Recognition / Provision / Worship / Servanthood / Help / Security / Joy / Work / Happiness / Perseverance / Hope / Humility / Obedience / Community / Blessing

The Work

23 Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men, 24 knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance. It is the Lord Christ whom you serve.

Of the Home

1a Unless the LORD builds the house,
They labor in vain who build it;

The godly house must be centered on Christ. Proper order cannot be established in the household unless and until He is made the Lord, and His directions are followed. Scripture abounds with 'homely advice,' with 'practical application.' Every walk through the Word ought to lead to action, ought to inform us as to how we are to live before Him.

We are instructed to raise our children in 'fear and admonition,' teaching them daily of His ways, that they might abide in them. We are instructed to avoid frustrating our children, driving them to distraction by rules that bind too tight, or are too inconsistent to be understood. We are warned by example against rules that don't bind at all, allowing our kids to be kids, as it were. They were born with the same nature we were, and if left to that nature, will fare no better.

We are instructed how to cherish our partners. As Christ loved the church, so love your wife. Submit to each other. Be faithful to the wife of your youth, and rejoice in her. There is a due order by which the Lord builds the house. Just as the builders follow the blueprints if they expect the house to stand, we must follow His blueprint if we expect our families to stand.

When major decisions come, seek Him. Let Him show you the direction, let Him decide when it's time to change course. Give Him veto power over your plans and desires.

Of Society

1b Unless the LORD guards the city,
The watchman keeps awake in vain.

As the house, so the society. The houses are built together in Jerusalem to support one another (Ps 122). To the mind trained by God, the rule of home, of society, of the Temple is all one, just as the God of the home, of society, and of the Temple is One.

Recall Ps 125. The LORD surrounds His people. Without Him, we were exposed to all manner of danger. Trusting to our own strength, we were certain to fall. It is the same with the nation. The more we trust in our own cleverness, the more we are ruled by the bottom line, rather than the Holy One, the more certain is our failure. Our leaders will slip up. Our wise men will make deadly mistakes. Our sins will overtake us.

This is precisely why we are told to pray for our leaders. The prayers we offer up for our leadership are of far greater import, quite frankly, than our votes.

Jas 5:16 The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much.

Of the Church

All that has been said regarding the home and regarding society at large, applies all the more to the Church, to the house of God. There's a bit of debate amongst the commentators as to whether the intent of the psalm was to address the life of the home, or the life of the church. I think a proper understanding would tell us that the division between the two exists only in the western mind, and was foreign to the eastern. After all, the Temple is the House of God. If He has made clear the rules of the household will it not apply first and foremost to His own?

We in America are all too caught up with building bigger churches. We ooh and ah over all the reports of this Mega church, that congregation of thousands. As if God was ever impressed with numbers! Numbers are man's praise. What happened when Gideon had the numbers on His side? God thinned them out so that it would remain clear that victory was His, not Gideon's. What happened when Israel faced Goliath? Young David went alone, so that it would remain clear that victory was His, not David's.

If we would have a successful church, from the one perspective that matters, we would do well to stop focussing on attendance counts, on tallies of 'conversion cards,' on all manner of census. We ought to be focussing on what God desires: sincere worship from sincere hearts, a house that is in order, built by Him in the shape He desires for the purpose He intends.

Balancing it all

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.
(or possibly, He gives to His beloved sleep.)

What is true of us in our home life is just as true of us in our church life. We fret and worry and make our plans and work our works. We are forever doing, and God desires only that we would do those good works He has prepared for us. No others. We don't have to do it all, we shouldn't do it all. We should be doing what God has called us to do. He gave you a vocation. Walk in that vocation. Not in my vocation, not in Pastor's vocation, not in anybody else's vocation, but in your own. He gives you sleep. Don't spurn it.

Solomon was called Jedidiah, which signifies the beloved of the Lord; and it was during sleep that the divine blessing was conferred. (Barnes)

And so the good man sleeps: but the Shepherd of Israel sleeps not (Ps 121). His eye is upon him every moment; his hand is working for him all the night long as well as during the day, and crowning his efforts with success.