Psalm 127

“It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil; for he gives to his beloved sleep” (v2).  The psalms teach us to see the good things in life as gifts from God’s hands, so that we work with gratitude rather than with desperate anxiety.  Parenting certainly requires work, and yet children are gifts, a “heritage from the Lord” that become “arrows” that fly into a future beyond our control (v3-4).

“Unless the Lord builds the house …” (v1).  We can’t demand or control the best things in life; instead, we are called to work in participation with our generous Creator.