“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. It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil. For he gives to his beloved sleep. Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb, a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one’s youth. Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them. He shall not be put to shame when he speaks with his enemies in the gate.”
– Psalm 127
Is Psalm 127 not an awesome picture of the Lord who builds the house? The Lord who gives children as a heritage. The fruit of the womb, a reward, a gift like arrows in the hand of a warrior. Children are a blessing to those whose quiver is full with them.
Let’s lift up children and spouses for whom home is not a safe place. Father, we ask that You help children to be valued as a heritage from the Lord.
Praying for Children
There’s so many different directions we could pray based on this, but I want to read a prayer request that came in. I’m not going to mention the name or all the details because of some of the sensitive nature of it. So again, people just sending in specific prayer requests to pray for during this pandemic at radical.net/prayerrequest and this one comes in and talks about two children in a home where their dad is verbally abusive.
One phrase that is used is just plain cruel, who says horrible things to his children and his wife, who drinks heavily and I just think about these days where we are in our homes, immense this pandemic. So I think about kids where home is not a safe place. I think about so many kids for whom school or being out of their home is a relief, is a help. I think about wives or husbands for whom home is not a safe place and I just want to lead us to pray for these kids and spouses who are in situations like this right now.
Psalm 127 Thanks God for the Reward of Children
God, we praise you as the Lord who builds the house. We praise you as the Lord who watches over us, who sustains us, who helps us. And so God, we pray right now for children, that are a heritage from you, that are a reward, a gift to parents.
And God, we pray for children who are not experiencing the love of parents right now. God, we pray for children who are experiencing hurt at the hands from the mouths of their parents. God, we pray that you would help them. Oh God, we pray that you would be their help and their strength. God, we cry out, groans that words can’t even express. God, please, please, please bring and end to abuse that is happening.
Praying for the Parents of Children
So God, we pray for parents who are not realizing that children are a heritage from the Lord, a gift, a blessing. God, we pray for a healing and those parents’ hearts. God, we pray for repentance. We pray that they would turn to you. God, we pray and I praise you even for immense this prayer request that has come in, just asking for salvation and healing from this particular dads brokenness.
God, yes, we pray for that in this specific circumstance. You know the name. God, you know this family. You know this home. God, we pray right now together. All of us right now in this podcast episode, we’re praying right now for his salvation, for healing, from his brokenness and for that healing to be made known all throughout his home and his relationship with his kids and his relationship with his wife.
Psalm 127 Prays for the Needs of Children
God, we pray for multiplied stories like that. God, please hear our prayers right now. Build houses by your mercy. Yes, build houses with your grace. Build houses with your help. Build children who know your love because they see it in their parents. God, we pray for that. We pray That you would deliver children out of circumstances where home is not as safe place.
God, we pray that you would help us as your people, to step in the gap where there is need for fostering children, many cases, adopting children, other cases, just to helping reconcile children with healthy parents. God, we pray. We pray. We plead together right now for your grace and for your help, for kids who are not seen as a blessing right now and children who are not being treated as a heritage from you.
God, we ask these things together, in Jesus name. Amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
