Tuesday, March 19, AD 2024 5:27am

A Psalm For Our Time

 

 

Hattip to Ed Morrissey at Hot Air.  One of my favorite Psalms is 127.  It ends:

Lo, sons are a heritage from the Lord,
the fruit of the womb a reward.
Like arrows in the hand of a warrior
are the sons of one’s youth.
Happy is the man who has
his quiver full of them!
He shall not be put to shame
when he speaks with his enemies in the gate.

The imagery is powerful and states an obvious truth:  that our children are precious gifts from God.  Sons as defenses from enemies at the gate has often been literally true throughout history and will likely be true again in the future.

A friend of mine recently died.  He had led a somewhat rough life, had battled personal demons, and financial success had eluded him.  However he was a hard worker and a skilled craftsmen, I hired him frequently to do work for me, and he did his best to be a good father.  He had a great sense of humor and over the years he had helped quite a few people and organizations in my town.  His extended family was big and brawling, often fighting each other, but always with an underlying love and care for each other.  He died of a massive heart attack while working.  He left a teenage daughter and debts, and that is about all.  His large extended family rallied around the daughter and arrangements were made for her care by the family.  His family completed the jobs that he had not been able to complete before his death.  His funeral Mass was the best attended I can recall in our town and the atmosphere of grief, love and good humor was a great comfort to all.  A life well led because the deceased, with all the mistakes he had made, always put his family first and did his best to help others.

I am not surprised that the witless CNN panel mocked Mitt Romney for quoting this Psalm, assuming that this was some sort of weird Mormon saying rather than from the Psalms and a belief that reflects traditional Christian views of the blessing of children.  The Mainstream Media’s ignorance of Christianity is an endless void.  And of course for many secularists children are a curse and not a blessing.  We recall President Obama’s statement that he would not want one of his daughters to be “punished” with a child if she were sexually active.  CS Lewis wrote that ultimately we say to God Thy will be done, and if we do not, God ultimately says to us, Thy will be done.  Plunging birth rates and increasing rates of sterility, along with sexually transmitted diseases that are increasingly resistant to treatment, is an indication that God is saying to us as a culture, Thy will be done.

Psalm 127 begins with these lines that I fear may be prophetic for our current age:

Unless the Lord builds the house,
    those who build it labor in vain.
Unless the Lord watches over the city,
    the watchman stays awake in vain.

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T. Shaw
T. Shaw
Saturday, May 4, AD 2013 7:14am

From the prophet Isaiah:

“Woe to you that call evil good, and good evil: that put darkness for light, and light for darkness: that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter.”

Ecclesiastes Chap. 1 tells us there is nothing new under the Sun. What has been will be . . .

anzlyne
anzlyne
Saturday, May 4, AD 2013 10:02am

God bless Mitt for standing up and quoting a Psalm. He is not in the spotlight anymore, I don’t know where that college is, but Piers and CNN put the spotlight on him because it fits the Christian bashing and conservative bashing narrative they want to promote– the same reason they Don’t shine the spotlight on Gosnell or Andrew Weiner– which would be bad for the ends they seek.

We are past the point know of being shocked and buzzing among ourselves about how horrible it all is. We are called to respond. An agenda and plan of action of our own. Steadfast proclamation of the goodness and dignity of life according to the Good News is the right way to go. A brilliant and faith-filled move by Romney. He may be an ex- politician now and so feels free to read a psalm at a commencement. I hope politicians and statesmen will follow his example of forthrightly proclaiming truth without apology. they might if we the people raise our voices in defense of Romney and point out the ridiculousness of Piers etal.’s response. Speak up in defense of any politician who is brave enough to be a man of faith.
I hope Piers and his silly friends feel the weight of public opinion directed right at him and all the bought off media.
The cartoon on another page of this website show the holocaust of babies with the famous sarcasm of the sign “work makes you free” replaced by the determination: “Never Again”.

Alphatron Shinyskullus
Alphatron Shinyskullus
Saturday, May 4, AD 2013 12:42pm

I’ve run into this attitude where I work. In fact, I think the fact that I have a bunch of kids has cost me promotions. Having eight kids is looked at as very strange. I get post interview feedback that has nothing to do with what I said in the interview, rather they seem to filter it and bend it into what they think I believe. I even had an interviewer question whether I could get along with people who were not like me. What the heck is that supposed to mean? One time I met a co-worker for the first time to discuss a project. We were introduced and another co-worker mentioned to her that I had five kids (at the time). She shrieked and exclaimed “Who would want five kids?” My former supervisor was on the interview panel years later when we had eight. He had watched this and remained silent. When we had another child later he said “Better you than me.”

I would imagine that Donald’s late friend had a quiver full at one. My sister has only had two children spaced seventeen years apart. They welcomed and loved every child God gave them. It’s a shame that we have reached the point where children have becomes a professional liability which increases the more children you have. It is not surprising at all that the people at CNN look down upon large families.

Alphatron Shinyskullus
Alphatron Shinyskullus
Saturday, May 4, AD 2013 1:46pm

Yes, my wife loves that film. I’ve tried being an efficiency expert, but my wife is having none of that. I don’t think I saw the whole thing. I’m going to have to watch it again.

Greg Mockeridge
Greg Mockeridge
Saturday, May 4, AD 2013 8:44pm

“…sexually transmitted diseases that are increasingly resistant to treatment….”

About thirty some years ago, Richard Pryor made this same point a little more crudely when he said, “They got some VD out there that scares the shit out of penicillin.”

“In regard to having eight kids my reaction would be that any man who can handle such a mob must have excellent managerial skills!”

My parents had ten of us, and eight of us were boys. I can’t say I can vouch for my dad’s managerial skills, but I can say that eight boys gave him a finely tuned BS detector. As the youngest boy, I was the unfortunate beneficiary of it.

elm
elm
Monday, May 6, AD 2013 9:09am

My favorite scene from that movie “Cheaper by the Dozen” is the look on the Planned Parenthood’s representative’s face when all the children come running down the stairs. Priceless.

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