Psalm 127 – Laboring and Prospering with the Lord:
A Song of Ascents. Of Solomon.
“Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it; unless the Lord guards the city, the watchman stays awake in vain. 2 It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows; for so He gives His beloved sleep. 3 Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb is a reward. 4 Like arrows in the hand of a warrior, so are the children of one’s youth. 5 Happy is the man who has his quiver full of them; they shall not be ashamed, but shall speak with their enemies in the gate.”
Anytime someone wants to build, rebuild, or restore something, it requires much labor and intentional thought; stuff just doesn’t get built. The proverbial phrase, ‘Rome wasn’t built in a day’ would apply here. The idea of God building the house would apply to anything that we are attempting to build, be it a brick and mortal project, a business venture, a relationship, a marriage, a church or ministry, and even a family. We build our reputation on what we do and say, and how we react and interact with others, that’s just the way it is, good or bad. If God is in the building process, and I mean like He is the one who is doing the building, whatever it is that you’re building will stand. I cite the story of the wise and foolish men who built their houses (Matthew 7:24-26), one built his house on the rock and the other on the sand. The rock is the Christ, the sand is anything else but the Christ.
During the tribulation there is going to be an attempt to rebuild the world under a new system of leadership, antichrist leadership, in other words, sand leadership. Whatever it is that these globalists attempt to do in building a new world order during the tribulation will fail and fail miserably. Their labors will be as vain as their efforts to protect what little they attempt to do. When the Lord returns to the earth with His Church after the seven-year tribulation, He will set things right and judge all those wicked leaders and people who attempted to circumvent His will for the world. I speak of the coming millennial reign of Christ, the Rock on which Christ’ global rule will be built.
The lesson here is clear, it’s a worthless effort to build anything on that which is NOT the Christ. As hard as we can work, it does us no good to build or do anything if we don’t do it as unto the Lord. God tells us in this psalm that He will give His beloved sleep; that sweet Jesus sleep that we need to heal, to rest, to recover for the next day. This is the gift of God. We are His beloved, true believers in Jesus.
The man who wrote this psalm was Solomon, David’s son. The Bible tells us that he had 700 wives and 300 concubines. Me thinks this man had a lot of kids. Here he says that ‘children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb is God’s reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior, so are the children of one’s youth.’ Kids are both a liability and an asset. The more good and positive that we pour into them, the better people they will grow to be; especially when it comes to the things of the Lord.
Solomon says that a man who has a quiver full of children will be happy. How many arrows can be put into a quiver? I guess it depends on the size of the quiver and the arrows. Arrows are designed to be shot into the heart of the enemy; likewise, we are to train up our children to be prepared to be shot into the heart of the enemy of our soul. They must be trained in the ways of the Lord; after all, they are God’s heritage, His godly offspring (seed) in the earth (Malachi 2:15). Here Solomon says that this man’s children will not shame them but ‘speak with their enemies at the gate.’ This has more to do with negotiation skills, conflict resolution mannerisms, and good old fashioned get-along-ability; even though they could overpower them just the same.
When the Lord raptures His Church, He is taking all of the children, all of them. This includes babies, toddlers, younglings, and even the unborn. While the ages will range differently when it comes to accountability for each child, God alone will decide. This means that the post-rapture world will be childless for at least 9 months. After that, babies will start to be born from women again. These children will be as vulnerable as their parents during the tribulation, but no doubt many will survive and make it to the Judgment of the Nations, a judgment reserved for all of the survivors of the tribulation; trib-saints, Jews, and people who have the mark in them. There they will be judged accordingly, but those little duffers who are born during the tribulation will get a free pass into the millennial kingdom, regardless of how their parents lived or were judged. This is God’s grace manifested once again on the little ones. While this psalm can be applied to everyday life, I feel that it pertains to what will be happening during the tribulation, at least the first half. We won’t know for sure on this side of the veil because we won’t be here when it happens; but too many others will. Get saved today and if you are saved, stay that way, the Master is almost here.
Maranatha!
Encouragemen is a blog written by Pastor Rob Lee, recently relocated to Northern Missouri. He lives with his wife of 33-years, near their three adult children, their spouses, and children (their grandchildren). Pastor Rob is an Ordained Assemblies of God minister, a former Lead Pastor (25 years), police chaplain, and community advocate. He continues to serve, consult, and disciple men of God, including those who are in the ministry.
Encourage Men 