Except the Lord
build the house, they labour in vain that build it: except the Lord keep the
city, the watchman waketh but in vain. It is vain for you to rise up early, to
sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows: for so he giveth his beloved sleep. Lo, children are an heritage of the Lord:
and the fruit of the womb is his reward. As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the
youth. 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 (Ps. 127:1-5).
COMMON GRACE
ARGUMENT:
Children are a heritage or reward from the
Lord. Unbelievers have children, and so this fact serves (or so it is thought)
as evidence that God blesses unbelievers, as well as believers—and therefore
proof of “common grace.” It is often pointed out that the verse states children
are a heritage of the Lord “without qualification” (i.e. the verse, as it
stands, does not explicitly state “to the elect only”—therefore, it is often
asserted, we must take this text in the absolute
sense—i.e. to everybody without exception).
(I)
Rev. Angus Stewart
(a)
The
question is, children are a blessing, heritage, and a reward to whom? Which children are a blessing? Was Absalom a blessing to David? Was
Judas a blessing to his parents? Were Judas’s children a blessing to him? Just
read Psalm 109:9-15.
Psalm
127 and Psalm 128 explain the truth about children as a blessing. Godly children are a blessing to godly parents. How often is this truth
not mentioned in the book of Proverbs?
(b)
For
an extensive exposition of the truth of children as “arrows” (v. 4) and as a
blessing, and to whom they are a blessing, click on the link below to listen to
an audio-sermon on this text:
http://sermons.limerickreformed.com/download/audio/10086
Excerpt
(Transcribed):
… [children] who are ungodly, born to
unbelieving parents are not a sign of God’s love and favour to those parents,
because the Scripture teaches in Proverbs 3:33 that “the curse of the Lord is in the house of the wicked”—and in every room
in that house: in the kitchen, in the living room, in your own bedroom and the
bedroom of your children, wherever you may be. [This is because] mankind is
fearful of God, wicked, wretched, and God visits law-breaking with His curse.
The curse of the Lord is on the house of
the wicked, “but He blesseth the habitation of the just.” Believers have children, some of whom do not believe, and perish, and break
our hearts. These children of
believers—our physical seed—they are not “arrows” either. Esau was not an
“arrow” to Isaac and Rebekah. We read that he was “a grief of mind to them” (Gen.
26:35). They prayed, they wept, but he brought nothing but sorrow and misery to
his godly parents. Think of godly king David: Amnon, one of his sons, was a
rapist—he wasn’t an “arrow.” Absalom—another of his sons—killed his
half-brother Amnon (i.e. fratricide) in the royal palace. Neither of these two
sons of David were “arrows.”
What we are dealing with [in this passage]
are the elect children of believers. They are the ones called “arrows” in the text. This is the
perspective of Psalm 127: its dealing with the children of believers from the “organic” viewpoint—i.e.
from the perspective of God’s election.
(c)
[Source: Covenant Reformed News,
vol. 18, no. 8 (Dec. 2020)]
… [Being] “the children of disobedience” (Col.
3:6) in Adam, having children is not a proof or manifestation of divine favour
either. Idolatrous Sennacherib was murdered by his two wicked sons (II Kings
19:37; Isa. 37:38)! Regarding unbelieving parents and children, God
declares, “Cursed shalt thou be in the city, and cursed shalt thou be in the
field … Cursed shall be the fruit of thy body” (Deut. 28:16, 18).
… The truth is that all of Jehovah’s blessings
are found alone in Jesus Christ (Eph. 1:3)
As those who receive Christ’s imputed
righteousness and not Adam’s sin (Rom. 5:16-19), and so will be gloriously
resurrected (I Cor. 15:21-22), marriage and children (Ps. 128), and whatever
land and possessions we may have (Deut. 28:1-14), are to us a blessing through
faith and in the way of thankful obedience. This clear Christian doctrine is
opposed to the anti-biblical philosophy that things are or convey God’s
blessing to those who are in unbelief in Adam and outside of the Lord Jesus
(cf. Ps. 73; Mal. 3:15).
… [The] theory of common grace—a temporal,
changeable (and unrighteous) divine love for the ungodly reprobate apart from
the Saviour and His cross—leads to a side-lining and corrupting of the biblical
and confessional truth regarding the federal headship of Adam (and, therefore,
also of Christ), original sin and the creation ordinances. False principles
work through! Using ingenious (but fallacious) arguments, common grace claims
that the reprobate wicked are cursed and blessed in Adam, and so
are blessed in all their activities—despite their being enemies of God and
Christ (Gen. 3:15)!
---------------------------------------------
(II)
Matthew Poole (1624-1679)
[Source: Comm. on Ps. 127:3]
And although God give children and other
outward comforts to ungodly men in the way of common providence, yet he gives
them only to his people as favours, and in the way of promise and covenant.
---------------------------------------------
(III)
More to come! (DV)
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