Psalm 127:1-2

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Psalm 127:1-2

"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."

I think this "house" can be understood as "salvation", "sanctification" or any other kingdom/temporal work done on earth. With regards to sanctification, this text has recently begun to hold weighty importance for me.

Upon reading this text several nights ago I interpreted this "house" as a house of sanctification. In the process of progressive sanctification we are, by God's grace, building onto and strengthening this house that has been built, which is our faith. But in our sanctification we often seek to do the sanctifying ourselves, or earn our sanctification by rules, morality, and religiosity. That's what I do, and it manifests itself in my life constantly. And when we fail at keeping our rules, we despair because we are unable to keep those rules for becoming a "better Christian". So we either try harder and dig ourselves deeper, or we give up altogether. And I would assert that we go back and forth between these two realities.

Unless the LORD builds the house of our sanctification, we who would seek to try and do it on our own power actually build and labor in vain. We are left with a shoddy, run-down house of our own making. But if we acknowledge that the process of sanctification in our lives begins and is operated by God, the One who gave us salvation in the first place, we will be free of laboring in vain and "rising up early and eating the bread of anxious toil."

Because when I seek to build my own house I "rise up early and go late to rest" spending each and everyday trying to climb a mountain at 90 degrees. I utterly spend myself trying to hide my sins from my friends and from myself. But, as Derek Webb says, "the best thing that could ever happen to me is that my sins would be broadcast on the 5 o'clock news for everyone to see. So that I couldn't and wouldn't be able to hide them anymore." And this is what I do. And that is what we all do. Somewhere along the line I, and we, have lost our way and turned American Christianity into how well we can hide our sin. But the Christian life is not about hiding.

But I am so exhausted of hiding my sins. I am so exhausted of hiding the fact that I try and build my own house. We get so proficient at beautifying the exterior of our houses, but if you were to you enter, you would find the paint is cracking, the ceiling is caving in, and there is ruin everywhere. And you can eventually tell from the exterior.

But we rarely ever invite anyone inside. We all just put on faces and drive by each others houses and say, "Thank God I have a nicer house than he does." or "I'll never have a house as pretty as hers."

And so we eat the bitter bread of anxious toil. And we would rather pay for what we get for free, as Derek Webb would say. That is, we would rather try and earn a free gift that we have been given, rather than accepting it and being humble that it was actually given to such a wretch like me. Though I strive to earn it, Christ has already payed for it. And that's the most encouraging thing I can think of.

We forget that Christ, the creator, ruler, and sustainer of all things is the One who gives his beloved rest.

That's what this Psalm is about. It's all about freedom and rest. Jesus really did mean it when He said, "Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (Matt 11:28-30) I get this mental image from this text as if Jesus is taking off the heavy yoke of "do" and replacing it with His yoke of "done". Think really hard about the fact that we're missing the whole point if we aren't thinking, "It's not 'I must do, but Jesus did'. Jesus exclaimed, "Tetelestai! It is finished!" Think about that. I've been thinking about that a lot this week and it makes me glad and thankful that I will never be able to say "It is finished." But Jesus did so that I don't have to try and finish it myself. In our sanctification we are free from laboring in vain when we labor in faith.

So our labor actually becomes rest when we labor in faith.

When we try and white-knuckle our Christian lives, when I try and white-knuckle my sanctification by earning and building by myself, what I'm really doing is digging my own grave. And every day I get up and dig it again.

But this Psalm has breathed new breath into my lungs. When the LORD builds, and we labor in faith and rest in what He has done, we become sanctified.

I encourage you to meditate on Psalm 127:1-2 and see for yourself.

I love you all.