A Song and a Prayer for Families

What is your family's song & prayer?

Last week, as my wife Carol was studying Psalms, she came across some Bible truths for NBFamilies. As she typically does, she came to me to share what the Lord had shown her. I love this about my wife. Her spiritual gift is teaching so she cannot keep silent about what the Lord is teaching her in Scripture.
In this passage, the Psalmist prays for God’s blessing to rest upon His people in fulfillment of his promises to King David. God’s blessings is what every parent wants for their children. This is a song that God’s people sing in anticipation of God’s glory and blessing. This is a prayer our families can pray and a song our families can sing.
What is your family’s song? This is an excellent biblical example of how spiritual leader’s passion should cause them to pursue God’s glory. It is on the journey to experience God’s glory that families discover God’s blessings.

Psalm 132:3-5 “I will not enter my house 
or get into my bed, 4 I will not allow my eyes to sleep 
or my eyelids to slumber 5 until I find a place for the Lord,


King David swore an oath to the Lord not to rest until he found a place for the Lord. This passage refers to his consuming passion to build the temple, the dwelling place for God on earth. Although God denied his request, it was his son that eventually achieved his father’s promise. Sincere spiritual leaders - kings, pastors, fathers and mothers - long for their people/families to experience God’s glory. They know that a glimpse of God’s glory will change their families forever.

Psalm 132:7 Let us go to His dwelling place;
 let us worship at His footstool. 8 Rise up, Lord, come to Your resting place,
 You and Your powerful ark. 9 May Your priests be clothed with righteousness, 
and may Your godly people shout for joy. 10 Because of Your servant David,
 do not reject Your anointed one. 11 The Lord swore an oath to David,
a promise He will not abandon:
 “I will set one of your descendants
on your throne. 12 If your sons keep My covenant
and My decrees that I will teach them,
their sons will also sit on your throne forever.”

The song records obtained David’s passion for God’s glory propelled him into action. The people’s song requested that the leadership be clothed with righteousness, or personal holiness. They also sang how godly people would “shout for joy.” Spiritual leaders must be right with God if their efforts are to experience God’s support and succeed according to Gods plan.

Psalm 132:13 For the Lord has chosen Zion;
 He has desired it for His home: 14 “This is My resting place forever; 
I will make My home here
because I have desired it. 15 I will abundantly bless its food;
 I will satisfy its needy with bread. 16 I will clothe its priests with salvation,
and its godly people will shout for joy. 17 There I will make a horn grow for David; 
I have prepared a lamp for My anointed one. 18 I will clothe his enemies with shame, 
but the crown he wears will be glorious.”

God's house is to be a place where Christ is magnified. If God's word is taught and discussed in that house, the glory of God fills that house of worship. It’s God’s son is magnified in that house, the grace of God is manifested in that place.No matter how stunning or simple God's house is, if the Word of God and the Son of God are honored, that place becomes a glorious house of praise. What ultimately makes any house a special place is not it's architecture but it's adoration; not at size but it's substance; not it’s entertainment of man but it’s exultation of God.
May every spiritual leader - king, pastor, father and mother – make a place for God where the truth of God’s Word is proclaimed, God’s presence causes shouts of joy, the glory of God is unmistakable. Such is a place for grace and blessings.