On this episode of The Disciple-Making Parent Podcast, you’ll hear a recent sermon I preached on Psalm 127. In it, I ask a simple, searching question: what does it look like to actively seek God’s blessing in everyday life?
We’ll look at the danger of anxious, self-reliant “in vain” work and the comfort of God’s providence that lets us labor faithfully and still rest. Then we’ll turn to the second half of the psalm and considers why Scripture calls children a gift from the Lord, how our culture often treats children as a burden, and how the church can cultivate a child-loving (not child-centered) community.
Finally, we’ll reflect on what it means to form disciples and disciple-makers who can stand with courage and wisdom in the public square while remembering that our hope rests in the Lord who builds and watches over his people.
Topics Covered in This Week’s Podcast
03:45 Introduction: A wise person will actively seek God’s blessing (Psalm 127)
08:49 Without His blessings, our work is in vain (vv. 1-2)
30:14 Children are a blessing from the Lord (vv. 3-5)
47:26 Applications
Podcast Transcript
Chap Bettis: I’m Chap Bettis, and you’re listening to The Disciple-Making Parent, where we seek to equip parents and churches to pass the gospel to their children. “Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward.” I know you know that verse, but have you ever spent time studying it?
Hi, my name is Chap Bettis, and I’m the author of The Disciple-Making Parent, and I recently had the privilege of preaching in my home church, Grace Harbor Church in Providence, Rhode Island. And I chose as my text Psalm 127. It’s both a very familiar psalm and a short psalm, so you know I had my work cut out for me. It begins with, “Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. And unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchmen stay awake in vain.” And then it continues with the well-known verse, “Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward.” In fact, this verse is so beloved, my wife and I had just written it on a card for a baby shower the day before. But have you taken time to really study the verse? I know I hadn’t, and so this preaching opportunity gave me a chance. And boy, there were so many beautiful new things I saw for the very first time, and I am excited to share those with you in this podcast.
But before we start, I want to remind you, of course, of The Disciple-Making Parent audiobook that we give away absolutely free just for visiting our website and signing up for our weekly newsletter. We’re on a mission to equip parents and grandparents and pastors to raise children who not only love the Lord, and are not only disciples, but disciple makers, taking the gospel to the world and standing as salt and light wherever God has put them. So head on over to thedisciplemakingparent.com for your free audiobook. But for now, let’s think about Psalm 127, seeking the Lord’s blessings.
Chap: Good morning. It’s a privilege to speak to you this morning. My name is Chap Bettis. I served here as an elder for almost six years, and before that I planted and pastored a church for 25 years. And if you’re new to Grace Harbor, or even if you’re not, we’ve grown so much. If I haven’t met you, I’d love to become acquainted with you, so please come up and introduce yourself to me in the near future.
Well, our text this morning is in Psalm 127, and so if you want to follow along, that’s page 544 in the pew Bible. Thank you to Kristen for reading that earlier. I’m going to read it again. Psalm 127, page 544. Let’s go to the Lord in prayer. Father, we gather to hear from you and see Jesus. It’s easy perhaps, perhaps some have come in, we’ve come in with dull hearts and eyes that have been fixed on trinkets this week. Open our eyes to wonderful things in your law. Enliven our hearts. Help us see Jesus. Help us see you, Lord, in a way that we’ve not seen you before. You said, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness,” and so may that be true of us this morning, we pray in Christ’s name. Amen.
Let me read Psalm 127 again. So if you follow along, it’s a psalm, we’re told, of ascents, of Solomon. And what does Solomon write to us? What lyrics?
Unless the Lord builds a house,
its builders labor over it in vain;
unless the Lord watches over a city,
the watchman stays alert in vain.
In vain you get up early and stay up late,
working hard to have enough food—
yes, he gives sleep to the one he loves.
Sons are indeed a heritage from the Lord,
offspring, a reward.
Like arrows in the hand of a warrior
are the sons born in one’s youth.
Happy is the man who has filled his quiver with them.
They will never be put to shame
when they speak with their enemies at the city gate.
This morning my main point is really simple if you’re a note-taker, and that’s this: a wise person will actively seek God’s blessing. If you’re a wise person, you’re going to actively seek God’s blessing. But before we get into the meat of the psalm, notice those two words, that sentence right at the beginning, the introductory phrase. It’s a song of ascents and it’s of Solomon. If you’re new to the Bible, Solomon was one of the greatest kings of Israel. He probably lived around 9:30 BC. David, his father, had conquered nearby lands before David died, and there was peace in the land. And scripture said God gave Solomon unusual wisdom. Here’s what scripture said: “God gave Solomon wisdom and understanding beyond measure, and breadth of mind like the sand on the seashore, so that his wisdom surpassed the wisdom of all the people of the East and all the wisdom of Egypt. He also spoke 3,000 proverbs, and his songs were 1,005.” We’re going to look at one of those this morning.
We might think of that as the golden era of Israel. Israel’s at its height. A wise king is ruling over the land. Their building projects, learning, and literature and art are flourishing. It’s like a foretaste of the new heavens and new earth.
And it also says it’s a song of ascents. What does that mean? Well, to ascend is to go up. And so three times a year, all of Israel was commanded, Leave your fields, leave your trade, and come to Jerusalem for a feast. Okay, we’re going to walk or we’re going to ride a donkey. It could be as far as 90 miles. And then at the end- At the end when you are tired, you go up to Jerusalem. Jerusalem is on the top of a mountain. And so if you’re coming from Jericho, in that last bit, you’re going to climb 3,300 feet. If you’re coming from the way of the sea, you’re going to climb 2,500 feet, and you’ve got kids. What do you do? You’re looking at this destination, what do you do to take your mind off? You sing. You sing. And so in the Psalms we have songs of ascent. That’s what this is, a song of ascent.
Can I just make a quick application here? You can tell I’m not Kevin. I’m already making applications in the introduction. Do you have a good theology of singing? I know we rejoice to sing here on Sunday morning, but what about during the week and in your home? You see, music expresses our hearts. It shapes our hearts. Music teaches our hearts. I bet if I started humming a jingle about Oscar Meyer, you could finish it. Music is that powerful. It attaches words to our memory. God commands us to sing, and not just in church. I didn’t grow up in a family that made music a part of their lives, and so just realizing the biblical importance when Sharon and I were starting off, I said, “Please bring music into our family. Make it a part of our life. Make it a part of our day,” and she did that, and I am thankful. So whether single or married, is music a part of your life? As you sing, you’re reminding yourself of God’s truth. You’re teaching your family.
Well, let’s return, let’s come back to the text here. The main point is a wise person will actively seek the blessings of God. And why? Well, that’s in verses one to two. Because without His blessings, our work is in vain. Without God’s blessings, our work is in vain. You’ll see that in verses one and two. So to make a positive point, Solomon actually has us sing the negative. “Unless the Lord builds a house, its builders labor over it in vain. Unless the Lord watches over a city, the watchman stays alert in vain. In vain you get up early, stay up late, working hard to have food. Yet he gives sleep to the one he loves.” House obviously here can mean literally a building that a family lives in. No doubt it’s also meant to represent a family. Unless the Lord builds your family … This psalm is often read at a Thanksgiving service after a Jewish birth. And certainly we can apply that to the household of God. Grace Harbor, no matter what methods we have, unless God builds this church, we labor in vain. God has to build the church. God gets the glory.
Then he goes on, watching over the city, which could be any city, specifically Jerusalem . Cities with their walls are places of safety from a dangerous world. It’s a metaphor there for community. Notice with me, though, he’s got two big themes, building and protecting, watching over. Solomon’s saying, “Sing that to yourself.” If you know your Bible, do those two big themes bring to mind any other places in the Bible those come up? That’s the exact commission that God gave Adam and Eve. You are to cultivate and build and develop and produce, and you’re also to keep, that is protect and defend. See, so what Solomon is doing here is a synecdoche, where one part (or in this case, two) stand for the whole. So he’s saying, all of what humankind does is either build, cultivate, develop, or defend, watch over. And so Solomon’s saying, in everything, unless the Lord does it, it’s in vain. It’s in vain. This warning is meant to humble us, to remind us of our biggest problem, which is self-reliance and pride.
Go on to verse two. “In vain you get up early, stay up late, working hard to have enough food. Yet he gives sleep to the one he loves.” This section modifies the first section. How, how are we not to build? How are we not to watch? I think the ESV translation here is more helpful because it brings out the warning of the last verse. The CSB has working hard. Listen to the ESV translation. “It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil.” See, the Bible is pro-work. The Bible is against laziness. We are to work hard. We are worked diligently as unto the Lord, and there are going to be times that we do stay up late and get up early. So if you’re prone to passivity or laziness, those are real sins. We need to recognize them in ourselves, but there’s another sermon for you.
That’s not this one. Because what Solomon is warning against is anxious work, worried work, pressured work. I’m anxious. I’ve got to burn the candle on both ends. I’m worried. I’m fretful. I’m fearful. I’m not trusting God. Why is that? Well, well we have sometimes our theology we believe in our head, but we have our functional theology, which is how we act. And if I am worried and fretful and running around not trusting God, then what I’m really saying functionally is that it all depends on me. God, He’s busy. He got eight billion other people to look after. He can’t be concerned about my stuff, and so I’ve got to take matters into my own hands. And that means working morning, noon, and night. Do you see there repeated, there’s a drumbeat, in vain, in vain, in vain. We’re meant to feel that fatigue, that emptiness of working without the Lord’s blessing.
Now, wait a minute. This is at the end of our trip. We’re supposed to be happy, right? We’re getting to Jerusalem. Is this psalm meant to depress us? No, no, no. It’s a warning that seeks a positive response. It’s a warning against self-reliance, but an invitation to the wisdom and God-reliance. It’s meant to prompt us to actively seek God’s blessing, to realize my place in the universe and God’s place in the universe, and to draw us towards the Lord in dependence. It’s meant to move us towards our loving Father. So if you go back to verses one and two, let me ask you a question. Who is building? Is it the Lord or is it me? It’s both. It’s both, and what this does is bring us to the beautiful doctrine of God’s providence.
I want to take a moment just to briefly explain this doctrine. Maybe you’ve never even heard of it, but I think if we’re worshiping in a city named Providence, we actually ought to understand what this doctrine and what this word means. The definition or the idea is that God is continually involved in that all He has created. He keeps His creation existing, and He directs them to fulfill His purposes. I don’t know about you, but I find myself that I’m tempted to be a deist. What’s a deist? A deist believes God created the world and He’s just off somewhere else. The famous illustration is winding up a clock, and now the clock keeps going, but He’s gone somewhere else. Or maybe you can look at your own reactions and say, “Well, actually, functionally, I tend to be a materialist. I think things just happen by chance or fate.” But throughout God’s word, He clearly rejects this. Listen, let me just read some verses to you that I think will be hard to get our head around in a scientific age. The Psalmist says this about God, “You make the grass to grow for the cattle and plants to cultivate, that he may bring forth food from the earth for man.” Or what about these words by Jesus? These are Jesus’ words: “God makes the sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust.” Jesus says to us, “Look at the birds of the air. Your heavenly Father feeds those. Not one sparrow will fall to the ground without your Father’s will, and you are worth much more than many sparrows.” You see, Jesus looks out in the world and He says, Wednesday, my Father caused that to rain for you. See the bird over there? God, my, my Father is feeding that bird, and that bird, and that bird. You see that bird that fell? My Father decided it was that sparrow’s time.
You see, it’s incorrect for us to think that if we know the natural cause of something, like weather or astronomy, then God didn’t cause it. And that applies to all aspects of your life. I don’t know about you, but it, sometimes when I’m playing a game with dice, like Monopoly, and I need a number for certain money, you roll the dice and you blow. Anybody else do that? Because that brings good luck, right? Come on, big money, and you throw it. No. Proverbs 16:33, “The lot is cast in the lap, but the decision is wholly from the Lord.” Or a government. “The king’s heart is in the hand of the Lord, he turns it wherever he will.” Or your promotion, success, and failure come from God. “It is God who executes judgment, putting down one and lifting up another.” We’re taught to pray. We prayed this morning, “Give us this day our daily bread,” and then we’re to work knowing that God gives it. We build, God builds. We watch, God watches. But who is the preeminent builder and watcher? It’s God. God is the builder. Kevin introduced us as we looked at the Book of Acts. Do you remember what Luke said? He said, “In my former volume,” that is, the Gospel of Luke, “we looked at all that Jesus began to do and teach.” And so what’s the implication that the Book of Acts is? It’s all that Jesus continues to do and teach. See, Jesus said, “I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.” God is the great worker. “My Father is always at work.” And because of that, verse two, we can sleep. You see this in the last stanzas of the first section. He gives sleep to the one he loves.
And now there’s a turn from warning to encouragement, and we see God’s heart, that the one who neither slumbers nor sleeps gives sleep to the ones he trusts. You know, sleep is very humbling, right? You have to sleep. You have to let go. You have to say, I’m not in control, but the one who’s neither slumbers nor sleeps is. Notice who he gives sleep to: the one he loves. I think Solomon, kind of in an Alfred Hitchcock-like moment, is inserting himself here because when he was born, he was named Solomon, but Nathan the prophet came and said his name will be Jedidiah, beloved of the Lord. The Lord gives sleep. Solomon is running a whole kingdom. That’ll keep you up at night. He’s saying, I’m beloved of the Lord, and he gives sleep to that. But he bequeaths that name in Christ to us. We are beloved of the Lord. That title is true of all God’s people. It’s meant to belong to the Lord. You are, if you’re in Christ, beloved of the Lord, Jedidiah.
Christian, if you’re in Christ, that’s you. You are beloved. Jesus said to his Father in prayer, “I have made you known to them in order that the love you have for me may be in them.” I think some of the deepest mysteries of the Christian life are further and further apprehending the love of God for us. In the gospel, in Christ, you’re already blessed. So this morning, don’t hear the prosperity gospel. Don’t hear that, because God in Ephesians 1 tells us, God has blessed us. He’s already given us spiritual blessings in Christ.
Let me just stop and take a moment and address you if you’re not a follower of Christ. I’m excited that you’re here. This may be your first time; this may be your 15th. But I wonder if you could identify in your heart with the first part of the Psalm that says to yourself, It feels like my life is in vain. It feels like everything I’ve built is like a sandcastle that’s going to get washed away by the tide. I want to encourage you; that’s the Spirit working in your heart. That’s the Spirit. But part of my own testimony, going to college here, was looking. I was thinking, I’m starting my life out. What is the purpose of life? Do other people have the purpose? Jesus says He offers the purpose, but do other people? And to look at those who are giving themselves to partying and pleasure and protest, and I realized even as a 20-year-old, those are all empty. Those are all in vain. You attend a frat party on Friday night, and you wake up with the emptiness of Saturday morning. To be under God’s blessing, you need to be beloved. And to be beloved, you need to come to Christ. See, by nature we’re born under God’s judgment. We’re born disconnected. And though we’re made to love Him and receive love for Him, we try and fill that emptiness with all sorts of things. Money, popularity, pleasures, anything we can do to self-medicate. Meanwhile, we know we’re not right with the one who made us. It’s meant to drive us to Jesus. C.S. Lewis said it this way: “God whispers to us in our pleasures. He speaks to us in our conscience, but He shouts in our pains. It is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.” So if you feel like, as we read through that first part, you’re like, “That’s me,” come to Christ. Admit your need. Come to the one who is beloved, Christ. The Father said, “This is the one whom I love,” talking about Jesus, “Listen to Him.” And what did Jesus say? “Come to me all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me. For I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” You can do that right now. Come to Christ.
But maybe for those of us who are Christians even though we have the spiritual blessings, we can feel like sometimes, Yeah, actually I feel like it’s in vain too. I wonder. But if you look at the New Testament, it is filled with promises to remind us that it is not in vain. Paul in 1 Corinthians 15, the longest section about the resurrection, is talking about the resurrection and how we will be raised with Christ. Christ is the first fruits. And how does he end that whole discourse? With these words: “Be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord because you know your labor in the Lord is not in vain.” Your labor, Christian, in the Lord is not in vain. In Hebrews 6, the believing Jews are thinking about turning back. They’ve invested all this in following Jesus, then they’re thinking of turning back, and the writer says this: “God is not unjust so as to overlook your work and the love you’ve shown for His name in serving the saints, as you still do.” And Paul, towards the end of his life, he could say, “I know whom I have believed, and I’m persuaded that He is able to keep that which I’ve committed until that day.” Amen. Your work, your labor that nobody sees, that nobody tweets about, that you don’t put up on Instagram, is not in vain. In fact, the more secret, the better. So know that. God sees.
One day there will be the great reversal and the great reward. But God, in His grace and out of love, may give His beloved, you and me, hard times where you will seek a greater dependence on Him. We don’t have enough time for me to recount all that God had to do to teach this stubborn heart. We could talk about a failed church plant or two. We could talk about failed friendships. We could talk about failed initiatives until God twisted my arm to say, Okay, Lord, I get it. You want me to come to you first. I wonder if that’s true for you. I wonder if you need to think, How do I apply? How do I think about, yes, I get it, unless the Lord builds the house” So let me just think about four different things that might help you really get the import of this psalm. The first is just to humble yourself. Humble myself. Repent of my pride and my self-reliance. Jesus said, Jesus repeats in the same idea when He says this: “Apart from me, you can do nothing.” You can do nothing. “But whoever abides in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit.” Jesus saying the same message, “Abide in me. Apart from me you can do nothing, but if you abide, you will bear much fruit.” And still under this idea of humbling oneself is thanking God. Paul asks rhetorically in 1 Corinthians 4:7, “What do you have that you didn’t receive?” Nothing. The quotation is, “Some people are born on third base and think they hit a triple.” That’s not true. God, He gives us everything. So one, humble ourselves actively.
Two, just stop and ask God. That’s what prayer is, declaring our inability. That’s one aspect. That’s what we do on Sunday night. But we just need to make sure on Sunday night we’re not just going through the routine. What the heart behind that means, God, we can’t do this. You have to do this.” With a humble heart passionately asking for God’s blessing. Not just asking. In the Old Testament, there’s a subset of prayer called crying out. That’s like prayer on steroids. God, hear my prayer. Along with that, we might fast. We’ll come back to that later in the Book of Acts as we go through Acts, and we’ll see Paul is fasting, giving up something. So those are just different ways to pray. So humbling ourselves, stopping and asking God.
And then here’s the one I had to learn, which is actually inquiring of God. See, actually, this should go before prayer because a lot of times I would say, Here’s my plans. Oh, Lord, please bless, please bless. I’m in trouble. And I’d feel a sense in my spirit Him saying, Well, did you really ask me before? And I had to learn, okay, I’m going to go before the Lord. I’m going to invite correction. I’m going to search the scripture. Paul Tripp has said, “Your view of yourself is about as accurate as a carnival mirror.” You know those mirrors? Fat people look thin, thin people look… That’s me. I need scripture. I need to pray, Lord, what is wrong with my thinking? I want to ask your counsel.
And then a fourth aspect is just acting. Just acting. How many times did I pray and pray and pray and pray, and finally I just felt the Lord saying, Yeah, yeah, I heard you. You just need to act. You just don’t want to act out of fear. “Okay, Lord. Yes, yes.” Let me just tell you, an interesting way this worked out with a young man, not in this state, who just felt frozen in a job search, and counterintuitively set aside a day to fast and pray. And in that, God gave him guidance, God heard his prayer, God gave him energy, and he broke through. That’s just one example.
Well, let’s go back, because then Solomon seems to shift gears, or does he? It’s an abrupt shift. It can seem like this last section, three to five, stands by itself. So we’re seeing that a wise person actively seeks God blessing, verses one and two. Why? Because without God’s blessing, our work is in vain. But then verses three to five, which is the second point if you’re taking notes, is a switch, but it’s the same. Children are a blessing from the Lord. That’s the second point if you’re taking notes. “Children are a blessing. Sons are indeed a heritage from the Lord, offspring a reward. Like arrows in the hands of a warrior are sons born in one’s youth. Happy is the man who has filled his quiver with them. They will never be put to shame when they speak with their enemies at the gate.” Here the psalmist is telling us what is one of those blessings? It’s children. And the idea here is the first word he uses has the idea of gift. Behold, children are a gift. The idea of inheritance and a reward.
Let me just stop. And you might say, Okay, how are you going to preach this passage? Because it’s so obvious. Well, let me ask you this. One of the things that I do, and I would commend it to you as you, as you study the Bible, when you’re reading something obvious, ask, Why does God feel like he needs to tell us this? What are the lies in the world that this truth is meant to, to counteract? And I want to suggest a couple, because God is saying in this passage, you need to hear children are a blessing from the Lord. Happy is the man whose quiver is full of them. Why do we need to hear that? Well, I think there’s a couple reasons. First, 99% of the world thinks that children are created entirely by themselves. Conception is just so common that people think God has nothing to do with it, right? One sinner gets together with another sinner and creates a third little sinner. And so therefore, these are my children. But God comes and says, No. Children are a gift from me, planned or unplanned. They’re a present, a reward from me. I knit them together in that womb, and I am giving them to you. See them as such. They’re a gift. Children, you are a blessing to us. You might drive your parents a little crazy, but you are a blessing. You are a reward. The worst church to walk into is a church that has no children. So you are a blessing, and I hope you feel that. God’s people are not to have a child-centered culture, but we are to have a child-loving culture.
But there’s another reason this verse is needed even more today, and more and more the world is telling us that children are not a gift, but they are a burden. They’re holding me back from my best life. And if God commands us to be fruitful and multiply, and that still applies to you and me today, then we’re going to expect the world to oppose, and Satan to oppose that idea, and that’s exactly what we find. Brad Wilcox, who’s a psychologist, records a study where he asks teenage girls about their aspirations. And these are teen girls today, and they’re saying, Owning a house? Yeah, that’s very likely. Finding a rewarding job? That’s very likely. Getting married to someone I like? Oh, yeah, that’s very likely. Being a mom, less than half. Less than half. Why? The message is getting through that children are a burden. And I just want to take a few minutes here and think about three lies that are in the world that may be pressing against you, may be pressing against someone that you know. They come from a 2024 survey of the Pew Research Group. But the main one is it would actually take away from my best life. I mean, they get in the way, right? I want to be free. I want to do whatever I want. It’s going to take away from my career, my travel, my luxuries. If that idea has come upon you, I just want to tell you, I’ve recently had a little career success. I’ve been able to travel and speak internationally, and it’s great, I’ll tell you. But I promise you, nothing compares to the joy that my biological children and spiritual children give me. Nothing. John, in 3 John 4: “I have no greater joy,” says John, “than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.” Contrary to what the world tells you, Dr. Wilcox’s research, do you know who the happiest women are in general, Christian, non-Christian, painting all across? The happiest women are religious women who are mothers. Children are not keeping you from your best life. They are your best life. Are children a lot of work? Yes, but they’re not a burden. God gives us eternal souls that you get to influence.
Moms and dads, if you’re in the midst of this, I know the days are long and the, but the years are few. And I want to quote some wisdom from Andy from the TV show The Office: “I wish,” he said, “there was a way to know that you’re in the good old days before you actually left them.” Moms and dads, if you’re actively parenting, you are in the good old days. You’re in the good old days. Life changes, it’s still good, but you are in the good old days. So brothers and sisters, don’t .et this thinking affect you. We need to call it what it is. It’s self-centeredness. It’s refusing God’s best. So this Psalm is encouraging in saying, Seek God’s blessing. And I’m saying, “I want all types of blessings, and as many as I can.” Happy is the man whose quiver is full.
So that’s one objection. Another is fear. Fear of my own upbringing. I don’t think I could be a good mother or father, or fear or how much they cost. Man, let me just tell you about remembering that with how much we cost. When Sharon and I were starting a family, we are poorer than poor. I mean, we would debate, are we going to get one two-liter thing of soda this week or two? That’s how tight things were. And I went and I asked some guys, “How much does formula cost? How much do diapers cost?” And they kind of shrugged their shoulders. They’re like, “I don’t know. If it’s important, you make it work.” Related to that is perhaps you’ve grown up in a harsh family, a hard family. Let me just say this to you tenderly. God is faithful. He gives us the resources we need for the journey. We parent by faith and not by fear. So do you believe that your parents’ ability to harm is more powerful than Christ’s ability to heal? I don’t. Maybe giving to another life might be the exact healing you need. So those were two objections that he came across that this counters. Children are a blessing, a reward, a gift. One is it takes away from my best life. Two is I’ve been so scarred by my upbringing.
But there’s a third one here, and all of us hear this, which is basically, “I don’t want to bring them another life into this doomed, chaotic world.” If you listen to the constant drumbeat of the news or become a doomer, we’re on the brink of a climate crisis, resources are scarce, the life we’re living is not unsustainable at this population. This is a particular pernicious lie of the devil. Can I give you some just historical context? I just want to help you, especially if you’re younger. We have been running out of resources since 1798. Seriously, 1798, Robert Malthus, a British economist, you can look him up, he’s the one who started this idea, published an essay on the principles of population arguing we would run out of resources in 1798. In 1968, Dr. Paul Ehrlich published The Population Bomb, very popular, sold over two million copies. 1970 now, okay, here’s his quotes: “The battle to feed all of humanity is over. In the 1970s, hundreds of millions of people will starve to death. Sometimes in the next 15 years, the, the end will come, and by the end, I mean an utter breakdown of the capacity of the planet to support humanity.” That was 55 years ago. Two words for these lies: but God. Amen. But God. But God decides when the universe ends, and but God has created men and women who are not just consumers, but who are creators, who are stewarding the Earth, creating technology where we’ve gotten more food per acre and more energy per resource. You may give birth to the person who will be that scientist. So don’t fall for the doomsday lies.
One other application here, and that is to those who are single and childless. While I think this verse first applies to the biological family, it also applies to the family of God. Maybe you’re single and you long for children, or you’ve struggled with infertility or the choices perhaps that you made in the past. God sees and God knows that ache. And while you continue to cry out to Him, don’t forget that we live in the New Testament era. Because two weeks ago, if you were here and you heard the sermon, we saw the Ethiopian eunuch who went from outsider to insider. Obviously as a eunuch, no biological children, but early writers like Irenaeus and Eusebius record that he returned to his homeland to preach the gospel, establishing the historical roots of the faith in the region. Don’t miss, he who was childless became the father of the faith in that region. We don’t live in the Old Testament era, when the biological family was preeminent. In the New Testament era, the family of God supersedes the biological family. Jesus claimed that love for Him was going to cause division in the biological family. And so the New Testament presents the single life and the married life as equally blessed by God. In the church, the fatherless find fathers, the motherless find mothers, and the childless find children. So single brother, sister, this verse is for you as well. Children, the children of this church are a blessing and a reward. So, Nicea, we should have too many volunteers for Sunday school. Why? Well, because this is the next generation. You are discipling the next generation. We ought to be encouraging this interaction.
You know, the youth literature, and I know our young people are away, but the youth literature says that if you’re organizing a youth group, for every five youth, you want one worker. When we were raising our teens, I wanted to reverse that. For every one of my children, I wanted to have five or four or three or some adults that would invest in their life. Parents, are you inviting the church in? And why do we need help? Look in verse four. Look in verse four. Why do we need help with the whole church? Because what are children like? Like arrows in the hands of a warrior are sons born in one’s youth. Happy is the man who fills his quiver with them. They will never be put to shame when he speaks with the enemies at the city gate. Sons that are born in one’s youth are like arrows when they get older. The picture here is conflict, that that warrior is making arrows for conflict, and if you’re in conflict, you want as many arrows as possible. Look, I’ve kind of been hinting at this already, but we just need to remember, we don’t have children like we have a puppy: to keep you company, make us feel good. This Psalm is saying there’s a toughness, a mission, a purpose to having children. You can look over if you want to at Psalm 128, which balances that toughness, with the tender part. Verse 3: “Your wife will be called a fruitful vine within your house. Your children, children will be olive shoots around your table. Behold, thus shall the man be blessed who fears the Lord.” So there’s the tender part. But in this Psalm, Solomon is emphasizing the conflict, that the primary reward is not in the early years, but in the adult years, that the children and the father will never be put to shame when they speak with their enemies at the city gate.
What does that mean? That’s kind of weird. Well, in a Jewish city, it would’ve been a walled stone city, and entrances would’ve been gathering places for the elders or decision-makers of the city. So we can see Genesis 23, finalizing business decisions, arranging marriages, settling disputes. In other words, the city gate was like the city hall, the courthouse, where the leaders gathered to make the laws. And what is implied in this is that this blessed man who has sharpened these arrows, there is relational connection and discipleship connection. The children have been taught and persuaded to follow Yahweh, and persuaded in righteousness, and they have been taught courage when there’s conflict. And so when conflict comes along, they stand beside their father. Here’s what makes this Psalm so beautiful, is it comes full circle. We’re back talking about Psalm, verse one and verse two, where the idea of building and watching, creating and defending. And then how, in verse three and five, does God do that? One of the ways God does that is through adult children.
See, what’s our goal, Mom and Dad, child? Grace Harbor, what’s our goal for raising biological children and children of the church? It’s not just churchgoers. It’s not even just disciples, but disciple-makers who will stand as salt and light wherever they are. Christian influence and molding works its way out from the family to the church, and yes, even to the city hall, even into the political realm. If we’re going to be what Jesus calls us to be, salt and light, then that means times of loving, courageous truth speaking that causes conflict Someone has said, “Duty is ours, but results are God’s.” We’re And so as we raise our kids, are we going to raise them so that we and they run towards the battle? Being willing to have hard conversations. I mean, that’s what we talk about almost every Sunday, speaking about Jesus. But speaking about Jesus in righteousness even in the city hall, what’s amazing to me, if Solomon’s ruling, is this is a time of peace. This is a time of peace. And yet he knows it’s not the final peace. It’s not the peace that Jesus will usher in. And until that point, there will be conflict. And God is talking about raising our children and standing for righteousness.
Let me just finish up with two or three applications. One, to the marrieds. If you’re married, God says children are a blessing. Don’t you want as many blessings as you can get? I’m serious. Don’t buy the lies. Parenting has always been about faith and not sight. You get an eternal soul that you get to influence. Another is, how can you connect those children with others in the church? You’re raising them to stand as salt and light in the world.
Let me just make a second application, very short. I know in a room like this there are parents of prodigals. Just remember that this is a poetic metaphor, and it breaks down because unlike the arrow, our adult children have a mind of their own. We can influence, but we cannot nor should not control them. But that’s another talk.
Third application: so if you’re single and you want children, connect with these little guys. Ask how you can pray for them. Learn their names. Volunteer in childcare. Parents and pastors, are we praying and teaching our children to be salt and light? Some of us who are older, Grace Harbor, if I could just give you a personal exhortation. There was a time that the kids in my church up the road were our kids’ age. Very quickly, 12 will turn into 25. We need to invest. We need to see them and be praying that they will stand as salt and light. We just recently celebrated our 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence in 1776. But a few years later, at the Constitutional Convention, June 28th, it was locked in arguing. They’re trying to redo the Constitution, and Ben Franklin, who was not a believer by any means, made this motion for continual prayer with these words: “I have lived, sir, a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth, that God governs the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without his notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without his aid? We have been assured, sir, in the sacred writings that except the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain that build it. I firmly believe this, and a- I also believe that without his concurring aid, we shall succeed in this political building no better than the builders of Babel.” Grace Harbor, unless the Lord builds the house, unless the Lord watches over your family, unless the Lord defends our church, unless the Lord builds this church, it’ll be in vain. Let’s humbly acknowledge and cry out for his blessing. Let’s pray.
Father, thank you. Great is your faithfulness as we have sung. And so even as we cry out and say, “Lord, unless you build the house, we labor in vain,” we also say, “And yet you are faithful. You are building.” “My Father is always at work,” Jesus said. Jesus, you are building your church. So we, we rejoice in that, and yet help us humble ourselves even more, more as you bring trials to say, “Lord, I am dependent upon you.” Would you take the particular circumstances in our lives right now, encourage us, use this sermon to cry out to you for your blessing and your aid. Why? Because we’re beloved in Christ. We’re beloved in Christ. Wow. And you bless and take care of your children. We pray in Christ’s name. Amen.
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