Hi there y'all. I'm Adriene. I'm married to that one and I serve in worship
ministry and in Village Women and whatever else, whatever else needs to be
done. Today's scripture reading is from Psalm 127. Unless the Lord builds a house,
its builders labor over it in vain. Unless the Lord watches over a city, the
watchman stays alert in vain. In vain you get up early and stay up late, working
hard to have enough food. Yes, he gives sleep to the one he loves. Sons are indeed
a heritage from the Lord, offspring a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a
warrior are the sons born in one's youth. Happy is the man who has filled his
quiver with them. They will never be put to shame when they speak with their
enemies at the city gate. This is God's Word.
My lovely wife also works for our district under the leadership of Pastor
Mike Mugford and the last few weeks have been just going crazy getting ready for
family camp which just took place a couple weeks ago. I don't know how long
it was now. It feels like a lifetime. Lots of work leading up to family camp, lots of
hours and then lots and lots of time spent there. She'd get up before the sun
was out and come back to bed at night before the after the sun was down and
after the clock hit midnight and I basically had no wife for a week or two
and on the drive home she looks at me and she's like, oh this is great and I
said yeah I'm tired of being the first lady and she started laughing. So I get
to be that guy though still. We had a great time at family camp. I'll remind
you the registration is open for next year if you like hearing the stories and
you want to be a part of it next year. You can already register at the district
to be a part of that family camp and it's gonna be a good time. Our journey
continues as we join that festive throng of devoted worshipers who are making
their way to the temple. In this sermon series we've called a pilgrim song, Psalms
of Ascent and we are following in the footsteps of the ancient people of
Israel who would sing and recite and declare these songs as they would make
their way up to Jerusalem a couple times a year for a festival or celebration to
remember God and his steadfast love for them. And that journey as Nick pointed
out in our first episode, our first week, that journey was not easy. That journey
had many dangers, many potential pitfalls, thieves and robbers, idol worshipers and
yet those faithful set out year after year to go and be a part of the
celebration of who God is and his love for them. These Psalms serve as a
reminder to them that their help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and
earth and that the Lord gave them the victory over their enemies, that the Lord
fought their battles. It was so integral to their faith and it caused a swelling
of gratitude and grateful love in their hearts and was to lead them to a
confident trust that the Lord could and would do it again for them. It was to
re-center their awareness on God who was at work in their lives in the
extraordinary ways like in battle when they routed a foe that was larger and
bigger than them but also in everyday life. Their pilgrimage through many
danger, toils and snares is not all unlike our journey through this life. And
Psalm 124, it showed us that utter dependence or utter despair and defeat
await us if the Lord is not on our side. If the Lord had not been on our side, we
were this close to being snatched up by the enemy, swallowed up. And today we're
gonna look at Psalm 127 where the call to God-centered awareness is broadened to
include what we build and what we watch over in life. The main point, the point
that seems to be repeated over and over again in this psalm is something like
deny God in all of your ways and everything is emptied of ultimate
purpose and worth and instead will be filled with anxious toil and
restlessness. Or to put it the positive, acknowledge God in all your ways and
everything is filled with ultimate meaning, purpose and rest and emptied of
anxiety. That sounds like a good life, yeah? Filled with meaning and purpose,
filled with substance, not empty, except emptied of the anxieties of anxious toil.
More than a high moral principle or abstract thought, it was extremely
practical to these pilgrims as they made their way to Jerusalem and it is
extremely practical to us today, I believe. And we're gonna look at this
passage under three comparisons. The three comparisons, I'll give you the
broad overview here and then we'll go one by one. Fullness or futility, blessing
or burden, rest or restlessness. And so we begin with fullness or futility. Unless
the Lord builds a house, it's builders labor over it in vain. Unless the Lord
watches over a city, the watchman stays alert in vain. In vain you get up and
stay up late, working hard to have enough food. Unless the Lord builds a house,
unless who? The Lord. Unless the Lord builds a house, it's builders labor over
it in vain. A house may refer to walls and to roof and to the doors of a house.
We have a home up in Georgetown and we found out that it's not very square. It is
not a very square at home because we needed to install a new back door that
was in a frame and when we took out the old one and tried to get the new one in
there, it was wonky. Is that a word? Wonky? Yeah, okay. And we spent hours collecting
the materials and then trying to get it to line up as best as we could in all
the ways so that the door would open and so it didn't look like this in the back
door. I don't know if you know that but doors operate best when it looks more
like this than like that. It doesn't want to open. In a sense we were repairing or
rebuilding our home. We were building it up. A home might be built with walls, with
doors, with a roof, but in a broader meaning we could see that this this
really could include anything that takes our creative labor to produce something.
Anything that we as people might direct our creative energies towards to build
and that might include our work, that might include our relationships or
church or our financial well-being that we would build up our nest egg. It might
include all of those and more. We all have creative energies that we are
directing to some kind of building project in our life and most of us have
many building projects. Things that we are trying to build up and it would seem
that the human race as a whole is inclined toward building. But to what end?
For what purpose? This psalm referring it's referred to at times as a wisdom
psalm is inviting us to think deeper about our inclination to build. This
psalm is inviting us to reorient our aptitude for creating in a way that can
give it ultimate meaning and purpose as we go about our building. Are we building
whatever we might be building for our own glory and fame? Are we building
whatever in order to throw off the constraints of being a creature
ourselves having been created or built in order that we might find some
self-appointed throne which we can sit down on and rule the world? I don't know
if you know about the Tower of Babel or Babel depending on how you say it but
that was their goal. Let us build a mighty tower reaching to the heavens that
we might rule in place of God. To what ends are we building? And the same might
be said of watching. It says unless the world watches over a city it's watchmen
watch in vain. Unless the world watches the watchmen stay alert in vain. There is
a way in which the Lord watches even as the human watchman watches. You see that?
Unless the Lord watches the watchmen who are watching are doing it in vain. What
is watching? Well isn't watching securing and preserving whatever we have created.
Securing and preserving whatever we have built. It is making sure that no band of
thieves or a sailing army will come and take what we have toiled to make and
build for ourselves. We watch to preserve. We watch to keep. But to what end?
Now this leads to a question. Three times the author uses the word vain. Unless the
Lord builds a house. It's builders labor in vain. Unless the Lord watches over a
city it's watchmen stay alert in vain. In vain you rise early and stay up late.
What does vain mean? Well in this context vain means anything done without its
ultimate meaning in mind. Work that is vain is work that is empty or detached
from the reality of how things are supposed to be. Detached from the reality
of their intended purpose and ultimate worth.
Preserving is vain. Watching is vain when we watch to keep things without the
ultimate reality of meaning behind all that is created. Everything is vain, empty
and meaningless without God. You might say why? Why is everything? I find some
pleasure in it. Well I'll give two reasons for sure and these are just big
picture reasons. Number one he's creator of all things. To deny him is to deny the
origin of all things that are. And number two is just as important if not more
important to our daily lives and that is he is actively governing all things by
his infinite wisdom and power according to his purpose. He is actively governing
all things by his infinite wisdom and power according to his purpose.
Colossians 1 15 and 16 says this of Jesus. He is the image of the invisible
God, the firstborn over all creation for everything was created by him in heaven
and on earth visible and invisible whether thrones or dominions or rulers
or authorities all things were created through him and for him. All things were
created through him and for him. If everything was created through him and
for him then it is only in him that all things have meaning. Our building and our
watching and our toil for sustenance are futile if they are done without a
God-centered awareness and God-centered purpose filling them up to the fullness
with meaning. This psalm invites us to fullness or to fertility and is our
choice. I said that word really funny futility. Sorry I'm going on a little
sleep last night just a little bit. We had an awesome time celebrating down in
Lodi some friends who had a marriage renewal. It was a hundred and a billion
degrees outside and they happened to do it outside and so every plate on the
table became a fan as they're doing their vows and you can just see it across
the wind and the sweat and it was it was a lot of fun but we got home late
because it was down in Lodi so it was 10 or 11 and and yeah long night long
explanation. My wife's giving me that look like move on which leads us just
the second point. Blessing or burden. Sons are indeed a heritage from the Lord
offspring a reward like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the sons born in
one's youth. Happy is the man who has filled his quiver with them. They will
never be put to shame when they speak with their enemies at the city gates. Now
at first these verses may seem like they come out of left field like maybe
someone took two Psalms and pasted them together right about there. What's the
connection with the first part of the Psalm? Now I believe the psalmist is
giving us actually a very important and maybe even foundational illustration of
what the first two verses are actually saying. A way for us to see them worked
out and I will start by saying a house is built for a family. At the heart of
the cultural mandate of Scripture at the very beginning is the creation of man
and woman. The man who is to leave his father and mother's house and to be
united with his wife and the two are to become one flesh with one vocation of
being fruitful and multiplying image-bearers throughout the earth.
Having kids who are made in the image of God for his glory occupy and fill the
earth. This is the purpose. A house is built for family and multiple houses
together are built to make a community or a city that needs to be watched over.
At that time watchmen would oftentimes be set up on the walls of a city, a
reinforced city or a fortified city and and they would look out over the distance
to see if any trouble was coming and the people inside and some of the people who
dwell outside would hear the call if an army was coming down on them. Come on and
they would all gather within the fortified city and they would close the
gates to be safe. The watchman looked. The watchman might also be looking for a
messenger who brings good news or glad tidings. The watchman watch, guarding,
looking out over the houses, the people, the families. A house is built for family
and multiple houses for community but what do these verses really get at?
Verse 3, 4 and 5. Where do kids come from? We don't have to have that talk right now
but I'll use Bethany Rosemeyer as an example right now. Right now there's a
kid baking in her oven. Right now. Not a good Mexican dinner last night.
Women get pregnant right and have kids. Women get pregnant and have kids. That's
the order of things. Now I understand this may be controversial to some
nowadays. Women get pregnant and have kids and some people might be confused
but there's been no confusion for many many millennia. Women get pregnant and
have kids. But Psalm 127 says that behind the building of those kids within the
woman, someone's active. Something's active. Someone. God. The Lord. Children
are a heritage from who? The Lord. Children, offspring, are a gift. Offspring
are a reward. Offspring are a blessing because they come from God. His building.
What the Lord is building up. Elsewhere in the Psalms it says, you knit me together
in my mother's womb. You saw me as my little body was formed. You were there.
You counted as every hair appeared on my body. You Lord. You saw it all. You know
it all. Offspring. Children are a gift. They are a reward and a blessing. Why?
Well the Psalm tells us here that because when evil or when the enemies
come against to kill, steal, and destroy God's good glory, you've got backup. Kids
are your backup. When you raise God-honoring, God-exalting, God-centered
image-bearers, they are like arrows in the hands of a warrior. To stand up
against enemies. Instead of being routed and put to shame, they have your back. You
roll deep. As the kids say. Maybe 20 years ago. Now does our society or culture
preach that kids are a blessing? Do we get that kind of message from society and
culture? Don't have kids. They'll ruin your life. They'll ruin your body. They
will take your time, every ounce of time and energy you have and ruin that
perfect companionship you have with your spouse. Kids just mean that you you have
to postpone your career goals and ambitions and maybe you need to
forfeit them all together. Kids are a burden. They're a burden. When will they leave?
I have a 20 year old, a 17 year old, and a 15 year old and I have joked. I have
made that joke before. Let's call it a joke.
They ruin your life. They take your energy. They're a burden. And that, to
that, what does the Word of God say? Lies! Lies! That's a lie! The Word of God says
they are blessings. They are gifts. They are rewards. Happy is the man who's
filled his quiver with them. Happy, blessed. They are not a burden. They are
not a ruiner of my goals and ambitions. They are not someone who has taken me
away from my ultimate purpose. They are blessings. They are good. But they alone
are not ultimate or ultimately from you. We learn that in the Psalms. They are
from God. Gifts given. And we also learn that if Colossians is true, then they
are not from you ultimately and they are not for you ultimately. For all
things are created through him and for him. Do you believe the Word of God or do
you believe your culture? Do you believe the Word of God or will you believe your
society that you grow up in? Do you believe the Word of God or do you
believe your own intuition? Do you believe the Word of God or do you
believe your own feelings about the matter? Happy is the one who has filled
his quiver with children. That's what the Word says. It's what we choose to
believe. Families, the primary God-designed way of filling the earth
with his image, his glory and goodness, they are blessings. They are a building
of the Lord. Do we acknowledge that truth? This leads to how are we to live our
lives in light of the words of this Psalm? When you and I, when we build, when
we watch and we toil in vain, it does not produce peace in our life. What we
build does not last. I'm always reminded, I don't actually know the name off the
top of my head, but I'm reminded of a mall that was to be built in Elk Grove.
I'm reminded of the countless times I drove past the skeleton of that mall as
it sat under the elements. And I'm reminded recently when it was tore down
and replaced with something else. Think of all those guys who were out there toiling
and laboring initially. Think of all those guys who built that structure only
to have it replaced with something completely different. It reminded me of
stories you hear from Vietnam War of men who were frustrated and angry because
they were told to take that hill only to be told the next day, take that hill and
leave that hill, and having left the dead behind on that hill, friends and buddies
who took that hill, to then have to take that hill and let the enemy have that
hill again, to then go back and have to take that hill and lose more brothers,
and be told this over and over and over again, feudal, in vain. When we build, it
doesn't last. When we watch over, the things slip away. All our toil and
struggle simply starts over tomorrow again, and the next day, and the next, and
the next. Is there a way that we can build? Is there a way that we can watch
and we can work for our sustenance without the anxiety that comes from
doing it in vain? Can we find not only ultimate purpose in our lives, but can we
find peaceful, restful hope in the process? Look at what verse 2 says in
Psalm 127. In vain you get up early and stay up late, working hard to have enough
food. Yes, he gives sleep to the one he loves.
The extraordinary loving kindness of God in this Psalm is this, that he gives
sleep to his beloved. He gives sleep to his beloved. What is sleep? What is
sleep? What happens to a man who thinks that the whole world, or at least his
whole world, is sustained only through his work and determination? Sleeping is
a waste of time. It's a waste of precious time to continue to build my
kingdom, to check my stock portfolio, to make sure everything's in order, to make
sure that I'm moving up, up, up, up, up. It's a waste of time to sleep. Time that I
could be spending, spending on making more money or building bigger storehouses
so I can store more money, so I can keep watch over the gains endlessly. Psalm 127
says that the Lord gives his beloved sleep. Listen to what one pastor said about
this part of the verse. It'll be up on the screen as well. Sleep is a daily
reminder from God that we are not God. He who keeps Israel will neither slumber
nor sleep. That was from Psalm 121 that Nick preached out of a couple
weeks ago. But Israel will sleep. For we are not God. Once a day God sends us to
bed like patients with a sickness. The sickness is a chronic tendency to think
we are in control and that our work is indispensable to cure us of this disease.
God turns us into helpless sacks of sand once a day. How humiliating to the
self-made corporate executive that he has to give up control and become as
limp as a suckling infant every day. Sleep is a parable that God is God and
we are mere men. God handles the world quite nicely while our hemisphere sleeps.
Sleep is like a broken record that comes around with the same message every day.
Man is not sovereign. Man is not sovereign. Man is not sovereign. Don't let
the lesson be lost on you. God wants to be trusted as the great worker who never
tires and never sleeps. He is not nearly so impressed with our late nights and
early mornings as he is with the peaceful trust that casts all anxieties
on him and sleeps. Sleep is a silent protest against the self-made,
self-glorifying idolatry of our age. Sleep is silent trust that the Lord is
the ultimate decisive effect behind all of our building, all of our watching,
behind our families and all of our work. Sleep is a daily exercise of trust and
God grants sleep to the one who acknowledges him by restfully trusting
in his sovereignty. God is God. You are not. Anything you build apart from him is
destined to the flame. Anything that he builds is eternal. As the pilgrims make
their way to Jerusalem, they remind themselves that the homes that they have
left behind, that their fields in their possessions, that their communities and
the temple that they're heading to and the nation that they are a part of and
that their families who are on the perilous road with them, they are all
under the watchful sovereign eye of God and so they rest. And that is our
invitation to you today. Will you pray with me? Father, we thank you for words of
wisdom, ancient words of wisdom renewed for us today and we pray your blessing
over these words in our heart that we would find comfort and peace, we would
find hope and restfulness as we sit under the caring and watchful eye of our
father, our heavenly father, and we trust. Lord, build in us and through us
something great for your kingdom. Strengthen families. May families be
strengthened as fathers and mothers pour their lives into loving and caring and
training up their children in the way they should go. But may the mothers and
fathers never hit the pillow on the bed thinking that it all relies on them.
For in the end, when we sleep, you are still at work. And we thank you for that.
In Jesus' name, amen.