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Psalm 127 - Misusing God's Resources · Tabernacle Talk - A Bible Study Podcast with Pastor Bryon Self

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  Welcome to Tabernacle Talk. Tabernacle Talk is a Bible study
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  podcast brought from Tabernacle Baptist Church in Essex, MD.
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  I'm your host, Brian Self. We hope this podcast encourages
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  you to know Christ, grow in his word, and show his love to
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  others. Let's dive right in.
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  Welcome back to Tabernacle Talk. Today we are in Psalm 127, and
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  this is a particularly interesting Psalm, and I'm
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  looking forward to diving into it with you today.
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  This is another one of the Song of a Sense or one of the songs
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  that people would sing as they were going to one of the three
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  annual feasts for the children of Israel as they made their way
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  to Jerusalem. And this particular Song of a
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  Sense has the inscription that it is a Psalm of Solomon.
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  And Solomon, as you know, was according to Scripture, the the
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  wisest man that ever lived, obviously outside of the Lord
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  himself. And as Solomon was given this
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  great wisdom from God as a result of God offering him
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  anything that Solomon could want, he said you could have
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  great riches, you could have lots of possessions, What do you
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  want? And Solomon said, God, I need a
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  discerning heart. I need a wise heart so that I
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  can tell what is good and what is bad, what is right and what
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  is wrong as I am ruling over the children of Israel.
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  And God said, that's a great answer to quote, you know,
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  what's the gentleman's name? Steve Harvey from Family Feud.
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  That's a good answer. And so God said, because you
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  didn't ask for possessions, you didn't ask for riches, you
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  didn't ask for victory over your enemies, I'm going to give you
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  everything else as well, in addition to wisdom.
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  And so I think even as we look at Psalm 127, we should
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  recognize that this is wisdom that comes from God-given to us,
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  certainly in poetic fashion, but this is something that we should
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  value with our lives and that we should say, God, what you have
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  for me in these 5 verses, this is something that I actually
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  need for my life. And so I'm going to believe what
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  you say, not just what my perhaps experience tells me, or
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  not just what I fear might happen and said, I'm going to
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  trust in you and in your word and your wisdom.
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  Let's read together, beginning in verse #1 Unless Yahweh builds
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  a house, it's builders labor over it in vain.
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  Unless Yahweh watches over a city, the watchman stays alert
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  in vain. In vain you get up early and
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  stay up late, working hard to have enough food.
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  Yes, he gives sleep to the one he loves.
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  Sons are indeed a heritage from the Lord.
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  Offspring a reward like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the
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  sons born in one's youth. Happy is the man who has filled
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  his quiver with them. They will never be put to shame
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  when they speak with their enemies at the city gate.
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  So here this Psalm gives four, yeah, 4 main examples of the
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  fact that we are totally reliant on God for any sort of blessed
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  or good life, that only through the Lord do we experience good
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  things. Even the inscription like the
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  title of this Psalm that it has in the Christian standard Bible
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  is the blessing of the Lord and that is certainly what we are
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  after. So I want to walk through this
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  verses one and two kind of have one picture.
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  It's it's three items that it says here are the areas in which
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  you have to have God's blessing in order for any of the work
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  that you've put into matter. And then verses 3 through 5 talk
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  specifically about children and how that relates to that same
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  topic as well. So let's begin.
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  Verse #1 unless Yahweh builds a house, it's builders labor over
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  it in vain here. If God is not on your side of
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  God is not for what you are doing, then all of your work
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  that you are putting in it is pointless.
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  It is empty here. This word vain is the word sayi.
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  This is a noun. And then let me pull up a couple
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  of things to be able to look at this word.
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  This is words that can mean wickedness, calamity,
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  destruction, things that people suffer, falsehood or a lie.
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  Yeah. So this is something like what
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  is occasionally said to take the name of God in vain.
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  It is for a worthless purpose. It is to misuse something.
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  I'm actually really happy I look that up.
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  That helps bring some clarity to this.
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  So think of the phrase taking the name of the Lord your God in
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  vain. Or as the CSB has it, do not
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  misuse the name of the Lord your God.
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  When you are fighting against God, then even the work that you
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  are doing, it is misusing the resources that God has given
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  you. So here, even in building a
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  house, I'm thankful. My friend Zach Burnham is a
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  realtor in the area. Also Dina Wassmer, both of whom
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  I know at at various times listen to the podcast.
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  So guys, whenever you listen to this episode, let me know you
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  heard it. Thankful for both of you.
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  Thankful for the work that you do even in finding homes for
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  people in the area. And my buddy Zach helps out with
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  Habitat for Humanity sometimes when he has some some time to be
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  able to work on that. And so I know that they have put
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  together homes for people. And I'm thankful that as they
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  help people find homes and purchase homes, and as they
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  build homes for people, that they are doing it with a heart
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  to bless others, that they are working for the betterment of
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  the people of their clients or of people as they're working
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  with, you know, various nonprofits and, and like Habitat
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  for Humanity to be able to help others out.
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  I think that is something that is good, that is using the
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  resources that God has given them in a good way.
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  So as Yahweh builds a house as he is for what is happening,
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  then we are not laboring worthlessly.
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  We are not misusing our effort or energy or our funds.
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  Can I tell you not everything that you or I do, not everything
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  that we put our money into, not everything that we work at is
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  the thing that God wants us to be using it for.
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  And I just think that this is such a tremendous challenge to
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  my heart as I go, God, am I, am I doing what you want with my
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  life? Am I doing what you want with my
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  money? Or am I misusing it?
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  And so as I'm, you know, trying to, I'll, I'll put it this way.
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  So I'm trying to build Tabernacle Baptist Church.
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  Am I doing it in a worthless, in a vein, in a misusing kind of
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  way, or am I doing it the way that you want me to?
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  Am I saying here's Brian's best ideas and things?
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  Or am I saying this is what the word of God says and am I
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  following that? Because the truth is, unless God
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  builds my church, then it doesn't matter.
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  The effort that I put in. Everything that I'm doing is, is
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  worthless. I'm misusing all of my time and
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  effort and energy. I think about my own home with
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  my family. Unless God is the one that is
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  building up my family and me and Samantha and our marriage, and
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  unless God is the one that is building up B and EV, then I am
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  misusing my time and energy and resources.
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  And so I don't want to waste my time.
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  I don't want to waste my resources.
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  I want to make it good. And so my goal has to be, am I
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  pursuing God's way? Am I doing this thing in the way
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  that God wants? Solomon knows exactly how this
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  went because he grew the wealth of Israel, but he didn't do it
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  in God's way. This was later in his reign, but
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  he did not grow Israel in God's way.
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  And he kind of misused people and ran roughshod over them.
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  So that when it came to the life and reign of his son Rehoboam,
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  the people came to Rehoboam and they said, man, your, your dad
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  really like worked us over. And so we're coming to you and
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  we are asking like, would you take it a little bit easier on
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  us? Because if you do that, like we
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  will serve you all the days of our lives.
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  And Ray Boehm went, no, if you thought my dad was hard nosed,
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  you've seen nothing yet. And he ignored the counsel of
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  the old men in his life that said, hey, you should listen to
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  the people. Because if you give them some
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  space, if you allow them to be able to like live their lives
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  more than your dad did, then they will serve you all of their
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  lives. So Solomon experienced not doing
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  this, that he grew Israel, but he didn't grow Israel God's way.
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  And so all of his building was in vain and it literally split
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  the Kingdom into the northern Kingdom of Israel and then the
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  southern Kingdom of Judah as a result of the fact that he
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  didn't build the house the Lord's way, he built it his own
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  way. And then everything crumbled.
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  And I don't want what I build in my life to crumble.
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  I don't want to in 20 years from now, look at my, you know,
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  relationship with my family and go, Oh yeah, my, my marriage
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  totally tore apart because I didn't build it on Jesus.
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  And my kids don't really want to talk to me anymore because I
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  didn't treat them like Jesus would have treated them.
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  But, you know, I, I really did this or, you know, I, I know of
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  people that they never took time for their family, whether they,
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  they worked too much or, you know, some people even spent too
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  much time at the physical church building and didn't spend time
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  with their family. I, you know, I want to be
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  faithful to work as much as I'm supposed to be working.
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  But then I also want to realize that if I don't care for my
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  family first and foremost, then I can do amazing, quote UN quote
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  or great things at Tabernacle. But if I lose my family, man,
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  like what worth is that? I don't want BNF to grow up to
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  go. Yeah, Dad really loved
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  Tabernacle, but he didn't love us very much.
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  And can I encourage you? I don't know who all's watching
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  at the moment. Maybe you're someone that you're
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  not a pastor, but you really, really love the church.
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  You love serving the church, and that is a good thing.
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  That's a holy thing. But if God has given you a
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  family, whether that's a spouse, whether it's kids for some of
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  you grandkids or maybe some of you, you don't have kids that
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  are still in the home, but you have kids that are in the area
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  or you have maybe a brother or sister, don't allow the quote UN
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  quote, church. Like don't allow the building or
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  the programs or something to take precedent over the love and
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  responsibility that God has called you to have to your
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  family. Your family is your first
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  ministry. That what what good is it if you
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  you know, I'll just throw out a couple things that that I know
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  regularly happen at Tabernacle like things get fixed.
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  And I'm thankful for guys like Gary and John and the other John
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  and Charlie and many others, Zach and Mike and and others
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  that I know of that have helped to maintain our facilities.
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  Like what good is it if facilities get fixed but you
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  lose your family, that your family goes well, They don't
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  really care about me. Like they care about fixing
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  stuff or they care about making food or they care about doing
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  Tabernacle talk. But they are never home.
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  Like they are never with us. They don't care about us and you
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  know, we're just kind of a byproduct.
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  I don't want that to be your life value as God's primary
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  ministry in your life that he has placed you.
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  There is your family. And so care for your wife, care
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  for your kids. Now, I would argue part of
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  caring for your wife and kids is regularly bring them with you.
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  At the very least, make sure that you guys are in church
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  together. That is a great, worthy,
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  wonderful thing to be able to do.
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  That's what Christ declares for us, that we not abandoned the
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  assembling of ourselves together, but instead that we,
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  we do join together and we encourage one another.
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  We pray for one another, we worship together, we hear from
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  the Word, we give to the Lord's work.
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  We build each other up. And that's a great thing to do.
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  And then as you have time or ability, being able to serve is
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  a wonderful thing. Being able to serve together
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  with your family is awesome. I genuinely think one of the
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  reasons that I'm a pastor today is because my parents served in
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  ministry, but they didn't serve alone and they were just lay
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  leaders like helping out in nursery, helping out singing
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  songs, helping out in kids class.
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  But they didn't serve alone. They served with us that they
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  brought us along. And so we all together as a
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  family served at the church. And so it wasn't just something
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  that like, oh, dad does this. It was we do this and we love
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  the Lord. And so we want to help out in
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  these ways and that can be such a valuable thing.
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  So serve the Lord, do go to church together when you can
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  serve together, have there be a joy in serving, but never
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  sacrifice your family on the altar of quote UN quote ministry
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  to other people. Your family's your primary
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  ministry. And if I had to choose between,
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  OK, you can be the pastor of Tabernacle or you can have
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  Samantha in B and FI will choose Samantha in B&F every time
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  because Tabernacle is Christ's bride and he will take care of
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  her. But I have to take care of my
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  family that God has given to me. And I believe Jesus will take
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  care of his church and he has called me to take care of my
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  family. So that was I apologize.
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  All of this is technically still connected with everything that's
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  happening, but that that was just one thing that kind of the
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  Lord laid on my heart there from the beginning of verse one.
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  That was the vast majority of everything that had to be said.
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  So if you're like Brian, we're 15 minutes and we're in trouble.
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  Don't worry, I will. I will be very brief on the
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  remainder portion of this. The thoughts continued there in
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  verse one. Unless you always watches over a
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  city, the watchman stays alert in vain.
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  Unless God is for your city and what you are doing.
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  If God's designated that a city is going to fall to an invading
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  army, then there's nothing that you can really do about that.
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  So the point has to be that we want to be on the side of God.
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  We want to do things His way. Otherwise all of our effort is
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  pointless. Verse #2 in vain.
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  You get up early and stay up late working hard to have enough
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  food. Yes, He gives sleep to the one
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  he loves. That part of what it means to
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  trust God, part of what it means to be know that you are on the
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  Lords side is that you genuinely believe God will work and he
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  will make supernaturally your results be far more than what
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  you think it might be. So you could say, all right,
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  well if I put in 90 hours of work this week, then I'm certain
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  that I'm going to get so much more stuff done.
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  And here the psalmist encourages us, No, God can work.
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  And it doesn't matter how much effort you put in if God's, if
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  you're, if you're not doing it God's way, if you're misusing
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  God's resources, then it doesn't matter the effort that you put
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  in. Like it'll come to nothing.
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  And even if you don't feel like that, you were putting in all of
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  the work that you possibly could, getting up super early,
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  staying up super late, God can extend your work far past what
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  you put in. And you can see that in many
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  Bible stories of the only one I'll mention right now is the
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  five loaves and two fishes. That one small little thing, God
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  exploded out. Now we ought to be diligent, but
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  you don't have to kill yourself in your work in order for God to
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  bless. God can supernaturally bless you
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  in ways that you can never imagine.
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  Just make sure I am on the side of God, that I'm doing what He
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  has called me to do. And so I'm going to trust that
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  He will fill in the gaps for this.
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  And a reliance on the Lord, a confidence in His sovereignty
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  and in His blessing, means that you can sleep at night.
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  And that's an encouragement that I've needed many times in my
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  life. Then this Psalm ends with verses
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  3 through 5 about the blessing of children, says sons are
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  indeed a heritage from Yahweh offspring, a reward here sons
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  would be those that they carry on the family lineage.
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  People would think well of you culturally when you have this.
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  And he says that children here sons, I don't I, I would tend
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  more towards the word children here that there is a cultural
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  element of yes, sons would be a heritage from the Lord.
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  But I do genuinely believe daughters as well.
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  They are a blessing that come from God himself.
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  Kids are not just the result of human initiative or human
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  planning. Kids are from the Lord.
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  If you have a kid, if you find out that you are pregnant, that
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  is from God, contrary to our culture, I encourage you retain
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  any pregnancy that you have. Don't say, well, I might have
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  more money or more freedom if I don't have a kid or man, this is
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  happening out of wedlock. And so I think I need to
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  terminate this pregnancy. No, absolutely not.
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  Children come from God. And so when God gives you
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  children, keep them, love them because they come from the Lord.
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  And yeah, that that's what I'll say there for verse #3 that this
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  is love from the Lord. Now if God doesn't give you
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  kids, it is not that God does not love you.
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  Jesus did not have any kids. So therefore, if you do not have
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  kids, you are, you have done just as much as Jesus has done.
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  And so don't feel any shame. I know many times well meaning
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  people, well thinking people. Can can make offhanded remarks
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  or things that would degrade someone that perhaps only has
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  one kid or doesn't have any kids at all.
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  And I want to encourage you, Jesus didn't have kids.
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  And so don't don't force that on to people to say, well, if
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  you're really like walking with God or making wise decisions,
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  then you will have kids. Jesus is our standard of
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  righteousness. It's not any other person.
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  Frankly, it's not even like Genesis 127 of the be fruitful
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  and multiply. That's great.
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  That goes for most of creation. It didn't apply to Paul.
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  It didn't apply to Jesus. And so it doesn't have to apply
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  to every person. Verse #4 here continuing like
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  arrows in the hand of a warrior are the sons born in one's
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  youth. Happy is the man who has filled
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  his quiver with them. They will never be put to shame
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  when they speak with their enemies at the gates.
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  So here during this time you have a lot of agricultural
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  farming culture. And so if you have a lot of
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  kids, that's a lot more hands to help at the farm.
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  That is what is happening here. This is not per some people even
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  in the 20th century said some knuckleheaded things about
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  needing to have as many kids as possible and you can look at
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  various reality shows and and see what happens with families
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  like that that they're often tends to be especially nowadays
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  a lack of care. Many sorrows that kind of come
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  along. If you feel like I have a
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  scriptural need to have as many possible children because of
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  this Psalm and much, much more could be said, we are totally
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  out of time on that. Suffice it to to say, here is
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  the point. Here is the application for you.
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  If you have kids, be grateful for your kids.
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  Don't view them as just an annoyance.
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  Don't view them as something that I I kind of resent that I
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  had these kids. No, no, be thankful for them
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  that God Himself gave them to you.
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  Have a purpose a a joy and aim that you have for your children.
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  As Paul would tell us in Ephesians 6, raise your children
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  up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord that you care for
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  them. You teach them what God has
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  said. It will be up to them whether or
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  not they follow through on that, but at least have the aim in
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  your life that you want to raise them to know and love Jesus.
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  Don't raise and know them, or don't raise them to just be a
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  doctor, or to be the greatest, you know, basketball player, or
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  to have the highest possible grades.
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  If they are any of those things, wonderful.
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  But what they need is a relationship with God.
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  Because unless the Lord builds the house, unless God is the one
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  building your family and your kids, all of your labor is in
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  vain. It's worthless.
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  You are misusing the resources, so use the resources for what
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  God has intended. Walk his way.
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  Be confident in the blessing that God brings, that if God is
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  for you, nothing can be against you and it doesn't matter
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  frankly what others think. It doesn't matter what others
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  opinions are. You want to walk God's way
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  because God's way is the best way.
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  Thanks for tuning in. I know and long today, but I
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  really appreciate the time getting to be with you and
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  looking forward to next episode in Psalm 128.