To preface this, I do not have children although I hope to one day, but I am an archer and a bit of a mid-evil weapons fanatic. I wanted to write on this subject because I’ve never heard any pastor or preacher get this metaphor quite right. They always miss the most crucial part of these verses. Their main focus when they go to this passage is usually just verse 3, where it says, “children are a gift of the Lord.” and then they make a very minor point of verse 4 and 5. They make mention of children being arrows and it being a blessing to have a full quiver so that all the guys in the audience can do their Tim Allen-esk man grunts, and that’s about as deep as they go into this amazing metaphor.
Now to get a little weapons history. The bow and arrow was the pinnacle of weapons technology for centuries. The bow and arrow allowed one man to be able to kill as many men as he had arrows without being threatened by a sword, therefore drastically improving the combat effectiveness of the soldier. It also allowed an army making a siege of a fortress able to kill the soldiers posted on the wall or inside the wall without having to breech the fortress, which in turn would severely demoralize the defending army.
At the time this Psalm was written the bow and arrow reigned supreme on the battlefield. So when Scripture says that children are like arrows in the hands of a warrior, and blessed is the man whose quiver is full, its not just comparing them to weapons to sound cool, although it does sound cool. Think of it, if children are arrows, what is the arrows function? Is it not to reach forward and hit somebody that the archer could not otherwise affect? Children are our legacy, if a child is raised on Scripture and comes to know Christ early and is encouraged to grow spiritually by their parents, long after their parents are dead they can reach people for the sake of Christ. If one generation raises its children poorly and does not emphasize the truth of God’s word, the subsequent generations will suffer. We are living in a suffering generation here in America. Christianity is slowly dieing because parents have stopped raising their own children, even “Christian” parents. They send their kids to a pagan school to learn pagan ideals, and then they wonder why their children turn away from God. Just like arrows, children must be crafted with great care, from beginning to end, to ensure they will fly strait and penetrate the enemy.
So parents I urge you therefore to raise your children biblically and train them to do the same. They are your arrows against an unbelieving world, you continue to evangelize just as the warrior would slay those around him but remember your arrows will reach much farther than you can with your sword arm, and the more arrows you have the more damage you can inflict on the enemy. So Blessed is the man whose quiver is full.
