Psalms 127:1-2 NIV -
“Unless the Lord builds the house, the builders labor in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the guards stand watch in vain.
In vain you rise early and stay up late, toiling for food to eat— for he grants sleep to those he loves.”
My preaching professor, Rev. Dr. Marvin McMickle has shared a story once or twice about a high rise luxury apartment building built in San Francisco. This complex was a marvel to behold, and apartments were going for $1,000,000. Soon after its opening, however, when residents moved in, some unevenness was noticed. For example, if a marble were to be placed in the middle of the floor, any flat horizontal surface would disallow the marble to move in any direction. In this building, however, when the marble was placed on the floor, it would roll all the way to the corner of the room.
This wasn’t even the worst of it, as many complained that on the upper floors of the building, it would sway when there was the wind. Eventually, residents began moving out and bad publicity caused them to investigate the foundations. Sure enough, they discovered that the foundation was an unstable one, and the property was ultimately condemned.
When thinking about Psalm 127, this story came to my mind. The psalm argues that one labors in vain if The Lord is not the builder. These two verses can be summarized by saying that unless The Lord is leading the charge, all of our efforts to build lives for ourselves, to accomplish greatness, to do things for others, and fulfill our purpose is a fool’s errand. It’s cancelled. Null in void. It begs the question, “What have we built our foundation on?” “What are we building/laboring towards?”
There are so many things that we can build our foundation on or labor for:
money
drugs/alcohol
sex
work
hate
self absorption
power (gaining of)
other people
pursuit of acclaim/notoriety
You can build your foundation on or actively pursue any of these things and so much more. In essence, these become your god or gods. But just like the high rise that was built on an unstable and inadequate foundation, you’ll sway back and forth until eventually, the world declares you condemned.
There is one, however, who will never declare you condemned. He is the one on whom you can build a foundation that disallows you from ever swaying back and forth, tossing to and fro’ by every passing wind. If Jesus Christ is your foundation, then you have all that you need to make it in this world. You have all that you need to overcome. You have the keys to success, whatever that looks like for you. And most of all, you have life and life more abundantly!
