How to Build a House
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Psalm 127
Life is a Roller Coaster sermon series: The Psalms
Rev. Brian North, Westminster Presbyterian, Chehalis, WA
August 28th, 2011
This morning we’re going to have a little discussion about how to construct a house. Considering the economy, it’s probably not a bad idea to know how to build your own home, right? So let me share with you some insights. First, you need a good plot of land and to choose the right place on the land for your house. Then, after you’ve got the house all designed, you pour concrete for the foundation. Then you need a hammer, some nails, some wood, probably a power drill some screws, and some other power tools as well. Eventually you’ll need insulation, wiring, plumbing, and sheetrock. Windows and doors would be good, as would proper roofing materials. Then all the interior stuff like flooring, appliances, countertops, paint, and trim.
Sounds about right, doesn’t it? Some of you have done a lot work on homes and in construction: Am I close? I thought so, and I’m getting some nods out there. So, how many of you would build a house, start to finish, without any professional help…all on your own? (Not one hand goes up.) None of us. Why not? (Ask for answers. People say, “lack of skill;” “money;” and one other.) None of us would do that because it’s too hard, it takes skills and knowledge we don’t have. Simply put, we don’t know how. We need someone who’s built homes before, who knows what they’re doing, to show us how to build a house.
This is true in a lot of facets of life. One of those things for me, is cars. I know nothing about cars. I can’t fix them to save my life. Another is my wife. Almost 14 years of marriage and I’m as inept a husband as ever. We need help with these things. And even the things we’re good at or might be called “experts” at – for me, one example would be snow skiing – even those things, we need guidance and help, and we can always grow and learn something new.
And yet what’s ironic is that when it comes to the grander questions about life – What’s the purpose of my life? How can I experience true, lasting peace? What happens after I die? – when it comes to that kind of stuff, so often we think we have it all figured out and don’t need any help. We think we can build that stuff just fine, even though we would pay someone else to build our house, fix our car, and so forth.
And yet how more important is it that in those grander questions about life – and death, too – How much more important is it that we rely on someone to lead us and work on our behalf who knows something about these things? Don’t you think it makes sense to get some help in living with peace, purity, holiness, righteousness, eternity, and so forth? And if we’re willing to acknowledge that we need help, then we can turn to the Bible, because it points us to the One who can help us. And in this morning’s Psalm – 127 – we see that without God building our life (and the metaphor used is a house)…without God building it, all our own building of our lives is completely in vain. It’s a wasted effort. So grab your Bible, or one of the blue pew Bibles in front of you, and turn to Psalm 127 – p. 573 in the O.T. of the pew Bibles – and let’s see what God has to say to us.
As you’re turning to it, let me share a couple background points. Almost all scholars agree that this was probably written long after King Solomon lived, even though the sub-heading says that it’s “of Solomon.” Sometimes, the writer puts “of” somebody in the sense of “in the style of”. Solomon lived in the 900’s B.C., but this one was probably written soon after 520 B.C., when the Israelites returned from their exile from Babylon, which had ransacked Jerusalem and taken the leaders and many others captive in 588 B.C. So 68 years later they’re returning, and guess what they’re doing: they’re building their homes and their capital city, quite literally, as well as figuratively. Their future, their families, and their whole sense of community are being rebuilt. With that background, listen to God’s word to you and me today:
So these words were a reminder to them then, and to us today, that when it comes to our lives, God is the head architect, the chief engineer, the general contractor, the lead landscape artist, head interior decorator, and the chief of police for the protection we need – all at once.
So how do we live with God as our builder and protector? By surrendering ourselves into his hands so that by his grace we live. (Repeat). We’ll come back to that in a minute.
First, let’s continue on to the next verses. The Psalmist gives two signs of his grace that people experience all over the world. They are ways that God makes himself known to all people, even if not all people surrender to him. One of the signs of his grace is that we’re granted is sleep. The workaholic who rises early and goes to bed late because of anxiety over the work they have is missing out on God’s grace; isn’t trusting in God’s goodness. God graciously gives us sleep.
Another sign is that of children. They’re a gift from God. They’re a sign of his grace. Happy are those who have a quiver full of them, and they won’t be put to shame when speaking with his enemies in the gate. Two quick things about this, and then an application for us. First, that phrase “in the gate” might sound funny to our ears. Remember, this isn’t a wall like a fence around a yard, this is a wall that’s some 25 feet wide and 40 feet or more tall. People’s homes were in these walls. So to speak “in” the gate was exactly what they did. Secondly, “the gate” was the Starbuck’s of the day. Men would gather and debate about the hot topics of the day – the stock market, Steve Jobs’ retirement, medicare, politics, Justin Beiber’s hair-do, and so forth. And a guy who had lots of children was well-respected at the city gate. Children brought prestige and honor.
Now, right there is a message for the 21st Century, because children are considered anything but a blessing and a sign of prestige by an awful lot of people. Many of the enemies we contend with at the gate of life are oftentimes the prevailing cultural attitudes that cut against the will of God. And one of those attitudes is that children are a nuisance, an unwanted result of sexual relations, and an inhibition to everything else we want to do in life. Some kids grow up almost always being set aside by their parents. And we wonder why kids end up using drugs or joining gangs, or acting out, getting into things they shouldn’t. They simply want attention, affection, and community – most of all, from their parents. Oftentimes – not always, but oftentimes – they aren’t getting those things at home because we parents don’t realize what a gift those kids are to us, and so we treat them carelessly: Don’t love them intentionally. Don’t build relationships with them. Don’t make them feel safe and protected. Don’t model for them an active life of faith in Jesus. We don’t do these things when we make work or our social lives more of a priority than our kids, and oftentimes also more of a priority than our faith. So they don’t feel loved or wanted, don’t see Jesus as real, and never grow in their own faith. And so they seek love, relationships, protection, and God elsewhere.
Treat your kids – and it doesn’t matter how old they are, or how far they’ve wandered, or even if they’re not your own – treat them like their gifts from God; a heritage from Him. You can do that by surrendering your own life to Christ first, and making that relationship the first priority in your life. If that’s not in line first, then everything else we try to do to bless our kids will be in vain. Once you’re connected to Jesus and living that relationship out, then you can help connect your kids to Jesus, too. We can out of our way to make them feel special, to ask forgiveness where it’s needed, to shower them with blessings. Because when we do that, we’re sharing with them the heart of God, who loves them like that, too. Again, it doesn’t matter how old your kids are. Or even if they’re not your own – nieces, nephew, neighbor’s kids…we all have people who are younger than us whom we can treat like a heritage from God.
Now, I want to go back to the first verse because I realize that I know an awful lot of people who haven’t surrendered their lives to the grace of God, and yet many of their lives seem to be going just fine. They don’t seem to be building or protecting in vain.
I mentioned a few weeks ago that I was going to my 20-year high school reunion, and was open to God’s leading in my conversations with people. I didn’t get the chance to speak with the one person I was hoping to, because he wasn’t there. But I did get to talk with a bunch of people who seemed to have everything together: jobs, family, friends, travels, homes, they looked great, seemed content in life. Life doesn’t seem to be lived in vain for them…and maybe they’re all walking closely with the Lord. But statistically, odds are most aren’t. And based on my experience at the reunion, I’m pretty sure most of them aren’t. You see, a pastor can almost always know who’s at least making some effort to surrender to the grace of God and letting him be the architect of their life. All that has to happen is for the other person in the conversation to ask the question, “What do you do for a living?” I can tell as soon as I say, “I’m a pastor at a growing and totally awesome Presbyterian Church.” Because then either they say, “Cool! I go to such-and-such church” in which case I know they’re following the Lord and surrendering their lives to his grace on some level, at least. Or the conversation suddenly gets very awkward and they tell me that they need to refill their plate of food that clearly isn’t empty. It’s an amazing litmus test. For the sake of my own social life, I really would like to come up with a different way of saying what I do…without lying. Like, “I’m the director of a local franchise of a national non-profit organization with 2 million members that’s affiliated with other like-minded non-profits around the world comprising about 3 billion people, that seek to help people change their lives on a truly permanent basis.”
Ok…The point is, there are a lot of people who, as near as I can tell, and you probably know people like that too, who aren’t following Jesus, and yet they don’t seem to be living their lives in vain. Some of them have very successful and meaningful careers, raising great kids, doing great stuff. And it makes me wonder, “What is up with that?”
Here’s the Biblical answer: A “non-vain” life (successful life) has nothing to do with a nice career, a big house, fancy cars, and all that other stuff that might paint a picture of success and purpose. The Psalmist is emphatic that without God, life is lived in vain – three times he uses this word. Clearly, a life without God falls short of God’s intentions. And in God’s eyes, life simply is not measured by the stuff which the world tends to use to measure a person’s life.
Rather, it’s measured by how much we surrender our lives to God, and live according to His will and for his purposes. For instance, Jesus uses this same metaphor of building and protecting a house at the end of the Sermon on the Mount (near the end of Matthew 7): “Everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.” He then says that a house built on the sand – a foundation other than hearing and doing his word – is built in vain because it washes away when the storm comes. But a house built on the rock is built to last. It’s not built in vain. The storm comes and the house still stands. And a person’s life gets built on that rock when he or she hears and does Jesus’ word. Fidelity to the word of God and living it out is what matters. And that’s how we can know if our lives are being lived in vain or not; it’s how we can know if the Lord is the builder of our lives, the protector of our lives, or not.
So, is the Lord building your house, or are you trying to build on your own? That’s something that each of us can answer for ourselves. You wouldn’t build a physical home without some professional guidance – we all acknowledged that a little earlier. So don’t build the house of your life on your own either. God created you, this world, the universe…He’s the expert! He knows what He’s doing! So build your life on the foundation of Jesus Christ, hearing and doing his word, and God will build you up and give you protection that lasts. You’ll be eternally glad you did. Let’s pray…Amen.
