly, don't find your hope and your identity in pregnancy or children. To do so is idolatry. To find your identity and being able to be pregnant, to find your identity and being able to have children, or being able to have a certain number of children is idolatry. Again, remember the blessed hope of childhood and how it's connected to this redemptive picture of Christ coming into this world through those means. Remember that understand that you find your identity in Christ. You find your identity in the child who was born, not in whether or not more children are born to you. When you find your identity in your children, you will always be disappointed. You were never meant to find your identity and your children. You were never meant to find your identity and being able to get pregnant. You were never meant to find your identity and being able to have children you were never meant to find your identity and how healthy they are, how beautiful they are, or how many they are. That's not where you find your identity. And if you are finding your identity there, you will be crushed under the weight of that unsustainable bird and your children will be crushed under the weight of that unsustainable burden. You realize what it is to carry that. My parents find their identity in me. Lord help us, all I beseech. You look to Christ for your hope and your identity, not to children or child bearing. Thirdly, don't judge God's love for you by how many children he gives you, or even by whether or not he gives you children. Don't do that. Don't do that. That makes no sense. That makes no sense. You don't judge God's love for you by whether or not he gives you check. You judge God's love for you because He gave his child up to die for you. That's the only child that answers the question how much does God love me? The only child that answers that question is Jesus. Also think about this, Think about what we say to God when we bring that to him, God, I thought you loved me, but you won't give me a child. Now, I don't presume to speak from for God, but I believe that we can know what his answer is. To that, God, I thought you loved me, and yet you won't give me a child. I do love you. I gave you mine. He died on a cross. How dare you? How dare you? The sovereign Lord of the universe is the author and the architect of life. He knows what he's doing and you don't. But you know that he's good. Amen. For don't view childbearing as a zero sum economic equation. Don't view child bearing as a zero sum economic equation. What do I mean by that? Well, we look at an economic pie and it's just static. Here's the economic pie, and there's only this much in the economic pie. And I look at children and God giving me children as though this economic pie is the only reality that there is, as though God can't provide for me beyond this economic pie, or as though children are not an addition to the economic pie. They're a heritage from the Lord. Children don't make you poorer. They make you richer. Amen, they make you richer. Here's the great irony. We look back at people from the past and we think, you know, we think about the Wesleys or the Edwards or whomever, you know, and we talk about, you know, raising them eleven children or fifteen children or whatever, and doing this and making ends meet with what today would be a paltry existence, you know. And we hold up these heroes who raise these children, who impacted the world for Christ and so on and so forth, and then we look at ourselves and we say, man, beyond one or two, we can't afford it. There's a disconnect there, a massive disconnect there. File when you're talking about God giving you children, don't leave God out of the conversation. We can we can. We can disagree, We really can't. We can disagree. There can be a doctor who says this and a doctor who says that, and you can say that the prudent medical thing to do is this, and somebody else has a prudent medical thing to do is that. And now that, folks can we can disagree on that. And I'm not going to say that you're not a Christian or that someone else is not a Christian because you're having a disagreement over how you take in and evaluate these pieces of information. But here's what we can't disagree on. Physicians must never be allowed to speak instead of the Bible. Economics must never be allowed to speak instead of the Bible. Circumstances must never be allowed to speak instead of the Bible. We go here, we look at this book, we conform our thinking to what God has said on this subject. Finally, we're part of a church with a lot of babies, and as a pastor, I want to ask you something. I want to ask you for something. I want to ask that those of us to whom God has given a lot of babies would show sensitivity and compassion for those who've been desiring children for a long time and haven't been able to have them, And that we wouldn't just assume that everybody ought to be just stoked over the fact that we just got married not long ago and God gave us children. We had a child, and God gave us another and been adopting children seven in the last nine years. We can't just assume that all of our brothers and sisters look at that the same way, and that for some of them it's not a difficult thing to grapple with and on the other side, he's what I want to ask. Do not let the fact that you desire more children than you have cause you to not rejoice with those who rejoice, Because there's a ditch on both sides of the road. There's a ditch on the side of the road that does not look at the brother or sister who's been on his or her face before God begging God, would you please give us a child, the family who's experienced miscarriage after miscarriage, the family who's taking pregnancy tests after pregnancy test and not seeing the plus sign. We can't act like that's not real, and that's not a struggle wrestling with God over that. But on the other side, you must not, and you may not insist that everyone in the world continue to mourn even when that even when God blesses them, because you haven't yet experienced what it is that you're asking for. We rejoice with those who rejoice, and we weep with those who mourn, and both of those are valid, both of those are essential. This is how we live together in one accord. Finally, always keep this in mind. Whenever we think about children. The first thing on our mind is unto us, a child is born unto us, a son is given, because that birth is the only reason that any other birth could have significance. If you're here today and you have not been born unto him who was born unto us, man say to you that what you need from this more than anything else, is to know that Christ is your only hope, that he was born of a virgin, that he did live a sinless life, that he did suffer under ponscious pilot, that he was crucified, dead and buried, that he did raise again on the third day, that he has ascended to the right hand and the Father, and that he will come again to judge the living and the dead, And that your only reasonable response to him is to bow the knee in repentance and faith, because that's what brings the two halves of the Psalm together. That's when you will not be ashamed when you stand before your enemies at the gate. Let's pray, Father, we read over certain passages of Scripture so many times without fully comprehending their meaning. Grant by your grace that that would never again be so for us. In regard to this beautiful Psalm. Father, we rejoice with all those in this church who have experienced the incredible blessing of bearing children over the last several years, some over the last several days. We thank you and acknowledge the fact that we become spoiled in this place, and perhaps even have begun to assume that children are just and automatic a guarantee. But may we always be mindful of those in our minst who have been on their faces before you for years desiring children and have not had them, Those that are minst who have become pregnant with children, only to see those pregnancies and in miscarriag those in our midst have given birth to children who did not make it to adulthood. Father, would you also grant that we would view all children as a heritage and a reward, not just the so called good ones, healthy ones, happy ones, whole ones, Not just the ones who bring us joy and don't break our hearts. But Father, even those children who need our perpetual care, even those children who, for whatever reason will never attain to the potential that we've set for them before they were born. That even those children who break our hearts because of the decisions that they make, that they are blessing, that they are a heritage, that they're a reward. And help us to rejoice in them, to rejoice in the privilege that we have to walk with them, to teach them, to train them, even to wrestle with them. To rejoice in the hope that we have because you've connected them to us, which means you've connected them to the Gospel. And when we mourn and when we weep, may it never be as those without hope, because our hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. Grant by your grace that this would mark us, that this would sustain us. We pray this and the name of the child who was born unto us, our Savior, Redeemer, Priest, Prophet and King, Jesus, who is the Christ forever, the god Man, and his name Amen.