Psalm 127
Friends have told me that here in Rabat, when I make a âto doâ list, I should put some items on the list like âput on socksâ just to make sure I can cross something off the list at the end of the day.
I have many days that the end of the day, when I consider what I accomplished, I feel embarrassed about how little I have accomplished. Errands and details seem to consume my day. I need new locks for our villa. In the United States I would call the locksmith and set up an appointment, five minutes. The locksmith would come out with a truck full of keys and locks and equipment. An hour later the locks are installed and I go on with my business. In Rabat, I go to the locksmith. He is not there so I go to a cafĂ© with my friend to wait. We go back and take the locksmith to the villa. He sees what is needed, there is a long discussion in which my friend is translating for me. (On my friendâs âto doâ list was there an item that said âtranslate for Jack with locksmith – 2 hoursâ?) Then the next day the locksmith comes and a morning is spent as the locks are installed. What would take a little over an hour in the United States took six hours here.
Banking always takes longer than planned. Getting a Carte Sejour requires multiple visits to multiple agencies, getting documents, getting them legalized, going to get more documents and getting them legalized.
Just two or three of those things and the day is full and then, what have I accomplished? I still have my work, in my case pastoring RPF, and it has been neglected for the sake of errands.
But you say, those are necessary things when you first move to Morocco. Yes, but now that I have done it once and as I develop facility with French, I will find myself in the position of helping new people as friends have helped me. I think about friends that have spent an enormous amount of time helping us get registered in Morocco, finding a villa, finding people to help us with the villa, getting a car, getting the car registered. What about their work?
Why do I have this feeling of embarrassment about how little I have done? I am not a lazy person. I like to work. I like to accomplish things and when I donât find myself accomplishing much, it bothers me.
There were times in my business when I worked excessively hard. One time we installed a new computer program and a lot of work needed to be done to get our formulas entered properly and customer base set up. I came in on Thanksgiving Day weekend. I started on Wednesday night and worked until 1 AM. I came in again Thursday night after our Thanksgiving meal and worked again until 1 AM. I worked all day Saturday and Saturday night and finally finished up on Sunday, coming in after church.
Annie was angry with me for being away so much and not taking some time off, but I felt good for having accomplished so much.
Excessive work habits have destroyed marriages and families. It does not seem that being a workaholic is the proper approach to work.
We need help with a Biblical perspective of work and todayâs psalm offers that help.
Psalm 127 is a psalm about work, the eighth of the Psalms of Ascent. Psalms 120 through 134 are psalms that were chanted or sung by the Hebrew pilgrims making their way up to Jerusalem for the three annual festivals. These psalms reminded the Hebrew pilgrims of the various aspects of their lives with God and they do the same for we who are Christians, making our pilgrimage in this life toward our final destination.
As the pilgrims made their way up to Jerusalem, a reminder about the place of work in life was appropriate. The Hebrew pilgrims had left jobs to come up to Jerusalem. Concerns about their work were, no doubt, in their minds. They probably talked about their work as they made their way up to Jerusalem. They needed to hear about the place of work in their lives and we need it as well.
Unless the LORD builds the house,
its builders labor in vain.
Unless the LORD watches over the city,
the watchmen stand guard in vain.
2 In vain you rise early
and stay up late,
toiling for food to eatâ
for he grants sleep to those he loves.
Some have looked at this psalm and said that it teaches us not to work hard because it is critical of those who rise up early and stay up late working, but they have missed the point. The first thing to notice in this psalm is that the Lord works. The phrases âunless the Lord buildsâ and âunless the Lord watchesâ imply that the Lord builds and the Lord watches.
The Creation poem in Genesis 1 makes the point that God created the world we inhabit. He worked six days and then rested on the seventh. As God has revealed himself to us, he is constantly at work, intervening in history to accomplish his purposes. God led Israel out of Egypt. God met with Moses to give him the Ten Commandments. God led Joshua to victory after victory in the Promised Land of Canaan. God was continually shaping Israel to be his people. Page after page of the Scriptures reveals a God who is at work.
The Jews objected to Jesus healing on the Sabbath and Jesus said to them in John 5:17, âMy Father is always at his work to this very day, and I, too, am working.â Jesus set an example for us and until he returns at the end of time, we are expected to carry on his work here on earth.
In the early church, some of the Thessalonians got the idea that they did not need to work. They would just sit around and wait for Jesus to return. In no uncertain terms, the Apostle Paul set them straight.
In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we command you, brothers, to keep away from every brother who is idle and does not live according to the teaching you received from us. 7 For you yourselves know how you ought to follow our example. We were not idle when we were with you, 8 nor did we eat anyoneâs food without paying for it. On the contrary, we worked night and day, laboring and toiling so that we would not be a burden to any of you. 9 We did this, not because we do not have the right to such help, but in order to make ourselves a model for you to follow. 10 For even when we were with you, we gave you this rule: âIf a man will not work, he shall not eat.â
11 We hear that some among you are idle. They are not busy; they are busybodies. 12 Such people we command and urge in the Lord Jesus Christ to settle down and earn the bread they eat.
This is the first lesson of Psalm 127. Work is a part of our life and it is an important part of our life. When we work, we are following the example of God.
Unless the LORD builds the house,
its builders labor in vain.
Unless the LORD watches over the city,
the watchmen stand guard in vain.
2 In vain you rise early
and stay up late,
toiling for food to eatâ
The second point to be made is that unless we do the work God has for us to do, we work in vain. When we set off on our own, working to build our own little empire, we end up with nothing.
Itâs not that our projects will fail, but they will go nowhere. We can create a home for ourselves, build up businesses, create a comfortable nest egg for retirement. But then what? The houses and cities we build may survive, but were they worth building? We have enough money to retire, but then what do we do?
Newport, Rhode Island, on the east coast of the United States has beautiful mansions sitting on rocky cliffs overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. Beautiful mansions with large, beautiful lawns and a view of the sea. That is, for me, paradise.
The people who built these mansions amassed huge fortunes, but for what? When they died, what did they take with them?
When we set our eyes on a mansion or a fortune or a business or anything, we may be able to get that mansion and amass that fortune and build that business, but what then? The mansion and fortune and business turn into sand that sifts through our hands and blows away in the wind.
I John 2:17 summarized for me the book of Ecclesiastes which talks about the futility of amassing fortunes and building personal empires.
The world and its desires pass away, but the one who does the will of God lives forever.
Only Godâs work will endure.
Psalm 127 teaches us that we follow the example of our Lord when we work. Unless we do the work God has for us, we work in vain. The obvious question is, what is that work?
This is far too complicated a question to deal with in just part of one sermon. But basically, we are to work to transform this earth into the Kingdom of God. We are to work to encourage people around us to choose to accept the gift of salvation God offers. God has a heart for this world and when we have his heart for the world, we share his work.
âMy food,â said Jesus, âis to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. 35 Do you not say, âFour months more and then the harvestâ? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest.
God does not care if you build a 50 million dollar company. God does care that you honor him in your business. God does care that you share his heart for the people who work for you, for your co-suppliers, for your customers, even for your competition.
Our job is never an end in itself. It is always a means to the end. It doesnât matter what our job is, our work is to do the will of our Father in heaven.
Psalm 127 teaches us that the Lord set the example for us by working. It teaches us that unless we do the work of God, we labor in vain. And this psalm teaches us that it is Godâs desire that we work without being consumed with worry and anxiety.
2 In vain you rise early
and stay up late,
toiling for food to eatâ
Over and over again, in the papers or in a movie or book we hear about a person, usually male, who was very successful, a doctor or business owner or lawyer and then he has a near death experience, a heart attack or an accident. He backs away from his or her work, resigns from his position and announces he wants to spend more time with family and friends.
That person is fortunate because he received a wake-up call. He has discovered that work does not create life or righteousness. He has discovered what is important and what is in vain.
When we find ourselves working our fingers to the bone to maintain our business or whatever it is we do, it is time to reflect on what really matters. And the beauty of this psalm is that it reminds us that God will take care of us. God is at work with us. It is not âI am building a houseâ, it is âwe are building a houseâ.
Unless the LORD builds the house,
its builders labor in vain.
Unless the LORD watches over the city,
the watchmen stand guard in vain.
2 In vain you rise early
and stay up late,
toiling for food to eatâ
for he grants sleep to those he loves.
Work is important. Work is good. But just as fire that warms us in our houses can get out of control and destroy us, so work can get out of control and destroy us.
Work becomes a beast that needs to be fed. People work relentless hours and still feel they are not working hard enough. People, as Eugene Peterson translated this psalm, work their worried fingers to the bone. For what? Work does not satisfy. Meaningful work satisfies and in order for work to be meaningful, work needs to be a means to the end.
The message to the Hebrew pilgrims making their way up to Jerusalem and the message to us, making our way toward our final destination, Mt. Zion, is that God wants to deliver us from the relentlessness of working our fingers to the bone work. The insatiable beast of work is the one from whom we are rescued.
Some commentators have thought that Psalm 127 is two psalms put together, but the second half of this psalm neatly illustrates the point of the first half.
3 Sons are a heritage from the LORD,
children a reward from him.
4 Like arrows in the hands of a warrior
are sons born in oneâs youth.
5 Blessed is the man
whose quiver is full of them.
They will not be put to shame
when they contend with their enemies in the gate.
We do not work to have sons, they come to us, with little effort (OK, the birth does take some effort, but you know what I mean). In our modern world, we do not understand the importance of sons.
But in the time when this psalm was written, when a man was falsely accused by his enemy in the city gate, the courtroom of the day, his sons standing behind him were his assurance that his enemy would not be able to take advantage of him. His sons protected him from being bullied. And where did these sons come from? Did he work day after day, year after year to earn them? No! They were given to him by God and this illustration is used by the psalmist to point out that we do not need to work our worried fingers to the bone. We do not need to let the beast of the workplace consume us. God is at work with us when we do his work.
The Scriptures reveal a God who is concerned that his children learn that he is the one who provides for them.
âNot by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,â says the LORD Almighty. Zechariah 4:6
The story of Gideon illustrates this. Gideon was called by God to lead Israel to drive out the Midianites who were oppressing them. Gideon started with 32,000 men but God kept whittling the numbers down until there were only 300 men under Gideonâs command. God wanted the message to be crystal clear, he was their protector, their defender.
God continues to want us to hear that message. He is the one who provides for us. When we coincidentally meet someone on the train who can help us with our business, this is providence, not coincidence. God is at work in our lives, working with us to accomplish his purposes.
I want to encourage you in whatever your work is. Whether you are working at an embassy, starting up a business, picking up little jobs whenever you can find them, taking care of your children and home – whatever your job is, you need to be doing Godâs work. The part of what you do that matters is not getting the contract or filling out the paper work or preparing a lesson plan. What matters is how you are interacting with the people at your job, the people where you live, the people you meet on the way to work and on the way home from work. Taking time to help a newcomer to Morocco, like me, is part of Godâs work. Dealing with the plumbers and painters and locksmiths and telephone installers and bureaucrats is part of Godâs work in which we are privileged to share.
Psalm 127 insists on the perspective in which our effort is at the periphery and Godâs work is at the center.
Some trust in chariots and some in horses,
but we trust in the name of the LORD our God.
