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Aug 30, 2020

Taking Stock

Passage: Psalms

Preacher: Tim Badal

Series:Summer Playlist

Detail:

We’ve been looking at the music of God in our series “Summer Playlist.” The book of Psalms is God’s playlist for us, His people. It was written by a number of individuals in different circumstances and includes songs of praise, lament, confession and even songs of confusion. Yet all of them point to our need to engage with our God, asking Him to actively intervene in our lives.

Psalm 127 is a different kind of song—a song about wisdom. Here we’ll see reasons why we need wisdom in this world. It will also give us truths we can apply to our lives and that will draw us into fellowship with our God. Songs of wisdom are not that common in our contemporary music. Sometimes I think country songs can be songs of wisdom, reminding you to be good to your truck and your dog, because you don’t’ want to lose either of them. I think of a song from 1997 that was a “spoken word” song, that came out of a graduation speech given to a group of students. The name of that song was “Always Wear Sunscreen.” It offered words of wisdom about what young people should and should not do as they entered adulthood. It’s a clever song that you might want to look up later.

Psalm 127 offers similar words of wisdom. We read that this Psalm is said to be “of Solomon,” although there’s a question as to whether Solomon was the actual writer. If you don’t know who Solomon was, he was the third king of Israel. Under his reign Israel had the largest kingdom it ever had in its history. King Solomon was also known to be the wisest of all men who have walked the earth. He either wrote this himself, or perhaps this is a song written to Solomon by his father, King David. Either way, it’s a Psalm of wisdom. Ironically, if it’s a song written either by King David or King Solomon, some of the advice it gives includes things they themselves did not follow.

This reminds us that it’s easy to preach something, but it’s a whole other thing to apply it to our own lives. Parents, it’s easy for us to say, “Do as I say, but not as I do.” So we need to realize that the wisdom we’ll see in this Psalm will do us no good if all we do is read or speak it. We have to live out these truths.

Along with being a Psalm “of Solomon,” the heading also tells us that it’s a “Song of Ascents.” There are many such songs in the book of Psalms; they were to be sung or recited by God’s people on their way to the temple festivals in which they would participate each year. It was the like CD in the car CD player as they drove to their religious services. It was important that their hearts be prepared for the festival activities in which they worshiped and honored God.

So let me ask how did you prepare yourself as you came to church this morning? What got you ready to stand in the presence of God? We can look around and see what you did to be in our presence. You took a shower, put on clean clothes and arrived on time. That prepared you to be with us and we’re thankful you’re here. But the deeper question is what did you do to prepare yourself to be in the presence of the Almighty?

God wanted His children to be ready to enter His presence, so He asked them to take stock of their lives. They needed to ponder where they were as a people. It wasn’t about their talk, but rather a question of whether they were really living the way they said they were.

I would recommend that you take Sunday mornings as a time to quiet your heart and take stock of your life. Before the new week begins, look back over the past week to see what life looked like. Were you faithful? And if, like me, you weren’t, what areas do you need to confess? Are there areas in your life that are showing wear and tear? Are there places you need God to speak into in a real way? This is the time when we prepare ourselves to hear God’s Word. We ask ourselves, “Am I where God wants me to be?”

This song of preparation was asking God’s people to consider whether or not they were building their lives for His glory? Were they living with God in mind? Look at Psalm 127, beginning in verse one:

1 Unless the Lord builds the house,
    those who build it labor in vain.
Unless the Lord watches over the city,
    the watchman stays awake in vain.
2 It is in vain that you rise up early
    and go late to rest,
eating the bread of anxious toil;
    for he gives to his beloved sleep.

3 Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord,
    the fruit of the womb a reward.
4 Like arrows in the hand of a warrior
    are the children of one's youth.
5 Blessed is the man
    who fills his quiver with them!
He shall not be put to shame
    when he speaks with his enemies in the gate.

These words were intended to prepare God’s people to worship. What about these words accomplished that purpose? I see three things in this Psalm that I believe are warnings, even though they’re not specifically positioned that way in the original Hebrew. Still, there’s a sense of warning, because if we’re not doing certain things, we may find ourselves with undesirable results.

Several times the psalmist tells us that when we don’t invite God into our lives, we will live life “in vain.” We see that first in verse one, where we’ll labor in vain and stay awake in vain. Then in verse two we read that we will rise up early and to go bed late in vain. All of our activities will be futile.

This implies that it was actually Solomon who wrote this Psalm, because he was known for seeing things that were vanity and things that had value. He says when God is not in our lives, we live lives of vanity. For us, the word vanity might bring to mind a person looking in the mirror and loving how they look, but in this context it refers to futility and worthlessness. It communicates the sense that everything a person has done has no lasting value. Each of us desires that our activities, work and families would leave a lifelong legacy, not be lives of vanity. If we don’t want to live life in vain, there are three things we need to be careful about.

Don’t overestimate your part.

King Solomon was a very important man with an important job. He dealt not only with domestic issues but also with international affairs. Everyone came to him for advice and wisdom. Yet Solomon says, “Be careful not to think it’s all about you.” He says three words twice in our text that remind us of this: “Unless the Lord.” Essentially what he’s saying is, “As you approach God, don’t forget that apart from Him, you and I can do nothing.”

Do you believe that in your heart this morning? Do you believe that unless the Lord shows up in your life each and every day, you would be lost? Do you think about that as you go to work?

I’m a business man and when my business is going well, I begin to think, “Look what I have done. Look what my business savvy has created.” Some of us will be going to work tomorrow with a chip on our shoulders because we think we’re the ones who closed the deal, who got the new client, who built up the profit margins. It’s about us. But the psalmist is saying to the workman, to the office manager, “Unless the Lord shows up in this, you’re lost.”

Some of you students right now are patting yourself on the back. It’s been another week of great education, where you passed that test or you aced that exam. You look back and think, “Look at what I’ve done. I’m one of the smartest kids in my class. I studied hard and I’ve done this.” Yes, you’ve studied, but have you ever realized the brain God has given you plays a part in that as well? The teachers, textbooks and other resources God has given you do play a part in it, but students, don’t overestimate the part you play by thinking it’s all about you.

Athletes do this as well. “Look at the baskets I scored. Look at the goals I tallied in the score book. Look at my numbers—they continue to drop in my golf game. It’s all about me.” What they forget is that God created their bodies and it’s He Who gives them strength.

That phrase “unless the Lord” is a humbling phrase. “Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain” (verse one). They’re building something, but they haven’t invited God into it. So whether you’re a homemaker, a business individual, a student or an athlete—wherever you are and no matter what you do—is the Lord in it? If He’s not, you’re doing it on your own, which will lead to futility and vanity.

It will change the way we plan our lives.

How do we know if we’re doing this right? How do we know if we’ve invited God in? There are a couple things to consider. First, acknowledging Him will change the way we plan. The psalmist doesn’t say this, but we know that if we’re going to build a house, we have to have a plan. Even with a plan, we must remember that the future is unknown to us.

James 4:13-16 reminds us how to plan by bringing God into it:

13 Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit"—14 yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. 15 Instead you ought to say, "If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” 16 As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.

How are you planning for the future? In your plan for building your life, do you stop to ask God to show up? Do you recognize your frailty? Can you say to God, “I’m going to give this day and my future over to You. All I’m going to be a part of is in Your hands. I’m going to wait to hear from You and follow what You say”? This will change the way we plan our lives.

It will change the way we practice life.

In other words, it will affect our everyday decisions. It will impact things like how we spend our money, how we invest our time, the people we interact with, what we might seek to acquire or not acquire. All of these decisions need to be made through the lens of God’s will, not only of our own desires.

“God, what do You have to say about my spending? What do You have to say about where I live, what I drive, how I invest my money? God, I want You to tell me how to invest my time. Am I using it for Your purposes? I don’t want to build my life simply for myself or even for my family. More importantly, I want to build it for You. That’s the reason I want to hear from You. I want to know what You have to say.”

It will lead us to prayer.

This will not only change the way we plan our lives and how we practice our lives, but it should also lead us to prayer. Are we praying? A life that does not have God involved is a life that does not pray. A life that has no need for God is a life that is prayerless. If God is the Master Builder, if He’s the One Who protects what we do and gives us all we have, should we be in conversation with Him?

I tell my catering employees, “When you’re on the job and I call, answer the phone.” Every once in a while they’ll ask me, “Why?” I tell them, “That event is worth thousands of dollars. If you handed me thousands of dollars, you would want to know what I was doing with it. Likewise, you’re taking my equipment, food I’ve purchased, my name to a group of people. You might think these things would concern me. I want to hear from you. I want to know how the job is going. I want to know what went well and what did not go well, because I’ve got a vested interest in this event.”

That’s what God is saying to you as His people. “I have a vested interest in your life. I created you. I’ve given you life and breath and everything you need. I’m the Builder of your life; all your wealth and resources have come from Me. I want to hear from you. I want to know how things are going. I want to know where things are good and where they’re not good. I want to hear from My creation because I have a vested interest in you.”

For believers, it’s even more important that we stay connected to God, because He’s put His Holy Spirit in our hearts as a deposit. He wants to know what’s going on with us. He wants to know what we’re building, how we’re planning and how we’re practicing life. How we’re praying will reveal if we’re building a life of vanity or a life of value that brings glory and honor to God.

That’s the first principle he wants us to know: don’t overestimate the part you play, because God is in this as well.

Don’t overdo it at work.

Some of you just said, “Amen. I don’t have to overdo it at work. I can go to my boss tomorrow and tell him the reason I’m lazy is my pastor said it was okay.” That’s not what this psalm is saying at all. Look again at verse one: “Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain.” The watchman’s job was to watch over a city, looking for approaching enemies or any other kind of issue that might arise. There was always someone who stayed awake to make sure the city was safe. The psalmist is saying, “If the Lord is not watching over the city, then whatever the watchman does not matter.” So while the watchman played a role, he needed to realize he couldn’t protect the city like the Lord could.

Have you ever thought about the fact that whatever you’re doing at work, God is better at it than you are? When you’re getting a lot of accolades because of your accomplishments, it’s easy to overestimate the part you play in your job. But you need to realize that your job is not just yours—it also God’s.

Strangely enough, this is difficult for me to do in the church. Here I take on a lot higher sense of responsibility than I should. Why do I do this? Because when things go well, I want the glory. “Well, Village Bible Church is doing a good job. They must have a good pastor.” That makes me feel good. I’m confessing some things to you this morning. I can be tempted to think our church, Village Bible Church, rises and falls on these shoulders—which is an absolute joke. Are you kidding me? The church of the living God is resting on these shoulders? Let me tell you that we’re in a whole lot of trouble if that’s not the case. Amen?

If you want to know whether you’re putting more pressure on yourself than you should, write these things down.

You’ll have unhealthy ambition.

First, you’ll have unhealthy ambition. As you see victories, you’ll begin to think that one victory should feed upon another. You will strive to get to that next thing, that next number, that next accolade for what’s being accomplished in your work, that next promotion.

Unhealthy ambition puts your eye on whatever prize is in front of you instead of the people around you. If you’re walking over people, if you’re treating people badly, that is the number one clue that you’re building a kingdom for yourself instead of for God.

You’ll have unproductive anxiety.

Notice what the psalmist says in verse two:

2 It is in vain that you rise up early
    and go late to rest,
eating the bread of anxious toil;
    for he gives to his beloved sleep.

Lying awake at night is a problem. Going to bed late and rising up early makes a person long for sleep. How do I know that I’ve taken on more responsibility than I should? I need to ask myself if I’m experiencing unproductive anxiety. This is the flip side of ambition.

Some of us are worried about that promotion. Some of us are worried about losing our job. Some of us are worried about our income, especially during these turbulent days. We’re concerned about what people will say about what we’re accomplishing. A lot of us are having to make decisions we’ve never faced before and wonder how people will respond. We vacillate about many things.

The reason why you and I have so much anxiety about our work and decisions is because we’re putting undue pressure on ourselves. We think we’re the ones who have to hold this thing up. I can’t tell you how often I find myself worrying about the church, but God says, “Listen to Me. Village Bible Church was around before you, Tim, and it’s going to be around after you’re gone. This church wasn’t built on you, or on the staff, or the programs—it’s built on the finished work of My Son Jesus Christ.” So I can rest assured that all the good things that are happening aren’t because of me—and all the bad things that happen aren’t because of me.

You’ll have an unbelievable dose of Ambien.

How do we know when we’re where God wants us to be? I’ve been having some fun with these cute headers. We’ll know when we’re where God wants us to be when He gives us an unbelievable dose of Ambien. For those who don’t know what Ambien is, it’s a sleep medication. What happens when we’re right where God wants us to be? Instead of “the bread of anxious toil,” He “gives to his beloved sleep.” We’ll have restful sleep. We’ll rest from trying to do the next big thing. We’ll have rest from feeling like we’re a failure. When we hand our lives over to God with open hands, it doesn’t mean we don’t work. It doesn’t mean we’re lazy. When we give our lives over to Him, He gives us rest in return. He will carry the load. Jesus told those who were following Him, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest...For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:28, 30).

Are you making too much of yourself by overdoing it, thinking you are the beginning and end of all you do? If that’s the case, stop building your life on vanity.

Don’t overlook your family.

Finally, we don’t want to overlook our family. Solomon is saying family is important. He says:

3 Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord,
    the fruit of the womb a reward.
4 Like arrows in the hand of a warrior
    are the children of one's youth.
5 Blessed is the man
    who fills his quiver with them!
He shall not be put to shame
    when he speaks with his enemies in the gate.

This Psalm tells us that we are blessed and rewarded through living life with children. It doesn’t necessarily have to be our biological children. Have you ever noticed that when a child is in the room, there’s joy and excitement there? Old people are boring, amen? But kids are fun. They’re a joy to be around.

I have to remind myself of that because I have three of them in my house. They’re a joy and a reward, but with them also comes a responsibility. Sadly—and this is why I think Solomon wrote this—too often as parents we are busy building our lives, building our net assets, building ourselves for that next promotion at work or our standing in our community, forgetting or overlooking the most important ministry we have.

The most important ministry I have as a person is not my role as pastor, not my role as a businessman, but my role as a father and husband. My greatest pursuit should be my role as father to Noah, Joshua and Luke. I need to invest in them, and moms and dads, you need to invest in the same way. If you don’t, you’ll miss the greatest opportunity you have.

So what are we to do with kids? What are we to do as those who minister to kids? Solomon uses the example of arrows. Let’s look at four things we do with arrows.

Arrows need to be straightened.

Back in Solomon’s day, arrows weren’t straight. They came off trees. They would take a branch from a tree and whittle it until it was straight. Crooked arrows shoot crooked. Similarly, we need to straighten out our “arrows.”

Proverbs 22:6 reminds us of this truth: “Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.” We need to realize we have been given crooked arrows that need to be straightened. Listen, moms and dads, this is very important. It can be hard to realize because kids are so cute when they’re little, but your child is crooked. You were crooked too. I once read a Christian author who said, “Kids are savages.” We have to tame the savage beast in them. Why? Because each of them has a sin nature. We need to “straighten” them which involves certain things.

First, it takes time. It takes pressure. It will force the child into a shape that doesn’t feel natural to them. Have you ever noticed kids have no problem saying no? We need to teach them to say yes. Kids have no problem disobeying. We need to teach them what it means to obey. That’s why we’re thankful as a church to partner with parents in this process of straightening their children.

Arrows need to be sharpened.

The next thing we need to do is sharpen them. If an arrow is going to be used, the archer needs to sharpen the tip so it will pierce the target or animal it’s being shot toward. Likewise, children have rough edges and weaknesses, so the parents’ job is to make sure we sharpen our children which means discipline.

Again, Proverbs helps us with this. Proverbs 22:15 says, “Folly is bound up in the heart of a child, but the rod of discipline drives it far from him.”  Your kid has folly in his heart, so as a parent, you need to lovingly, patiently and carefully guide them to the truth.

Arrows need to be set in the right direction.

Next, you need to set them in the right direction. If you want your arrow to fly to the right, then you can’t be pointing it to the left. If you want to point it at a certain prey, you’ve got to point it in the direction where that prey is. This is what parents need to be doing. We can’t just simply talk about what it means to walk with the Lord; we need to model it for them. Don’t be a parent who says, “Do as I say, not as I do.”

Do you want your kids to read the Bible? Then they should see you reading the Bible. Do you want to see your kids serving others? Let them see you serving others. Do you want them to love and care for people? Let them see that in you. I’m so thankful that my parents didn’t just tell me about God’s Word verbally; they also showed it to me in deeds.

Arrows need to be shot off.

Finally, there’s a time when you need to release the arrow, to let it do what it was made to do. Some of you as parents of teenagers are saying, “We can’t shoot them off soon enough. I want to get them out of here.” Genesis 2:24 says there’s a time coming when a kid will leave his father and mother and will hold fast to his spouse, then those two will become one flesh. They become a family of their own. There’s a day coming when I will launch my boys into homes of their own. That is a terrifying time.

Some of you have watched your children go off to college, off to adulthood. And you're asking yourself, “Did I do enough? Did I say enough? Did I model enough?” We put them into the hands of a faithful God, saying, “God, we’re giving them back to You.”

Where do you find yourself right now? In general terms,

  • From birth to let’s say fifth grade, it’s your job to straighten those arrows in your life. Are you straightening them, smoothing out the rough edges?
  • From sixth to eighth grade—and these are general terms—are you sharpening them? Do you want to know why those junior high years are tough? It’s because iron sharpens iron—and when that happens, sparks fly. But you’re helping that middle schooler to get those rough edges moved out. If you don’t, those rough edges will continue into adulthood.
  • Then from ninth to twelfth grade, you’re setting them in the right direction. They start getting car keys and having curfews, so you don’t have the control you once did. Now you’re praying like you never prayed before, hoping you’ve set them in the right direction and that they won’t detour from it when they’re with their friends or by themselves.
  • Then after high school, you’re shooting them off. It might be into college, marriage, adult singleness and/or work of their own. This principle of shooting off arrows like an archer reminds us that we can never overlook the family. Now more than ever, we need families that are committed to the glory of God and the truth of God’s Scriptures because soon our children will be gone.

For those who are older, where are your grandchildren? The process begins again, so grandparents,  you have a special and unique role to play. I’m thankful for two sets of grandparents in my boys’ lives that uniquely speak into their lives at these different levels. They are partners with Amanda and me in the process of raising our sons. Grandparents, your job isn’t just to spoil those kids; it’s to do the things we’ve just laid out.

Psalm 127 speaks of the vanity of us thinking we can build our lives without God, that we can work to our glory and not His, that we can raise a family on our own. I pray that we as a people would live out the truth that we need God in every aspect of our lives. We need to ask, “Am I patterning my life in a way that brings glory to God? Am I working in such a way that it brings glory to God? Am I raising my family in such a way that God is glorified?”

If these things are true, then when I’m worshiping God, I’m thanking Him for what He’s done, asking God for help in my hour of need and rejoicing in His faithfulness to meet me each and every day. You see, it’s there that we live for His glory and not for our own glory.

It’s been said that unless God is there to bless my life, my life would be a mess. Do you want a mess of your own making or do you want a blessing of God’s making? If we want His blessing, we need to take the words of Psalm 127 and not only apply them to our thinking but also apply them to our lives.

 

Village Bible Church  |  847 North State Route 47, Sugar Grove, IL 60554  |  (630) 466-7198  |  www.villagebible.org/sugar-grove

All Scriptures quoted directly from the English Standard Version unless otherwise noted.

Note: This transcription has been provided by Sermon Transcribers (www.sermontranscribers.com).