YOU ARE MY EVERYTHING –

The compilers of the Psalter, who collected the psalms to be used in the Songs of the Ascent, knew that the pilgrim was not in this for himself; he also needed to account for his family and their welfare. It was incumbent upon each head of the house to make sure that each generation that followed was instructed in the ways of the LORD. Therefore he learned, one should not concentrate merely on toiling day and night in pursuit of a livelihood and forsake the care and cultivating of one’s family’s need to enjoy life and remain faithful to the code of beliefs passed on to them. Keeping up with one’s ambitions, finances, and social status cannot outweigh one’s commitment to family responsibilities and spiritual nurturing. These pilgrims knew they couldn’t make it on their own, they needed God’s help to survive.

“If the LORD Eternal is not the head of your household, the home life you built was a waste of time; if the LORD is not protecting your family, your efforts to protect it are in vain. So why get up early and stay up late trying to make a good life, when in fact God gives this to His beloved when they are not even looking. Keep this in mind, children are part of your inheritance from the LORD Eternal; each child should be considered a reward. And just like arrows in the hand of a warrior help him provide for his family, likewise children born while you are young will provide for you later. So count your blessings if you are blessed with a large family; and raise all of them right so they won’t become an embarrassment to you later.” Psalm 127:1-5

Reflection: In his second inaugural address, President Abraham Lincoln, one of America’s greatest leaders, concluded his speech with these words: “With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.” Earlier in the same speech, Lincoln warned against departure from those divine attributes given by God to His followers. Little did President Lincoln, the nation, or the world know that in 41 days he would die of an assassin’s bullet. Like the psalmist, President Lincoln believed that the United States stood firmly founded on principles derived from God’s Word, and that any future success it achieved must remain firmly secured to those principles. They served as an anchor that kept society from drifting away from shore, only to become lost at sea; they are like the oxygen we breathe that keeps us alive; and the water we drink that prevents us from becoming dehydrated and dying of thirst. So with the assault we see today on these precepts, let God again intervene to bring this nation back to its senses. As President George W. Bush so often ended his speeches with the words, “God bless you, and God bless America,” may it ever be so. But this does not start in the White House; it must begin in every house, on every block, in every neighborhood, in every borough, in every city, and in every State. We’ve come this far by faith; let us not turn our future over to fate.