Should everyone have a quiver full of children (Psalm 127:5)?

When we learn to take true rest in serving the Lord, there will be good results, as verse 3 indicates. Israel will be greatly blessed with children in the millennium, and will learn indeed that the children are a heritage from the Lord, a reward for dependence on Him. Today not every godly believer is so blessed, but often that deficiency is made up by the comfort of having spiritual children; and any imbalance that is characteristic of the day of Christ's rejection will be wonderfully corrected in the coming glory.

Then children are likened to arrows in the hand of a warrior, useful for gaining victories over enemies. "Happy is the man who has his quiver full of them" (v. 5). There are some who criticize those who have more than one or two children, but God does not. It is said of Susannah Wesley that she had 22 children, and taught them all to read by using the Word of God. Her son, John Wesley was greatly used by God in the salvation of large numbers; and her son Charles was given grace to write more hymns than anyone else on record, — many of them very excellent hymns.

This is further enlarged upon in what immediately follows: "So that the barren hath borne seven; and she that hath many children is waxed feeble." Once flourishing and influential families become minished, even to extinction sometimes, while others increase to a multitude. It is He, the Lord, that "maketh the barren woman to keep house, and to be a joyful mother of children" (Ps. 113:9). This will be demonstrated in Israel in the coming day of her promised increase. (See Isa. 54:1-6). "Lo, children are a heritage of the Lord: and the fruit of the womb is His reward" (Ps. 127:3). Would that this word were pondered more in this age of increasingly small families.

The last three verses go together, and complete the subject of the Psalm. Thus we have the dwelling, taking now the house in its primary significance; then, guardian care with repose of spirit; and lastly, the family — the children. But if there be children, they also are God's gift — an heritage of (from) the Lord; and they are His gift as His recompense or reward, as the mark of His approval and blessing bestowed on those who fear Him and walk in obedience to His word, according to His promise to His earthly people. (See Deuteronomy 28:11, and the next Psalm.) We see, therefore, that in every dispensation God will have His people learn that He is the source of all their blessings, that He is a GIVER, the God of all grace; and hence that the secret of a happy, restful life lies in realized dependence upon Himself. What anxieties and apprehensions we should be spared if this lesson were but more deeply graven upon our hearts! We then, indeed, might be careful for nothing, because we should only wait upon God, and have our expectation from Him, in the assurance that we could not obtain one single thing by our own efforts, however diligent, but that all must be received as God's gift. When we have once learned that God is a giver, we are content and happy to be receivers.

Children, moreover, are a means of defence (for enemies are still in the land, as before noticed): "As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth." As an illustration we read that "the sons of Ulam were mighty men of valour, archers, and had many sons, and sons' sons, an hundred and fifty." (1 Chr. 8:40.) This will also explain the following verse: "Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them: they shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate." As the gate was the place of authority and judgment, where matters in dispute were settled, and the place possibly of assault by external foes, the allusions of the Psalmist are easily comprehended. The man that "hath his quiver full of" such arrows, children, will have the means to defend his cause when unrighteously assailed, and thus will be able to present a bold front to his enemies. So we read of the Messiah in a future day, "Thy people shall be willing in the day of Thy power; from the womb of the morning Thou hast the dew of Thy youth." There cannot be a doubt that this verse should be punctuated as above; and the meaning of the last clause would seem to be that the youthful followers of Messiah in the day of His power will be as numerous as the dewdrops from the womb of the morning, or, as one has paraphrased it, "Thy youthful soldiery is like the dew in its beauty." Combining the two thoughts — number and beauty — we may indeed say that when Messiah comes forth He will not be ashamed when He speaks with the enemies in the gate, as He surely will to their destruction. (See Zechariah 14:3.)

Recalling, finally, what is said of Asher ("Let Asher be blessed with children"), and combining it with verse 6, we may surely remind ourselves that, in the preaching of the gospel for example, children are an heritage from the Lord. This will keep us free from all human methods to ensure success, from all appeals to nature and sentiment, and lead us to depend alone upon the omnipotent power of the Holy Spirit, and upon the favour and blessing of God. The Lord Himself open our hearts to receive the simple instruction of this Psalm.

Counting on God's word, they have learnt to count on Him alone for everything, and now express it; for, whether it be the building the house, or the keeping the city, or the strength and blessing which the children of youth are to their families and country, all is from Jehovah. (Ps. 127) They had learnt the vanity of building the house without the Lord's countenance. They had felt their powerlessness to keep the invader out of the city. The house had been laid low (Ps. 74) and the city had been a prey to the enemy. (Ps. 79, Isa. 29, Zech. 14) All extraordinary watchfulness on man's part was only in vain. God would have His people to trust Him, and to learn this from His bestowal of sleep. "So he giveth his beloved sleep." This daily blessing was a lesson of it. Besides, if the arm of flesh was needed by which to repel the foe, God could bestow it. "Lo the inheritance of Jehovah (i.e. what He gives) is children, and His reward the fruit of the womb." For defence or for attack let them rely on what He will provide. "For, as arrows in the hand of a mighty man, so are the children of youth." "They shall not be ashamed, for they shall destroy their enemies in the gate."

When there is the restoration this is its character - it is a new, fresh, prospective blessing, "Instead of thy fathers, thou shalt have children, whom" etc. He will make them houses.

"Children of the youth," I take to be "young men." It was not "Woe to them that be with child and to them that give suck in those days," for the Lord had built the city, the sons grew up as the plants, and their daughters as the polished corners of the temple. It was not now to say, "Blessed are the barren and the wombs that never bare" - the full blessing was come in - He made "the barren woman to keep the house, and to be a fruitful mother of children." Nor was it the prosperity of worldliness, as in Psalm 49, in the due time of sorrow, but the blessing from the Lord in the time of blessing, when the city was built, when the streets of Jerusalem, where the Lord was, should be full of boys and girls playing, themselves blessing from the Lord. They were as arrows in the hand of the mighty man - His quiver was full of them, and He would speak with His enemies.

So with the blessing of children: they are an inheritance from Jehovah, and a reward; a portion like Abraham's, a defence in the day of trial, and of false accusation. This last part of the psalm leads on to the one following.

Solomon had not to look beyond his father's house or his own in order to prove the truth of verse 21. Jehovah took pleasure in the families of His people. So we read in a well-known Song of degrees, "Lo, children are an heritage from Jehovah, the fruit of the womb a reward. As arrows in a mighty man's hand, so are the children of youth. Happy the man that has his quiver full of them; they shall not be ashamed, when they speak with their enemies in the gate." Yet did David taste of bitter sorrow when he set his heart overmuch on them. What irony in the issue of him whom he called "Father of peace," who rose up as a vain and unscrupulous pretender against himself and to his own destruction? Nor was he by any means the only one that yielded a crop of sin and shame and blood. Yes, "he that begets a fool does it to his sorrow: and the father of a vile man has no joy." Whether the father of such a one be prince or pauper makes little difference, save that the eminence of degree makes the grief more conspicuous and perhaps more poignant. Only he who is begotten of God has life everlasting.

A numerous progeny are distinctly God's gift: happy the man that has his quiver full of them (Psalm 128). The blessings spoken of are declared to be the portion of whoever fears Jehovah. It is present temporal blessing — blessings out of Zion; and, the desire of the godly's heart, Jerusalem in prosperity all their days. Although the direct object be the remnant, the godly Gentile, so fearing Jehovah, owning Israel's God, would, as a principle, enjoy the blessing, and rejoice with His people.

But I think there is another sweet lesson for us in this story. The 4th verse more literally reads: "He shall be to thee joy and gladness." (See New Translation). I am sure the Lord would have each of our children to be "joy and gladness" to us. He tells us in Psalm 127, "Children are the heritage of the Lord, and the fruit of the womb is His reward." So I have not a doubt He would have each one "joy and gladness" to us. I know that very often it is not so: but is it not usually, perhaps always, we who are most to blame?

Psalm 127 is the only psalm of which Solomon actually is the author. He speaks of the house, the great object of his reign; but he announces a future time when men shall turn to building it and to laboring in vain, to watching in vain to keep the city from the enemy. Such a thing never took place under his sceptre. That which Solomon established of course was not final; that which men shall set up will be even less so. But the time will come when Jehovah Himself will build the house and keep the city. Then His Beloved shall at last find "sleep," that rest of which it is said: "He will rest in his love" (Zeph. 3:17). Then shall He have children as "an inheritance from Jehovah," a new people; "from the womb of the morning shall come to thee the dew of thy youth" (Ps. 110:3). Then shall He be called happy.