AP

Psalm 127:1-2  Unless the LORD builds the house, the builders labour 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.

It’s not always possible for us to get the full quota of sleep we really need because of the pressures of life and business and family that are unavoidable.  But what Solomon is talking about here is the utter futility of throwing ourselves into these ‘undeniably necessary’ tasks as if it all depends on us – and failing to commit everything to the Lord in earnest, believing prayer, trusting him instead of being anxious and wearing ourselves out with work.

As Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount: “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear.  Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes?  Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.  Are you not much more valuable than they?  Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?  And why do you worry about clothes?  See how the flowers of the field grow.  They do not labour or spin.  Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendour was dressed like one of these.  If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you – you of little faith?  So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’  For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.  But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.  Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.  Each day has enough trouble of its own” (Matthew 6:25-34).

He makes a similar point in his little parable about the farmer and the seed in Mark 4:26-29.  The farmer conscientiously plays HIS part by preparing the ground and sowing the seed; but the real work of growing the crop is done by God while the farmer is getting a good night’s rest ready for the next day’s commitments.

Have we managed to get the balance right between labouring and trusting?  It’s never an easy task – because Solomon also warns us in another place: “How long will you lie there, you sluggard?  When will you get up from your sleep?  A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest – and poverty will come on you like a thief and scarcity like an armed man” (Proverbs 6:9-11, cf 24:33-34).  May the Lord give us grace and wisdom as we juggle our life-work-rest balance today!

– Bruce Christian