This post is second in the Psalm 127 series "Live Like a King."
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Unless the LORD builds the house,
They labor in vain who build it …
~ Psalm 127:1 (NKJV)
The Hebrew word used here for "vain" (shâv') is not the same word that Solomon uses 35 times in Ecclesiastes for "vanity" (hăbêl). The latter refers to something merely empty or fleeting. But shâv' is worse than emptiness. Shâv' is desolate, destructive, deceitful.
So [Solomon] was seven years in building [the house of the LORD]. But Solomon took thirteen years to build his own house.
~ 1 Kings 6:38-7:1 (NKJV)
The temple actually took more than seven years to build, because David spent his lifetime preparing for its construction—possibly since the day Goliath's sword was taken to the tabernacle. Solomon, on the other hand, having constructed the temple, apparently spent the remainder of his life erecting a king's palace and building his own house.
We spend our lives building many types of houses: a dream residence or healthy body is a physical house; a career, enterprise, business, or ministry is a vocational house; family and home are houses of legacy. Our intent is creation of something built to endure.
A house may be built to endure the passage of millennia, set upon solid foundations, and carefully laid out with sure cornerstones. Some still stand. Others are dust, having succumbed to neglect, war, or act of God, their creators' efforts now shâv'.
You also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
~ 1 Peter 2:5 (NKJV)
Jesus saves souls because He is building a kingdom. His eye detects the potential for beauty beneath rough, scarred surfaces, even when rotten to the core. He recovers outcasts destined for dust and restores them by going right to heart and re-building from the inside out. His rescued treasures become polished gemstones, gleaming lights in a house built to endure for eternity.
"Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock."
~ Jesus, Matthew 7:24 (ESV)
The Sermon on the Mount ends with an invitation to join Jesus in constructing a house built to endure for eternity. When we live by His words—when we hunger and thirst for righteousness, when we turn the other cheek, when we love our enemies, when we do to others as we'd have done to us—we live like Jesus.
When we live like Jesus, we live like a King, with all the grace, honor, and dignity of the royalty we are.
Our Father in Heaven, please move us to keep Your name holy in our lives and on our tongues. Bring Your Kingdom of Heaven to Earth through us.
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Copyright 2012, Anne Lang Bundy, all rights reserved.
I think my house had some major construction done this summer. In the process of rebuilding.
ReplyDelete~ Wendy
Take heart, Wendy, when "God at Work" becomes visible. And be patient if it seems to take forever to clear rubble and sweep dust a while before the rebuilding starts.
DeleteLove to you!
I'm so glad the Kingdom of God is growing and will endure forever!
ReplyDeleteYes, TC, and when we grow impatient for His Kingdom to arrive in more fullness, it is good to remember:
DeleteNow when He was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, He answered them and said, "The kingdom of God does not come with observation; nor will they say, 'See here!' or 'See there!' For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you." (Luke 17:20-21)
Amen to this sis.
ReplyDeleteLove and hugs to you, Denise. :D
ReplyDelete