FORGET NONE OF HIS BENEFITS, volume 9, number 2, January 14, 2010
Your wife shall be like a fruitful vine within your house, your children like olive plants around your table, Psalm 128:3.
A Living Illustration of Psalm 128
I have known Benson and Coline Cain for twenty years. Benson served our country in the Pacific theatre during World War II and when Douglas MacArthur said we needed to send missionaries to Japan , Benson and Coline answered his call. They served for many years at Presbyterian seminaries there, and Benson taught New Testament Greekin Japanese! I had the privilege back in 1993 to travel for three weeks with them all over Japan , and the love the Japanese people have for them was truly amazing. Benson is a very witty man, very good with one liners and play on words. I would listen to him tell jokes in Japanese and his friends would howl with laughter. I noticed he was constantly learning new Japanese words and was excited to tell me about them. Several Japanese people told me that his Japanese language skill was outstanding.
Benson and Coline have been here in the States for many years now but they continue full speed ahead in the work of Christ’s kingdom. They have made numerous extended trips back to Japan . They are in their mid eighties and Benson preaches regularly and attends two prayer meetings each week. Coline is active in her Women in the Church ministry, and they continue to work with Japanese graduate students at the University of Florida . They regularly show hospitality to friends and tourists from Japan . They are the oldest participants in the Japanese Association of Gainesville. I have rarely met a couple more full of life, more committed to Christ and His kingdom, and more loving of people and the gospel than Benson and Coline.
They have five children and fourteen grandchildren. Two of their sons are physicians. One manages a food service plant. Another works with an investment company on Wall Street, and the last is a chemical engineer. One of their grandchildren and his wife are students at Covenant Theological Seminary and preparing for the mission field. Two of their grandchildren are students at Covenant College . All fourteen of their grandchildren walk with Christ, are fervently committed to world missions, and all attended Christian schools while growing up. Their annual reunion at Thanksgiving is always attended by all in the family and is a joyous time. I cannot think of a better living illustration of Psalm 128 than Benson and Coline Cain.
The Song of Ascent, sung by the sons of Abraham as they made their way up to Jerusalem to worship God, is filled with joyous expectation and thanksgiving for God’sbountiful blessing to His covenant people. I want to inspire and challenge you to your marvelous opportunity to rear godly children; and if you are grandparents, to influence your grandchildren toward a life that honors our Lord. The Psalm begins by proclaiming that all who fear the Lord (who desire more than anything His smile, and dread more than anything His frown) will be blessed. The Old Testament idea of blessing is fullness of life, a sense of God’s love, presence, favor, and power. This blessing is further seen in the happiness a family receives from eating the fruit of their hands—hard, honest work is rewarded by the Lord. To fear the Lord also means that a husband’s wife will be a fruitful vine within the home, that the children will be like olive plants around the table. A vine branches out and bears fruit as it is attached to a wall. A wife who remains attached to her husband in Biblical submission can expect a life of fruitfulness, often in the bearing of many children. At the very least this bearing fruit means a deep, abiding influence on her children and others who watch her godly behavior. Olive plants grow eventually into olive trees which yield precious oil that is vital to the people of Israel in that day. The olive plants around the table connote happiness, fullness of joy, peace, and tranquility. How happy is the family which can rejoice at meal time or special occasions like Thanksgiving or Christmas! What a privilege to feast, laugh, and reminisce about God’s faithfulness over the past year! The Psalm closes by asking for God’s blessing and prosperity to continue upon His people, that they may be able to live long on the earth, affording them the privilege of seeing their children’s children.
The question is—how do we get to this place of happiness and blessing? The answer is found in both the opening and closing of Psalm 128. First, if you are to experience the blessing of God on your family then you must determine daily to fear the Lord. There is no substitute. Don’t fall into the error of equating justification with sanctification. To be sure—you are justified by faith alone. You did nothing to deserve your salvation. It is a precious gift of God’s grace (Ephesians 2:8-9). However, you are responsible now “to work out your salvation with fear and trembling” (Philippians 2:12). Your right standing with God is no license to live carelessly, to fail to obey God, to ignore the Biblical principle of fearing God. The foundation of sanctification is an awareness of your union with Christ (Romans 6:1-4), meaning that you have died to sin and are now alive to God in Christ Jesus (Romans 6:5-11), that you have all you need pertaining to life and godliness (2 Peter 1:3-4). You can obey God because you have a new nature by the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit. Will you obey Him perfectly? No, not even close, but you are to seek God fervently and earnestly. The second means to blessing is found at the end of the Psalm. The Psalmist is calling for “peace to be upon Israel .” Due to God’s covenant of grace— that began with the Abrahamic covenant (Genesis 12:1-3, 15:5) and continued to unfold through Moses, David, Jeremiah and the other prophets—the Old Testament nation of Israel has expanded to include the Gentiles of all the nations (John 10:16, Acts 10:34-35, Galatians 3:9, 29, Ephesians 2:13-16, Revelation 5:9-10). So, when the Scriptures speak of “ Israel ” we should see ourselves (God’s covenant people, His church) included in these words. So instead of limiting the phrase “peace be upon Israel” to today’s actual nation of Israel and making it a geo-political statement, we must go further to include the prosperity, peace, and propagation of Kingdom principles to the world. We must pray for, labor for, invest in the expansion of Christ’s kingdom to the world.
If you want success and blessing in your family then do these things consistently—fear God, obey Him in the little things of life, and invest your money, time, affections, and talents in seeing the kingdom of God come on earth. Be done with lesser things. Take risks, hold onto your money and time loosely, venture out of your comfort zone, always clinging to Jesus by the Spirit. Benson and Coline Cain bear witness to this glorious truth of Psalm 128. May it be that one day others can say the same about you!
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FORGET NONE OF HIS BENEFITS is a weekly devotional by Reverend Al Baker, pastor of Christ Community Presbyterian Church in West Hartford, Connecticut.
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