There's a Divinity That Shapes Our Ends

Why does working harder never actually make me feel secure?

Solomon built more than anyone and still looked out over it feeling empty. The psalm puts the early mornings and late nights in the same sentence as a house built in vain, because anxious toil is trying to do by worry what only God can do.

Unless Yahweh builds the house, they who build it labor in vain. Unless Yahweh watches over the city, the watchman guards it in vain. It is vain for you to rise up early, to stay up late, eating the bread of toil, for he gives sleep to his loved ones.

Psalms 127:1–2

He who loves silver shall not be satisfied with silver, nor he who loves abundance, with increase. This also is vanity. When goods increase, those who eat them are increased; and what advantage is there to its owner, except to feast on them with his eyes? The sleep of a laboring man is sweet, whether he eats little or much; but the abundance of the rich will not allow him to sleep.

Ecclesiastes 5:10–12

I said in my heart, “Come now, I will test you with mirth; therefore enjoy pleasure;” and behold, this also was vanity. I said of laughter, “It is foolishness;” and of mirth, “What does it accomplish?” I searched in my heart how to cheer my flesh with wine, my heart yet guiding me with wisdom, and how to lay hold of folly, until I might see what it was good for the sons of men that they should do under heaven all the days of their lives. I made myself great works. I built myself houses. I planted myself vineyards. I made myself gardens and parks, and I planted trees in them of all kinds of fruit. I made myself pools of water, to water the forest where trees were grown. I bought male servants and female servants, and had servants born in my house. I also had great possessions of herds and flocks, above all who were before me in Jerusalem. I also gathered silver and gold for myself, and the treasure of kings and of the provinces. I got myself male and female singers, and the delights of the sons of men: musical instruments of all sorts. So I was great, and increased more than all who were before me in Jerusalem. My wisdom also remained with me. Whatever my eyes desired, I didn’t keep from them. I didn’t withhold my heart from any joy, for my heart rejoiced because of all my labor, and this was my portion from all my labor. Then I looked at all the works that my hands had worked, and at the labor that I had labored to do; and behold, all was vanity and a chasing after wind, and there was no profit under the sun.

Ecclesiastes 2:1–11

What is my lack of sleep trying to tell me about who I think is in control?

Sleep is the one thing nobody can muscle through. John Piper's line about God turning us into helpless sacks of sand once a day is the psalm's point: being asleep is a daily admission that the world runs without us.

It is vain for you to rise up early, to stay up late, eating the bread of toil, for he gives sleep to his loved ones.

Psalms 127:2

He will not allow your foot to be moved. He who keeps you will not slumber. Behold, he who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.

Psalms 121:3–4

On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, “Let’s go over to the other side.” Leaving the multitude, they took him with them, even as he was, in the boat. Other small boats were also with him. A big wind storm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so much that the boat was already filled. He himself was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and they woke him up and asked him, “Teacher, don’t you care that we are dying?” He awoke and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” The wind ceased and there was a great calm. He said to them, “Why are you so afraid? How is it that you have no faith?” They were greatly afraid and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?”

Mark 4:35–41

If God is the one who builds, what is left for me to actually do?

The psalm does not say to stop working; it says the work is not the thing holding everything up. Paul planted and Apollos watered, and he insists the growth was never theirs to produce.

Unless Yahweh builds the house, they who build it labor in vain. Unless Yahweh watches over the city, the watchman guards it in vain. It is vain for you to rise up early, to stay up late, eating the bread of toil, for he gives sleep to his loved ones.

Psalms 127:1–2

I planted. Apollos watered. But God gave the increase. So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase. Now he who plants and he who waters are the same, but each will receive his own reward according to his own labor. For we are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s farming, God’s building.

1 Corinthians 3:6–9

Whatever you do, in word or in deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

Colossians 3:17

Whether therefore you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.

1 Corinthians 10:31

How do I care for the next generation when I have no children of my own?

The sermon refuses to leave the second half of the psalm with young parents. It points to adoption, fostering, wraparound care, and older men and women pouring into younger ones, and Paul says he became a father to the Corinthians through the gospel.

Behold, children are a heritage of Yahweh. The fruit of the womb is his reward. As arrows in the hand of a mighty man, so are the children of youth. Happy is the man who has his quiver full of them. They won’t be disappointed when they speak with their enemies in the gate.

Psalms 127:3–5

I don’t write these things to shame you, but to admonish you as my beloved children. For though you have ten thousand tutors in Christ, you don’t have many fathers. For in Christ Jesus, I became your father through the Good News. I beg you therefore, be imitators of me. Because of this I have sent Timothy to you, who is my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, who will remind you of my ways which are in Christ, even as I teach everywhere in every assembly.

1 Corinthians 4:14–17

You therefore, my child, be strengthened in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. The things which you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit the same things to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.

2 Timothy 2:1–2

But say the things which fit sound doctrine, that older men should be temperate, sensible, sober minded, sound in faith, in love, and in perseverance, and that older women likewise be reverent in behavior, not slanderers nor enslaved to much wine, teachers of that which is good, that they may train the young wives to love their husbands, to love their children, to be sober minded, chaste, workers at home, kind, being in subjection to their own husbands, that God’s word may not be blasphemed.

Titus 2:1–5

Why would Jesus call his yoke easy when following him still feels heavy?

The psalm says God gives to his beloved, and Jesus makes the same offer to everyone who is worn out. The rest he promises is not the absence of work but a different master over it, one who is gentle and lowly in heart.

“Come to me, all you who labor and are heavily burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart; and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

Matthew 11:28–30

It is vain for you to rise up early, to stay up late, eating the bread of toil, for he gives sleep to his loved ones.

Psalms 127:2

There remains therefore a Sabbath rest for the people of God. For he who has entered into his rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from his. Let’s therefore give diligence to enter into that rest, lest anyone fall after the same example of disobedience.

Hebrews 4:9–11