How builders may build in vain
Leader’s note: The theme of “building a house” includes family. However, the present study series treats that topic separately in more depth in Ps 128 to instead focus here on the main idea of Ps 127 about vain glory. Since Ps 127 is attributed to Solomon, taking time to explore this and other obvious parallels with the book of Ecclesiastes could serve as a primer for studying that unique book on another occasion.
Read: Psalm 127
1) Of the 15 Songs of Ascent, Ps 127 is in the middle. Is any of its themes worthy to put it in the center? Why?
- One word is repeatedly used here: What is its theme?
- The word “vain” in Hebrew also means deceptive, empty, false. Why does v1 warn of building in vain?
- Who is warned of such vanity?
- Why remind religious people of this on their pilgrimage to Jerusalem?
- How and why do millions of religious people live as if they did not believe this? cf Gal 3:1-3
- Why does v1 tell them that they are wrong?
2) vv1-2: To build a house is a milestone for many: Why could this undertaking be in vain?
- Read Deut 28:30 => Who is denied there to live in the house that they built, and why? Deut 28:15
- Why does Deut 28 curse our attempts to merit God’s favors, rather than blessing them? cf Gal 3:10; Ro 3:19-20; Mk 11:21
- Does v2 mean that hard work with little sleep cannot achieve anything at all?
- Read Jn 15:4 => How did Jesus describe even the ‘good’ works of men who live without him? Why? cf Jn 15:6; Rev 3:1
- Read Mt 7:26-27 => What else makes building on sand such a vain enterprise?
- The ‘house’ which one may build and guard in vain is evidently a metaphor. For what exactly, v3? cf Heb 3:6
- How do families and church communities resemble a house in a city?
3) v3: What motivates you to put up with the hard work needed to provide for a family and its church?
- What returns, if any, do you expect?
- How can such efforts be disappointed?
- v3 (see also Ps 128:4): What does it mean, to “behold…”?
4) No other Psalm of Ascent is ascribed to Solomon, v1. Has it anything in common with other wisdom literature attributed to him? cf Ecc 1:1-3
- In a way, Ps 127 can be regarded as ‘Ecclesiastes in a nutshell’: What is that book known for? cf Ecc 1:1-3.
- How did the author of Ecclesiastes realize that all his own works were vain, incl. his building projects, Ecc 2:4, 11?
- Why did he so despair, hating eventually even life itself? cf Ecc1:14-15, Ecc 2:16-17
5) The author of Ecclesiastes speaks of the saving work of God and the joy of becoming His workmanship (Ecc 3:11; 5:1, 19-20), but only after despairing about his own works (Ecc 2:20). Why not before?
- Why is it necessary first to despair about the vanity of our own works? cf Ps 131:1; Phil 3:8-9; Eph 2:8-10 =>
- Why does boasting get in the way of salvation? =>
- Boasting (religious pride) is the ultimate sin that we need to be saved from: How? =>
- Why did Jesus teach that we must lose our life to save it, Mt 16:24-26?
6) Besides sincere faith, what will parents and their children need to succeed?
- Courts inside the gates of ancient cities were the place of battle once enemies broke through outer defenses, whereas in peace time they served business and jurisdiction. Whose battles, and which ones, is Ps 127 talking about, and what is promised there?*
7) Personal & application
- When you became a Christian, how did you realize that even your best works are vain and cannot make you good?
- What led you to instead seek God’s blessing as one who does not deserve it?
- What motivates you to pursue such blessing: To ‘lose your life’, or to save it, Mt 16:22-24?
- What in Ps 127 might encourage you to do so?
- As believers, how do you instruct each other and your children in practical godly wisdom to be more (and not less) ‘effective’?
* Translations of v5 differ as to who “shall not be put to shame in the city gate”: Godly children or their fathers?
Bibletogetherblog 