BUILDINGS

Psalm 127

Unless the LORD Builds the House
A Song of Ascents. Of Solomon.

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.
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.
Behold, children are a heritage from the LORD,
   the fruit of the womb a reward.
Like arrows in the hand of a warrior
   are the children of one's youth.
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 was the text of this morning's sermon at GHBC. The main focus was on building a Christian home. However verse two is the critical one for us American workaholics.

This past week I made a special effort to come home ON TIME; leaving major tasks at work unfinished. But by Thursday I felt unprepared, my project not moving with the forward momentum we needed with only a few days left before our final deadline. So... late I stayed at my computer Thursday, working until midnight to get all the project update emails I am responsible for compiled and sent, as well as my weekly status report to my boss. I felt guilty the whole time but couldn't see an alternative. Then off to work on Friday -- and I felt confident, all my ducks in a row. I can't say the project is significantly closer to being truly finished, but everyone knows what tasks are left to accomplish with no ambiguity.

So here's the problem: in the short term, this kind of pumping hour upon hour into our work does pay off. We do get ahead. It becomes easy to fall into the seduction of seeing that payoff, which is so visible, and allowing it to feed the next round of temptation. All the while we have ignored the price we have paid, which is not so glaring. Our wives and children are left in a quandry, wanting so strongly to support and encourage us in our vocations, but staring that spiritual and emotional cost right in the face: we are absent. We've made our priorities crystal clear.

God is warning us that the costs of overwork are real and they will build over time. If we harden our hearts and refuse to pay attention, diverting so much energy that should have gone into rest, into time with family, and into time alone with God's word and in prayer, we'll have a house that is simply not built and cannot withstand the withering storms this world brings.

Except the LORD build the house, etc. In the beginning of the contest with Britain, when we were sensible of danger, we had daily prayers in this room for the Divine protection. Our prayers, sir, were heard, and they were graciously answered. All of us who were engaged in the struggle must have observed frequent instances of a superintending Providence in our favour. To that kind Providence we owe this happy opportunity of consulting in peace on the means of establishing our future national felicity. And have we now forgotten this powerful Friend? or do we imagine we no longer need his assistance? I have lived for a long time 81 years; and the longer I live the more convincing proofs I see of this truth, that God governs in the affairs of man. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without his notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without his aid? We have been assured, sir, in the sacred writings, that "Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it." I firmly believe this; and I also believe that without his concurring aid we shall proceed in this political building no better than the builders of Babel: we shall be divided by our little, partial, local interests; our prospects will be confounded; and we ourselves shall become a reproach and a byword down to future ages. And what is worse, mankind may hereafter, from this unfortunate instance, despair of establishing government by human wisdom, and leave it to chance, war, or conquest. I therefore beg leave to move that henceforth prayers, imploring the assistance of Heaven and its blessing on our deliberations, be held in this assembly every morning before we proceed to business; and that one or more of the clergy of this city be requested to officiate in that service. --Benjamin Franklin: Speech in Convention for forming a Constitution for the United States, 1787.

Some take this place in a more particular and restrained sense; as if David would intimate that all their agitations to oppose the reign of Solomon, though backed with much care and industry, should be fruitless; though Absalom and Adonijah were tortured with the care of their own ambitious designs, yet God would give Jedidiah, or his beloved, rest; that is, the kingdom should safely be devolved upon Solomon, who took no such pains to court the people, and to raise
himself up into their esteem as Absalom and Adonijah did.
The meaning is, that though worldly men fare never so hardly, beat their brains, tire their spirits, rack their consciences, yet many times all is for nothing; either God doth not give them an estate, or not the comfort of it. But his beloved, without any of these racking cares, enjoy contentment; if they have not the world, they have sleep and rest; with silence submitting to the will of God, and with quietness waiting for the blessing of God.
Well, then, acknowledge the providence that you may come under the blessing of it: labour without God cannot prosper; against God and against his will in his word, will surely miscarry. --Thomas Manton, 1620-1677.


One important lesson which Madame Guyon learned from her temptations and follies was that of her entire dependence on Divine grace. "I became", she says, "deeply assured of what the prophet hath said, "Except the Loud keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain." When I looked to thee, O my Lord? thou wast my faithful keeper; thou didst continually defend my heart against all kinds of enemies. But, alas! when left to myself, I was all weakness. How easily did my enemies prevail over me! Let others ascribe their victories to their own fidelity: as for myself, I shall never attribute them to anything else than thy paternal care. I have too often experienced, to my cost, what I should be without thee, to presume in the least on any wisdom or efforts of my own. It is to thee, O God, my Deliverer, that I owe everything! And it is a source of infinite satisfaction, that I am thus indebted to thee." --From the Life of Jeanne Bouvier de la Mothe Guyon, 1648-1717.

(These quotes come from Spurgeon's Treasury of David .) So what am I thinking? Whose kingdom am I building? Work and the strength to do it well are God's blessings -- will I take them and build a structure that departs from His Will? Can my folly be that great?

Hearing Reagan's speeches on TV this past day, and in every big presidential address, "May God bless America." God has held up his end of that deal. We are blessed above and beyond any society in history. We are so accustomed to seeing our labor pay off fruitfully, it never occurs to us that this blessing can be removed. God let your young men dream heroic dreams -- but let them be YOUR DREAMS and not our own.