Psalm 127 – The Message
This has long been one of my favorite Psalms. It cuts deep against the grain of how we
typically are wired to define and attain success and impact. Living in a North American milieu
only seems to heighten how far we can stray from the simplicity, dependence and legacy that
God intends to shape our lives, and that Solomon here reminds us of.
There is much to mine from such a deep vein of gold, but for our purposes here I'll focus on
the last half of the Psalmist reflection. In the immediate context, the writer is certainly talking
about family, and that of the most immediate sense, but I think it's fair to the text to say that it
can speak to how we posture ourselves in general towards the generations that are in our
wake and the importance of legacy. The type of legacy spoken of here is something deeply
woven into the Hebraic and more Eastern worldview, but something certainly lacking in our
more Euro-Western thinking. For much of our culture, legacy is rarely seen as relational and
about family, but rather that of personal impact (hence our proverbial mid-life crises), our
impressive work ethic and entrepreneurial prowess, monetary sustainability and security. Yet
all these things are thrown topsy turvy in this Psalm. Wisdom from above seems to be on a
collision course with our earthy perspectives of stewardship, hard work and inheritance.
As we look to our future as Vineyard Canada, our reach as it were, to be in sync with God's
design for impact and sustainability, we must engage, be attentive to, and release the
emerging generations. They are the Lord's "generous legacy" to us, and in turn to be the
legacy we leave Canada and the world. Not only is there future heritage here, but a present
and future security. A strength. There is inherent safety in a community, a family, that is not
obsessed with its own momentary success, but that is reaching for a sustainable, peaceable
and fruitful future for its children. With our attention off ourselves, our own ministries, and our
impact, we can recognize that our safety and strength will actually be in the hands of those
who follow after us. They will be our reputation. They will be our riches. How many of us have
fallen losing sight of this? Issues of character, morality and platform have crippled the most
anointed among us as they lost sight of this type of relational, long range thinking. The
courage and wisdom to finish well. To think of the next generation, not just their immediate
impact. It is this reach, this focus, that will be our defense and reputation into the future, and
the reason that our detractors won't have anything they can hold against us.
The challenge seems clear. Will we make room? Will we let go? We will walk alongside, even
follow when necessary, and simply serve?
It is not untypical of God's gifts that first they are liabilities, or at least responsibilities, before
they become obvious assets. The greater their promise, the more likely that these children will
be a handful before they are a quiverful.1

As we look to the younger among us who are emerging in our movement, we must make
space, now. We must take risks. We must be present and available. We must leverage our
experience, wisdom and service to see them succeed and fly farther than we could've ever
dreamed. Arrows launched from our support, love and equipping.
This is our present. This is our future. This is our strength. This is our legacy. A quiver full of
the emerging generations.
Let's reach.

1 Kidner, D. (1975). Psalms 73–150: An Introduction and Commentary (Vol. 16, p. 478). Downers
Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.