The Happiness of a Full Quiver

Behold, children are a heritage from the LORD,
The fruit of the womb is a reward.
Like arrows in the hand of a warrior,
So are the children of one’s youth.
Happy is the man who has his quiver full of them.
They shall not be ashamed,
But shall speak with their enemies in the gate.

(Psalm 127:5)

“Behold.” In the Bible, this word often requires us to see something by faith, pointing us to an important truth we need to understand. Here, the truth is that children are a heritage from the Lord. They belong to Him; He gives them to us.

The psalm writer likens the children of our youth to arrows in the hand of a warrior. The Hebrew word for “warrior” refers to a man who is mighty and powerful. He is an archer who takes careful aim and propels his charges into the world to accomplish what is needed.

The children of one’s youth are like arrows in the hand of a mighty archer. Now here comes the happiness: “Happy is the man who has his quiver full of them.”

Children are not an interruption to our lives; they are a blessing given to enrich our lives. They extend the significance of our lives in the world to the next generation. God gives us children as an inheritance, and we instill in them the things God has placed in us. They are God’s blessing to us, and our blessing to the world. Our children are like arrows, but we must be sure to launch them well. Fortunately, God has made provision for that. He has given us His Word and His Spirit:

And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your and on your gates. (Deuteronomy 6:6-9)

Then Peter said, “Repent, and every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call.” (Acts 2:38-39)

We are to “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 3:18), and bring our children up “in the nurture and admonition of the Lord” (Ephesians 6:4). Wisdom tells us, “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it” (Proverbs 22:6).

If we will sow good seed into the lives of our children, the seed will do the work. Jesus told this parable about how things work in the kingdom of God:

The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground, and should sleep by night and rise by day, and the seed should sprout and grow, he himself does not know how. For the earth yields crops by itself: first the blade, then the head, after that the full grain in the head. But when the grain ripens, immediately he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come. (Mark 4:26-29)

If we will be faithful on the sowing side, God will be faithful to bring forth the harvest. This principle holds true in everything, even in raising and sending out our children. When we train up our children in the way they should go, bringing them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, they will not be ashamed or disappointed, but they shall “speak with their enemies in the gate.” That is, they shall prevail in the places of decision and become powerful influences in the world.

Oh, the deep happiness of having a quiver full of arrows to launch out into the world. The world will be changed, by our spiritual children as well as our natural ones.