Life Made by God

DEVOTION

PSALMS

LIFE MADE BY GOD

Ps 127

127:1 A song of ascents. Of Solomon.

Unless the LORD builds the house, its builders labor in vain. Unless the LORD watches over the city, the watchmen stand guard in vain. 2 In vain you rise early and stay up late, toiling for food to eat — for he grants sleep to those he loves. 3 Sons are a heritage from the LORD, children a reward from him. 4 Like arrows in the hands of a warrior are sons born in one's youth. 5 Blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them. They will not be put to shame when they contend with their enemies in the gate.

NIV

The eighth song of ascent on the eighth of fifteen steps up to the temple. Unless our life is built by the Lord, we build our life in vain. That is the meaning here. What good is life unless it is built by the Lord, unless our life is in Christ? In all reality life is meaningless unless it is built on the Lord. All the struggles of life to gain the whole world are for nothing if we lose our self.

Luke 9:25

5 What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self?

NIV

So often we people put so much of our effort into gaining material things, or securing our future, storing up, and still never feeling like we have enough. What value is all of that when we stand before the Lord and give an account of what we have done? All people will stand, or rather bend their knee before the Lord and answer the one question which shall be asked. Did you accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior, did you build your life in him? Those whose answer is yes, will be invited into his rest. Those whose answer is no, we built our own house, they will be cast into utter darkness. All their efforts were  in vain. These are the people who toil every moment they can, always thinking of ways to gain more. They cannot even get a good night’s sleep, worried about the next day and how much can they get done to advance their position in life. But we do not live like that, we lay our head on the pillow, thanking the Lord for all his blessings in our day, for the life he has built for us. For the house he has built, as we are the house of the Lord, the temple of the Spirit. We not even have to keep watch over our house, our life, for God is our watchmen. The non-believer watches their houses in vain, guarding their possession, trying to guard their life. But all in vain, they will lose it all. The rest of this song deals with our children, it mentions sons, as they are the ones who carry on the family name. Yet all children are a blessing from the Lord. Although our society is much different than that of the psalmist. As the father who had many sons ages, he leaves all his inheritance to his first born and that son in turn cares for his father all of his days. Other sons would also be involved in the family business insuring the father was well cared for. Today we might leave our children whatever possession we have, but it is far and few that take in the parent and care for them for the rest of their days. It happens, but it would seem for the most part the retirement home business is booming because there is no room for parents within the family care by the children. They too are busy with trying to gain the whole world. Yet the Lord says the parent with many children in their quiver is blessed. The children will contend with the enemies at the gate. That is they will care for the parents well-being, protecting them, watching over them. This may have been true once, but in our more modern culture we may have lost this truth. Did we do enough for our parents? Can we expect more or less from our children? All we can hope for is to keep our life in the Lord and he will see to our life. Whatever life brings, it has to be built by the Lord or it is meaningless. In days past one car company used to boast their body was made by Fisher. What we can boast in, is our body, our engine, our very life is made by God.