Those who are truly holy are truly happy.
Those may be assured of a prosperous and happy life who walk in reverence of God and evidence it by constant conformity to His will.
Psalm 1
1 Blessed is every one that feareth the LORD; that walketh in his ways.
2 For thou shalt eat the labour of thine hands: happy shalt thou be, and it shall be well with thee.
3 Thy wife shall be as a fruitful vine by the sides of thine house: thy children like olive plants round about thy table.
4 Behold, that thus shall the man be blessed that feareth the LORD.
5 The LORD shall bless thee out of Zion: and thou shalt see the good of Jerusalem all the days of thy life.
6 Yea, thou shalt see thy children’s children, and peace upon Israel.
Psalm 1 – J. Vernon McGee
Psalm 128 – “It Shall Be Well with Thee”
This psalm is the portrait of a godly man and his home in the best days of the Hebrew commonwealth. The husband and father, Psalm 128:1-2. He is reverent and devout. Peace is on his face; he is happy in himself and in his home; respected among his fellows; and garners at the end the results of his work. The wife and house-mother, Psalm 128:3. She is like the vine surrounding the inner court of an oriental house, yielding shade and refreshment. The children, Psalm 128:3. The olive is the symbol of enduring prosperity and joy. The young plants will presently be bedded out to become trees of mature growth. —Through the Bible Day by Day
Psalm 128:1—Blessed is every one that feareth the LORD.
The special phase of blessedness here, is that of the home life. The Jews have always been distinguished for this. A recent writer, describing the Jews of the middle ages, says: “The sanctity of the home was an affectionate tradition, linking them with a golden chain to their fathers before them; and amidst the degradation heaped on them, they were emancipated in at least one spot on earth, and learned from their domestic peace to look with pitiful rather than vindictive eyes upon their persecutors.”
Our religious life, when it is genuine, will always cast a halo of blessedness on the home. Not lightly does Wordsworth blend “the kindred points of heaven and home,” for the man who fears God brings heaven into his home. We must not be sullen or self-absorbed there. We must divest ourselves of business cares and anxieties; of irritation and fretfulness; of the brooding clouds that have gathered on our faces; we must carefully maintain the courtesies of home, and be our sweetest, gladdest, loveliest selves.
What a charming cluster of images! The wife as a vine twining round the carved trellis work of the inner court of the Oriental home—as though the woman gives the rich wine of life, which is love, as well as shadowing fertility and graceful beauty; children as olive plants are sources of perennial joy. Would you have such a home? Its key-stone is the fear of grieving the Spirit of God.
The work and watching will be very sweet
Even in an earthly home,
And in such an hour as you think not
He will come.” —Our Daily Homily