The Journey: Psalm 127

Work
Psalm 127

Introduction: Today is Fathers Day and a day to honor people who have influenced us in countless ways. The psalm we are looking at today is one that speaks to fathers because it is about work. Work, in many ways, defines and shapes us.

I. God the Worker
The psalm states something we often forget, God is a worker. Genesis 1 tells us a lot about our world and ourselves but it also tells us something about God, he is creative and he is a worker. The establishment of the Sabbath rest after the six days of creation is for people a day to rest from physical work and to regain our strength. But God didn’t need to rest on the seventh day. Instead the idea is that God created the day to enjoy what he had made. You might think of it as a gardener who has labored to landscape a beautiful garden but then takes a day, not to work but instead to just enjoy the garden. God enjoyed the world he had made and especially the people he had created in his image.

It is before sinful disobedience that God gave people their work, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground." Genesis 1:28. God created people so that we could work with him. Everything God wanted to do was not complete but now he had partners to work with him.

Jesus makes a similar point in his ministry when he said, "My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I, too, am working." (John 5:17) A bit later he said, "I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.” (John 5:19) Jesus knew something that we either don’t know or forget; work without God is futile. Jesus is what Adam was supposed to be, a coworker with God.

II. Working With God, or Not
The psalmist knew this secret to work; unless the Lord is involved then work will never accomplish what we desire. One example is a story we don’t often look at is found in Genesis 11, the story of Babel. The language used by the writer of Genesis is revealing, “They said to each other, "Come, let's make bricks and bake them thoroughly." They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. Then they said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth." (Genesis 11:3-4) The language reflects Genesis 1 where God ‘makes’. There is an arrogance that is part of work without God.

The word the psalmist uses for ‘vain’ is used also of the vanity of idolatry. Work without God becomes an idol that somehow by our effort, our sweat, we can create something that will last, that by our effort we can make our name ‘great’.

This stands in contrast to what happens next in Genesis 12 when God calls Abram and promises, “I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.” (Genesis 12:2) There are many things about these promises of God but how well was Abram known during his lifetime? He was a wealthy nomad but not that significant a figure. Yet today billions of people know his name. Christians, Jews, and Muslims all acknowledge him as a great friend of God. What made the difference is that Abram worked with God.

How many people today want to be ‘great’, to have a name that is known and recognized? Maybe our desire is just to be known in our field of work. We want to be recognized by our coworkers. Preachers are hardly immune from such thoughts and desires.

Security is the second aspect of this psalm, “the watchman stands guard in vain.” This is another great idol of our day. We work hard at being secure. Security was a big thing in Kenya. We had metal grates over the outside doors and windows. We had watchdogs and a night watchman. Yet we had things stolen by people in our own home that we trusted. Our nation spends incredible amounts on national security and before 9/11 an American carried out the worst terrorist attack in American history. Idols cannot make us great. Idols cannot make us secure. They won’t give us a good night sleep. Idols cannot love and give us sleep. God does love those who trust him and grants sleep, rest to his people.

As pilgrims sang this psalm on the journey to Jerusalem they were reminded of where greatness and security come from, God. A journey requires that we travel light. We cannot travel with the same security we have when we stay in one place. The journey takes us to places where we are unknown, where we are strangers traveling through and thus seen as insignificant and possibly as people to be taken advantage of.

III. Labor of Love
The second half of the psalm seems to jump in a totally different direction. Some scholars think that these were once two different psalms. But I don’t think so. We need to go back to Abram and ask, “How did Abram become ‘great’?” He was a wealthy and prosperous man of his day but we don’t remember that. The things he did were not that outstanding or memorable. What we remember about Abram is that he had a son and from that son God worked to cause Abram’s name to be remembered and honored for all eternity.

There is a difference between productivity and fruitfulness. Productivity is about what we do, how efficient we are in the tasks given. I believe God wants us to be productive and useful to our world no matter what role we have whether engineer or short order cook. When we work with God even the most mundane of jobs are used by him to bless others and accomplish his will in the world. But that is not fruitfulness.

Fruitfulness grows out of who we are not just what we do. It is seen in what Paul describes as the fruit of the spirit, Galatians 5:22-24. But the psalmist is talking about the fruit of our bodies and spirits, bringing children into the world, becoming parents. This is a gift of God to us. It is one of those blessings God gives to the just and unjust, to the person of God and to the atheist. As God’s people we see this as a gift but not just a gift to us but also a gift to the world.
More than any other role we have, work we do, being a father, being a parent, is a partnership between men and women and the God who works, the God who gives life. The more we join God in our work and in the lives of our children the more God blesses us, the more fruitful lives we will live.

Livonia Church of Christ: June 19, 2006