"In vain you rise early and stay up late, toiling for food to eat - for he grants sleep to those he loves."
Psalm 127:2 (NIV)
No one likes "make work" projects! My wife will chide me about things I get my kids to do around the yard or at the lake - she calls them “another one of your make work projects” - what she means is that the work I get them to do is meaningless and temporary. My kids pick up on that theme and complain that they only want to help me “on things that count”.
No one likes "make work" projects! No likes being a hamster in a wheel running and spinning until we drop dead. YET according to Psalm 127 unless the LORD builds the house - building is only a “make work project”, and unless the LORD watches the city – guard duty is only a “make work project”. The ramification of these verses is tremendous; just think of the pyramids, or the tower of Babel, and if we extrapolate the activities of building and guarding to all human activity (which Solomon does in Ecclesiastes) it becomes depressing as we realize that all human activity conducted separately from God is just a series of temporary “make work projects”.
But we are not left in a state of despair, for verse 2 tells us: “he grants sleep to those he loves.” This wonderful statement – promise even - brings hope to our toil. There is rest in our toil, there is peace in our toil and there is purpose to our toil when the LORD is doing the work and we are the helper.
There is some debate as to whether or not Psalm 127 was written by King Solomon, or by King David, for his son Solomon, to instruct him on how to build the temple, because 2 Samuel 12:25 tells us that Solomon was one whom God loved. I don’t know for sure who wrote Psalm 127, but I do know that I am one whom God loves, because I am united with His beloved Son, through His Holy Spirit. AND I know from these two verses that there is sleep, and rest for me and for all who are in Christ, if we would be careful to only involve ourselves in God’s activities - becoming His helper in our work, our families, our evenings and our church.
The choice is ours - rest in the LORD and do work that lasts forever! OR Toil and sweat and run and weep, and have our work disappear like the mist.
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