Psalm 128:1-4 (NIV)
Blessed are all who fear the Lord, who walk in obedience to Him.  You will eat the fruit of your labor; blessings and prosperity will be yours. Your wife will be like a fruitful vine within your house; your children will be like olive shoots around your table.  Yes, this will be the blessing for the man who fears the Lord.

Verse one is undoubtedly the core verse in this passage of Scripture.  Do you fear the Lord?  Do you walk in His ways?  Our lives are so busy at times that we may not give much thought to these two important questions.  Our daily words and actions, intentions, and motives are separated only by the hours we sleep, and when we awake, they begin all over again.  As I write this in my quiet place, with only this devotional on my mind, I am challenged by verse one.  Are you? 

Prov. 1:7 (NIV) reads, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline.”  Do we fear the Lord or are we fools?  Only the reader can determine this answer.  “Fearing the Lord” does not mean we cower.  It simply means we recognize the Lord for who He is and that we have a great reverence and awe for such a mighty God!  He is our Creator.  He is our Redeemer.  He deserves our honor.  He deserves our respect.  Demonstrating our reverence to the One who has given us life is to fear the Lord.  When Adam and Eve hid in the garden after eating the fruit they feared the Lord (Gen. 3:8-10).  But they did not have a healthy fear of the Lord.  They were scared to death.  The Lord does not desire that we live in this type of fear.  

The beginning of knowledge is a result of fearing the Lord.  Without knowledge we do not have wisdom.  Wisdom comes by discerning what to do with the knowledge we have obtained.  Knowledge, wisdom, and discipline are despised by fools because a fool does not fear the Lord; quite the dangerous position to be in. 

Do we walk in His ways?  Psa. 25:4-5 illustrates the perfect mindset that every Christian should have.  In this short passage, the psalmist (King David) desires that the Lord show him His ways, teach him His paths, and guide him in His truth.  David was a man after God’s own heart (1 Sam. 13:14).  Like David, Christians should also be seeking the Lord so we may walk in His ways. 

According to Psalm 128, fearing the Lord and walking in His ways results in: fruit for our labor, blessings and prosperity, a husband’s wife will be as a fruitful vine (a happy home), and sons as olive shoots around the table (a flourishing household).  Who would not want these blessings?  I suppose the fool.

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