When don't we need Jesus?

[This was originally posted here on September 3, 2012]

            Psalm 127 poses an interesting and daunting set of problems for preaching a gospel-centered sermon. 

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.

Aside from addressing the significant change of direction that the psalm makes in the middle, the two questions I find most interesting are 1) what is the Jesus connection here, and 2) why is seeing that connection so difficult?

The second question may have its answer in a kind of dualism that our culture sometimes presents, a dualism that also works its way into our theology.  Specifically, we treat some concepts and aspects of life as if they relate generally to God without having to bring Jesus into the picture, while other concepts and aspects of life require that we look at the work of Christ.  The following table lays out these concepts roughly:

Everyday life	general grace	God (generally)	this world	work
Salvation	special grace	Jesus Christ	the next world	grace

Jesus comes into the picture when we are in trouble.  No trouble, no need for Jesus.  Seldom or never are we taught what Jesus has to do with everyday work and life, what he has to do with building houses or watching cities or earning our daily bread.  We know (or think we do) what he has to do with the special grace that saves us for life after death, but the most we can usually connect Jesus with the matters of this world is to puzzle over the Sermon on the Mount.

What does it mean for this psalm that God became a man who built, watched, worked, ate, slept, and blessed children?  What in this psalm points us to resources that can answer this question?

What is this psalm about?  It isn’t centrally about building, watching, working, eating, sleeping, and children.  Those items are one dimension, or one kind of dimension, that the psalm works in.  But look at the actions and their sources:  We act and God acts—or refrains from acting.  That is the central question of the psalm:  Who is acting and what does this mean?  The secondary question is:  In view of God’s action, or his self-restraint, what can we do?  We are already busy about this world’s work.  That isn’t bad.  But as we work, where is our trust and hope?  Is it in the effectiveness of our actions, or in the God who has bound us to himself?  So the psalm contrasts fretting and sleeplessness with trust and rest.

Now the psalm sounds a bit like Matt. 6:25-34, where Jesus points out that God is not just the Creator and Provider and Covenant-Maker, but also, and more importantly, our Father.  And now we have a very strong Jesus connection, because Christ both is and displays our connection with the Father.  It is by looking here that we can see most clearly God’s concerns for our cities, our houses, our jobs, and our children.  Jesus is not salvation from our everyday life, he is the salvation of our everyday life.  He shows us its meaning. 

Our theology has sadly neglected this and we must work to repair that wound in our minds.