Lord, Make My Life Fruitful

English Standard Version Psalm 127

Unless the LORD Builds the House

127 A SONG OF ASCENTS. OF SOLOMON.

1  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.

Blessed Is Everyone Who Fears the LORD

English Standard Version Psalm 127

128 A SONG OF ASCENTS.

1  Blessed is everyone who fears the LORD,

who walks in his ways!

2  You shall eat the fruit of the labor of your hands;

you shall be blessed, and it shall be well with you.

3  Your wife will be like a fruitful vine

within your house;

your children will be like olive shoots

around your table.

4  Behold, thus shall the man be blessed

who fears the LORD.

5  The LORD bless you from Zion!

May you see the prosperity of Jerusalem

all the days of your life!

6  May you see your children’s children!

Peace be upon Israel!

Last week there were a couple of funerals

And at funerals, we often share tributes and memories of our loved ones

And as families and friends share about their loved ones, I often find myself thinking, “When I’m lying there in that casket, what will people say about me?”

What are the stories they are going to tell

What are the accomplishments that they will talk about?

Did I do anything of significance?

What will they say about my relationship with God?

What will they say about my human relationships

with my wife

kids

with my church

And I try not to dwell on these things during a funeral, but I do think about them

I guess what I’m saying is, I’m concerned about my legacy

I’m concerned about what I leave for those who are left behind

And I don’t think that I’m alone in this. Most of us probably want our lives to matter

We don’t want to just die and be forgotten

You watch competition shows on TV, or sports matches, and people talk about wanting to be remembered for their exploits

I sometimes get a little irritated

The Olympics: competitor talking about winning his event so that people know who he is and respect him

I was wishing that he would be more concerned about winning for the sake of his team and country

But nevertheless, people are concerned about their legacies

These two Psalms that I read speak, in a sense, about a legacy

About the results of the lives that we live here on this earth

How do I live a life that produces fruit? How do I live a life that at the end has meant something?

I’m going to focus mainly on Psalm 127 this morning

Remember, again, these are Psalms of ascent

They are being sung by pilgrims making their way up to Jerusalem

Anticipating celebrating a feast in Jerusalem

Or worshiping in the house of God, the Temple, in Jerusalem

And they are thinking literally about the House of God, the Temple, and they are thinking about the LORD’s blessing on His people

And the real and tangible blessings of living a life centered on God and His ways

Psalm 127 starts out

Lord, Make My House Fruitful

Unless the LORD builds the house, those who build it labor in vain

the second part of the verse states the same truth with a different word picture:

Unless the LORD watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain

You know, there is probably not much of a worse feeling then doing a job and putting a lot of time and effort into the project and then find out in the end that you had done the complete wrong thing

or at the end, your project did not hold up (examples from my life?)

This verse talks about the possibility of our lives being futile

The possibility that we can spend our lives “building a house”

constructing our lives and then coming to the end and finding out that it was vain, or futile

Because it wasn’t the LORD’s work

He uses the example of building a house—perhaps refering in a practical sense to the House of the LORD, the Temple

And maybe that’s what our minds go to. A physical dwelling

But in the Bible the word “house” can give us other pictures as well

“House” can mean “family”

“House” in the NT can refer to the Church

And the same thing is true for both of these

Family

is the LORD building your family?

One of the dangers of social media is that it can make you jealous of other people’s families

you can get on and see pictures of families that look so nice and well put together

The children are laughing, the wife’s eyes are glowing, the dad is attentive and everything looks great

And you (I mean “I”) can tend to think, “man, that family has everything together. They are the perfect family”

But here’s the thing. They might have a great family. Mom and dad might be great parents and they are doing a fantastic job of raising their kids

But unless the LORD is the One who is building the house

shaping and directing this family, transforming their hearts, being their foundation and center of worship

Then, I’d have to say that all the work that mom and dad are putting into their family is in vain

“Vain” means: worthless, futile, inconsequential,

And it’s kind of hard for us to say this or think this, because we tend to think, “Well surely having kids that are happy and responsible is worth something isn’t it?”

And in our human way of thinking this is hard for us to think about

But clearly, God has something more on his heart than simply that my kids are happy and responsible and well-adjusted

There are eternal values at stake

And these are the things of the heart that only come about by the work of the Holy Spirit

The principles can be taught by parents, but the Holy Spirit is the one who must do the work

Both in individual lives and in the life of the family

In the Church

This is something that we have talked about quite a bit here at Fairview (perhaps not enough)

But remember when we went though 1 Peter, this is a picture that we were given: God’s holy people, the ones called out in His name, being built up as a dwelling

1 Peter 2:4–5 “4 As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, 5 you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”

you are being built up. Who is it that is building us up? Is it us ourselves because we are so good at organization and we’ve got all our ducks in a row?

Who is building us up? God is building His spiritual house, His church!

Folks, this is why I urge us when we are coming into an important decision as a church, that we take the time to pray and fast and seek the face of God

We can have our ideas about how church should be run, and what makes the most sense

But if we are not seeking the direction and guidance of the Holy Spirit, then the effort that we put into making sure we do things right, all of that is in vain

that means it is futile. It is of no consequence!

in 1 Cor. 3, Paul talks about the foundation that is laid

and how important it is that what is built on top of this foundation is work that will last

Our foundation is and must always be, Jesus Christ

And what is built on top of that must be and always must be work that lasts because it is His work

it’s not something that we invent. But it is guided by the Holy Spirit and it is work of eternal value

Lord, make my work fruitful

It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest

some of you probably see that first part about getting up early, are probably thinking, “yes! That’s exactly what I’m saying! I am SO not a morning person and this verse has just given me all the ammo I need. It’s useless to get up early!”

Ah, but not so fast. It’s in vain that you get up early and go to bed late

eating the bread of anxious toil

This is not an indictment against working hard.

Not even an indictment against getting up early and going to bed late

Rather, it’s a warning against anxious toil

Notice, this Psalm is attributed to Solomon. And you can hear in this verse, echoes of another book that is attributed to him: Ecclesiastes

Where he says over and over again “There are so many things that I tried in my life to find meaning and purpose. But I found them empty

Ecclesiastes 2:22–23 “22 What has a man from all the toil and striving of heart with which he toils beneath the sun? 23 For all his days are full of sorrow, and his work is a vexation. Even in the night his heart does not rest. This also is vanity.”

It’s a warning against the place where so many people find themselves:

living life at a driven, hurried pace that is rooted in anxiousness and worry

Again, it’s one thing to work hard.

It’s another thing for that hard work to be rooted in anxiousness and worry

We can be driven to work hard by unhealthy attitudes and pain in our lives

The desire to maintain a certain lifestyle

We expect to be able to maintain a certain level of living and we take on debt in order to do that

And that debt has to be paid off because if we don’t either we or our children will pay for it

The majority of people in Western nations have debt of some sort or another

highest debt is in Denmark

Average household debt is 252% higher than the average household income!

United States is down the list a ways

But still people work hard to pay off their debts

Putting in long hours, taking very few days off, feeling that they are not able to observe a Sabbath rest

Trying to prove that they are someone

You have someone who might have been born into poverty and vows that they are going to make something of their lives

Or they see the mistakes their parents made in business or in life and they say, “I’m not going to let that happen to me”

Or maybe they were told by someone that they would never amount to anything

Michael Jordan, for example, arguably the best basketball player to ever play the game was cut from his high school team as a sophmore

told that he was too small he didn’t make the cut

And so he set about to prove his critics wrong

Albert Einstein was told as a boy that he was slow and dumb but today is known as one of the most brilliant people who ever lived

whatever the cause, people can be driven to working longer and longer hours to pay the bills or to prove their worth

And they “eat the bread of anxious toil”. What is that bread?

Stress

Sleeplessness

Exhaustion

Physical illness that comes from these factors

Stress is a huge problem in the United States

27% of American adults admit to feeling so stressed that they can’t function on most days!

Sleeplessness—almost 60% of Americans get less than 7 hours/night of sleep

And scientists are pretty much agreed that most of us are living with a sleep deficit—meaning that we are getting less than the amount of sleep that our bodies require

Which leads to an increase health factors like obesity, diabetes, heart problems and more

Some of you talk about how as soon as you sit down, you fall asleep

And I think most doctors would say, “Hey, that’s a warning sign. you are operating on a sleep deficit and your body is telling you, “I need more sleep”

Anyway, we could talk a while about this

But the reason I bring up sleep is because of the last line in verse 2: “for He gives to his beloved sleep”.

Many people simply can’t sleep because of their stress and anxiousness

Which is completely opposite of what God desires for His children—rest

Rest is why God delivered His people out of Egypt

He offered them the Promised Land which was a place of rest

And when they rebelled against Him in the wilderness, the book of Hebrews says that God swore in His wrath, “They will never enter into my rest”

And today the offer of rest still stands for the people of God, I believe both physically and spiritually:

Jesus said, “come to me all who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I am gentle and humble in heart and you will find rest for your souls”

I love that thought: “He gives to His beloved sleep”. Rest

That calm and unworried, unburdened life

Lord, make my children fruitful

The last part of this Psalm gives a prayer that any dad or mom or grandparent or aunt or uncle or grandparent should resonate with

Lord, make my children fruitful

This psalmist calls children the fruit of the womb, and he compares them to arrows that are in the hand of a warrior, or in the quiver of a man

Arrows are only good if they are sent out

if they leave the quiver and the hand of the warrior, are put into the bow and shot in the direction that the warrior intends and do the job that the warrior intended them to do

they can look good in the quiver and give the warrior the appearance of being strong and one to be reckoned with

But unless they are sent out, and unless they are fruitful, they aren’t doing what they are intended to do

And this, I hope is our desire for our children

that they eventually are sent out away from our home and from under our guidance and protection and that they do what God intends for them to do.

i recall my mom telling me years ago that she and the women from her Sunday School class were talking about what they desired from their children

and some of the women were saying that what they really wanted was for their children to live close to them

And my mom told them that what she wanted was for her children to be in the will of God where ever that might be

And that was one of the best gifts that she could have given me

Because it gave me the freedom to go where God was leading me

And you know, this is a challenge that I want to give all of us as parents

To train our children to have eyes that see beyond the borders of Kalona, of Iowa, of the United States,

and whether or not they move out of the community

to have a heart that says, “Lord, send me where ever you want me to go”

And then we as parents release that bow and send our children out with our blessing

To be fruitful. To be in the will of God. To be makers of disciples

And whether or not you have children, or if your children are grown and out of the house, this is the value of a church community like we have

Because you can be a part of the lives of our children.

Encouraging them in their relationship with the LORD,

encouraging them to be all that God has meant them to be

And when they venture out on their own being part of walking along side of them as a brother or a sister

Helping to launch them out in the will of God

Blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them!

Not everyone is able to have kids, and not everyone is able to have large families

And this verse is not meant to pressure people into having large families

But rather it is a declaration of the blessing of children

The miracle of conception, birth, and the growth and development of a child is such a n incredible thing. Such a source of joy

it’s amazing to see a new born baby, completely helpless and completely dependent

And how that baby gradually becomes aware of his surroundings and slowly but surely learns to hold his own bottle,

engages with your voice and facial expressions, learns to scoot, then to crawl and then to walk

What a source of joy they are

And then to think about the potential that each of these children hold

The potential to change their world. The potential to lead, the potential to protect their families and communities

It is sad that in too many cases, children are seen as being just another burden

But children are a blessing. They are a heritage, or an inheritance

They carry on your family name and descendents

But, more importantly, they continue the work that God has started and it is our job to train them to live their lives for the glory of God

So, as we come to the end this morning, again my prayer is, “Lord, I want my life to be fruitful.”

And I recall the words of Jesus, that I want to leave with you

English Standard Version Chapter 15

5

Do you want your life to be fruitful?

Abide in Jesus

For apart from Jesus you and I can do nothing.

Unless the LORD builds the house, those who build it labor in vain.