THE REFORMED WITNESS HOUR
"A Joyful Mother of Children”
Rev.
May 13, 2007; No. 3358
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prca.orgDear Radio Friends,
The Reformed Witness Hour celebrates the gift of Christian mothers today by turning to the Word of God in
Psalm 113:9.
There we read, “He (that is, God) maketh the barren woman to keep house, and to be a joyful
mother of children. Praise ye the Lord.”
Perhaps on this
Mother’s Day, even as a Christian woman, you react to those words, especially
“a joyful mother of children,” with a bit of cynicism, or of guilt. “Joyful mothers”? Maybe, after looking at the harsh reality of
so much that goes on behind closed doors in your family, you would not
call yourself joyful. Yes, with that
firstborn in your arms you were filled with joy, but what about the lifelong
task of motherhood? And
what about the many sins that attend it—the difficulties, the yelling, the
resentment, the discouragements? Joyful mothers? Would
your children recognize you today? Is
not motherhood, as the world would have it, drudgery? Does it not mean to be chained to meals, laundry,
cleaning, thankless tasks—so much that is taken for granted? Joyful?
And
what about the Word of God itself? Does not God say in
Genesis 3:16
to Eve, and in
her to all women: “In sorrow thou shalt bring forth thy children”? Has not sin really ruined motherhood, as is
evident in post-partum depression and PMS and many other difficulties?
What about children
who are born with diseases? What about
learning-disabled children—long nights sitting up with them and their
homework? Rebellious
children? Then,
to add to it, the reality at times (may God forbid) of faithless husbands.
Does the Word of
God make light of all of this? Does the
Word of God intend to mock us? “He maketh thee to be a joyful mother of children”?
People of God,
daughters of God, the Word of God (God!) speaks of joyful mothers. It is no myth. God is speaking here of a joy that at bottom
is nothing less than the joy of salvation, a joy in God, and a joy that God
imparts to the experience of your heart as a Christian mother. It is the joy of which Jesus spoke in
John 15:
My joy, which no man can take from
you. A joy found in the knowledge that
you are God’s servant, being used of Him in His kingdom—a joy that God gives to
every believing mother today—every woman of God—a joy that is this, that God is
your faithful God, who hath given to you a beautiful and a crucial task
in His kingdom. It is called
“motherhood.”
Our text is an
example of the condescending goodness of God. In
Psalm 113
the psalmist is thinking of God in His glory and
majesty. “Who is like unto the Lord our God, who dwelleth
on high, who humbleth himself to behold the things
that are in heaven, and in the earth!” (vv. 5, 6). So
exalted that He must stoop down low to view the heavens! He must bow to see the stars! So glorious is God.
But this God is not
like the detached idols of the heathen, like the Greek gods. Their majesty was seen in indifference. No, for although He is high and cannot be
added unto, yet verse 7 tells us that He delights to raise
“up the poor out of the dust.” The
glorious God, the fullness of blessing in Himself, delights in blessing the
lowly and the insignificant, the downcast and the despised. And He delights especially in blessing His
daughters, women, mothers, to make them joyful.
Unmistakably and
un-ashamedly, the Scriptures of God identify motherhood with joy. “He maketh a joyful
mother of children.”
The word “joyful”
refers to a great inward happiness, not necessarily to what we might call a
bubbly, happy temperament, but to the possession of a great good—a good so
great that it floods the heart and gives an abiding inward joy or satisfaction
to one’s soul. That is the meaning of
joy in Scripture.
Certainly we may
show outward happiness. But when the
Scriptures speak of joy, they are referring to something within, something deep
within, present even in the midst of grief, something, in fact, that grief
causes to shine. My soul, says David,
“shall be joyful in the Lord. I will rejoice in God all the day,” even in times of trial and
gloom. The picture, then, of this
joy is that of the heart, of a restfulness and satisfaction of soul in God, an
abiding joy possessed by every believing woman.
Sarah, Abraham’s wife, said, “God has made me to laugh. All that hear me will laugh with me.” Mary said, “My soul doth magnify the Lord,
and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior.”
Hannah, in the Old Testament, said, “My heart rejoiceth
in the Lord.”
Let us get that
into our heads and into our hearts for a moment. God gives to you mothers an abiding, inward,
imperishable joy—joy rooted in God and in His grace to you as His daughters. Do not let the world squeeze you into its
mold. And if there is any area in which
the world system is trying to do so, it is in the area of motherhood
today. There is a demonic, concerted
attack on the dignity and glory of motherhood as created by God. Books, TV talk shows, politics—all proclaim
that motherhood, as we understand it, is really depressing. A career is more important. Motherhood, we are told, can be chosen today
outside of marriage. Why should an
unmarried woman be denied this privilege?
Motherhood should not stand in the way of a career. And if motherhood threatens to interrupt your
plans, then the world says you may abort your child. Sterile operating rooms in our country
slaughter millions of children, of people.
And our generation, which in hypocrisy decries the holocaust of World
War II and of
Now listen. All the people of God,
listen! I do not want you to miss this
truth. Scripture informs us of this
truth: Motherhood is a joy given of God.
What is the source
of this joy? It arises from three
considerations. First of all, motherhood
is the gift of God in bearing and delivering a child of the covenant. A believing woman is given the joy of
witnessing a wonderwork of God—a work that must produce awe and rejoicing of
the heart before God. The text
emphasizes that motherhood is a work of God.
He maketh the barren woman to keep house and
to be a joyful mother of children. This
is reminding us that pregnancy and birth are exclusively the work of almighty
God. Yes, He sometimes does withhold
children according to His will and grants His promises of love and grace when
He withholds. But God is telling us that
every time pregnancy and birth occur, it is His wonder of life.
Now, I know that
all the medical and technological innovations and learning of men seem to rob
us of this miracle of God. We hear of
test-tube babies, in vitro fertilization. But the fact remains: life is created by God alone. And medicine and science cannot explain it.
Ecclesiastes 11:5,
“As thou knowest not what is the way of the spirit,
nor how the bones do grow in the womb of her that is with child: even so thou knowest
not the works of God who maketh all.”
Now pause, women
and mothers, and all of us, to consider.
Ponder these things in your heart.
God forms another life out of you and gives to that life a soul. God uses your body to nurture, your organs to
make room, so that this child draws his life from you and comes forth from
you. And all of this is the wonderwork
of the wondrous God. It must produce a
humble joy—not boasting, not saying, Oh, look what I
did! but look what God did.
The world, of
course, sees a child as an extension of self, to bring pleasure to
oneself. But the child of God boasts in
the profound work of God in the gift of a child.
Secondly, the joy
being referred to here is the joy of being found in the will of God. And that is biblical joy. What does it mean? It means that our God assigns to each one of
us a station in His glorious kingdom, a place that is marked out with gracious
care. That place can come to us in the
church, home, family.
And He says to us in that place, “Occupy till I come.” Work out here your salvation. And He gives us the talents for that
place—talents that are not all the same, but wisely fitted for us.
The joy of heart
that God gives to believing mothers is to receive their place from God
thankfully and to seek to perform the will of God in that place. Motherhood is the will of God for you
mothers. God’s will for you is that you
nurture, rear, and give life to children and care for your husband. Outside of that will of God for you there is
no joy. We can see that in the modern
woman today, who rejects with disdain God Himself. There is no joy, but there is a deep, abiding
grudge, bitterness and emptiness, a resentment. But the child of God finds joy in being in
the will of God. ’Tis
joy, we say, to do Thy will.
God’s will, which
brings joy, is motherhood. It is the
nurture and it is the care of children.
That is a joy that comes not in spite of the task of being a
mother. It is not a joy that is added
to the task. But it is a joy found
exactly in the task. The Savior
Himself said that “he that findeth his life shall
lose it; and he that loseth his life for my sake
shall find it.” When
you are, as a mother, pursuing the will of your Creator and Redeemer, then your
Creator and Redeemer, your Lord, rewards you with the experience of joy—the joy
of being in His will.
Finally, the joy of
a mother is found in this: you
understand from the Word of God the importance of the task He has given. You should never say, and we ought not allow the statement, “I’m just a mother”—as if that is
drudgery. Never say that! But let us have some joy. Let us have some amazement in the statement,
“I have been blessed to be a mother!”
Let us hear some thrill in the voice.
Through mothers God
is preparing a church to praise Him.
There is nothing more awesome than this, for God loves His church. And the end of all things is when His
glorious face is going to shine reflected in the church that Christ saves. But Christ is now preparing that church in a
very significant and indispensable manner through the instrumentality of
believing mothers. This is the
Scriptures. God is so gracious, so good,
that He takes weak and sinful women, whom He loves in Jesus Christ, and He
sanctifies them by His Holy Spirit and gives to them a crucial place in His
kingdom of grace. Are you going to envy
the world’s women? Oh, no! Honor those whom God hath honored. God takes sinful and frail and sometimes
crabby women and prepares the children of the kingdom through them.
Are you
joyful? How do you respond to the Word
of God? We ought to respond today with
humble thanks: “Oh, Lord, when I
consider Thy works, the works of creating life within me; when I consider, O
Lord, the privilege of serving Thee in Thy will; when I consider the importance
of being a Christian mother and how Thy mighty hand prepares my children even
for their eternal place—O Lord, I stand before Thee in humble joy!” Are you joyful?
“Joyful,” in the
Scriptures, as I said before, is not always jumping up and down, but it is a contentment; it is a resolve; and it is a peace of
heart. God calls me to do this and I am
thankful that the Lord calls me to do this in my home.
He makes a joyful
mother of children. Let us give God
praise for that! Let us rejoice today in
that. And as we rejoice, let us first of
all guard this Word of God from a weakness, a weakness that is found at times
in mothers. Let me explain.
I believe that
Christian mothers who love their Lord Jesus Christ with all their heart and
desire to be pleasing to Him, yet, as they come under the difficulties of being
a mother, very often are tempted to morbid introspection, to excessive
self-criticism, and to hopelessness, when they see their shortcomings.
This is what I have
in mind. You have had a busy day. It began at six o’clock in the morning. You had to make the breakfast and the lunches
and you had to get your kids off to school and your husband off to work. After that, you straightened up the
house. You put the little ones down for
their nap. You watered the
marigolds. And after the little ones
woke up, you gave them lunch and you went to the park. You returned in time to make and serve
dinner. After that there was the
homework, baths, bedtime stories, and the prayers. Finally, at 10, 11, you fall into bed
exhausted. But you cannot sleep. For suddenly you remember how short you were
with your daughter about her room, which was messy after you told her to pick
it up. And you yelled. You remember how disappointed your son looked
when you told him that you did not have time to color because you needed to
fold the laundry. You think of the fact
that you have gained five pounds. You
have not had time for your husband. You
had little time to pray. And you
conclude that you are not a good mother, you are a horrible wife, and you feel
the tons of anxiety and depression crushing upon you.
What does God
say? God says that whenever we have
sinned, we must confess that sin to God and, if need be, to the child
tomorrow. Tomorrow will be
sufficient. You do not need to wake the
child up. But the Word of God says
this: “You must not look to yourself,
but you must look to your God, the God who delights in you and the God who is
pleased to use you.”
I commend to you a
verse in the Scriptures (Phil. 4:8), “If there be any virtue, and if there be
any praise (if there be any good report, if there be any good thing), think on
these things.” God does not condemn His
daughters. He is the God of all mercy
and the Father of all comfort. The
living God does not pile upon you accusations, so many and so heavy that you
cannot get out of bed in the morning. No, look to your heavenly Father, who loves you, who has justified
you in the blood of Jesus, who cherishes you and has promised never to forsake
you, and who says, “I make you a joyful mother of children. I will use you for the good of your
children.” Look to God.
When we see, then,
the blessings of motherhood, let us praise the
Lord. And let us do that with
irrepressible praise for God’s grace and goodness today. Do we do that? Do we do that today? Do we do that as those who know the truth of
the covenant, who know the truths of the promises of God? Do we do that today for our Christian
mothers?
Man, husband—what
does God hear from your heart today about your wife and the mother of your
children? When you see all of her work
in the home and the marriage, the work of a wife and mother, what does God
hear? Does He hear simply a grunt,
“Well, yah, yah, I’m certainly thankful for my wife.” Or does He hear, rumbling in your heart,
praise of how merciful God has been to you in giving to you such a wife and
such a mother for your children? Do you
praise and thank Him? Do you praise God,
as a husband? I am amazed sometimes that husbands cannot, apparently, verbalize
thankfulness. How many times, when I
have asked a husband, “Do you ever thank your wife and show that you appreciate
her?” he responds, “Well, she knows. I
don’t need to tell her.” Yes, you
do. That is the way God has made
her. You need to tell her that you love
her. You need to tell her that you pray
for her. You need to tell her that you
are thankful and praise God for her as your wife and as the mother of
your children.
Do we do that as
children today? Do we do that as young
people, teenagers, young men and young women?
Are you thankful for your mother?
Children, are you thankful for your mommy today? Do you thank God for her, not just today, but
always?
I remember my
children telling me when they were younger how uncommon it was for kids to have
lunches with homemade cookies, and then my thoughts went back that my mother
would always make my lunch, and when she would put a cookie in that lunch,
there was a part of my mother’s love in that cookie. Of course, today, the attitude is, “Why waste
time with all of these mixes and baking stuff when we can use lunchables?” You
know, it can even be seen in a lunch—the love and care of a mother. Children, do you thank God for your
mother? Girls, teenage girls, do you
thank God for your mother, or do you just argue with her? How long has it been since you thanked God
for your mother, teenage boy? Do you
praise God for her?
Let us hear the
Word of God and let it mold us: God
makes joyful mothers. The world raises
its eyebrows. Another
child? You are going to have
another one? Don’t you know how they
come? You are going to ruin your
figure! Let us pray to God for our
mothers. Let us call them blessed gifts
of God. Let us exalt God who delights in
showing such mercy to those who are nothing of themselves, those whom He raises
up and makes joyful mothers of children.
Let us pray.
Father, may Thy
Word be our joy, our comfort, our encouragement. Lord, we thank Thee that Thou hast so shown
Thy love and presence in the gift of believing mothers. To Thee be praise and honor through Jesus
Christ, Amen.