Build Me a Son, O Lord

Build me a son, O Lord, who will be strong enough to know when he is weak, and brave enough to face himself when he is afraid; one who will be proud and unbending in honest defeat, and humble and gentle in victory.

Build me a son whose wishbone will not be where his backbone should be; a son who will know Thee and that to know himself is the foundation stone of knowledge. Lead him, I pray, not in the path of ease and comfort, but under the stress and spur of difficulties and challenge. Here let him learn to stand up in the storm; here let him learn compassion for those who fail.

Build me a son whose heart will be clean, whose goal will be high; a son who will master himself before he seeks to master other men; one who will learn to laugh, yet never forget how to weep; one who will reach into the future, yet never forget the past.

And after all these things are his, add, I pray, enough of a sense of humor, so that he may always be serious, yet never take himself too seriously. Give him humility, so that he may always remember the simplicity of greatness, the open mind of true wisdom, the meekness of true strength.

Then I, his father, will dare to whisper, “I have not lived in vain.”   -General Douglas MacArthur

  We Have Seen, Now We Must Teach

Deut 11:1 Therefore thou shalt love Jehovah thy God, and keep his charge, and his statutes, and his ordinances, and his commandments, always. 2 And know ye this day: for I speak not with your children that have not known, and that have not seen the chastisement of Jehovah your God, his greatness, his mighty hand, and his outstretched arm, 3 and his signs, and his works, which he did in the midst of Egypt unto Pharaoh the king of Egypt, and unto all his land; 4 and what he did unto the army of Egypt, unto their horses, and to their chariots; how he made the water of the Red Sea to overflow them as they pursued after you, and how Jehovah hath destroyed them unto this day; 5 and what he did unto you in the wilderness, until ye came unto this place; 6and what he did unto Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, the son of Reuben; how the earth opened its mouth, and swallowed them up, and their households, and their tents, and every living thing that followed them, in the midst of all Israel: 7 but your eyes have seen all the great work of Jehovah which he did.

Moses makes a generational distinction: “Remember today that your children were not the ones who saw and experienced the discipline of the LORD your God: “But it was your own eyes that saw all these great things the LORD has done” (11:7).

What then does Moses infer from this generational distinction?

1.The older generation should be quick to obey, because of all that they have had the opportunity to learn (11:8).

Here we are some of us, wondering about our children’s limited experience, when the first thing God says is that, we, the older ones are the ones with no excuse.

(2) The older generation must systematically pass on what they have learned to their children (11:19–21);

19 And ye shall teach them your children, talking of them, when thou sittest in thy house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. 20And thou shalt write them upon the door-posts of thy house, and upon thy gates; 21that your days may be multiplied, and the days of your children, in the land which Jehovah sware unto your fathers to give them, as the days of the heavens above the earth.

3. More broadly, God’s provision to the people of the blessings of the covenant, here focused on the land and its bounty, depends on the first two points.

Bless the Lord, O My Soul   Psalm 103

103;1 Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name! Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, who satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

13 As a father has compassion on his children,  so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him.  14 For he knows what we are made of,  remembering that we are dust.

17 But from eternity to eternity  the LORD’s faithful love is toward those who fear him,  and his righteousness toward the grandchildren  18 of those who keep his covenant, who remember to observe his precepts

For Father’s Day

Psalms 103:13: “As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him. For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust.”

Good Fathering Points to God

When this verse says, “As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him,” it does not mean that the Lord learns how to be God by watching human fathers. It does not mean that God wonders whether he should be compassionate and then notices that good fathers are compassionate and so decides to act that way too.

No, what it means is: When you see a good father, you are seeing a picture of God. Or to put it another way, God designed human fatherhood to be a portrait of himself. God had a Son

before he created Adam. He was God the Father before he was God the Creator. He knew what he wanted to portray before he created the portrayal.

Good Fathers Show Children What God Is Like

Fathers were designed to display the fatherhood of God, especially but not only to our children. Children today learn what God’s fatherhood is like largely by watching us.

So the chain of influence moves from God as the infinitely perfect Father of his imperfect children, who shows us what good fatherhood is like so that we can show our children and others what God’s fatherhood is like.

Men, that is our calling. God created fatherhood in his own image, and good fathering points to God.

When David says in verse 14 that fathers are like dust, God knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust, it causes David to reflect on the shortness of human life and the never-beginning, never-ending life of God, and how that relates to our children.

Fathers need to realize that they won’t always be around. And their children won’t always be around. Verse 17 refers to the “children’s children.

The question a father should ask is: How can my children benefit forever from the love of God? How can they become the beneficiaries of God’s righteousness rather than condemned by it?

The answer is: 1) if they fear him (v. 17); 2) if they keep his covenant (v. 18); and 3) if they do his commandments (v. 18).

Fearing God

Verse 17: Fearing God means that God is so powerful and so holy and so awesome to us that we would not dare to run away from him, but only run to him for all that he promises to be for us. So fearing God is not different from coming to the Messiah, Jesus. It’s the way we come. We come reverently. We come humbly. We come without presumption that God owes us anything. We come trembling, broken and contrite.

Keeping God’s Covenant Today

What does keeping the covenant of God mean today? Things have changed since the Messiah has come.  There is now a new covenant between God and his people. It’s just as binding as the old one was. What the new covenant provides from God’s side is the blood of Christ to cover our sins and the power of the Spirit to enable us to walk in newness of life. What the new covenant requires from us is that we be united to Christ by the new birth and that we receive Christ as our Savior and Lord and the Treasure of our lives. In that way Christ’s blood and righteousness count for us.

What this implies for today is that our children must be brought to receive Christ as the supremely valuable Savior and Lord of their lives.

They Keep His Commandments

This means that faith in the redeemer must be real. Real trust in Christ, real submission to his rule, real treasuring of his worth changes our lives. So the requirement of obedience in verse 18 is simply the requirement that our fear of God and our trust in Christ be real, effective, fruitful. It’s Christ, and his blood and righteousness, that forgives and justifies us.

But our obedience, our righteousness, imperfect as it is, shows that God has saved us, that our faith is real. We are truly covenant keepers. We hold fast to our treasured substitute, Jesus Christ.

Leading Our Children by Blessing the Lord

What then is the one thing that this psalm stresses more than anything else that we fathers should do to lead our children to this condition of blessedness? What should we all do? This is for everybody. But since fathers are mentioned in the psalm, and since today is Father’s Day, I ask the fathers. What is the one main thing that this psalm calls us to do for our children? For our wives? For our churches? For our city? For our own souls?

The answer is: Bless the Lord.

The psalm begins and ends with the psalmist preaching to his soul to bless the Lord.

What does it mean to bless the Lord? It means to speak well of his greatness and goodness. It is almost synonymous with praise.

What David says, “Bless the Lord, O my soul,”  he is saying that speaking about God’s goodness and greatness must come from the soul. Blessing God with the mouth without the soul would be hypocrisy. Jesus said, “This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me” (Matthew 15:8). David knows that danger, and he is preaching to himself that it not happen.

Fathers Blessing the Lord

Now here is the main point for fathers. There is perhaps nothing that you can do for your children to help them fear God and keep covenant with God and obey God that will be more effective than your own blessing the Lord continually in their presence.

First, let your children hear you bless the Lord for his sovereignty. Verse 19: “The Lord has established his throne in the heavens, and his kingdom rules over all.”

2. God Is Righteous.
3. Bless the Lord for his justice and righteousness. Verse 6: “The Lord works righteousness and justice for all who are oppressed.” We bless you that though the wrong seem oft so strong, you are the ruler yet. We bless you that justice will be done in this age or the nextless the Lord.
   3. God Is Merciful.

   Let your children hear you bless the Lord for his mercy and his forgiveness. If this psalm celebrates anything clearly, it is the immeasurable mercy of God not to hold our sins against us. This is the gospel. We know that it is all owing to Christ

   Fathers, let your children hear you bless the Lord for the gospel. Let them hear your soul exult in Christ. Let them hear your humble heart leap up with gratitude. Let them hear your affections for the Savior. Let them hear your love for Christ and his great love for you. Let them hear you say, “O how I bless your name that my sins are forgiven.” Then love your wife and children the way Jesus loved you.