Children
Psalm 127:3 – “Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord.”
Read: Psalm 127:1-5
Today’s western society has become so hostile to the Christian faith that the pressure is on to limit the number of children we have. We try to imagine what society will be like when our boys and girls will be teenagers, and we find ourselves becoming fearful of the pressures and temptations they will face. We’re tempted to think that children are the kind of inheritance we don’t want too much of.
The pilgrim who travelled to Jerusalem found the city in the grip of wickedness (Ps. 125:3), and so experienced scorn and contempt (Ps. 123:3, 4). It raises the tough question: what could the godly in Israel do to make Jerusalem’s government take God seriously? What options did the pious have for straightening out corrupt clergy in the temple? We experience in our own day how difficult it is to convince our national leaders to take God’s will seriously—and that’s to say nothing of the folk running today’s media, education system, or judiciary. They just refuse to listen to the wisdom of Scripture.
Psalm 127 sought to teach the godly in Israel that though they could not change today’s leaders, they certainly could form tomorrow’s leaders. The children entrusted to the care of the godly are God’s children by covenant. Raise them to know the Lord and in adulthood they will be able to speak 
convincingly with corrupt government officials in the halls of power. Having children: that was the Spirit’s answer to what the godly could do to fight the apostasy in the land.
God himself sent his Son to be born in a context of godless rulers (the Romans controlled Israel) and of religious apostasy (the temple was more a place for business than for prayer). Under the blessing of the Lord, Jesus grew into such a man that in adulthood he could very convincingly speak with the enemies in the gate. In fact, on the cross he engaged the Evil One himself, and defeated him soundly. God in turn gave him the throne at his right hand and made him sovereign Lord over today’s world.
Since God himself with the birth of his Son acted in step with the confession of Psalm 127, let us do the same in the midst of the apostasy of our culture. Receiving covenant children and raising them as God’s inheritance, both play a key role in how we Christians tackle godlessness.