#DailyDevotion Despite The Lies Of The Devil, Blessed Are Those Whose Quiver Is Full Of Children

Psalm 127 If the LORD doesn’t build a house, it’s no use working so hard building it. If the LORD doesn’t protect a city, it’s no use to guard and protect it. ²It’s no use for you to get up early and go to bed late, O you who eat the bread of strenuous labor, for surely He gives to those He loves while they sleep. ³Behold, children are an inheritance from the LORD; His reward is a fruitful womb. ⁴Like arrows in a warrior’s hand are a man’s children who are born when he’s young. ⁵Happy is the man who has filled his quiver with them: He will not come to shame when he speaks with his enemies at the city gate.

If there was ever more clear evidence of divine providence in this world I’m not sure where it is. Certainly there may be one, but this passage is very clear, unless the LORD builds a house you can forget about it being completed. If the LORD doesn’t protect a city in war it is going to fall. This is not always to say the LORD favors those whose houses He builds and cities He protects, though this would apply to ancient Israel and Judah. However, the LORD at times builds up different dynasties and protects certain cities because it fits in His overall plan to do so. We know He lifted up Egypt to show His glory there when He delivered His people from them. He raised up both the Assyrians and Babylonians to discipline His people. It would appear He raised up the Greeks to spread their language for the purpose of spreading the Gospel and the Romans for the purpose of giving a time of peace for that Gospel to spread quickly. Unless He reveals it to us, we only can look back and see it in hindsight. But as God’s holy people who have been called to faith in Christ Jesus we have this certainty of divine providence in our lives to bring us and preserve us in our salvation as Paul tells us in Romans 8, “²⁸We know that God works all things out for good for those who love God, who are called according to His plan.”

The second verse stands in parallel to the first. However, it is more on a micro level, to us individually. It encourages us not to be anxious about our daily bread. Jesus’ teaching on not being anxious in Matt. 6 certainly fills this out. While not encouraging laziness expecting the LORD to take care of us, it tells us there is a time for work which the LORD will bless, and we can rest at night trusting in this word. Some translations have, “He gives sleep to His beloved” while a few have, “He gives to His beloved while he sleeps.” While I personally like “while he sleeps’ ‘ it seems from the Hebrew the gift is sleep itself. Trusting in the LORD to bless the work of our hands means we need not work early or stay up late, or not get sleep because we are worried. Instead we can sleep trusting in the LORD’s providence over the work of our hands.

Verses 3-5 tells us the blessings of children, lots of children. It goes against everything Planned Parenthood has deceived the world into thinking, that we have too many children. The world following the deceptions of the devil and his crafty lies tries to tell us not to bring children into this cruel world. Children however make this cruel world a better place. Our LORD Jesus Christ loves children. They are the type of those who have faith in Him. Children are never a curse but they are a blessing to us. Sure, you may not be able to have the most expensive vacations, or give the most costly gifts to your children if you have many, but the LORD will bless us when we have them. It is best to let the LORD determine how many children are the right amount for us. For it is He who opens and closes wombs.

I can’t tell you how sad it is when couples who believed the lie back in the 30’s, 40’s and 50’s who only had one or two children. One child dies before the parent. The other child hates the parents and has nothing to do with them. They die alone, but thankfully not truly alone. They at least have the LORD Jesus with them. But had they been open to the LORD’s blessing, they could have been surrounded by children and grandchildren. We have a promise from the LORD, “Happy is the man who quiver is full of them.” He doesn’t lie.

Merciful God and Father, grant us faith in Your providence so we may sleep well at night and be surrounded by those who love us at this life’s end. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.