"This Winter: Celebrate Your Blessings!"

Sermon on Psalm 128

January 24, 1999

Saint Mark's, Watertown

Pastor Karl Walther

Introduction: Winter In Wisconsin Is Dreary

Blessed is the man whose delight is in the Lord's teaching, and on his teaching he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers! Amen.

God's Word for our consideration this morning is psalm one hundred twenty-eight, on page nine hundred sixty-eight of your pew Bibles. We read this psalm earlier, and I will be reading it throughout the sermon. I don't intend to read it now, but I'd encourage you to turn to psalm one hundred twenty-eight on page nine hundred sixty-eight of your pew Bibles and follow along....

Dear fellow Christians-- blessed richly in both earthly and heavenly ways:

"Winter in Wisconsin is dreary!" ...I don't see any objections to that statement! Winter in Wisconsin is dreary: wake up every morning in the dark, go out and shovel snow, the sun never does show, get your work done, it's dark when you come home, holiday parties are over, no money to go out shopping much, no football during the evenings, hardly any football on the weekends, no football this weekend, the Packers bombed out of the playoffs, they face an uncertain future, not even any NBA basketball yet....

Theme: This Winter, Celebrate Your Blessings!

"Winter in Wisconsin is dreary!" But maybe God has arranged it that way precisely to force us to consider our greater blessings. And God's Word to us today leads us to do exactly that. It says, * THIS WINTER: CELEBRATE YOUR BLESSINGS! And in keeping with that theme, God's Word to us today narrates no end of:
(1) EARTHLY BLESSINGS and (2) HEAVENLY BLESSINGS.

Part One: Earthly Blessings

Now if you take a look at God's Word today, you notice that it's: a song of ascents. In fact, for those of you who did open up to page nine sixty-eight, page back as far as psalm one twenty; you'll notice that all those psalms are songs of ascents. And page ahead as far as psalm one thirty-four; all of those psalms are songs of ascents, too.

These fifteen psalms have to do with ascent, going up. Some say they were regularly sung: one on each of the fifteen steps going up to the temple. Some of them were, no doubt, sung while the Israelites were on their way back up to Israel after exile. But no question, these fifteen psalms were especially songs that were sung by pilgrims going up to the three great festivals at the temple every year.

So, picture yourself.... You're in Israel some hundreds of years before Christ, tending your flocks or farming your land. It's holiday time. So, you drop everything and begin with your family that one- or two- or three-day walk up to Jerusalem's temple. God's Word to us today is one of the hymns you learned while you were young, and you're singing it on your way today.

And you sing: Oh the blessings of all who revere the LORD, who walk in his ways! You could say that that's the theme of the song. And now the psalmist is going to enumerate those blessings of yours....

• First of all: You will eat the labor of your hands; blessings and prosperity will be yours. This is blessing number one: work. And it's hard work-- all those hours you put in as an Israelite farmer, or all those cold nights you suffer as an Israelite herdsman. But that hard work benefits you in two ways. It earns you your food, and it makes your food taste good-- because you're so hungry for it!

• Next it says: Your wife will be like a fruitful grapevine in the innermost parts of your house. This is blessing number two: your spouse. And the picture is striking here. Grapes were a treat for the Israelites, late in the summer. They were like sweet candy. And with age they got even better: because they fermented, producing wine. As an Israelite, your spouse is like that: sweet candy-- in the innermost parts of your house. She tastes delicious-- and I trust I really don't have to go any further with that picture....

• Now as a fruit of that intimate relationship, we read: Your children will be like olive shoots around your table. This is blessing number three: your children. And again, the picture is striking. Olives were as useful a commodity as there was for the Israelites. Besides being eaten, their oil was useful for cooking, for burning for light, for medicine for soothing, for ingredients in perfumes, and even for the anointing oil for prophets, priests, and kings. As an Israelite, your children are that way: as indispensable to you as your food and your light.

• Finally, a little later in the psalm, another blessing: And may you live to see your children's children. This is blessing number four, though as a young Israelite it lies in the future for you, and that's: your grandchildren. And if your children were olive shoots, your grandchildren will be shoots from your olive shoots that have grown into trees themselves.

Thus is the guy blessed who reveres the LORD, the psalmist concludes. And we would have to agree!

Application One: This Winter, Celebrate Your Earthly Blessings!

Now of course, I know that none of you is an Israelite farmer or herdsman-- the way I've just described. But God's enumeration of blessings in this psalm is still ever so applicable to you. And it's especially applicable to a certain minority of us here today: us working family men-- because we're exactly whom the Lord is directly addressing.

So, to all of you, and maybe especially to you working family-type guys like me: "Yes, I know Wisconsin's winter is dreary. It's cloudy and snowy, with few parties and little football. But that's God's way of getting you and me to celebrate his greater blessings to us."

° First of all, thank God for your work! Thank God you have some place to go and something to do -- for forty, or fifty, or yes, maybe sixty hours a week -- something that gives you a certain sense of purpose for your life. Thank God you have reason to be hungry and then something to give you money enough to satisfy your hunger. This winter, celebrate the blessing of hard work.

And those of you who are still in school, thank God for the sense of purpose that gives you. And those of you who work full-time at home, thank God for all the work he gives you there. And those of you who have spent many years working and are now retired, you thank God for all the work he's given you to do in the past.

° Secondly, thank God for your wife! Thank God that the God who loves you to the point of death picked her out to accompany you throughout your life. Thank God that through her you don't come home to an empty house. Thank God that through her you don't have to wonder where your next sexual favor is coming from-- or what awful embarrassment or what dreadful disease is coming with sexual favor.

And those of you who are still single, thank God for his provisions in the marriages from which you have benefited-- the marriage of your parents or the marriage of your grandparents and the like. And those of you who are widowed, thank God for the many years of marriage he gave to you in the past. And those of you who haven't always had that attitude toward marriage, thank God that God is using these words now to give you a right attitude.

° Third, thank God for your kids and grandkids! Thank God for their cute little faces. Or thank God for their love and devotion to you. Or thank God for the emerging talents you seem to see in them every day. Or thank God that for the most part they're staying out of trouble during their teen years. Or thank God that now that they're out of the nest, they're managing to function on their own as young men and young women.

And for those of you who don't have kids, thank God for kids and for those who do have them. And for those of you whose kids are long grown up and now moved away, thank God for the magnificent memories of them you still have.

See, this is real life! It may be cloudy and snowy, with few parties and little football-- although all of this, too, shall pass. Nevertheless, you have much greater blessings for which to thank God today.

Part Two: Heavenly Blessings

And-- and so far, I've just spent time on the dessert! I've just mentioned, the psalm has just mentioned, our earthly blessings. God is not done speaking to us. Now God lays out the meat and potatoes: our heavenly blessings.

• As the Israelite pilgrims made their way to the temple -- on the hill called Mount Zion, in Jerusalem -- they went on to sing: May the LORD bless you from Zion all the days of your life; may you see the prosperity of Jerusalem. Peace be upon Israel.

Now as an Israelite, that is a real blessing for you! Of all the many gods in the world, the only real Lord is your God. Of all the many mountains in the world, your mountain -- Mount Zion -- is the true Lord's residence. Of all the many cities in the world, your city -- Jerusalem -- is the true Lord's capital city. And so, you have peace. It's not only an absence of hostility between you and the Lord, but the Hebrew word for peace is much more positive: you have a wholehearted relationship to God. That's real blessing!

Application Two: This Winter, Celebrate Your Heavenly Blessings!

Of course, none of you is an Old Testament Israelite the way I've just described. But as New Testament Christians, all of you: whether working family-type guys like me, or similar-type women, or very much single men or women, or old-timers-- all of you have even greater heavenly blessings than the Old Testament Israelites did.

° The Old Testament Israelites had the true Lord. But on the pages of the New Testament Scriptures, you and I have actually experienced him. We saw the angels and the star announcing the birth of the holy one in our place. We heard his perfectly godly words as he grew, and preached, and showed himself our worthy substitute. We have felt his outcry of pain as we've read his betrayal, his suffering, his hell, his death for our sins.

We have eyewitnessed his resurrection-- and since we're attached to him, we'll experience it. We have eyewitnessed his ascension-- and since we're attached to him, we'll experience it. We do, right now, eyewitness his living and ruling in glory-- and since we're attached to him, we will experience that glory.

° Secondly: the Old Testament Israelites had the Lord residing on their mountain, in their capital city. But we New Testament Christians have more. We have him residing in our bodies and in our hearts. The New Testament Scriptures assure us that our bodies are the dwelling-place of the Holy Spirit-- and the kingdom of Christ himself lives in us.

Wow! With power like that in us; who can conquer us? Who can withstand us either?

° Finally: the Old Testament Israelites had peace with God. But the outward circumstances of their lives were tied very much to the behavior of others. If other Israelites behaved, things went well with the nation. If not: no.

We New Testament Christians, on the other hand, have better promises. From Christ: Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you, as well. From God through Paul: If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all-- how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? From the Spirit again through the Apostle: God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.

Conclusion: Despite the Dreariness Of Wisconsin's Winter,

We Have Reason To Rejoice

So then, it is another dreary winter weekend in Wisconsin. But with work and marriage and family and peace and prosperity and Christ, you have every reason for which to thank God. And you can easily make it through another week-- until we meet again. Amen.

Blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered! Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord does not count against him! Amen.