Psalms 144:12
That our sons may be as plants grown up in their youth; that our daughters may be as corner stones, polished after the similitude of a palace: That our sons may be as plants grown up in their youth; that our daughters may be as corner stones, polished after the similitude of a palace:
The verse asks that boys grow straight and vigorous like thriving young plants, and that girls stand firm and beautiful like carefully cut and burnished stones fitted for a royal house. It holds up the character to be formed in the young — steadfast, kind, pure and true — learned by looking to God in prayer and to Christ as guide, fitting them for useful service. Children are a holy trust lent to parents to be nurtured and built up in the home school by patient, loving, faithful instruction, obedience to God's Word, and godly example. That shaping is a painful polishing that takes rough, flawed human nature and, through discipline, trial and the cleansing work of the Spirit, removes pride and roughness until righteousness shines out. So prepared, believers become living, enduring material in God's temple built on Christ, made worthy to shine in His house and courts forever.
Verse Language and Setting
The verse stands within praise for the Lord's mercies and unbounded goodness, rebuking the withholding of praise and calling believers to awaken to a realizing sense of His goodness and to answer Him with testimony. Its prayer is that sons may grow up like plants in their youth, growing strong, flourishing, mature and upright from their youth. That vigorous, early maturity is the same growth elsewhere described as sons growing strong and mature from youth through godly training.
Its companion prayer is that daughters may be as corner stones polished after the similitude of a palace, carefully shaped, firm, beautiful, refined, strong and enduring. That polished cornerstone is finely shaped work, made fit for honor and for a place in the temple through the removal of pride and roughness until character reflects Christ. In the home it appears where Christian graces reign, displaying flourishing strength joined with beauty and refinement.
The same polished work is also pictured as palace pillars brought to a fine finish, showing children whose characters are noble and fit for the society of angels. That noble finish can be tarnished by worldly love and greed, while a parent's example helps shape the children's spiritual future.
Character Education Forms
True education forms sons to grow strong, flourishing, mature and upright from youth, and daughters to be firm, refined and beautiful like cornerstones of a palace. That character is forbearance and trust, true goodness and kindness of heart, perseverance and steadfastness. It is learned by looking to Christ as guide, by seeking God's counsel in prayer, and by looking to the Creator as the unerring Guide. So formed, the young are qualified for service in the missionary field.
Where joy, peace, patience, gentleness, faith and love reign in the home, children display that flourishing strength and polished refinement. The same flourishing sons and finely formed, polished daughters are the good result of raising children with care, self-control, obedience and reverence for God.
The palace image means a redeemed life molded and shaped by God, each child redeemed by Christ to be fashioned like a palace. In that work Christ is enshrined as king in the heart and soul.
Parents Training in Home
Children are a sacred trust from God, belonging to the Lord's family and entrusted to parents to be nurtured, trained, and fitted for service in His courts. The aim is that sons grow strong and well-formed in youth like plants and daughters be shaped and polished like the fine stones of a palace, so refined in character that they resist evil and shine in the Lord's presence and courts forever. Early, faithful instruction matters greatly because mothers are fashioning character and mind, the children so raised will shape the society of the future, and the lasting worth of this work is greater than public recognition.
Parents are to lay a firm, right foundation and then steadily build, polish, and perfect character toward a well-balanced, symmetrical, and complete character. They succeed by working in patience, love, faith, and earnest effort to bring children to the highest standard of purity and modesty, presenting them to God refined and beautiful as a palace. This requires teaching strict obedience to the Bible and training children in the fear and love of God, while cultivating purity and discipline in the parents' own lives and example, since early education bears greatly on salvation and prepares children for the immortal inheritance.
The home is the school where this shaping takes place, with each family member to be formed by divine principles and precepts from God's Word. All coarseness and roughness are to be put away as contrary to heaven's ways, so that pure morals are preserved in the home and its life demonstrates the power of God's grace. Training children to please the Lord and leading them to Christ is missionary service done first in the home, becoming workers together with God. The mother has a special part in this refining and polishing work, especially the polishing of daughters' character.
Polishing Through Trial
The verse shows God's people as rough stones brought from the quarry of the world by the mighty cleaver of truth, by nature hard as granite, cold, unbeautiful and sluggish, with rough edges and sharpness that must be removed to fit them for His building. Being squared and polished is a painful but necessary purifying and refining process, like hewing, chiselling, squaring and pressing upon the wheel until coarseness is removed and luster appears. The polishing removes pride, impurities, flaws and roughness from character through trial, suffering, warnings and admonitions. This painful work is done with care for those who trust Him, like the polishing of precious stones.
The work begins in the heart and works outward in character until Christ's righteousness shines upon the person, and it is the specified work of the Comforter to transform character to resemble a palace. It is done when self is emptied and hearts are cleansed from all that is corrupt and selfish by thorough renovation, when the Father, Son and Holy Spirit unite with those who wear Christ's yoke and send the Spirit to shape them. The finished character then reflects Christ and is worthy of a place with Him. The value of each worker depends wholly upon the polishing received, for only His jewels are polished for a palace and He spends no time upon worthless material. Those who cooperate and submit to the divine hand have their characters so fashioned, and submission to this process with strenuous human effort with every sinew and muscle to make character more pure, words more helpful and actions such as God can approve is required to be saved at last.
God's cutting discipline is never useless or destructive, for every blow is given in love for eternal happiness and He works to restore those He disciplines. Each soul is to be God's temple, refined and cleansed and polished through daily effort toward perfection of character and action. When polished, His people become prepared channels with God's love and grace in heart and on lips, walking with firm upward tread in Christ's footprints. They are given efficiency and power for work and fitted to fill places of responsibility in the solemn crisis at the end of time when those now in responsibility refuse to be worked, and their rising to a higher standard brings an awakening in the churches that God is pleased to recognize.
God's Temple and Future
The polished cornerstones shaped to resemble a palace describe believers as precious, carefully formed materials in God's living church, put together according to the divine pattern into a holy temple in the Lord whose chief cornerstone is Christ. Stones polished like a palace are enduring material brought into God's building, people led through the word of life into holiness and peace, and those who faithfully do that building work will be honored in God's kingdom as wise builders.
God's precious people are carefully prepared through discipline until they reflect His character and become worthy of a place in His heavenly temple. That fitting is a polishing that removes pride, impurities, flaws and roughness from character, done through trial, suffering and severe, trying discipline. Christ Himself takes away the roughness, and those who submit to the work become precious to Him, with a finished character that reflects Him and is worthy of a place with Him. Though painful, like hewing, chiselling, squaring and polishing stone, the work is done with care for those who trust Him, as with the polishing of precious stones.
Children educated and trained as the verse pictures are prepared to shine in God's house and courts forever, resisting evil and shining in the Lord's presence. They are a sacred trust belonging to the Lord's family, entrusted to parents and especially to mothers to be nurtured, trained and polished in character for service in His courts forever. Daughters are to be polished like the stones of a palace until beautiful in character, and sons are to be nurtured into strong, well-formed people of godly character. Early, faithful instruction matters greatly because mothers are fashioning character and mind, the children raised will shape the society of the future, and the lasting worth of the work is greater than public recognition.
Faithful people as polished stones set for beauty in Christ's temple shine amid surrounding darkness, making plain the contrast between righteousness and sin and between truth and error, and their faithfulness rebukes those who reject obedience.