A song of a sense 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. I read that far in God's Word. Our study last week, Psalm 126, pointed to the exiles coming home from captivity and attempting to reestablish their farm fields by sowing seeds and waiting on God for the harvest. Now, building on that, our idea tonight in the study of Psalm 127 points to the occasion of the exiles returning home and rebuilding the temple. Returning home from the exile in order to rebuild the temple. All these 15 songs of ascent, Psalm 120 to Psalm 134, pivot on Psalm 127. This is the core verse or core psalm of our study. And that's because it asks us three very important questions. Three, what we could call philosophical, or deep important aspects of life on earth. The three topics are building things, securing things, and raising the next generation. Building things, that's anything, securing, keeping, and protecting those things, and raising the next generation, people who will be alive after we are gone. Aren't those important topics? It's at the center of our 15 songs of ascent, Psalm 127, appropriately brought to us by one who's known to be wise, King Solomon, although his own life didn't turn out so wise and godly and holy, did it? So it already points us beyond Solomon to one who is greater than Solomon, wiser than Solomon, more godly than Solomon, but more about that in a moment. There's only two options for these three topics, are building, are protecting, and are raising families, there's only two options. Either it'll be the Lord's doing or it'll be pointless. There's no third option. Anything you're building, anything you're protecting, any families you're working to raise up, it's either the Lord's doing or it's pointless. You see, either God is building or it's in vain. We're studying and we're getting to that more in a moment. Either God is protecting or you can't really keep it safe. Either God is passing on his own heritage and his love to the next generation or it's a blowout and an utter waste. So, what if things aren't going well? The solution is not for us to double our efforts and triple our efforts and do harder and harder work. To work harder yet at something that the Lord is not blessing is another form of futility and maybe even slavery. The solution has to be somewhere else, so we'll get to that. The concern of Psalm 127 is not that everything we try to build to protect and populate might fail. It's not the concern. You might succeed. Build a house, build a car, build a company, build a church. You might succeed. Protecting it, you might keep it from being blown apart or torn down or destroyed. Protect it. Getting human beings involved, you might get people to attend. You might have a minivan full of kids. You might have a company filled with people and employees. The concern of Psalm 127 is much deeper than all of that. The true concern of Psalm 127 is that in our constructing, and in our guarding, and in our gathering people, that if it's not the Lord in it, it would be meaningless. That our projects may be well attended, but lead nowhere and have no purpose if the Lord isn't in it. The house we build may be still standing 100 years from now, the house that you built. It has an address, it has wood and brick and plaster and paint, but the question is, was it worth building? The city or company or church that we protect may be standing for years, but is it worth protecting? Did it contribute anything to the wider community or bring any glory to God? The family we may raise or be involved in may be still alive. Human beings are alive in a family. But did it bring community that glorified God? The family we raise may be alive, but did our children become substantive and worthwhile persons themselves, who themselves rely on God, strength for all of their own endeavors, who themselves give honor to God alone for anything they achieve? Do we really believe that apart from Christ, we can do nothing? John 15, 5, Jesus said, apart from me, you can do nothing. Do we really believe that? Psalm 127 challenges us to believe that. So that, as an intro, it brings us to our main point. If you're following on the Outline on the bulletin handout, you read this, we are utterly dependent on the Lord Jesus for any of our endeavors, especially spiritual ones. We'll see in verse 1a, our first point, our efforts to build a house or temple or church are worthless if the Lord is not building. Verse 1b to 2, verse 2 is our second point, our efforts to protect a city. Jerusalem citizens are a fiasco if the Lord is not protecting. Verses three to five are efforts to fill our homes, churches with believing children, people are useless if the Lord is not giving and blessing. So I also want to build this on a couple of New Testament concepts before we dig in. Number one is Colossians 2.3 says, in Christ are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. So the one beyond Solomon is Christ. and also that Christ is the true builder. Paul expands on this in 1 Corinthians 3. I just want to read a few of those verses that Christ is the builder. No one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each one's work will become manifest for the day will disclose it because it will be revealed by fire. And the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. If anyone's work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire. Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him for God's temple is holy and you are that temple. So we keep that in mind that our endeavors are useless unless Christ is in it and because Christ is in it, we are building as co-laborers with Christ. It's full of meaning, purpose, and longevity. So let's dig into our first point, verse 1a, probably a well-known snippet of scripture out of the Psalms for you. Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. I assume you've heard that quite a bit, maybe have it memorized, thought about it before. Let's think about it now. It was the dearest wish of King David to build the house of God. And yet Solomon, who's writing this psalm, remember, David really wanted to build the Lord's house, but we know David was not allowed to build the temple, the house of God. Who says? God says. It's his temple, and he says, David is a man of war. You will not be allowed to build a temple. You can gather the supplies, but your son Solomon's going to build my temple for me. That's interesting. because we know that Solomon achieved the building of the temple, and Solomon's writing these words. So what are our words? Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. But then, after Solomon built the temple, which is really quite a structure, it was destroyed by King Nebuchadnezzar from Babylon. Well, that fits our pattern, because as we studied last time, Psalm 126, the returning from exile, trying to rebuild, sow their farm fields. Now in 127, they're coming home and trying to rebuild the temple. The exiles returning home from Babylon, the temple had to be rebuilt all over again. And what do you do when you start all over again? You go back to the original blueprint. You go back to the way that it all started. You go back to King Solomon. What's the wisdom from King Solomon, the builder of the original temple, for how to rebuild the temple? Well, he starts off with the most important thing to remember. Unless the Lord builds the house, Those who build it labor and vain. Don't try to build the temple of God without God. That's pretty basic, right? But he's giving us this wisdom in this incredible psalm. So as the initial building of the temple, it's true that you need the Lord. How much more so in the rebuilding of the temple, the Lord must be in it or you're not going to do this successfully. It became even more important, see, for the rebuilding, because the rebuilding is even more difficult. How is the rebuilding even more difficult? Well, with the initial building of the temple, David had worked with passion to gather the supplies and resources. David could focus on conquering the enemies, so he achieved peace. So Solomon, when he started building, could focus on building the temple. He had all the supplies, he had peace, no wars going on. But now that the temple was destroyed, The exiles completed 70 years away in captivity. The time had come now to rebuild the temple, and the exiles were finding bigger problems than Solomon faced to build the original temple. They faced missing supplies, missing resources. They faced enemies attacking them while they're trying to rebuild. See, exiles could not rebuild the house of God without God to supply for them, to protect them. You get the idea, verse 1a, unless the Lord builds a house, those who build it labor in vain. Our efforts to build a house or the temple or the church are worthless if the Lord is not in it, building his church with us. Second point, verses 1b to 2, our efforts to protect the city, Jerusalem's citizens are a fiasco if the Lord is not protecting. Verse 1b, unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchman stays awake, In vain, it's basically saying, you could have watchmen on the walls, and you could have really strong walls, but you're not gonna be able to keep it safe from advancing enemies if the Lord isn't also watching and protecting, right? That's the idea. That's clear in verse 1b. The walls of the city had also been broken down for these exiles. So it was essential to rebuild the walls. There could be no security and safety without city walls. This is ancient cities. We don't build cities nowadays because we have F-16s. That's your modern walls. They keep the whole country secure from all its borders by flying overhead and making sure, right? But you understand in the ancient world, you really had to have walls. So, in addition to stone walls, there would have to be soldiers on top of the walls watching, always watching. That's how you guard, that's how you keep safe a city. But unless the Lord watches over the city. Those watchmen on top of those walls are staying awake and pulling shifts all in vain. It's not gonna work. You see, verse 1b is an important realization of the limits of human armies, the limits of watchmen and guard duty, the limits of human effort to achieve protection, true safety. And there's a realization of the need for the Lord God himself to watch over the city, the kingdom, the company, the church, whatever it is that we're trying to do. We need God's protection. And if they didn't realize this, they weren't not relying on God. And if they were not relying on God, they're relying on themselves. And as soon as they rely on themselves, what will happen? Well, verse 2 tells us what's happening. You're going to rise up early and earlier. You're going to go to bed later and later. You're going to eat your meals being anxious about how it's supposed to happen. And you're not going to be able to sleep. Verse two, 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. If you're in charge of a regiment of men who's supposed to keep watch on the walls, pacing back and forth on top of the city walls and keep that city safe day and night, and you're fretting about those advancing enemy armies, this is you, rising up earlier, going to bed later, anxious toil over your meals, not able to sleep. This is you. The effort to protect oneself by oneself is not watching out for God. It's not having God central. It's devoid of God, back to the beginning, unless the Lord builds the house, unless the Lord watches over the city, unless the Lord provides protection. Now tell me about the Tower of Babel. How does that fit in here? Genesis chapter 11, we're told that people from all around gathered together and they said, we're going to build a really tall tower. And from that tower, we're going to be able to reach wherever we want to reach. We can reach to heaven. We don't need God to come down. We can go up to him whenever we want to. The Tower of Babel. Why was it a fiasco? It was a fiasco because God stopped it, but it's a fiasco because of the philosophy we're talking about here. It was never a worthy goal to build a tower by itself for the glory of man, so we can build it tall and say, look what we did. Yay us. That's never a worthy goal. The glory of man, the builder. The true goal cannot be to simply build the tallest tower. The true goal can never be to build the biggest city, the strongest army. The honorable goal is never to build the most wealth, to become the most wealthy person, become the most powerful person, have the most powerful position. That can never by itself be the goal. The best goal can't be to influence the most people. I want to have the most sales. I want to have the most money. I want to have the most cars. I want to have the biggest gold medal, the highest achievement in sports, in business. Empty. The true goal has to be to be in relationship with God and with God's people in a community. A community is focused on God and protected by God, and that can be a church community, that can be a family community. All the wealth we're ever going to need is measured by that. That's value. That's true value, being a part of a community that is Godward, focused on the Lord God. This is a Psalm, Old Testament language, but it points ahead to the Lord Jesus, the Lord himself. This is wealth. This is honor. This is glory. To be focused on God and to participate in the community he's building, this idea of sleep is important in verse 2. He gives to his beloved sleep. And here, sleep is an analogy that implies more than just a night's rest. Solomon himself needed sleep from physical exhaustion just like anybody else. He's a human being. He can't be Superman staying up all night. He's gonna sleep at night. Sleeping in the middle of busy, busy times for Solomon, sleeping in the middle of some crisis, sleeping in the middle of life-threatening problems is only what a person who trusts in God can do. Think of the prophet Isaiah saying it this way. You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you. because he trusts in you. Only the person who trusts in the Lord can lay their head down on a pillow and let it all go. Paul writes it this way in Philippians 4, 6, and 7. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God, and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus, Philippians 4, 6 to 7. It's the same thing Solomon's saying here. But the lying down and sleep, despite having responsibilities all that day and the next day, if you're the king like King Solomon, reflects a larger scope of trust than just, I think I can sleep for a good six, eight hours. It's a larger scope of trust. It's indicative of committing himself to God's safekeeping, even in the face of death. No longer worrying, the king's heart is quieted. And if King Solomon can do it, then all the people singing Psalm 127 can do it. No longer worrying, heart quieted by God. The king is at peace because he trusts in God to watch over him, trusts in God to watch over the city, trusts in God to watch over the temple and the building of the temple. Think of Jesus sleeping in a boat in the middle of a squall, a giant storm on a small lake. It's the sleep of trusting in God the Father to watch over the boat, to watch over oneself, to watch over God's kingdom. That's our second point, our efforts to protect a boat, a city, a Jerusalem, citizens, or a fiasco if the Lord is not protecting. We gotta see that the Lord is protecting. We're not even on guard duty. It's in His competent hands. Brings us to our third point, verses three to five. There's a big shift here. You know it by the word behold. Verse three, first word, behold. It signals a giant shift in the psalm. So we got like a second half to the psalm. It's a little transition to what it means. What have we covered so far? Building and protecting, right? Building, whether it's building a city, building a house, bringing a temple, and then protecting that house or temple or city. But there's little point to building houses and enclosing them with city walls and guarding them with watchmen if you're not gonna have anybody living inside of that city in those houses. It's all for the sake of people. People live in houses. People live in cities. The blessing of residence for the city or people to live in the house with the family members, follows after the building of them, follows after the protecting of them, logically and naturally. This is what we've all been getting to. Why would you build a house and a temple in a city if it weren't for people to worship there and live there and be protected there? So behold, everything that follows is the inhabitants of the houses in the city. Ready? Verse three, behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit the womb, a reward. The people filling the house, the people filling the city, the people filling the worship space, temple or church. The kingdom of God has people. God's people are like God himself. We would become like the king, like King Solomon and the one greater than Solomon who came. We would become like the Lord our God, a gift from God, a heritage from the Lord, living like the Lord asks us to live. Our efforts to fill our homes or churches with believing people and children of our own are useless if the Lord is not giving them and blessing with them. Verse 4, like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one's youth. Like arrows of a warrior is the image of arrows being used to win battles. And that's being compared to humans, to children, to people. People are being compared to arrows because arrows are used to win battles and people are used to win battles. God used his son, Jesus, to win the biggest, best battle ever. The most important battle is sin and rebellion against God. God used his son, the Lord Jesus, like an arrow to win that battle. The ultimate battle over sin and death and hell by Jesus' death and his victorious resurrection from the dead caused victory like an arrow. Similarly, the children of God are used by God to win battles for his kingdom, battles for the city, City of God, Jerusalem, battles for the Church of Christ. We have one verse left, verse 5. Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them. With what? With arrows, with people who helped to win the battle. It's the imagery of verse 4 carried over into verse 5, and a quiver is a spot where you put all the arrows. Blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them. Blessed is the man whose quiver is full of arrows, whose family or kingdom or army or church is filled with people who help to win the battle, like Jesus. And the last line, he shall not be put to shame when he speaks with his enemies in the gate. What a blessing to have a family, have a kingdom, have a city. full of people who help us win battles for the Lord. May the Lord multiply the number of mighty men and women, truly gifts from God. The people of God are the temple of God. I mean, the New Testament is filled with imagery for us. The body of Christ, the family of God, the kingdom of God, the citizens of the God of heaven, the bride of Christ, there's so many images for us. And in here, we get the idea of arrows in a quiver, and we get the idea of speaking with enemies in the gate, the very last image in verse 5. You remember that the gate in the Old Testament days was the courtroom. The gate of the city was like where they held court. It's the ancient city's struggle between justice and injustice took place in the courtroom, and the courtroom was the entrance to the city gate, that whole area. They would sit down and consider what's the right thing to do in this situation. How do we work out justice in this case? The people who are a blessing are the people who speak to others about the issues of God's character, God's justice, God's law, God's grace when it comes to ethical issues they're facing. We're gonna hash it out in the gate, hash it out in the courtroom. The things that we build, the things we protect, and the churches and armies and families we fill with people who will follow God and imitate even Christ himself are people who are focused on the character of God. The justice and injustice being worked out. Our workplaces, our homes, our churches need to be filled with people who have true noble virtue. Concerned about write things according to God and His Word, behave like true royalty. We need to reflect our Savior like citizens of heaven who temporarily take up life here on earth. When Christ fulfills all these images, the image of a temple for believers to be in Christ is to have access to God in that temple, which is Christ. He fulfills the picture of the city that's to be protected for believers to be in Christ is to be citizens of the city of God, the heavenly Jerusalem. In Galatians 3.16, the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. It does not say, and to offsprings, referring to many, but referring to one, and to your offspring, who is Christ. That's quoting from Galatians 3.16. So all of us believers are included in Christ. 10 verses later, Paul proved that point by saying in Galatians 3.26, in Christ Jesus, you are all sons of God. Through faith. You see, the plan never was to have, this is the family of God. God the Father and Jesus the Son. End of story. That's the family of God. That was never the plan. The plan always was for there to be God the Father and God the Son and all of us in Christ as brothers and sisters to Jesus, brothers and sisters to one another, having God the Father as our Father also. The plan is always to have Christ and the rest filling in the seats in a very large family of God. That's the family of God. That's always been the plan. Galatians 8, 29, those whom God the Father foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, in order that He might be the firstborn among many brothers. The family of God was always envisioned to be many. When God's gifts arrive in a family, like babies when they arrive, Babies arrive with a load of responsibilities. Ever so cute, but you should babysit a young child in the first 48 to 72 hours of life. It's unbelievable how it triples the chores that you have in a day. As soon as you have a baby in the home, long before they become an asset to the family, they actually become a liability, to be blunt about it. I mean, it just takes all of your energy. It takes your wealth, it takes your health, it might even take your happiness. You could be quite grumpy when otherwise you wouldn't be. Later, they add to your wealth, and they add to your health, and they add to your happiness. You go from liability to an asset in the family. All of God's blessings could be like that. Like, the child is a blessing. Isn't that what it says here? Children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb, a reward. It's a blessing. Of course a child is a blessing. How dare I describe from the pulpit any drawbacks to having a blessing from God? But that's how it always works. The greater the promise, the greater the potential of each child, the more likely there'll be even greater responsibility and extra duties with that child. In other words, the children who are especially a handful could be the ones that become wonderful. The children are a handful before they're a quiverful. There's an awful lot of work to building an arrow. There's an awful lot of work to shooting arrows well so they'd help win battles. There's an awful lot of work to building arrows in the quiver of God's family, children. Our efforts alone do not take babies and turn them into godly Christian men and women. It does require our efforts, but it doesn't happen by our efforts alone. That's one of the main points of this psalm. If the Lord is not blessing our efforts, then those don't fill our homes with godly young men and women. If the Lord does not give them spiritual life, they don't even become born again from above. Our efforts cannot accomplish the filling of the pews with the children of God. Our efforts cannot accomplish the filling of a minivan with what used to be little rascals that now have become born-again children of God singing his praises on the way to worship. God alone gives life. God alone gives eternal life. These truths are tucked within this incredible psalm. It's a pivot for the songs of ascent. Matthew 12, 42, Jesus said it this way, something greater than Solomon is here. Solomon was known to be wise, but in Jesus are hidden all the treasures of wisdom. Solomon built a temple. Jesus is the temple. And Jesus was torn down and rebuilt that we might have forgiveness and grace and his gifts. Solomon's a man of peace. His name even means man of peace. Solomon comes from, it sounds like shalom, doesn't it? It's on purpose. It's shalom, peace. Jesus is himself our peace. Ephesians 2.14. He's the true prince of peace. The building we've seen in the study of the psalm, the guarding we've seen in the study of the psalm, the populating of the families and minivans and the pews and the church of Christ we've seen in the psalm depends entirely on the work of God. That was our main point. We have a cross in bold print across the top of the paper. We are utterly dependent on the Lord Jesus for any of our endeavors, especially Our spiritual ones. So let me conclude. Matthew 16, 18, Jesus said, I will build my church. Now what do you think of when I read that? The first thing you think of is numbers, right? More people. He will build his church up in numbers of people, right? Yeah, that's true. But there's another aspect to building his church. He will build character into the people of his church. Now how does Christ go about building character into us? Well, I don't know if you're gonna like the answer. So I'm gonna delay giving you the answer as long as I can. I'm gonna tell you a story, and when the story is over, I'll have no more time, so I gotta tell you the answer. How does Christ go about building character in us? But I promise you the story is relevant to the question. A farmer's donkey stumbled into an old dry well. For hours, the poor donkey, the animal, cried piteously as the farmer tried to sort out what am I gonna do? Finally, the farmer decided that the animal was old, and the pit was so dangerous, if he did any work, he's going to lose the pit, lose the donkey, and maybe lose some servants. It just wasn't worth it to try to retrieve the donkey. So he invited his neighbors over to help him. He's simply going to bury the donkey and use the well to do so. He's going to fill in the well with dirt and bury his donkey, put it out of its misery. So at first, they started to put shovelful after shovelful down the well, and it pattered down on top of the poor old and broken donkey, and it seemed to sense that something is happening that's negative and started to cry out even more in panic and hear this screaming donkey at the bottom of the well. But then, quite strangely, the animal stopped crying and went silent. So what's going on? Oh, well, we've got to complete the project. kept shoveling dirt loads in, still quiet down there. And finally the farmer said, hang on a second, let me look down the well. He looks down and he sees what's happening. After every spade full of dirt struck the poor donkey in the head, he just shook it off and shifted his feet, stepped up on top of the fallen dirt that had come down. And then he stood up again, and then he stood up again, and then he stood up again. As much dirt as they put down, he was actually getting closer to the surface. Many hours and many shovel loads later, the donkey rose up over the edge of the well and just trotted off. The donkey was saved. Why do I tell this story? Because every general wants his warriors to be resilient like that when you send them out to battle. Because every spiritual shepherd wants his church members to be resilient like that when you live in a battle that is this world. Every parent wants their children or grandchildren to be resilient like that How do we build people like that? And I'm back to my question. I'm out of time. I have to tell you the answer. How does Christ go about building character into us? The answer is suffering. God is the true builder is the title of the message. How does God go about building character? Stuff happens you didn't plan on. Stuff happens you don't like. Stuff happens you don't want. There comes a day when granddaughter doesn't make the team. Your son doesn't get a position in the musical he was setting his heart on. They don't get the glory, they don't get the grade that they wanted, they don't get the girl or the boy they hoped to date. There's going to be seasons when your cousin's job, your Brother's investments don't pan out as they were hoping. There's an illness that strikes and your family and infirmity doesn't just go away. There's checkups and there's surgery and there's treatment that still doesn't go away. It actually gets worse. There comes a time when your finances, your personal failures, your totally crushing creditors or critics are bearing big shovelfuls down upon you. A period when maybe your marriage or your parenting or caring for an aging parent feels like being buried alive, honestly. And what if our plans don't achieve what we had hoped? What if the crops don't grow that year? What if the cattle don't give birth to calves? What if the pews aren't full of worshipers? What if the business doesn't make any money? What if you make products and you can't sell them? What if students don't learn? They don't graduate? What if the product we designed doesn't work? What if you sent a spaceship up and it blew up? You sent it down under the water and it imploded. What if you're trying to create things and they don't work? You did surgery and medicine, it doesn't bring about healing. What do we say? What does the Bible say? What does God say? What do we say? What do we do? to help that precious person to become one of those few remarkable persons who find ourselves in life's deep hole, still managing to rise up. Romans 5, 3-5, we rejoice in our sufferings. Wait, sorry, what? Start over. We rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, And hope does not put us to shame because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. Romans 5, three to five. How does Christ build character? By not only giving us suffering, but teaching us, like parent to child, to rejoice in our sufferings and never quit. That's how godly character is built by Christ in his people. people of character keep hoping in Christ because we know Christ is the true builder of his church. Of anything worth building, he's the builder. Let's pray. Father, give us enough suffering so that you build up our character with