1 Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it: except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but 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 giveth his beloved sleep.
3 Lo, children are an heritage of the Lord: and the fruit of the womb is his reward.
4 As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth.
5 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.
Those building cities and homes must trust in the Lord, believe that their children are a blessing, and that they will be a blessing in their generation.
Peace and happiness. There is so much we cannot control about our family, our children, and our nation. We certainly cannot sovereignly ordain the outcome of any and all events. When we remember that God is in control, we can sleep peacefully. And when we look at our children, we are reminded that God has given us these gifts. We are recipients of the kindnesses of God and we are happy.
Verses 1-2
How will a city survive, if there are no watchmen and no men to defend it? How will a house be built, if men do not build it? How will our children be raised, if we do not raise them? This psalm introduces the apparent paradox of God’s sovereignty and human responsibility. Who builds the house and who defends the city from marauders? Most people will say that a father and a mother build the house, and soldiers defend the city or country. However, this psalm calls for God to build the house and watch over the city. All is vain if the Lord’s hand is not in it. Of course, the Lord does not build the house with hammers or keep the city with guns and surface-to-air missiles. His hand is active in a thousand different ways. But if He chooses not to protect the city or bless our covenant households, then all of our work is vain. All the military armaments in the world cannot protect a city or a nation that God assigns to destruction.
Given that God builds the house, we had better look to God for His work in our homes and churches. Though our hands may be busy doing the work of building homes and church communities, our eyes must be fastened upon the hands of God to do the real work. It is only God that can guarantee any success of our work.
One of the best tests of faith is found in sleeping. Troubles with sleeping oftentimes are connected to weakness in faith. When a person comes to think, “everything depends on me,” he will soon find that he cannot rest well. Who will watch over all of his responsibilities while he sleeps? This is an important test as to whether or not we really do believe that God retains absolute control over all things.
Verse 3
At a time when 99% of women use birth control and the worldwide birth rate has plummeted from 5.0% to 2.5% since 1960, it is harder to find families who agree with this statement: “Children are a blessing from God.” This passage does not command couples to produce a certain number of children per family. However, there is this statement of indicative truth: Children are an heritage of the Lord, and the fruit of the womb is His reward. Christian churches that see the average birth rate within their communities falling from 3.0 to 1.5 ought to be concerned that God may be withholding His blessings. This, however, is not the way many see it. According to the Guttmacher Institute, 73% of evangelical Christians and 68% of Roman Catholics use a high-efficiency form of birth control. Are Christians giving way to the materialism and self-centeredness of the day? While there is no mandate for a family to have “as many children as possible,” or “adopt as many children as possible,” Christian parents ought to receive children into their families as God’s good gifts. If a nation’s birth rate drops to half of what it was over the last one hundred years, while the square footage of the average house has doubled in size, we must conclude that this nation prefers drywall to babies. A preference for material wealth and a convenient lifestyle has trumped the kingdom of God and His righteousness in the minds of many Western Christians.
Verses 4-5
These verses reveal more of the blessings that come with children. A skilled and powerful warrior does well when he is armed with plenty of ammunition, arrows, and grenades. These armaments facilitate what he does best. This is the picture used for the children that sit around the kitchen table in a God-fearing home. Children raised in the covenant home become useful in the hands of Christ. Remember, Christ is robbing the rich man’s house and building His own kingdom. Verse five speaks of strength, courage, and unity. When brothers are bound together by blood and by Christ, there is a special strength and courage that forms against the enemy: the world, the flesh, and the devil. In some cases, our children will take leadership in the gates as pastors or civil leaders. The gates represent the place of leadership (whether in church or state). In this capacity, they exhibit even more courage when they take on the antithesis.
Note also that these are arrows in the hand of Christ, the ultimate “mighty man.” These arrows cannot achieve anything apart from the mighty One who deploys them to the benefit of His Kingdom. May God give us children who are dangerous to the enemy, and useful to the King of kings who must reign until all of His enemies are under His footstool!
Let us be very careful not to think of ourselves as sovereignly determining the state of our family. We can fail at a thousand points. Any lapse, spiritual or practical, could produce dire consequences. You can be the very best automobile driver and still be involved in a fatal accident just one hour from now. So let us trust in God. Let us believe that He will work all things for good, because He truly has “the whole wide world in His hands.”
The greatest enemy exhibits itself in the form of ideas (2 Cor. 10:4, 5). Where young men and women are trained carefully in biblical thinking, they are equipped to oppose the ideas of humanists, evolutionists, feminists, existentialists, Unitarians, and others that have undermined the faith in the Western world. These battles are fought in the universities, the churches, the media, and in the publishing industry. May God raise up powerful weapons in our own homes against these forces.
The Lord builds His church. In the ultimate sense, we have no control over who will attend our church, who will be faithful, and who will be unfaithful. We have no control over who will listen to the sermon and apply it, and who will not. We have no control over which children will apostatize and which will not. “On this rock,” says Jesus, “I will build My church.” Peter doesn’t build the church, and neither do we. Our great wisdom and powerful personalities are of little use when we are set against the sinful hearts of men. When we gather together, let us remember that it is the Lord that has assembled these living stones. Not us.
1. How does this Psalm speak of the Sovereignty of God? Do armies guard our country, or does God guard our country?
2. What is one of the best tests of true faith?
3. What has happened to the worldwide birth rate since 1960?
4. How are we to think about our children?
5. What does it mean to “speak with the enemy in the gates?”
1. Does our family rest in God’s sovereignty, or are we more inclined to rely on our own efforts as we build our home?
2. Why are people less inclined to have children in our day? Which of these are good and godly motives, and which are ungodly motives?