Psalm 127
Unless the Lord builds the house,
those who build it labor in vain.
Unless the Lord guards the city,
the guard keeps watch in vain.
It is in vain that you rise up early
and go late to rest,
eating the bread of anxious toil;
for he gives sleep to those who love him.
Children are indeed a heritage from the Lord,
the fruit of the womb a reward.
Like arrows in the hand of a warrior
are the sons of one’s youth.
Happy is the man who has
his quiver full of them.
He shall not be put to shame
when he speaks with his enemies in the gate.
As a kid, I used to love to read comic strips in the newspaper. Especially the Sunday Funnies. I loved CALVIN AND HOBBES, DILBERT, and GARFIELD. But my absolute favorite was PEANUTS. I especially related to a certain blockhead named Charlie Brown. I appreciated a character who was a lot like me as a kid: a nervous type who overthinks everything.
One of my favorite PEANUTS strips shows Charlie Brown in his bed, wide awake, worrying about the next day. He's obsessing about a test he has to take tomorrow but then, as he begins to toss and turn, he starts to worry about how this time spent worrying is going to cause him to be tired the next day and not be able to focus on his test. Finally he says, "Even my anxieties have anxieties."
Have you ever felt like that? Anxious? And then anxious about being anxious? Do even your anxieties have anxiety?
I know I do, often. Sometimes I lie awake wondering if I'm doing enough in my job or if I'm doing too much... I wonder if I'm raising my kids too strictly or too loosely... I wonder if God is happy with me or desires more... And then I worry about how all this worrying will affect me the next day. This isn't crippling clinical anxiety or anything... just the normal night-owl, creative-type, variety. But these days you add the layer of our shared national anxiety. Are our loved ones going to make it through this? Are we doing the right thing by sheltering in place? Does our leadership have a handle on this? Should we be doing more or are we doing too much? These days, our anxieties have anxiety.
This Psalm is all about anxiety. The Psalmist seems to be speaking directly to the person lying awake at night worrying about all their responsibilities and all the threats from the outside world-- those who are "eating the bread of anxious toil." The Psalmist says, "the Lord gives sleep to those who love him."
Some nights I could use some of that sleep. Where does it come from? According to Psalm 127, it comes from remembering that if we trust in God, we are not alone. He is working along side us as we build. He is protecting us as we sleep. And our future is in his hands. God lovingly reminds us: I am with you and I will take care of you and no matter what I will always love you.
The second half of the Psalm seems like a sudden shift. The first half seems to be all about anxiety and how God needs to be in our work so that he can be in our rest. But the second half is about children and arrows or something... What does that have to do with anything we were just talking about? Those of us who raise or have raised children know that children and anxiety go hand in hand.
Loving parents help their children deal with their anxieties much in the same way God helps us deal with ours. They do it by gently reminding them: "I am with you and I will take care of you and no matter what I will always love you."
This is also the same way children turn around and reassure their aging parents: "I am with you and I will take care of you and no matter what I will always love you."
This Psalm provides us with beautiful imagery of what parenting is like. It's like having a quiver full of arrows. One by one, you pull them out, set them straight, fix their aim, and launch them into the outside world. While they are in our quiver, we are their protector. Once we let go of them, they are ours.
We rid ourselves of anxiety, not only by trusting in God, but also by trusting in our families. Many of us are blessed to have arrows in our quiver... People we're responsible for checking up on and providing for. Many of us are blessed to have arrows out in the world who are calling us up and checking on us. Both can be a great source of comfort. If you are feeling anxious, pray and call up a loved one.
And if you feel you have no one to call, don't forget God has blessed you with a Church family as well.Don't forget that we are all in this together... One caravan marching toward our destination. Call on me. I am with you and I will take care of you and no matter what I will always love you.
Lord, help us to lean on you for comfort during these anxious days. Help us also to lean on one another. Give us the strength to take care of those we are responsible for and the humility to receive comfort from those that are responsible for us. Amen.
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