June 10

Psalm 128
"You will eat the fruit of your labor; blessing and prosperity will be yours."
Tonight for dinner we had pork chops from a pig that I hauled to the butcher. Green beans and new potatoes from my garden, swiss chard and corn from my friend Lynn that I traded cheese I had made, and blueberries from my bushes. As a gardener, I know what eating the fruits of my labor are.
Except that, some years, you dig, and hoe, and bust your fanny and rabbits shear off the tender bean vines before they start to climb. And bugs and/or those nasty white grubs tunnel and mush up every potato. A late frost takes every blueberry and squirrels decimate the plums and the apples. The pig has a jaundiced liver and all the meat has to be thrown out.
Same amount of labor. Totally different results.
David knew what hard work was. He was a farm boy, a shepherd, low man in his household of many and grew up working. He knew feast and famine, plenty and drought.
His concept of blessing and prosperity are not simply hard work. It is that the blessings come from walking in the way of the Lord.
Does that mean that you won't see hard times and death and disease?
I don't think so because David uses the Hebrew verb tense that we translate 'may' and holds some definite uncertainty. It is to be 'hoped' for, but not automatic distribution.
And while David did live to see his 'children's children', I would venture to guess that the 'olive shoots' around David's table may not have the blessings that David hoped and longed for.


OT -- 1st Kings 7:1-51
Do you remember "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous"? Some British dude named Robin hosted it. The show would have the cars, houses, toys, and parties of the uber-rich or at least the ones that ran around flaunting it.
Solomon would have fit right on in with that show.
What are we supposed to make of this passage of scripture? Should we ooh and ahh over the blessings that Solomon got?
Are we to take this as a precautionary tale? After all, we know the end of the story.
But if you have this much money and you are the king of Israel, shouldn't you live in all the splendor money and Huram the bronze maker can provide? After all, this probably was a huge 'works' project for Jerusalem. Think of the trickle down money from all the construction.....
Something about it just turns this poor little Puritan's stomach. It is probably a good thing that I go to a spare Presbyterian church. I would feel uncomfortable with the gold paneling....


May you have the blessings that arise from your walk with the Lord.