TITLE:
“Like Olive Shoots”: Insight into the Secret of a Happy Family in Psalm 128
AUTHORS:
Mary Jerome Obiorah
KEYWORDS:
Family, Psalm 128, Wisdom Psalms, Fear of God, Retribution, Vine
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Philosophy,
Vol.5 No.1,
February
3,
2015
ABSTRACT: Beset by all kinds of ideologies that divest it of its divinely endowed values, family in our contemporary society suffers greatly from those who purport to have a better way of fulfilling its divine mandate. All who understand the importance of family are greatly concerned at the overt derailment that has proved detrimental to human society. The Sacred Scripture offers us varied insights into solving the problem in which we find ourselves. Psalm 128 chosen for this paper is one of those texts in the Bible that reflects on family and its value in human society. As a Wisdom Psalm and didactic in nature, the poem presents to its readers what family is in dire need of at this time. The meaning of this Psalm is coded in its rich poetic techniques and similes that the paper endeavours to explain in its immediate context as a Song of Ascents and in the contexts of other Wisdom texts of the Old Testament. Its theological thrust, the fear of God, which is introduced at the beginning and iterated in various phrases within the Psalm comes out clearly as messages the Psalm offers to worrisomely deformed image of family in our time.