The Songs of Ascents

A Sermon Series

by

Jim Bordwine, ThD

Psalm 127

Introduction

Thinking back over the past month of your life, how many plans would you say you made and how many goals would you say you accomplished? And I don't mean just the “big” plans and the “once in a lifetime” goals. How many things have you accomplished in the past month which are all part of the routine of life? How many things have you accomplished in the past year which would fall into this category? What about the last ten years? How many routine projects have you completed? How many times have you achieved what you intended to achieve? How many times have you been able to pause and enjoy the completion of something you determined to do?

We all would have to say that we cannot even remember how many goals we've accomplished if we're talking about the routine events of life. We've painted our homes, paid bills, learned new skills, advanced in one or maybe many areas of our lives; we've finished another year or maybe several years of school, we've taught a child to read or how to drive a car; we've set our sights on various objectives and we've been able to realize those objectives. Again, I'm not talking about the major, once in a lifetime, kinds of events-although those events also are relevant to what I want to say.

As you're thinking of these everyday types of achievements, let me ask you something else: As you made your plans, as you reflected upon what you hoped to accomplish, and as you looked back on what you had done when your goal was reached, how much thought did you give to the sovereignty of God? I'm asking how much thought you give to the sovereignty of God as you go about your daily routine. We all think about the sovereignty of God when we consider life's most dramatic issues and events. But what about the ordinary accomplishments of life which we all experience and which simply are a part of living on this earth? How does the sovereignty of God relate to such matters?

Our Psalm this morning answers that question. This Psalm conveys truth that is absolutely fundamental to a well-ordered existence.

Our text: 1 Unless the LORD builds the house, they labor in vain who build it; unless the LORD guards the city, the watchman keeps awake in vain. 2 It is vain for you to rise up early, to retire late, to eat the bread of painful labors; for He gives to His beloved even in his sleep. 3 Behold, children are a gift of the LORD, the fruit of the womb is a reward. 4 Like arrows in the hand of a warrior, so are the children of one's youth. 5 How blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them; they will not be ashamed when they speak with their enemies in the gate.

01. What does this Psalm teach us about God?

The central message of this Psalm is the truth that the LORD ultimately is responsible for the outcome of our labors, for the success of our diligence and for the prosperity we enjoy in this life. When all is said and done, God determines the degree to which our efforts achieve our intentions; when all things are considered, the LORD appears as the One who blesses our endeavors, if they are in fact profitable, and the LORD stands as the One who allows our plans to be realized, if in fact they are brought to fruition. This Psalm declares, in images which are easily understood and in images to which everyone can relate, the sovereignty of God in the affairs of men and women. This Psalm is about the place of providence in our lives. Providence is the term used to describe God's orchestration of events according to what He has decreed should come to pass. This Psalm, once again, emphasizes that the providence of God extends to the most routine and most intimate activities of our lives.

Let's take a look at the images used by the writer. He says first that we may labor to build a house, but our labors are useless unless the LORD has determined that we shall succeed. Every worshiper who read or sang this Psalm understood what it meant to build a house. This was a culture in which labor was done by the individual, not by a company or professional home-builders. The writer tells the worshipers of God that they may be the ones who plan and sweat, they may be the ones who lift the beams or carry the mortar, they may be the ones whose muscles ache at the end of the day and they may be the ones who carefully layout every last corner, window and door, but all of that effort and all of that planning and all of that careful and consistent toil is not what ultimately produces a dwelling for a family. All of that striving must have the LORD's blessing upon it for it to achieve its goal. It is the sovereign God who allows our efforts to achieve their end even in such a routine undertaking as building a house.

The writer next says that no city is kept safe regardless of what steps are taken, regardless of the vigilance of the watchman, unless the LORD has determined that the city shall be secure. Every worshiper who read or sang this song also knew very well the importance of guarding your city against invaders. In this case, the writer says that security depends not on any human effort, no matter how well-planned it might be, no matter how well-trained the guard might be, no matter if he is a man who can stay awake 24 hours a day seven days a week. Security is a gift from God; if we dwell in safety, it is because the LORD so favors us. All efforts to obtain security will fail, no matter how creative or formidable unless the LORD has decreed that such efforts will succeed.

Then, the writer sets forth his argument by making a generalization regarding human effort. He says that you may strive with all of your might and you may expend all of your resources and you may be the most diligent, hard-working person on the face of the earth, but the fruit of such diligence and the happy outcome of such dedication ultimately in not in your hands. The truth is, as the writer points out, you prosper even when you sleep because your prosperity is not yours to control-it is controlled by the God who sovereignly does as He pleases with and to us and reveals His sovereign purposes through providence.

To drive home this point even more definitively, the writer simply states that no effort on our part, no expression of diligence, no amount of exertion, no amount of enduring the hardships of life will determine how things fall out for us apart from the kind providence of God. The writer emphasizes this truth when he says that the LORD “gives to His beloved” in our sleep. If that is true, then surely we can see that all of our efforts during our waking hours are subject to God's purposes for us.

Let's not misunderstand, this Psalm is not endorsing slothfulness. It is not saying that we should have no care about building our houses and no concern for our security. It is telling us that those matters must never be contemplated outside the context of God's providence. If we do anything that achieves our goal, it is because the LORD is kind to us. And unless we understand this vital truth, all of our efforts, as the writer says, are in vain. The Psalm is not endorsing laziness, it is asserting the relationship between prosperity or blessings in this life and the sovereignty of God. A lazy man need not expect to receive blessings from the LORD; but, on the other hand, the ever-diligent man must not conclude that what he achieves, he achieves by his own power.

And that particular truth is brought into sharp focus when the writer makes this next statement: “Behold, children are a gift of the LORD, the fruit of the womb is a reward.” (v. 3) Even in the matter of the most fundamental of all creative efforts, which is the conception of offspring, even in regard to that most private expression of human productivity, it is the LORD who decrees what shall come to pass. The images used by this writer give us the impression that from the most personal aspects of our lives to the most public and the most routine, God stands as the One who gives and withholds according to that which pleases Him. Our efforts are and must be subject to His purposes. The man who understands this is the man who lives in harmony with his Creator; the man who does not understand this is the man who lives a life of frustration and worry.

The unmistakable lesson conveyed in these images is that this is the way things work in this world and there is nothing any man or woman can do to change it. God sovereignly rules over all things. When we think of the sovereignty of God, we normally think of how He determines the course of nations or the sweep of history; we know that this doctrine of God's sovereignty teaches us that He does as He pleases with this world. But we don't normally stop and consider the implications of God's sovereignty for our everyday, routine actions-and this is where providence comes into the picture.

Providence is the manifestation of God's sovereign purposes. This Psalm says that you cannot pick up a hammer to drive a nail, you cannot give even a thought to your security or that of your family except in the context of the sovereign purposes of your Creator which are revealed in the providence we all experience every day of our lives. This Psalm says that even if you are the hardest working man who ever walked the earth, you achieve not one good thing, not one good goal, not one tiny bit of prosperity apart from the favorable providence of God. All of this means, of course-and this is the point you must apprehend-that what you do have and what you do achieve, right down to the makeup of your family, is that which pleases God and it is, therefore, good and He is, therefore, to be thanked. Our circumstances are not to be judged by any standard other than the truth of God's sovereign direction of all the elements of our lives.

We cannot miss, of course, the fact that the writer dwells on that last example of the providence of God, namely, children. While this Psalm speaks of building a house and guarding a city, it is making the point, as I have indicated, that all of life is subject to the providence of God. The writer picks occasions or efforts in this life to which everyone could relate. And then, in v. 3, the writer begins speaking of children and he lingers over this aspect of God's sovereignty. I think he does this because he wants to underscore the uniquely wonderful providence of God displayed in the family.

You'll notice that the writer speaks in entirely positive terms as he announces that “children are a gift from the LORD, the fruit of the womb is a reward.” He uses two words that need some explanation. First, there is the word translated “gift.” This term (nachalah) means “possession, inheritance, heritage or portion.” All other leading English versions translate this word as “heritage” and such a translation does a much better job of conveying the meaning of the Hebrew than “gift,” which is used in the NASB. Children represent the continuation of our line, which explains why the writer would call them “a heritage.” When God gives children, He is giving us a heritage, He is giving us the blessing of a generational existence.

The other word of interest, which is translated “reward” (sakar), means “wages.” I do not think the writer means that God “pays” us, as it were, in the currency of children; this would destroy the very point the writer is making, namely, that God gives and withholds according to His purposes, not according to our efforts. I think the writer means that children, the family, is that toward which we should direct our labors. That is what we should be working for, so to speak. What we do in this life should be focused on the establishment and expansion of our family. We live with the knowledge that every good thing comes from the LORD and we marry with that in mind and we produce children with that in mind.

Viewed from this perspective, children are a great blessing from the LORD, as the writer teaches. Viewed from this perspective, children are the elements in our lives which ought to give us the greatest joy and sense of satisfaction. This writer is reflecting a very obvious covenantal perspective. Children are to be viewed with the greatest sense of gratitude. They strengthen one's life and they enhance one's life. Children who will carry on the faith after us are to be the focus of our labors, as I said, and we are to recognize that they are just as much a blessing from God as any of the other successes the writer mentions in this Psalm.

The production of children should not be seen as an “automatic” process. If a man has children, it is because God has favored Him. If a man has many children, as the writer goes on to say, it is because God has highly favored him. This favor is grounded in the central truth of this Psalm-the LORD ultimately is responsible for what we achieve in this life. In this passage of Scripture, children represent the most personal blessing from God and each one should be viewed in that light. Children, the writer says, are like arrows in the hand of a warrior (v. 4). Arrows are used to defend and advance; so children, trained in the faith of their father, are spiritual weapons for the establishment and advancement of true religion. The more arrows you have, the greater will be the impact you will make for true religion. The writer's point cannot be missed-the man who has children to stand with him, children who are born in his younger days and are, therefore, able to support their father in his latter years, is a man who is blessed indeed.

That is the writer's thinking when he declares “how blessed in the man whose quiver is full of them.” (v. 5) That man will not “be ashamed,” he says, when he speaks with his enemy. The word “ashamed” (buwsh) means “to be confounded, to be delayed, to be confused.” When you meet your enemy and you are well-armed, in this case with warrior-sons, then you have no need to fear. In all of this imagery, the writer emphasizes the fact that the LORD in His providence gives children as it pleases Him, according to what He has ordained is best for us. The man with a child is blessed by the LORD; the man with many children is blessed many times over by the LORD.

This Psalm tells us, once again, that God is intimately acquainted with all aspects of our lives, from the building of houses to the posting of a watchman over the city to the conception of children. In every case, it is the sovereign God who determines what we shall experience. In every case, it is His will that is done; in every case, what He determines is to be received with thanksgiving. The writer is making the case, as I've said, that every effort is subject to the providence of God and His providence is the outworking of His perfect purposes. Therefore, when we experience favor from the LORD, regardless of the nature of that favor, we are to be grateful and we are to accept what the LORD has decreed and we are to honor Him.

02. What does this Psalm teach us about those who worshiped God?

We know one thing for sure, whoever wrote this Psalm had a fundamentally important perspective on the relationship between our efforts and the sovereignty of God. The one who wrote these words and the worshipers who sang them as they made their way to Jerusalem had vital insight into how life operates. They were people, therefore, who understood that everything they attempted was subject to the providence of God. All plans, no matter how diligently made, could produce not one good result unless God in His wisdom allowed those plans to go forth as desired. These were people who didn't talk about the sovereignty of God only when considering the really big and dramatic issues in life, like the fall of nations or the rise of kings; these people understood that the sovereignty of God extended to every blade of grass that sprouted from the ground, to every drop of water that fell from the sky to water that ground, and to every other event between birth and death.

Those who sang this Psalm in preparation for their worship of God were people who knew the true character of God. They knew that Jehovah was not small unpredictable, easily offended local deity whose existence depended totally on the willingness of fools to have such thoughts. These people knew that Jehovah was the only true God and they knew that the only true God possesses power beyond anything that we can even imagine. The people who believed the words of this Psalm would not think of putting their hand forth to labor without having that momentary thought-“if the Lord wills, I shall do such and such.” And that is the mark of one who knows God and knows his place before God.

The people who sang this song also were people who could find joy in the everyday events of life. This was so, no doubt, because they believed that those everyday events subject to the providence of God. So, when things went well, they rejoiced and gave thanks to God for His favor-whether for the building of a house or another night of safe sleep. They lived out their days being contented people because they knew that whatever happened, it was an expression of the sovereignty of God. And, I would speculate, this attitude served them well during times of adversity. If they reflected upon the providence of God when they build their houses or secured their cities, then I imagine that they also reflected upon the providence of God when their houses were destroyed or their city was overrun by an invader. The providence of God is not active only in those things which please us, but also in those things which distress us. The wise worshiper of God knows that truth and is prepared, therefore, to give thanks at all times and in all circumstances.

Another thing we know for sure is that those who used this Psalm in preparation for worship understood the beauty of the family. The Hebrew culture stands among very few in the history of our race in which family was held in such high esteem. And in this culture, as the Old Testament reveals, the family was always considered in relation to the activity of God. Pious Jews believed that God opened the womb and closed the womb according to His holy purposes. They could not, therefore, view their children as an “incidental” part of life. They knew the truth of this Psalm-children are a heritage from Jehovah. Children in this culture were valued and much of a man's life was spent caring for and training his children so that they, in turn, would carry on the faith after him.

It's this view of children, by the way, which redeems a culture because it's this view of children which keeps us from being so self-centered and it's this view of children which keeps us from fixing our focus on the present and requires us to look ahead. This perspective is reflected not only in this Psalm but also, as I said, in the culture in which this Psalm was written and used. And so, as you survey the Old Testament Scriptures, you find pious Jewish fathers laying hands upon the heads of their children and pronouncing blessings and you find pious Jewish mothers rejoicing in the birth of their children. This was a culture, once again, that understood the beauty of the family.

As these worshipers made their way along to Jerusalem, singing this song, they were being reminded of one of the most elementary truths of life-all that they planned, all they achieved, no matter how routine or personal, was subject to the providence of God. And with that humbling thought in their hearts, they appeared before the LORD and worshiped Him.

03. What does this Psalm teach us about our worship of God?

If it is true that everything we aim to do is subject to the providence of God and if it is true that everything we actually accomplish is subject to the providence of God, then how should that truth affect our worship? The answer depends on how you respond to another question: Do you realize that everything you aim to do and actually accomplish is subject to the providence of God? If you realize this truth, which is the central truth of this Psalm, then without question that is going to characterize your view of worship. If you believe what this Psalm teaches, if you believe that your plans and efforts, no matter how seemingly insignificant, are subject to the sovereignty of God, then your worship of God is going to reflect your conviction. Worship for the person who has the perspective taught in Psa. 127 will be a humbling experience. And perhaps that is the real issue here-are you humbled when you come into God's presence for worship? Please think seriously on that question.

This Psalm leaves no other appropriate attitude for the one who comes to worship God. This Psalm is not properly understood until the reader finds himself humbled by what is described in these words. You cannot read this Psalm and believe what it says and remain a person whose confidence is grounded in self. You cannot read this Psalm and believe what it says and be a person who is proud of all that you have gained in this life or proud of all that you have done in this life. This Psalm declares that there is no place for boasting about anything, not even the most ordinary accomplishments in life because everything-everything-occurs within the context of the sovereignty of God. If you stop and think of life in these terms, then worship becomes an opportunity to rejoice in the goodness of God; worship becomes an opportunity to praise God from the very depths of your heart as you think about His power and how He has used that power to favor you.

Do you have food to eat, clothes to wear, a place to sleep? Do you have a faithful husband, a faithful wife? Do you have parents who provide for you? Do you have a church? Do you have a car to drive? Do you have heat in your home? Do you have health? Have you recovered from sickness? Have you been sustained during hardship? Have you had hope in a stressful situation? Do you realize where all these things come from? Do you realize how much God has favored you? Do you realize that you don't take a breath apart from His kind providence? Do you understand that you don't take a step except by His will?

With all that in mind, consider what attitude you display toward God as you prepare for worship each Sunday morning. What could be concluded by your demeanor as you prepare to leave for church? What attitude are you reflecting when you arrive here? What could another person conclude about your attitude toward worship as they encounter you in the hallway or the sanctuary? Do you prepare for worship and do you engage in worship as one humbled by the truth of God's sovereignty in your life? Do you come to worship the God on whose kind providence you have depended during the past week? Do you come to worship thinking about the many ways in which God, in His sovereignty, allowed you to accomplish your plans, no matter how mundane they may have been, and allowed you to do good things for your family? Do you come here as one who knows that all of your plans and achievements from the least to the most significant are conceived and carried out in the context of the all-encompassing sovereignty of God? If you even begin to have such a perspective on God, then you will be characterized by humility as you enter this place each week and it will be a joyful humility, a humility that longs to acknowledge the God who shows favor to His people.

If this is what you believe, if you believe what this Psalm teaches, then you will enter the presence of God clothed in humility and thankfulness. You will not arrive here thinking about what you have achieved and what you have provided. You will arrive at the house of God with the overwhelming thought of the mercy and kindness of God which have sustained you and your family for another week and which have allowed you and your family to eat, to have shelter and clothing, and to make even those smallest advances. If you believe what this Psalm teaches, then you will come here each week with your children-your heritage-following you and they will have been taught that God has favored you by their births, and they will have been taught that their lives, too, are to be lived in the knowledge of the providence of God.

Let me put one more thought forward for you to consider. This Psalm teaches that even in those efforts which we would consider elementary or routine, we are dependent upon God's favor for success. If this is so, what about those issues which are far more important than building a house or securing a city or even producing children? What about our sin? What about the need we had to be reconciled to God? If we cannot build a dwelling apart from God's favor, if we cannot achieve a moment's security apart from His favor, then ought we to think that we can raise ourselves from the dead apart from His favor? The Scripture says we were dead in our sins as a result of the fall. What hope did we have of redemption apart from God's intervention? You know the answer. You know that had God not undertaken to save us, all this talk about building houses and securing cities and having children and realizing the degree to which we are dependent on God would be non-existent.

We can think about how God favors us in our daily, routine efforts only because He first provided us with a Savior to deliver us from death. We can rejoice in God's kind providence as we live out our days on this earth only because, in the sovereignty of God, we have been brought to faith by the working of the Holy Spirit who applies to us the atonement accomplished by Jesus Christ. Every time you look at this Table, therefore, you should be reminded of the truth of Psa. 127-our whole life, from the most ordinary to the most spectacular elements, is subject to the sovereign purposes of God. Every time we have the Lord's Supper, we are reminded that God's favor and only God's favor put us in this privileged position of communicants. And that, too, should humble us. If we have no room for boasting about the simplest of life's accomplishments, as Psa. 127 teaches, then we certainly have no grounds for boasting about our redemption. It is all God's doing. And the Table makes that declaration to us every Sunday.

Let's pray...

The sacrament is given...

Conclusion

Psalm 128 speaks about the blessing of simple faith. This Psalm conveys the truth found throughout the Bible, namely, that the fear of the LORD brings peace and satisfaction now and for the days to come. Take the time to read Psa. 128 in preparation for next week's sermon.