“Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one’s youth.”
– Psalm 127:4
Psalm 127:4, that is a powerful image. When I think about my kids, like arrows in the hand of a warrior, are these kids. Then it goes on to say, blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them. The whole picture here is children as a blessing from God, who are instruments in God’s hands, in parents’ hands, for blessing in the world. The whole picture is just the reward that is evident in children who are thriving for the glory of God in the world.
“Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one’s youth.”
I pray for this for my kids and not just my kids. I look across the church I’m a part of and I see all of these kids, all of these kids who are a blessing, a heritage from God and they are like arrows in the hand of a warrior. They are such instruments that God has designed to experience his blessing and to spread his blessing in so many different ways.
One of the things that excites me most as a pastor is thinking about all these kids growing up in the church, hearing God’s word, being taught God’s word, being modeled God’s word, being shown God’s word, encouraged in God’s word to follow God, to trust God and those who do like the arrows, they are in the world for the glory of God, for the good of so many people.
So I just want to lead us to pray for our kids, if you have kids, but even if you don’t, to think about for all of us to think about all the kids in the church that we’re a part of, to remember church families is even deeper than physical family. Sort of look at the kids in the church, children and to pray. So let’s pray.
Prayer for the Children
God, we pray for every child that comes to our mind right now. Maybe children aren’t in our physical families. I think about my kids, others thinking about their kids. But beyond that, for children in the churches we’re a part of and I think about the kids faces who I just saw recently, just a room full of kids. Lord, I pray for every one of them. We pray for these kids. One, we thank you for them. They are indeed a heritage. They’re a joy. God, even kids that are hard sometimes to deal with and this way or that way, we praise you for them. We praise you because they’re made in your image because they are loved by you. We pray that they would come to know you, your grace and your love at early ages.
God, please, please, please draw all these kids that are in our minds to yourself, to your love, to grace, your mercy, in Jesus. We intercede for their salvation right now and God, we pray that they would indeed be like arrows; like arrows just shot out into the world in the days, months, years to come in ways that resound to your glory, in ways that spread your grace, in ways that multiply your blessing. God, we pray for your blessing on kids in our midst for the spread of your blessing to many people, to many places in the world.
Psalm 127:4 Teaches the Power of Children
We pray that you would raise up arrows from our homes and arrows from our churches that will go to the Senussi, Bedouin, and Libya, and make your grace known among them and thousands of other people groups and the world where the gospel’s not yet gone. God, we pray that our children, physically children in our churches, would be like arrows in the hand of a warrior like Psalm 127:4 describes. That they would be sent out as the gifts they are and they would be sent out as instruments in your hand for the spread of your glory around the world. In Jesus name we pray. 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.
