Let this text remind you: we’re not as in control as we think we are. Psalm 127:1’s “house” is not merely a brick and mortar shelter. Unless the Lord builds your house, those who build it labor in vain. We build, but we build in dependence upon the Lord.

It’s not just that how you think affects what you do. What you do affects how you think.

This starts early. If you have a spelling test in 4th grade, you read and write the words over and over again. You spell them out loud. You practice the double “n” in mayonnaise a few extra times. If you study hard, you generally do fine.

Later in life, your calendar says you need to be at work at 8:00. You do the math. Since it will take you 15 minutes to get there and park, you plan to leave a little before 7:45. This isn’t rocket science. You’ve made 1000 appointments in the last two years, whether for class, work, a ballgame, or a lunch meeting. If you plan well, rarely do things completely fall apart.

When that rarity does unfortunately occur––a brief loss of control––wild swings of emotion follow. Though you left in time to make it to work, a broken down car in the median beckons your fellow drivers to slowly crane their necks. The reliable interstate looks like a December parking lot. People honk their horns; the Toyota Camry passes you on the shoulder. You foam at the mouth.

Here’s the point: you’ve aimed to do something and subsequently accomplished it enough times that any aberration from this routine drives you nuts. Somewhere in your core, because you’ve controlled things before, you implicitly assume you’re in charge.

What you do affects how you think.

But what if you’re not in the kind of control your day–to–day looks like? What if the autonomy you seemingly operate under really casts something of an illusion?

Psalm 127 says as much.

God builds through builders

The Psalmist begins, “Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain” (127:1a). This song wastes no time highlighting theological tension. Who, precisely, is the builder? Though the second clause answers, “those who build it,” the first clause qualifies, “not unless the Lord builds it.” The resolution: God builds through builders.

The next phrase makes the same point, “Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain” (127:1b). In our random, often senselessly violent world, we know this to be true. We buy a house in the right neighborhood, keep the alarm on, and turn on the outside lights. We settle in a country where they tap phones, screen incomers, and spend billions of dollars on counterintelligence and the military. Yet our watchmen can’t keep us from all harm.

Knowing that ultimately the Lord builds the house and watches over the city actually leads to rest: “for he gives to his beloved sleep” (127:2b). If the Lord builds it, nothing can tear it down. If the Lord protects it, nothing may harm it. God doesn’t just build through builders; He builds for the builders’ good.

This doesn’t mean God doesn’t want us to accomplish good works, or protect, or provide. It does mean we don’t control as much as we think. If we’re not careful, we might believe the mortgage got paid because we worked hard, or that the promotion came because we put in more hours than so and so, or that our kids behaved because we’re pros. Psalm 127 reorients us. We work hard, knowing God works all things.

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