Children

210610 01 – Psalms 102:28

Psalms 102:28 AV
The children of thy servants shall continue,
and their seed shall be established before thee.

Other translations

New International Version
The children of your servants will live in your presence; their descendants will be established before you.”

New Living Translation
The children of your people will live in security. Their children’s children will thrive in your presence.”

English Standard Version
The children of your servants shall dwell secure; their offspring shall be established before you.

Berean Study Bible
The children of Your servants will dwell securely, and their descendants will be established before You.”

Contemporary English Version
Every generation of those who serve you will live in your presence.

Douay-Rheims Bible
The children of thy servants shall continue: and their seed shall be directed for ever.

JPS Tanakh 1917
The children of Thy servants shall dwell securely, And their seed shall be established before Thee.’

Literal Standard Version
The sons of Your servants continue, And their seed is established before You!

Study

Cross References

Psalm 22:30
Posterity will serve Him; they will declare the Lord to a new generation.

Psalm 37:27
Turn away from evil and do good, so that you will abide forever.

Psalm 69:36
The descendants of His servants will inherit it, and those who love His name will settle in it.

Psalm 89:4
I will establish your offspring forever and build up your throne for all generations.'” Selah

Psalm 112:2
His descendants will be mighty in the land; the generation of the upright will be blessed.

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The children of thy servants shall continue
The “servants” of the Lord are the apostles of Christ, and ministers of the word, in all successive generations, with whom Christ will be to the end of the world.
Their “children” are such whom they have begotten again, through the Gospel, to whom they are spiritual fathers; regenerated souls are meant; of these there will be a succession in all ages, until latter day glory takes place; these are the church’s seed, and her seed’s seed, from whom the word of the Lord, the Gospel, will never depart, ( Isaiah 59:21 ) , or these “shall inhabit”, as the word may be rendered, the earth, as the Targum adds; that is, the new heavens, and the new earth, when the old ones are passed away; here they shall dwell with the Lord, who is the same today, yesterday, and for ever.

And their seed shall be established before thee
The same with the children, the spiritual seed of the church and of faithful minister; these, with the church, in which they are born and brought up, shall be established in Christ.
The church will be no more in an unstable and fluctuating state, but will be as a tabernacle, that shall not be taken down; that shall be established upon the top of the mountains, and exalted above the hills (see Isaiah 2:2,  33:20).

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Exposition

The children of thy servants shall continue.
The Psalmist had early in the psalm looked forward to a future generation, and here he speaks with confidence that such a race would arise and be preserved and blessed of God.
Some read it as a prayer, “let the sons of thy servants abide.” Any way, it is full of good cheer to us; we may plead for the Lord’s favour to our seed, and we may expect that the cause of God and truth will revive in future generations.

Let us hope that those who are to succeed us will not be so stubborn, unbelieving and erring as we have been. If the church has been minished and brought low by the lukewarmness of the present race, let us entreat the Lord to raise up a better order of men, whose zeal and obedience shall win and hold a long prosperity.
May our own dear ones be among the better generation who shall continue in the Lord’s ways, obedient to the end.

And their seed shall be established before thee
God does not neglect the children of his servants. It is the rule that Abraham’s Isaac should be the Lord’s, that Isaac’s Jacob should be beloved of the Most High, and that Jacob’s Joseph should find favour in the sight of God. Grace is not hereditary, yet God loves to be served by the same family time out of mind, even as many great landowners feel a pleasure in having the same families as tenants upon their estates from generation to generation.
Here is Zion’s hope, her sons will build her up, her offspring will restore her former glories. We may, therefore, not only for our own sakes, but also out of love to the church of God, daily pray that our sons and daughters may be saved, and kept by divine grace even unto the end, — established before the Lord.

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Explanatory notes and quaint sayings

The children of thy servants shall continue.
In what sense is “children” taken?
Either the children of their flesh, or of their faith.
Some say the children of the same faith with the godly teachers and servants of the Lord, begotten by them to God, as noting the perpetuity of the church, who shall in every age bring forth children to God.
It is the comfort of God’s people to see a young brood growing up to continue his remembrance in the world, that when they die religion shall not die with them, nor the succession of the church be interrupted.
This sense is not altogether incongruous; but rather I think the children of their body are here intended; it being a blessing often promised: see Psalms 103:17 .
“The mercy of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him, and his righteousness unto children’s children.”

“Shall continue;” “shall be established.”
In what sense is it spoken? Some think only pro more faederis, according to the fashion of that covenant which the people of God were then under, when eternity was but more darkly revealed and shadowed out, either by long life, or the continuance of their name in their posterity, which was a kind of literal immortality.
Clearly such a kind of regard is had, as appeareth by that which you find in Psalms 37:28 .
“The LORD loveth judgment, and forsaketh not his saints; they are preserved for ever.” How? since they die as others do: mark the antithesis, and that will explain it.
“They are preserved for ever: but the seed of the wicked shall be cut off.” They are preserved in their posterity. Children are but the parents multiplied, and the parent continued, it is nodosa aeternitas; when the father’s life is run out to the last, there is a knot tied, and the line is still continued by the child.
I confess, temporal blessings, such as long life, and the promise of a happy posterity, are more visible in the eye of that dispensation of the covenant; but yet God still taketh care for the children of his people, and many promises run that way that belong to the gospel- administration, and still God’s service is the surest way to establish a family, as sin is the ready way to root it out. And if it doth not always fall out accordingly, yet for the most part it doth; and we are no competent judges of God’s dispensations in this kind, because we see Providence by pieces, and have not the skill to set them together; but at the day of judgment, when the whole contexture of God’s dealings is laid before us we shall clearly understand how the children of his servants continue, and their seed is established.
— Thomas Manton.

O the folly of the world, that seeks to make perpetuities to their houses by devises in the law, which may perhaps reach to continue their estates, but can it reach to continue their seed?
It may entail lands to their heirs, but can it entail heirs to their lands? No, God knows! This is a perpetuity of only God’s making, a privilege of only God’s servants: for The children of his servants shall continue, and their seed shall be established before him; but that any others shall continue is no part of David’s warrant.
— Sir R. Baker.

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Hints for pastors and laypersons

The true apostolical succession.
▪︎ There always will be saints.
▪︎ They will frequently be the seed of the saints after the flesh.
▪︎ They will always be the spiritual seed of the godly, for God converts one by means of another.
▪︎ We should order our efforts with an eye to the church’s future.

Twitter: @SchoemakerHarry
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