God's Song: Children Are Like Arrows

As we head into our third week on this series, I wanted to start us off today with a little bit of a recap, in case some have missed what we have discussed so far and to also give us a little history lesson on what we heard from today’s Psalm.

Recap of last two weeks...

So let’s start with what we have discovered so far in God’s songs for us called the book of Psalms. We learned that there are 150 Psalms in our Bibles as we know them. Of that 150, we believe that the vast majority were written by King David and two (Psalm 72 and 127) have been attributed to Solomon. Now, we are also learning, as we explore and discover more of the Dead Sea Scrolls that there were many more Psalms written and that some of the ones that we have attributed to David might not have been actually written by him.

We also learned that there are many different types of Psalms. There are songs of lament (the vast majority), praise, actual hymns that were sung by the Israelites as they traveled, royal ones that reflect the royalty of God, ones expressing trust in God, ones giving thanks for the blessings God bestows upon us, and finally ones that give us pure wisdom. We then spent time listening to the words of the Psalm as they relate to our lives and how God speaks to us through the words of these Psalms and the songs that hold meaning for us outside of the words of the Psalms.

Last week, we explored a Psalm of Praise with Psalm 100 to discover what it is that God desires for us in the form of worship. What we learned and what we need to remember from this Psalm is that worship is all about God, not what we want or need but rather what God desires from us in our worship. For some of us that is a difficult concept to swallow because we perform the worship. As hard as it is to put our feelings aside, we must in order for us to truly be putting our hearts into what God desires from us and more importantly what God desires from us.

This week, we will explore a Psalm of Ascent. In the grand scheme of things, Psalm 127 falls into the category of a hymn. One of the main reasons for this is that Psalm 127, we believe, was sung by the Israelites as they journeyed toward Jerusalem for festivals and feasts. It is one that reminds us of the great many blessings that we receive from God and how we are to care for those blessings. But I am getting ahead of myself a bit…in the next few moments, I want to talk a little bit of history here...

Some historical references in the Psalm...

We need to understand some historical references in this Psalm to fully accept and apply it to our lives today…now, before you check out on me, remember this one thing…I despise history, always have. However, in my study of the Bible and in preparing for sermons, I have come to realize that we always need to know where we came from in order to step into the future and this is why I give you so much of it from this space. It’s not that I want to put you to sleep but rather to give us perspective on what we are studying.

So with that in mind, I thought I would start with a little quiz to see how well you have listened to me over the last three years since today marks the last Sunday of our third year together...

How well do you know your pastor?

If you had to pick out the one place that I get re-energized and refreshed, where would that be?

If you had to pick one activity that gives me the most joy and pleasure, what would that be?

What one thing do I desire to do the most that Stephanie despises?

If your answer to these questions was outdoors or hunting (yes, all three questions can be answered with the same two responses), you know me pretty well. But I have to ask you, what type of hunting do I do, meaning what type of weapon is my preferred choice? If you answered a bow, you also would be correct. There are many reasons why I choose to use a bow to go hunting. The first is it is the least likely to get me shot at while in a tree or on the ground. An arrow has limitations on its distance and the further it goes, the slower it goes, unlike a bullet shot from a rifle which does not lose much steam across a much greater distance. However, that is not the most important reason that I choose to bow hunt. For me, bow hunting takes true skill and determination to get close enough to your prey to shoot it with an arrow. It also takes a very steady hand and even greater strength to draw a bow than to pull a trigger. You need physical stamina to stand in a blind, on a tree stand, or be completely invisible to most things in order to shoot it with a bow.

A bit of history...

And this leads me to our bit of history lesson for this morning…when I started shooting bow at the age of 9 or 10, I had no idea what I was doing or why. I just thought it looked cool. My neighbor at the time introduced me to and bought me my first bow and arrow and I fell in love instantly. When I started though, no one really had to teach me how to do it, it was natural to me. As I got older, it became less natural and more of a challenge of strength and determination.

Did you know that the bow has been used as a weapon for almost as long as human beings have been around. Very early excavations have revealed that humans have used the bow to defend themselves for centuries. Bows and arrows were mainly used in warfare but were also used for the purposes that I find them useful for. It was and remains one of the earliest weapons we have ever discovered. Bows are often made from a flexible, soft wood, and they were almost always constructed from one piece of wood with sinew as a string. Arrows, on the other hand, were often formed out of harder woods so that they did not destruct upon impact. The heads of arrows were made of flint and shaped to points to have the most significant damage.

The imagery of a bows and arrows has been used all throughout scripture but it is frequently used figuratively. The imagery of bows and arrows has come to mean: to be battle-ready, to refer to invincible forces, the judgment of God, divinely imposed peace, wickedness, and victory (2 Kgs. 13:15–17).* Because the people of Israel would have easily seen this imagery as they read, the bow has become something that many use, still to this day, to reflect these same things.

With all that being said, one might be a bit curious why Solomon might have chosen this imagery to depict children in our lives…while we won’t ever know his true intentions, what we have before us today is something that speaks volumes about how we are to teach and treat our children.

Gifts

First and foremost, this Psalm reminds us that our children are gifts from God. For someone who has never had a child of his own, the children I do count as my own are just this. It is a true gift to be given responsibility to be the person that someone else relies upon for advice, love, and compassion. But here’s the thing, children are gifts that should be cherished and loved unconditionally. Most parents I know, would say that they love their children unconditionally. Given the state of the world and some of the headlines that have crossed my computer screen lately, I have to wonder if we are truly cherishing them as they should be cherished.

However, here’s what Solomon has to say about children in this Psalm...

Psalm 127:3 NLT

Children are a gift from the Lord; they are a reward from him.

Solomon thought highly enough of children that he wanted us to remember that they are a gift…no matter what. I know that this discussion could take us in so many directions but I want us to focus today merely on the fact that they are a gift.

Like Arrows...

He also said that children are like arrows. This imagery might be really hard to see as we speak about children, but I want us to think for a few moments on how bows and arrows are formed and shaped.

Let’s look at the verse again...

Psalm 127:4 NIV

Like arrows in the hands of a warrior are children born in one’s youth.

Solomon writes specifically that children are like arrows in the hand of a warrior…for many of us that might be hard to imagine. But, like I said a little while ago, arrows held specific meaning for those who heard these words. Think about what it takes to make an arrow…when arrows were made of wood…a person who intended to use it, would have had to search for just the right kind of wood. A tree or branch that was at least straight enough for the right amount of length from which an arrow could be shaped. It had to have the right density and strength. The arrow needed to fly straight and true on its course. The arrow needed to move in way through the air that wherever it was pointed, it would go, not fly off in a strange direction like most of my tee shots do.

A arrow was valuable to the person who cut it, shaped it, and teased out of the wood an implement that would provide food for their family or have kept the family safe from those who would take those children and use them for purposes that I don’t even want to think about or imagine. You see, an arrow is not unlike our children today.

How OUR children are like arrows...

In Solomon’s time, an arrow would have represented an implement of war. For us today, it is no different. We stood here today and recognized and supported the work of five fine institutions who stand on the front lines of the wars we face in today’s society. Because we were able to recognize their work and do something to help them in that work, we were able to show our children how we are to stand against those who would oppress and exploit others just because they might be different from us. Think about it, we are molding our children to understand that we can no longer stand in the face of great adversity and just bow down before those who would hold us back but rather we have shown them that we can fight.

Just as God directed those archers of Solomon’s time to the gift of the kind of wood that would help them fight, God has directed us to mold and shape our children into the kinds of Christians this world needs them to be. We are the archers who need to mold ourselves into the flexible bows of our time and build our children up, not tear them down. I have learned very recently from my own life, that we need to be the ones who coax out of our children the ability to stand up and be who they were always meant to be. Here’s the thing though...

Psalm 127:1 NLT

Unless the Lord builds a house, the work of the builders is wasted. Unless the Lord protects a city, guarding it with sentries will do no good.

We are charged with the building and protecting. If we are not building ourselves up in God’s love, there is absolutely no way that our children can ever be constructed into the Christians this world needs. We took one step today toward showing God’s love to others, let us not stop there. Let us continue to build up. Let us continue to not stand idly by and wait for others to come to us who are in need. Let us continue what we have started and maybe, just maybe, by watching, our children will take the charge from us and launch themselves into a greater and much brighter future...

Let us pray...

Gracious and all giving God, help us to recognize the gifts in our midst and then give us the fortitude to use them as you have designed them to be. When our children look to us to guide them in the right direction, give us the wisdom to do so an set them on their path that is true and right, Amen.

*Nunnally, W. E. “Bow and Arrow.” Ed. David Noel Freedman, Allen C. Myers, and Astrid B. Beck. Eerdmans dictionary of the Bible 2000 : 198. Print.

Related Media

Related Sermons