The vanity of opposing God

Psalm 127 from the daily reading in the One Year Bible

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.
² 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.

³ Behold, children are a gift of the Lord,
The fruit of the womb is a reward.
⁴ Like arrows in the hand of a warrior,
So are the children of one’s youth.
⁵ 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.

In Acts 26:13-14, when Paul recounted his encounter with Jesus, he said:  At midday, O King, I saw on the way a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, shining all around me and those who were journeying with me. And when we had all fallen to the ground, I heard a voice saying to me in the Hebrew dialect, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.’   When we work against God or when we operate outside of God’s will, it is difficult. It is harder than it would be to stop an oncoming train with our bare hands. It is working against the most powerful force in the universe. The psalmist says:  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…  It is actually vanity to think that we can oppose God. It supposes that we are as great as or greater than He is.  In Matthew 11:28-29 Jesus says:  “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, 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.”   If we are weary and heavy laden, if things are difficult, we should check ourselves. We should see if we are vainly striving against God, if we are working and walking in our own strength and direction rather than God’s. Jesus promises that if we will walk and work with Him, it will be easy.  In John 14:12-14 Jesus says:  “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do; because I go to the Father. Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it.”  If we do the works of Jesus, it is easy because He is the one who does the work for us and through us. We rest in Him. God says:  “My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is perfected in weakness.” (2 Corinthians 12:9)  The psalmist says:  He gives to His beloved even in his sleep.  It is not God who sleeps. We are the ones who rest in Him. He watches over us and provides for us even as we sleep.  

The psalmist says:  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…  A society and culture that opposes God and vainly works against Him, no longer views children as a gift from Him. The fruit of the womb is often destroyed and discarded. Rather than a gift and reward, babies in the womb are often viewed as an inconvenience or a curse. Even many children who are born are not valued and treasured as gifts from God. Some are neglected and abused. Some are used by their parents to vainly attempt to fulfill their unsatisfied dreams and desires. Like possessions, they are held up and compared to the children of others. Each child should be seen as a blessing and a gift. They should be encouraged to be not whatever they want to be, but whatever God wants them to be. Proverbs 22:6 says:  Train up a child in the way he should go, And when he is old he will not depart from it. In Deuteronomy 11:18-22 God says:   Commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these words of mine. Tie them to your hands and wear them on your forehead as reminders. Teach them to your children. Talk about them when you are at home and when you are on the road, when you are going to bed and when you are getting up. Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates, so that as long as the sky remains above the earth, you and your children may flourish in the land the Lord swore to give your ancestors. Be careful to obey all these commands I am giving you. Show love to the Lord your God by walking in his ways and holding tightly to him.   Children are no longer trained up in God’s way. Is it any wonder then why so many are floundering rather than flourishing?  Is it any wonder why depression, anxiety, anger and violence are rampant in our youth today? Why do we encourage the vanity of working against God? Why do we encourage the difficulty of kicking against His will?  In Genesis 1:26-28 it says:  “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”   We are created in the image and likeness of God. To strive to be anything that is different or apart from how He created us, is vanity.

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.  Amen.