The Key to Building a Blessed Life

Summer in the Psalms ‘23

Allen Snapp

Grace Community Church

August 13, 2023

The Key to Building a Blessed Life

If you have your Bible turn with me to Psalm127. We’re going to look at the first two verses.

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 earlyand go late to rest,eating the bread of anxious toil;for he gives to his beloved sleep. Ps. 127:1-2

Often in politics we’ll hear about kitchen table issues, meaning issues that people deal with in everyday life. This is a kitchen table psalm – Solomon is talking about the issues that all of us think about and deal with everyday. We can break it down into three broad categories: productivity, protection, and provision.

• Productivity refers to the kind of life we’re building
• Protection speaks to the steps we take to be safe
• Provision describes the work we do to get the things we need

These are the basic needs of life. These are things that we all care about. And Solomon gives us the key to building a life that is blessed. But before we go there, let’s consider the context of Psalm 127.

Psalm 127 is one of 15 psalms called psalms of ascent written about the believer’s pilgrimage from wherever they lived to Jerusalem to worship God. The reason they’re called psalms of ascent is because going to Jerusalem to worship God was always considered going up. It didn’t matter what direction you were coming from: north, south, east, or west, if you were going to Jerusalem to worship you were ascending. In the natural the city of Jerusalem is built on a hill so going to Jerusalem meant going up, but spiritually if you were on your way to the holy city to worship the living God you were ascending.

This psalm tells us how to ascend in life. How to rise up in life. It gives us the key to building a blessed life. It’s not complicated, it’s simple. And in true Solomon form, he offers a positive message from a negative perspective borrowing one of his favorite words, vain. So let’s consider his positive encouragement from the negative perspective first then from the positive perspective.

1. The life built without God will be built in vain

Solomon loves the word “vain”. Ecclesiastes is all about vanity: vanity of vanity’s,

everything is vanity. The word vain means meaningless or futile. Vain accomplishes nothing, vain goes nowhere. Vain means empty.

Years ago I read about two men who broke into a second story office to steal a safe. As they were dragging the safe down the stairs they lost control of it and it fell down the stairs taking one of the men down with it and crushing him to death. That’s bad enough, but the owner said there was nothing of value in the safe. The thief was crushed by a safe that promised wealth but in reality was empty.

That’s what “vain” means: empty. Without purpose. Futile.

Without God, all our efforts will amount to nothing:

• The life we build will all be in vain without God.
• The steps we take to protect what we care about will be in vain without God.
• Our work – no matter how much or how long we toil – is vain without God.

Without God, we can spend our entire lives moving safes: the safe of making a lot of money, or climbing the corporate ladder, or getting a great education or raising the perfect family or curating a good reputation only to die with our arms wrapped around nothing of value. All our efforts, all that we lived for, all that we poured ourselves into, will be for nothing. That’s a strong statement, but that’s what the Bible says.

Jesus said “apart from me you can do nothing.” Oh, we can stay busy, we can expend a lot of effort, we can move things around and seem like we’regetting a lot done, but Jesus says, apart from me nothing you do will have eternal meaning. Everything you give your life to will be an empty safe, containing nothing of value.

Solomon says it’s all in vain: building will be in vain. Watching the city will be in vain. Toiling for food will be in vain. Vain, vain, vain! This would be an incredibly negative psalm if not for the word unless.

Unless is the key. Unless gives us hope, it gives us encouragement. This is not a negative word at all, it’s totally positive if we get that word right: unless. Unless the Lord does it with you.

Build with God and your house will last. Watch the city walls with God and you will be safe. Toil with God and you can sleep well at night! Psalm 127 is describing a life of synergy – God working and us working. God building and us building. God protecting and us protecting. God providing and us providing.

Now we need to pause to underline that this is NOT how our salvation works. Salvation is totally the work of God through Jesus Christ. We can’t add our effort to our salvation or we will empty the cross of its power to save. Jesus is our Savior start to finish and our part is simply to believe in what he did. Salvation isn’t synergism, it’s monergism: all God.

But Jesus gave us the Holy Spirit to work in us and through us: synergy. Growing in holiness isn’t all us, but it isn’t all God either. It’s God and us. Growing in the knowledge and grace of the Lord Jesus isn’t all us, but it isn’t all God either. Sanctification is God’s work and our work together: synergy.

Someone says, I don’t feel like I’m growing. I don’t feel like God is active in my life. Are you praying? Not really. Are you spending quality time in His word? Rarely. Are you fellowshipping with other believers? Not much. You’re expecting God to do your part and He isn’t going to do that.

Psalm 127 says, be productive, be protective, work to provide, but do it all with God and you will build a life that is blessed. A life that is ascending, not descending, rising, not sinking.

2. The life built with God will be blessed and meaningful

1. Be productive while trusting God’s providence to bless your productivity

Unless the Lord builds the house,those who build it labor in vain. Vs 1

Solomon uses the metaphor of a house to describe the life we build. It describes our productivity – the work we put our hand to to build a life. Every day we are building. With every choice we are building. With every decision we are building. With every decision we leave undecided we are building. With every investment of our time, our money, our love, we are building.

Every decision we make (or leave undecided) builds something. Where we invest our time builds something. How we think, speak, and act builds something.

Every day in a million ways we are building our life. We are building our house, we are building the legacy we will leave behind us. It can be a well-built house or it can be a house that’s falling apart. But we’re all building. It’s how God built us – we’re created to work and be productive. We weren’t created to work independent from God.

So this verse isn’t telling us we shouldn’t build. It’s saying don’t trust your efforts to build a blessed life, don’t leave God out of the building. It doesn’t matter how smart you are or gifted or wealthy or practical or nice you are, unless the Lord builds the house your labor is in vain. Empty. Futile. You don’t want to be left crushed by an empty life that didn’t contain anything of lasting value.

That unless gives us powerful hope. It means God’s ready to build our house with us! Trust God’s work to build your life into a blessing. Trust God to cause your life to ascend, to rise, to go upward. Start your day with prayer and time in the Bible. In all your ways acknowledge him.

When something’s falling apart, call upon the name of the Lord. Throw out the polite little prayers, “now I lay me down to sleep…” and cry out God, I need You! I feel like I’m failing. I don’t know what to do about that situation. I don’t know how to heal that rift with a friend. My family isn’t doing well. My kids are rebelling. God, help me please! I need your help!

God in His faithfulness and providence is ready to help build with you. Make God the center of your life by daily prayer, time in the Bible, fellowship with other believers, sing worship to God and listen to worship music and teachings that will fill your heart with thoughts of God and stir faith. Seek God’s kingdom and will first above all else

Stay productive while trusting God’s providence to help you build a blessed life!

2. Be protective while trusting God to protect what you cherish

Unless the Lord watches over the city,the watchman stays awake in vain. Vs. 1

They used to set watchmen on the walls to keep a lookout for approaching enemies. It was a good practice and the Lord isn’t discouraging it – He’s simply saying once again that unless God is also watching over the city, those watchmen watch in vain. Their effort to protect the city will be in vain.

We are meant to protect what we love. It’s our responsibility to protect what we cherish. We owe it to our souls to watch what we allow into our lives and into our hearts. Proverbs 4:23 warns us: Above all else, guard your heartfor everything you do flows from it.

Set the watchman on the wall of your heart. Set the watchman on the wall over your family, over your marriage, over your children. That’s the responsible thing to do. But know that it’s in vain if the Lord isn’t watching over our lives, our children, our marriages. So protect and pray! Pray the Lord’s protection over all that you cherish.

When we trust in our protection over the Lord’s we will probably become overprotective cause we’re white knuckling it trying to control every eventuality, trying to guard against every danger, feeling complete responsibility to safeguard what we cherish. It’s in vain.

But that’s not the point. The point isn’t futility, the point is to protect what you cherish but even more trust the Lord. Commit what and who you love to His care. Pray for

3. Work to provide while trusting God to provide all you need

² It is in vain that you rise up earlyand go late to rest,eating the bread of anxious toil;for he gives to his beloved sleep. Vs. 2

The picture is of someone who is worried and anxious and thinks I just need to work harder, I just need to work longer, I just need to get up earlier, go to bed later, burn the candle at both ends, to provide.

Their heart is saying, it’s all up to me. I trust my efforts. And as our efforts fail, we become more frantic and more anxious. We are stressed.

There are many reasons for insomnia but certainly one big one is anxiety. Fears get bigger at night. And a lie of the bread of anxious toil is that it’s just because of this project or job. Once I work my way out of this hole I’ll sleep well. But there will always be another slice of anxious toil bread waiting on the other side.

We need to rest in the Lord. Still work. Still provide. Still be diligent. But trust in the Lord.