Psalms of Ascents - Program 5
Psalm 127
The next of the Songs of Ascent, is attributed to King Solomon.
“Unless the Lord builds the house, its builders labour in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchmen stand guard in vain. In vain you rise early and stay up late, toiling for food to eat- for he grants sleep to those he loves. Sons are a heritage from the Lord, children a reward from him. Like arrows in the hands of a warrior are sons born in one’s youth. Blessed is the man whose quiver if full of them. They will not be put to shame, when they contend with their enemies in the gate”.
The Psalm is attributed to Solomon who was the greatest builder in Israel’s history, so it is natural for this Psalm to be about building. Solomon built the magnificent Temple in Jerusalem for the Lord. The reason why his Temple was a wonder of the world in its day is that he built it for God’s glory and to fulfil God’s plans for Israel. His father, David, could not build a Temple, because nearly all his life he was engaged in warfare with his enemies. He was told directly by God “You are not to build a house for my Name, because you have shed much blood on the earth in my sight” (1 Chronicles chapter 22 verse 8), but in Solomon’s reign there was peace. So Solomon built the Temple, in his own words, “for the name of the Lord my God”, that is to celebrate the goodness, truth and holiness of God.
Now, in a sense, we are all builders. Because we are made in God’s image, we are all creative beings, each one of us. We go through life making things, good or bad or indifferent. We are not called upon to build a magnificent Temple of stones and cedar wood, adorned with gold as Solomon did, but we are, more wonderfully still, called upon to be ourselves stones in God’s Temple. Listen to St. Peter; in his first letter chapter 2 and verses 4 and 5 he writes: “You, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ”. What a privilege to be a living stone in God’s Temple.
What a joy to be actually a part of a great house which is built to honour God. This house is his Church. Are you a stone in this building? Have you, by faith in Christ, come to be part of his people, part of his Temple? In verse 2 the workaholic is described who worships work, rising up early and staying up late, just to get more work done, but the inference is that he is doing it without any reference to God’s honour and glory. By our work we can glorify God by doing it well and honestly, but not by making it the be-all and end-all of life.
In the second part of this psalm the Psalm writer tells us of another kind of building-the building of a family. Just as we need God’s help to build a house, verse 1, “Unless the Lord builds the house, its builders labour in vain”. So building up a family for God is a “reward from him”, verse 3. If you are a father or a mother, you are not the creator of your children, God is, they are his heritage to you, you are just a pro-creator, one who helps to bring into being a family for the honour of the Creator of all things, your loving heavenly Father. Have you dedicated your family to God so that you are building up a family that will give joy to their heavenly Father? Happy (blessed) is the man or woman who does that. Do you pray for your children and help them to love God?
But what if you are not married, or have no children? You still have the great privilege of bringing people to faith in Christ and so, in a sense, they become your children. The person who has influenced people for good is like a father or mother to them. Such a person, says this Psalm, verse 5, will not be put to shame. Begin to be a builder of God’s house today by receiving his gift of love and forgiveness into your hearts and by starting to honour him. We can all be like King Solomon in that way.
We continue the study of the Songs of Ascents, the psalms of pilgrimage sung as the worshippers went up to the Temple in Jerusalem, by looking at Psalm 128:
“Blessed are all who fear the Lord, who walk in his ways. You will eat the fruit of your labour; blessings and prosperity will be yours. Your wife will be like a fruitful vine within your house; your sons will be like olive shoots round your table. Thus is the man blessed who fears the Lord. May the Lord bless you from Zion all the days of your life; may you see the prosperity of Jerusalem, and may you live to see your children’s children.”
The Psalm begins by describing how happiness (that is, being “blessed”, verse 1) is found. Happiness is an elusive quality of life which we are always seeking, but very often not finding; we often come away from our pursuit of happiness disappointed. Augustine of Hippo, a great theologian in the Early Church, pointed out that people still wish to be happy even when they are living in such a way as to make happiness impossible.
The ancient Greeks had a philosophy called Epicureanism after the thinker Epicurus. He taught that we all want to find happiness and it is right to build our lives around the pursuit of happiness. This Psalm and the teaching of Jesus in his Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5) tells us that happiness is found outside of ourselves, in living in the fear of the Lord, which verse 1 describes as “walking in God’s ways”. But what does it mean to walk in God’s ways? It means to be passionate for righteousness, justice and truth; to love God with all our hearts and our neighbours as ourselves, and, adds Jesus, to love our enemies and do good to those who persecute us and treat us badly. You see, the Bible is saying that happiness is found in looking away from ourselves in order to live for God and others. Jesus put it like this: when we lose ourselves in the service of God and his kingdom, we find ourselves.
Family life will be blessed (happy) says this Psalm of Ascent, when the parents follow God’s ways. And for those who do this, there is the prospect of an even wider blessing than happiness for the family, the whole of society is blessed: Jerusalem, symbol of God’s society on earth, will be prayed for and generations to come will be blessed. So, a family and a nations’ prosperity come from following God’s ways. But, a warning; if we run after prosperity for its own sake we will almost certainly miss it. If we say “I’ll become a Christian and then God will make me rich”, we are distorting what the Bible says. The Bible, as in this Psalm, puts doing God’s will first. Prosperity may come from this-but the important thing is that we are doing what God delights in, that is a reward in itself.
Any of God’s blessings we receive in this life comes “from Zion”, see verse 5. Getting riches and prosperity by fraud or by depriving others of blessings, or by the lottery or games of chance is not getting blessing “from Zion”. God has his own ways of making his people happy, often unexpected ways, and always a blessing to the whole of society not just of ourselves. Whenever a person begins to walk in the fear of the Lord and walk in his ways (verse erse 1 again) other people get blessed, too.
When Peter and Andrew, James and John, began to follow Jesus and his teaching, they left their fishing nets and the family job by the Sea of Galilee and so left their prosperity, but became a blessing to the whole world in giving the rest of their lives to spread the gospel. And Jesus himself became poor that we may become rich. Listen to Paul: “Do you remember the generosity of Jesus Christ the Lord of us all? He was rich beyond our telling, yet he became poor for your sakes so that his poverty might make you rich” (2 Corinthians chapter 8 verse 9 JB Phillips). So there you have it. Jesus became poor for us. Make riches the goal of your life and you will be spiritually poor, think of others and serve God and God will bless you in his own special way. The choice is ours.