Psalm 127
Unless the LORD builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Unless the LORD watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain. 2 It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil; for he gives to his beloved sleep. 3 Behold, children are a heritage from the LORD, the fruit of the womb a reward. 4 Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one’s youth. 5 Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them! He shall not be put to shame when he speaks with his enemies in the gate.
This psalm is credited to King Solomon who wrote it as a song of ascents, that means that it would be sung as the people of God ascended the mount to worship at the Temple. The church in a sense is God’s Temple, a house of God and so we share in it by faith. However, one Church marque says, “If you don’t invest in a church you’ve lost interest.” Many people have not invested themselves in God’s church because they have lost interest…or perhaps they never had it.
Still our God will do what he has always done. He will build his church! It is the Lord who builds and not we ourselves. King Solomon says here, “Unless the LORD builds the house, those who build it labor in vain.” It is vain, useless to labor in the church without faith in the maker and builder of all things and of his own people. Can we build and be built without him? You see, for Solomon, God was the true builder of the house. He still is! The household of God in the New Testament is the church, that is the people of God. So, unless the LORD builds this house, those who attempt anything here do it in vain. We are God’s work of construction, his “project” you might say. He is building you as his own and he is not done yet!
The psalm reminds that children are a heritage from the Lord. They are his reward. So blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them! A family not only has children but fathers and mothers as well. The church is no exception. This certainly references how God builds his kingdom through Godly families among us yet it is he alone who is filling the quiver. Weekly we pray together, “thy kingdom come.” Why? The Catechism reminds that our God’s kingdom does indeed come, even without our prayer, yet in this petition we pray that it may come among us also!
May it be so as the Lord builds his home in and among us all. He alone “father’s his family.” He continues his good work in you and will complete it finally in the day of the Lord Jesus Christ. Let us then worship at his Temple together in Christ as we prepare for that eternal city whose builder and maker is God! For unless the LORD builds the house, those who build it labor in vain!
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