this evening is Psalm 127. Psalm 127. So if you would turn with me and your Bibles to that Psalm, we will look together. Hear now the word of the living God. A song of ascents of Solomon. 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. It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil, for he gives to his beloved sleep. Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord. The fruit of the womb a reward, like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one's youth. Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them. He shall not be put to shame when he speaks with his enemies in the gate. Thus ends the reading of God's fair word. Let's pray. Oh Lord, we ask that you would come now by your blessed spirit, and that you would open up this portion of Holy Scripture to us, that we might rightly understand it, and that you would show us more of your gospel, Lord Jesus, and you would grip our hearts, and that you would encourage us and strengthen us to love you, to stand for you, A Lord to say as Joshua did, but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. Hear our cry, Lord, and bless us. In Jesus we pray, amen. Tonight we are going to begin looking at several Psalms that focus on the family, the place of the family in God's economy. Now we're not going to do an exhaustive study of all of the Psalms that Touch on this theme, but we are going to look at several just by way of Seeing how the Psalms are just so incredibly rich To point us to the Lord Jesus Christ To stir us up not only to believe in him not only to praise the Lord, but to be equipped for life of following the Savior. Psalm 127 is the psalm that we're going to look at. You'll notice the title, A Song of Ascents. Three times a year, the males in Israel were required by the command of God Almighty to go to Jerusalem to worship there in the Lord's presence, to offer sacrifices. And if their family could come with them, fine. If not, The Lord made promises, and you can read about this promise over in the book of Exodus, and it's such a thrilling promise. Turn there with me to Exodus chapter 34. Exodus chapter 34. And here's what the Lord tells us in his word about this event of going up to Jerusalem. We see in verse 23, three times in the year shall all your males appear before the Lord God, the God of Israel. For I will cast out nations before you and enlarge your borders. No one shall covet your land when you go up to appear before the Lord your God three times in the year." Now that is an incredible promise. What an encouragement to God's people. And there's a section in the Psalms and several years ago we went through and looked at all of these songs of going up to Jerusalem. That's why they're called songs of ascents. You were climbing up the last hill there at Jerusalem to worship the Lord. But I want you to notice it would be kind of a scary thing, especially if you lived near one of the borders. To leave your family, you would be at a particular disadvantage because your family would have further to travel. And you might be concerned about I don't know if it would be wise to leave the wife and the children back home. Dare I go up to Jerusalem?" And the Lord said, listen, seeking my face is so important, I'm commanding you to do this three times a year, and you can rest assured that I will protect your home while you're gone. As a matter of fact, God says, not only will I protect your home, but I will not even allow the enemies of God to covet your land while you are gone. That's an incredible promise, what an encouragement, what a God our God is. Well, here's one of these Psalms now that focuses on the place of the family in God's economy. The word economy comes from a word, the root word that means to work. And economy deals with the way things work. And God's economy, how God works, this is one of the Psalms that reminds us. We also live in a day and an age where there's a lot of chaos and turmoil and confusion in our land. We have riots that are taking place in Los Angeles as some of our government officials are carrying out their duty of arresting people who are criminals who are here illegally. And there is chaos and turmoil. What should we be doing? We ought to be seeking the face of the Lord. We ought to be praying. And this psalm is a tremendous encouragement. God is reminding us what we need to be focused on. One of the problems with instant information we are bombarded with so much information, it would be easy for us to become distracted, for us to become so fixed on the latest bad news that the media would share with us, that it would be easy for us to lose sight of what God wants us to be focused on and doing. And this psalm is a wonderful reminder to us of putting things in proper perspective. Notice in verse one, 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. It is vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil, for he gives to his beloved sleep. And so this psalm begins with a reminder to us that God is the one that we need to be looking to, to live life. And you'll notice that this psalm focuses on building a house. That's what this psalm begins, reminding us. And it tells us that as important as this task is, we can't do this task, let alone any of the other tasks that God gives us to do, unless we have His blessing. Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain. Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. That's a striking statement. Now this is not saying we shouldn't work. We have a number of passages throughout Holy Scripture where God reminds us of the duty and blessing of work. And we'll look more next Lord's Day at a psalm that talks about work and then the week after that another psalm that talks about work and they all touch the family. God has created us to enjoy the blessing of work. And we see that Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. God places them there in that paradise to keep the garden. After the fall, they still have the obligation of working for the living God, but now thorns and thistles they have to contend with. Work becomes difficult. Work becomes a chore. It becomes filled with all kinds of obstacles. But the duty and the blessing of work remains. Over in the New Testament, the Lord emphasizes, particularly in 2 Thessalonians, the duty and responsibility of work. The Lord says, if a man will not work, Neither let him eat. And of course, that's talking about people who are able-bodied. The Lord says that those who are not able to work, we still are to be using our time wisely, seeking to do what we can to minister to our own families and people around us. but God has revealed to us the blessing and duty of work. This psalm takes that for granted, says yes, work, but understand that unless the Lord blesses our labors, in the kitchen, in the garden, in our callings, outside the home, unless the Lord builds the house, those who labor build in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain. And so this psalm talks about a particular kind of building, a particular kind of work that focuses on the family. And we see, first of all, the Lord reminding us of the absolute necessity of having the Lord's blessing. Unless the Lord blesses, it is vain. It will come to nothing. This very simple truth, this profound truth, as it is emphasized in this psalm, reminds us that the Lord is the one who can bless us and our efforts building a home. We need Him, and the family is such a crucial part of God's economy. The family is the most basic unit of human society. The church depends upon families. Civil government depends upon families. Businesses depend upon the stability of families. When there is chaos and trouble in a family, all those others arenas of life become unstable and suffer. And the Lord is reminding us in this psalm that we need him to bless our labors in our homes. And it goes out from there to all of life. 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. And as we mentioned earlier at the beginning of the service, in Joshua 24 verse 15, we see Joshua stepping forward declaring, but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. Well, the second thing that I would draw your attention to in our psalm is in the title. a song of a sense of Solomon. God has used this man, King Solomon, to remind us of this truth. Solomon is renowned because of the incredible wisdom that God gave to him. And it is Ironic to say the least, that this man who had such incredible wisdom stumbled so badly when it came to his own family. Of all the things that Solomon had knowledge of, this matter of his family. being built, suffered. And Solomon suffered greatly for it. Let's just look at a few passages of Scripture. First of all, in Genesis chapter 2, we see the blueprint that God gives. It was not that Solomon didn't know. God had revealed right from the beginning, here is the pattern. that God made Adam and Eve and brought them together in holy marriage. And God himself performed the first marriage and that was the pattern for mankind from then on. Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife and the two shall become one flesh. The Lord reminded His people in the book of Deuteronomy that when they went in to capture the promised land, that they needed to be very careful. that as they pushed into the land of unbelief, of gross paganism, that they would be careful to make sure that their sons and daughters married, establishing Christian homes. In Deuteronomy chapter 7, the Lord says, Let's see, verse three. You shall make no covenant with them and show no mercy to them. You shall not intermarry with them, giving your daughters to their sons or taking their daughters for your sons, for they would turn away your sons from following me to serve other gods. Then the anger of the Lord would be kindled against you and he would destroy you quickly. But thus shall you deal with them. You shall break down their altars and dash in pieces their pillars and chop down their asherim and burn their carved images with fire. The Lord warned his people. In Deuteronomy chapter 28, and we won't look at this in detail, you can read this passage in Leviticus 26 on your own sometime this week. But in both of those texts, the Lord emphasized that if His people would follow Him and love Him, He would bless their homes. and they would be blessed. He would build their homes, but if they ever turned away from Him, He would destroy them, even destroying their homes. Over in Joshua, Joshua at the end of his life recounts the history of God's people. And he says, you are at a crossroads. Do you want to go back and serve the gods of Egypt? Do you want to serve the gods of the Canaanites? But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord." Well, we fast forward to Solomon. And Solomon sets aside all of this information that was very well known. God had required that the kings, his kings, should make a written copy of the law of God, of the books of Moses, and keep that copy that had been checked by the Levitical priests to make sure that he had copied it accurately, and he was to keep a copy of that with him all the days of his reign as king so that he might reign wisely. In 1 Kings chapter 11, we have this recorded for us. Solomon, even though he is the wisest man in all the earth, wiser than all of the other kings of the earth, And scripture records for us that the other kings of the earth would travel and come just to sit at Solomon's feet to hear him expound on various things that he had studied and learned about, whether it was architecture or botany, or zoology. They were amazed to sit at Solomon's feet. And it records for us how the Queen of Sheba came and when she heard Solomon teach and when she saw the splendor of his kingdom and all that he had made in his gardens and the buildings he had built, she was in awe. And she said, I heard that you were an amazing king, but the half has not been told me. And these kings would bring presents to Solomon. For all of his wisdom, Solomon stumbled in this most basic aspect of God's working of his economy. And we read in 1 Kings 11 verse 1, Now King Solomon loved many foreign women, along with the daughter of Pharaoh, Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian, and Hittite women. The way the kings in the olden days would make peace treaties When one king would make a peace treaty with another king, he would seal the deal by giving one of his daughters to the king to be a wife. And he figured, this will be good insurance. And if my precious daughter is there, she'll kind of keep watch and she will make sure that my interests are being cared for. And Solomon buys into this wicked practice. of polygamy, and of the danger of marrying people who did not love the Lord, just like God had warned in Deuteronomy 7. And so let's keep reading. Lists from among these nations, and this isn't an exhaustive list. We read how many wives and concubines Solomon had. And you go, this is crazy. How did this man end up with 700 wives and 300 concubines? That's a thousand women. That is nuts. How did that happen? Well, he made all of these treaties. And so he took them. He loved these foreign women. Verse 2, from the nations concerning which the Lord had said to the people of Israel, you shall not enter into marriage with them, neither shall they with you, for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods. Solomon clung to these in love. He had 700 wives who were princesses, and 300 concubines. And his wives turned away his heart. For when Solomon was old, his wives turned away his heart after other gods. And his heart was not wholly true to the Lord his God, as was the heart of David his father. For Solomon went after Ashtoreth, the goddess of the Sidonians." And the Ashtoreth was like just a hideous totem pole that they would set up and worship. Milcom, the abomination of the Amorites. So Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, and did not wholly follow the Lord, as David his father had done. And then Solomon built a high place for Chemosh, the abomination of Moab, and for Molech, the abomination of the Ammonites, on the mountain east of Jerusalem. And so he did for all his foreign wives, who made offerings and sacrificed to their gods. Well, what a sad thing to see this great man stumble. But praise God for his grace. God did not leave Solomon in that state of being backslidden, of turning away from the living God. And the book of Ecclesiastes in the Old Testament is the testimony of Solomon of how God came to him by his blessed spirit and brought conviction to his heart and granted Solomon repentance and a renewed faith and devotion to the Christ. And we see Solomon painting the picture. All is vanity apart from God. Emptiness of emptiness. All is emptiness, says the preacher. And that's how the book of Ecclesiastes begins. Solomon saying, here's what a pitiful state I found myself in because I quit looking to the true and the living God. I quit depending upon Him. I quit in fellowship, delighting with the Christ. And I turn to all of these pagan deities. and life was totally empty. Well, the book of Ecclesiastes paints this picture until the very end of the book of Ecclesiastes when Solomon says, so here's what I learned and here's what I want you to learn. Look at Ecclesiastes chapter 12. Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth. He says, don't be an old fool like me that wasted so many precious years. And we don't know the exact number of years that Solomon was in this state of walking in spiritual darkness, denying the truth that he knew in his heart of hearts. But the Lord revives him and he says, here's the bottom line. Remember also your creator in the days of your youth before the evil days come and the years draw near of which you will say. And then he gives a description of getting old and white haired. Okay? And it's not a pretty picture that he paints here. Life is tough when you get old, Solomon says. And I'm beginning to, you know, experience. I used to be able to jump up and bend down to pick things up. And, you know, now I have to kind of think about it and be a little more strategic how I bend over and so forth. Before the sun and the light and the moon and the stars are darkened. He's getting cataracts on his eyes and the clouds return after the rain. And the day when the keepers of the house tremble. His legs aren't as sturdy as they used to be. And the strong men are bent. You don't walk quite as straight as you used to. And the grinders cease because they are few. He didn't have the blessing of his good dental care as most of us have had. His grinders were few. And those who look through the windows are damned, and the doors on the street are shut when the sound of the grinding is low. He's getting to where he can't hear. And one rises at the sound of the bird, and he doesn't sleep as well as he used to. And when the birds start chirping, it wakes him up. And all the daughters of song are brought low. They are afraid also of what is high. I used to think nothing of climbing ladders. I'm a little bit more careful getting on the tall ladders. and tears are in the way. The almond tree blossoms. Now we don't have almond trees around here, but I've heard that almond trees look like they're white. The grasshopper drags itself along. You know, when a first killing frost comes, one of the legs of the poor old grasshopper gets frostbit, and he can't hop like he used to, and he's dragging himself along. And desire fails, because man is going to his eternal home. And the mourners go about the streets before the silver cord is snapped, and the golden bowl is broken, or the pitcher is shattered at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern, a pitcher of us dying. And the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it. Vanity of vanities, says the preacher. All is vanity. Besides being wise, the preacher also taught the people knowledge, weighing and studying, and arranging many proverbs with great care. The preacher sought to find words of delight, and uprightly he wrote words of truth. The words of the wise are like goads, and like nails firmly fixed are the collected sayings. They are given by one shepherd. In other words, we need to listen to God as he teaches us his word. My son, beware of anything beyond these. Of making many books, there is no end. And much study is a weariness of the flesh. Scholars, you have a little break from your studies this summer, but this was one of my favorite verses when I was in seminary, that of much study, it makes weariness to the flesh. The end of the matter. All has been heard. And so he says, here's the bottom line. Here's what we want to learn. Fear God and keep His commandments. For this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment and every secret thing, whether good or evil. And so in our text, it is striking, this passage of Scripture, Solomon undoubtedly wrote after the Lord had revived and restored his heart. And Solomon is declaring to us, we need to look to Jesus to build our lives and to build our homes according to Holy Scripture. We want to define marriage as God defines marriage, regardless of what the Supreme Court of the United States says. Marriage is between a man and a woman. A man who has XY chromosomes and a woman who has XX chromosomes. A woman, a wife, A female, a husband, a man, a male. That's what God says a marriage is. And marriage is at the heart of what God says a family is. And the Lord many times blesses, most of the time, not always, but most of the time, blesses couples with children. Well, we're going to stop there because I'm not going to rush through the rest of the psalm. I had planned for us to just spend one night on each of these psalms, but God is the one who alone can build our lives and our homes. And we'll close by going over to the Gospel of Matthew. Turn with me to the Gospel of Matthew. Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build. Unless the Lord keeps watch over the city, the watchman keeps awake in vain. It's vain for you to rise up and toil and eat and so forth because if we're not looking to Jesus, everything is vanity, empty. It's worthless. But in Jesus, we have everything. That's the testimony of Solomon. And this psalm is reminding us of The wonderful blessing God gives to His people to give us Christian homes. Well, Matthew chapter 7 verse 24, we end with this. Everyone then who hears these words of mine, Jesus says, and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And so, young people, that means you need to go and with your mama and daddy read 2 Corinthians 6 verse 14 down through chapter 7 verses 1 and 2 where the Lord says, Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. Because what fellowship has light with darkness? You want to give yourself to somebody who is going to be a partner with you to build on the rock of Jesus, to build a Christian home. so that you, if God would bless you with children and grandchildren, seek to press the gospel upon their hearts as they grow up, standing with us by the grace of God to love the Lord Jesus. Everyone then who hears these words of God, of Jesus, of mine, Jesus says. And does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. We have so many things that press upon us. We live in a culture that is just full of wickedness. And there are all kinds of storms that come upon us as individuals and families and what's going to keep us from being just swept away in the flood of unbelief. Let's keep reading. It did not fall because it had been founded on the rock, on Jesus and his word. Everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand and the rain fell and the floods came and the winds blew and beat against that house and it fell and great was the fall of it. Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain to build. Unless the Lord watches the city, the watcher keeps awake in vain. Praise God, we have a good, solid foundation upon which to build, and we're looking to Jesus to bless us, our own homes. You young people, as you look forward to the future, may God give you great blessing as you prepare your own hearts and pack your suitcases, getting ready, learning all that you can from your mama and daddy. And from those who would faithfully teach you the Word of God in the church to equip you for the day when you will have your own home. And what are you going to do? build on the rock of Jesus. The last thing I leave you with this night is, of all the things you are doing, there is nothing more important for you than to gather with other Christians to say with Joshua, as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. Families join together to pray for each other, to support each other. That's what the church is supposed to be doing. Helping God's people together to build. If we're going to see this country turned around, that's how it's going to happen. God's people building godly Christian homes and congregations upon the rock of Jesus. And unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build. And so we look to Jesus and we want to build according to His blueprint, the Holy Scriptures. Amen. Let's pray. Father, thank you for your Word. We thank you that your Word is powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword. And Father, we ask that you would bless these precious young people and children, and they would hear the testimony of Solomon and all of us who are older. Lord, that they would remember their Creator, in the days of their youth. They would see and understand Solomon's testimony that the chief end of man is to stand in awe of God and follow the Lord Jesus. Oh Lord, bless us to build our lives with wisdom upon the rock, upon you Lord Jesus and your word, the Holy Scriptures. Bless now as we sing, and then give us joy as we come to your table tonight. In Jesus we pray. Amen.