Our scripture reading this morning is Psalm 127. Psalm 127 has as its heading a song of degrees for Solomon, and that's more accurately a song of degrees of Solomon. This is one of the two psalms that we know were written by Solomon, Psalm 72. and Psalm 127, and that's indicated by that heading, which really should be Song of Degrees of Solomon, but also to its similarity, as far as its title, to the first verse of the Song of Solomon, which says the same thing. So let's read now Psalm 127. Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it. Except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain. It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows, for so he giveth his beloved sleep. Lo, children are an heritage of the Lord, and the fruit of the womb is his reward. As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man, so are children of the youth. Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them. They shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate. In connection with this psalm, I'd like to read also one verse from First Chronicles. And that's 1 Chronicles 28 verse 20, another verse that speaks about building. 1 Chronicles 28 verse 20, David said to Solomon his son, be strong and of good courage and do it. Fear not, nor be dismayed, for the Lord God, even my God, will be with thee. He will not fail thee nor forsake thee until thou hast finished all the work for the service of the house of the Lord. Our text now as we consider the word of God together is the first part of Psalm 127 verse one. Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it. Solomon, the wisest man that has ever lived apart from our Lord Jesus Christ, speaks to us here and gives us advice under the inspiration of the Spirit concerning the building of a house. And Solomon knew and knew well about building and about building a house, especially because Solomon was called of God and directed by God to build the house of God, the most important house that was ever built in the Old Testament times. That was his main task, and that was his main work. And our text is related, therefore, to the verse that we read in 1 Chronicles 28 verse 20. It's related to that verse because that is a verse in which David, prior to his death and prior to Solomon taking up the task of building the house of God, gives to him that word of instruction and that word of encouragement Be strong and of good courage and do it. That is, be strong and of good courage, Solomon, in your work of building, of building a house, of building the house of the Lord. Fear not, nor be dismayed, for the Lord God, even my God, will be with thee. He will not fail thee nor forsake thee until thou hast finished all the work for the service of the house of the Lord. David instructed and David encouraged Solomon in that work of building. Now Solomon takes that significant truth that was spoken to him by David and from God and takes that significant word of encouragement and applies it to the building of our home. That's obviously the application here, as indicated by verses three and following of this psalm that speak about children as an heritage of the Lord and of, therefore, the Christian home and family. Now the words of our text are especially spoken and given to those who are parents. To parents, God says, except the Lord build your house, your home, your labor is in vain. As parents who are involved in building a house, in building a home, and you are as parents involved in a crucially important work, And the importance of that work is indicated in this psalm by what it says in verse 3 about children. Children are an heritage of the Lord. They are precious gifts from God, and they are precious and valuable to the Lord God Himself. You are involved as parents in building. building a house that includes those children. Parents certainly need this Word of God and needed to be guided by this Word of God and need to depend upon the Lord, upon Jehovah. The text applies in a special way to those who are mothers. It's certainly good that we recognize at this time of baptism the role of mothers, even that we do so because it's on everyone's mind today that today is Mother's Day. The involvement of mothers in the building of a home is significant. Mothers do a lot of the work of building. That doesn't mean that fathers are not involved. That doesn't mean that fathers are unimportant in this work. Far from it. Fathers need to be busy building their homes too. And fathers and mothers together building their homes with the fathers being the ones who are directing things in the building of the home. But the reality is that mothers spend so much more time with the children. They are full-time involved in the lives of their covenant children. And so the Word of God speaks in a special way to mothers. We have many mothers in our congregation. We have many young mothers in our church, and some who are new to being mothers. May they be appreciated by us, and may they especially be encouraged by the word of God. Consider then with me the building of a Christian home. You'll notice three things, our work in building, our dependence on Jehovah, and the encouragement he gives. Our text plainly states that the work of building our homes is all in vain, is all empty, is all fruitless without the Lord. And yet, the text does not, on account of stating that, condemn our work of building our homes. The text does not say we shouldn't work at all at building a home. The text does not say that it's pointless for us to be building our homes. The text does not teach that we should just sit back and fold our arms and do nothing and wait for God to do something in the building of our homes. But in fact, the text states the very opposite of that. The text recognizes that we are busy working in the building of our homes. They labor that build it. God wills that parents be busy using their time and their talents and their abilities to do just that very thing, to build their homes, to work hard, to put forth great effort and to be very diligent in the building of a home. To build a home first carries the idea of making your house a home so that you're not simply, as a family, living in a building, but you're living together in a home where there is peace and unity and oneness. So that the house is not simply a place where you sleep, but it is a home where there is safety. It is a home where there is spiritual safety. It is a spiritual haven. for the family. And not simply a house that is a place where the family has a meal and eats, but a home where the members of the family encourage each other and share each other's burdens as well as share each other's joys. Building a home Not just a house. And building a home because you see to it by the grace of God that Christ is in the home. In the home because he is in the family members of that home and the home is centered around Christ and his word and gospel. So that present in that home is not merely earthly peace, but spiritual peace. Not merely earthly evidences of love, but spiritual love. And not merely earthly joys, but spiritual joys. A home. Now everyone is interested, no doubt, in having that kind of home. You realize that it's an awful thing when homes are not like that. When instead of peace there is fighting, there is disunity, there is anger, there is unhappiness. Then the members of the family would rather be anywhere else but at home. But I trust you also know from experience what a blessing it is when there is true love and peace in the heart. And when, under the blessing of God, family life is enjoyable, then every member of the family, our children and our teenage young people as well, want to be there. They do not try to escape elsewhere. Well, godly parents desiring those things take seriously the calling to build a home, a home that is Christ-centered, that is characterized by the love of Christ and his word is central. That first of all, building a house means building a home. But secondly, and more importantly, there's something else that building a house means. And that's indicated by the name of God used here, namely the Lord. In capital letters, that's Jehovah. And it's also indicated by the meaning of the word build in our text. First of all, the name Jehovah expresses as we know that God is our covenant God. It's a name that reminds us of God's promise, I will be your God and the God of your children. It's a name that reminds us of the purpose of God to save believers and their seed. It's a name that reminds us of the truth of God's word revealed to us and given to us as a promise of God that He will save us in our generations. And that ties in with the meaning of the word build. That word build is literally to establish. to establish in the sense of building something that will last, building something that will continue on into the future. And if we take all of that together, then we understand now in the second place that the building of a home refers to the establishment and the continuation of the covenant of God in our homes and families, and that through the salvation of our children. building something that continues, building something that lasts, building something that will exist by the grace of God in the future, for many, many, many years to come. That's the main idea. We're not simply involved as parents in making our houses to be homes, We are truly building our homes when we have as our goal the salvation of our children in connection with God's promise to save believers and their seed. And we work diligently with that promise in mind and with that goal in view. The spiritual work of bringing children up in the fear of God. Building a home in the true sense of the word means, therefore, bringing forth children, first of all, if the Lord wills and makes that possible, and then instructing those children in the ways of God. Building a home means desiring and laboring as parents to have your children understand the Word of God, and have your children grow in the grace and the knowledge of God, and have your children confess faith in Christ. Building a home means working diligently to that end by being focused not on their earthly instruction and earthly education, but being focused on their spiritual instruction and upbringing. Building a home means praying for your children and praying that the Lord's saving work may continue in your generations. Parents to children, to grandchildren, to great-grandchildren, and so on, so that under the Lord's blessing, this is what continues, the salvation of God in the generations of the people of God. And to that end, seeing to it that the home has a solid spiritual foundation, namely, the Lord Jesus Christ and His Word, a home where the confession is made, as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. And in all those ways, and many more, being involved, therefore, in the building of the true house of God. the church, because that's the house of God that God is building and using us to build. And we note again the special calling of mothers in the building of such a home. Mothers spend a lot of time with the children, and are often the ones doing the lion's share of teaching the children, busy with that every day. Reading the word of God to them, explaining the Bible stories to them, teaching them their catechism lessons, helping them memorize scripture, teaching the children the songs of Zion, singing to them and singing with them, and what better way than that to teach them the Word of God, and explaining the Bible to them, and even explaining life to them when things happen. When things come up that are a surprise to children, things come up that are a struggle for children to understand and to understand the why of those things. The mother being there to speak to the children about the will of God, the hand of God, the sovereignty of God. And mothers answering countless questions that children may ask. And mothers disciplining children, pointing them through that discipline to Christ. And then mothers being an example to their children too. If they spend so much time with them, then certainly their example means a lot to their children. How does the mother react to things happening? How does the mother speak about others in the hearing of the children? What music does the mother listen to throughout the day? What activities does the mother occupy herself with in all the time and hours that she has with her children? The children learn from that too. either good or bad. But the reality is it's a full-time activity and it takes a lot of time and sacrifice and effort on the part of mothers. Godly mothers, under the Lord's blessing, contribute significantly, therefore, to their children growing in the grace and the knowledge of God and of Christ. contribute significantly to the spiritual growth and the salvation of their children. Godly mothers, under the Lord's blessing, help immensely to build homes that we pray will continue, will stand, will still exist in the future for many generations to come. Thankful for mothers in that calling. Now while the text does not condemn all our work and effort, it does make the point, and that's the main point of the text, that all our work and effort is in vain without Jehovah. All our work is empty and useless and even hopeless without Him. Parents are helpless in building their homes without Jehovah. Parents are helpless in making their homes to be havens of peace and love and safety and joy without Him, and parents are helpless in making their homes continue and last as covenant homes through the salvation of their children. We cannot guarantee good results and a good outcome regarding our children. The results do not come naturally. It's not just a matter of, well, do the right things and everything will turn out excellently. Nor can parents accomplish it by use of force. Parents cannot make their children learn. They certainly cannot make their children believe. And they certainly cannot make their children love and obey God. Everything we do is in of itself vanity. All is empty and vain without Jehovah. We need Him, and we are completely dependent on Him, completely dependent on Him who promised us this, the Lord thy God is with thee. He will not fail thee nor forsake thee until thou hast finished all the work. What we need in our dependence upon Jehovah is that Jehovah do the actual building. The text itself says that, except the Lord build. Jehovah must do the building. It's not simply that we do our part and now we ask God to do his part. It doesn't go like that. This is not a cooperative effort. It's not simply the case that we do the best we can and then ask God to help us with the rest of it. We do some, and He does some, but as the text points out, it's this, our dependence on Jehovah is a complete dependence upon Him, 100% dependence upon Him. We are dependent on Him for all of the work, all of it. We are dependent on Him to equip us to do what He calls us to do, and then we are dependent on Him to use what we do to accomplish His saving purpose. We are dependent on Him and His Spirit, and we are dependent on Him especially And that comes very clearly before us. We are dependent on Him especially to do a work in our children, a work that He alone can do, a work of salvation in them, a work of regeneration in them, working faith in them, working in them to believe in Him and to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. working in them to love the Lord their God with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength, working in them to be thankful and obedient children. I say again, we are fully dependent on God. No matter what you teach your children at home, You cannot make them love and obey God. No matter how hard you work, you cannot make your children believe in Jesus Christ. And no matter how well you teach them about Christ from Scripture, you cannot save them. And yes, God uses parents. God uses godly fathers and godly mothers, and in a special way, godly mothers. God uses that. He uses your work, he uses your sacrifices, he uses the good decisions that you make, and the good instruction that you get. And yes, God is pleased to use parents, to use mothers, in spite of many weaknesses, and many failures and many sins that characterize that. But in everything, we are dependent on Him. So that in the end, there's only one who builds your home, Jehovah. Because there is only one who saves your children. There's only one who sees to it that his covenant continues in your generations. It is God, it is Jehovah who accomplishes what baptism signifies and what it signified for the child that was baptized this morning. Namely, it is Jehovah who accomplishes the washing away of sins in our children, and it is Jehovah who accomplishes a new life in them, the life of regeneration, and it is Jehovah who accomplishes the inclusion of our children in His covenant and in His church, and it is Jehovah who leads our children in a new life of obedience to God. We do well to be reminded of this, and even to be humbled by it. The temptation is that we congratulate ourselves, our good parenting, when things go well. We ought not to be patting ourselves upon the back, but we ought to be thanking God because we are dependent on him. And we ought to seek him and pray every day to him to do his work in our homes, in our children, to do what we can never do. to build our homes. And to that end, the Lord encourages us. We can certainly recognize that encouragement is needed by parents. And we might say, especially, is that encouragement needed by mothers? Mothers need that encouragement, first of all, because so many in the world today look down upon those who are, quote, just mothers. They speak negatively about those who are stay-at-home mothers. They criticize them for giving their life simply to being a mother. And they urge mothers to be more than just a mother and do more than just being a mother. Do something better with your lives and they will claim Do something more fulfilling with your lives. Mothers also need encouragement because the work is very demanding. Giving so much of yourself and giving so much of your time for your children, making many sacrifices for that. And the work is demanding, too, because perhaps the most difficult thing, and more than just perhaps, the most difficult thing for a mother in all that she does for her children is to direct them to God, to direct and teach and guide and instruct them to love the Lord their God, to fear Him and to serve Him. And the work is demanding and perhaps made so, made more demanding and made more difficult because it seems so often to be a thankless work. Perhaps children and husbands contributing to that because they fail to be thankful. And mothers need encouragement, too, because you see failures in yourself, failures and weaknesses in your work, because no mother is perfect. Well, the encouragement, first of all, is what the Word of God says about mothers in the church. God's work declares that mothers have a high and an honorable calling. God's work declares that mothers have a crucial work to do, a work that concerns the salvation of the covenant children that God has entrusted to your care, a work that is crucial for the spiritual and the eternal welfare of the elect seed that God gives to believing parents. That's what the Word of God declares. And the Word of God declares to mothers and concerning mothers that that's where a mother finds her fulfillment, too. God uses our mothers as a means to that end. Under the Lord's blessing, mothers are instrumental. with regards to the faith and the salvation of our covenant children, fathers too, of course, but mothers in a special way. They are a means to raise up in the church and kingdom of God a new generation of believers. That is, they are being used by God, they are privileged to be used by God to build the most important house the house of God, the church. And so they are given by God a blessed calling. God himself and God's word honors mothers. And may that, and our knowledge of that, And our belief of that encourage you in your calling. But secondly, there is this encouragement, directly from the fact that the God upon whom we depend is, as our text points out, the Lord, Jehovah, a covenant God to us and to our children. And what that means is this, that since He is the one who builds, our labor in building, that is in working in the strength of Christ with a view to the salvation of our covenant children, is not in vain. The Lord Jehovah is on our side. The Lord Jehovah is building our home. If it were simply us, then it's all vain, then it's empty, it's hopeless, it's useless, it will always fail. But Jehovah is building. Jehovah who has promised to save believers and their seed is building our homes. Jehovah who has promised to continue his church in our generation is building our homes. And he builds them by saving our children. And because of him, the work is, by his spirit, fruitful. Children are born and raised in the homes of the people of God that love God and that believe in Christ. Sadly, there are exceptions. Not all are His elect children. Not all the children born to believers belong to Christ, and that can be a great grief. But God will see to it that those who are His And ordinarily, those are all our children, at least we can say most of them, because God usually gives elect children to believing parents. God will see to it that they are saved. He is Jehovah. He will fulfill his promise to save his people in their generations. He will fulfill his promise to save his church in family. And He will do that because children are an heritage of the Lord, and the fruit of the womb is His reward. He will do that for those who are His children, who are precious to Him, who belong to Christ, and He will work His work in saving them. That's a great encouragement. Then thirdly and finally there is this encouragement in the fact that Jehovah our covenant God is merciful and gracious. Merciful and gracious to parents. Merciful and gracious to those who are mothers. He knows that no parent is perfect. He graciously forgives in Christ your failures and your sins. May that encourage you to be faithful and to be motivated in faithfulness and thankfulness to him for his saving grace and mercy to you. Be encouraged to be diligent and faithful. Jehovah is at work. The Lord thy God is with thee. He will not fail thee nor forsake thee until thou hast finished the work. Amen. We thank thee for thy word and pray thou wilt bless it to us, that thou wilt encourage, that thou wilt use us under thy blessing and through thy work of building for the establishment of the church in our generations. We are dependent on thee and we confess our dependence and cause us always to do so. Keep us from pride. direct us in humility to rely every day and every step of the way upon Thee, Jehovah our God. In Jesus' name, Amen.