lectio: psalm 127

Unless the LORD builds the house,
They labor in vain who build it;
Unless the LORD guards the city,
The watchman keeps awake in vain.
It is vain for you to rise up early,
To retire late,
To eat the bread of painful labors;
For He gives to His beloved even in his sleep.
Behold, children are a gift of the LORD,
The fruit of the womb is a reward.
Like arrows in the hand of a warrior,
So are the children of one's youth.
How blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them;
They will not be ashamed
When they speak with their enemies in the gate.

Psalm 127

verse 1 - it's interesting to me that this psalm begins and ends with a wider communal aspect. here in verse 1 it is a house and a city - both to be filled with people; in verse 5 it is people together in a public place - the city gate. i think we bought the lie of the "nuclear family" nowadays. it's not that the nuclear family isn't important, but only since the industrial revolution has the family been reduced to mom and dad and children. for many millenia before, the family was a wider unit, several generations interacting and living together. our current society puts too much on a mom and dad. i have to be dada and grandfather and uncle all in one to my children, because we are isolated from our family. this isn't the "natural order of things". in fact, when Jesus says: there are many rooms in my Father's house,:" He is referring to insula. when a man would propose marriage to a woman, he would then begin building a new wing onto his Father's house, in which he would start his new piece of the this family, but utterly connected to his Father's house. the father builds the house, and his father helped him, and he helps his son build the next set of rooms. this is the ancient understanding of family. and unless YHWH builds the family and the insula, we labour in vain...

verse 2 - this verse hits me right in the chest, like a bodyblow. too often i put my hope and security in my work - and work is a gift from God - or the sense of security, accomplishment and worth i get from trusting in work, but if i trust in it, i will be striving always, seeking more security in it, because there is never enough with that sort of finite resource; and i'll go deeper into more self--worth from it, rising early and going to bed late to get more of it, reaping anxiety that underlies a false sense of security, that can haunt even my sleep. yet God gives this sense of security to His beloved - who trust in Him - in their peaceful sleep...while those who trust in their riches are striving, striving and never quite get the sense of security and the fruit of trusting in Him.

verse 3 - indeed, my three precious girls are a gift from the Lord. they challenge me, they frustrate me, they bless me with love that i feel unworthy of many times, and they renew my hope in all of us by simply being who they are: beloved children.

verse 5 - i love the inclusionary language here: "they will not be ashamed, when they speak with their enemies..."; the "us and them" become a we...and we will not be ashamed against our enemies...

++O LORD, unless you build and guard, we labour and watch in vain. Please be with us O Lord. O LORD, unless we trust you, we strive in vain. Please be with us O Lord. O LORD, unless we stand together as your family, we will be ashamed. Please be with us O Lord. Amen.++