Yahweh Bless You From Zion – Psalm 128

Wikipedia has an excellent article on “Zion” in Scripture:  Zion…is a placename in the Hebrew Bible used as a synonym for Jerusalem as well as for the Land of Israel as a whole.  The name is found in 2 Samuel (5:7), one of the books of the Hebrew Bible dated to before or close to the mid-6th century BC. It originally referred to a specific hill in Jerusalem (Mount Zion), located to the south of Mount Moriah (the Temple Mount). According to the narrative of 2 Samuel 5, Mount Zion held the Jebusite fortress of the same name that was conquered by David and was renamed the City of David. That specific hill (“mount”) is one of the many squat hills that form Jerusalem, which also includes Mount Moriah (the Temple Mount), the Mount of Olives, etc. Over many centuries, until as recently as the Ottoman era, the city walls of Jerusalem were rebuilt many times in new locations, so that the particular hill known as Mount Zion is no longer inside the city wall, but its location is now just outside the portion of the Old City wall forming the southern boundary of the Jewish Quarter of the current Old City.

A Song of Ascents.

Blessed is everyone who fears the LORD, who walks in his ways!  You shall eat the fruit of the labor of your hands; you shall be blessed, and it shall be well with you.

Your wife will be like a fruitful vine within your house; your children will be like olive shoots around your table.  Behold, thus shall the man be blessed who fears the LORD.

The LORD bless you from Zion!  May you see the prosperity of Jerusalem all the days of your life!  May you see your children’s children!  Peace be upon Israel!  (Psalm 128 ESV)

The covenant Yahweh made with Israel included prosperity and health if the nation obeyed Him.  The pilgrims of Israel who were making pilgrimage to Jerusalem sang this psalm to remind themselves of the blessings that come from the nation fearing Yahweh.  One of those blessings was eating the fruit of the labor of your hands (a large theme in Ecclesiastes).The other was the fruitfulness of your household.

It is an individual requirement.  You can’t fear Yahweh for me.  But the fact that all of us were going up to Jerusalem to the festival (Passover, or Pentecost or whatever) meant we likely feared Yahweh and longed for our nation’s prosperity, symbolized in Jerusalem’s prosperity.  Though we are not under the same covenant the church is the body of believers and together our faith will lead to a “prosperous” church in the sense that there is love for one another and power to fulfill Christ’s great commission.