Psalm 127:1 – Life In Vain: Your House

Daily Devotional Bible Verse

Unless the LORD builds the house,
those who build it labor in vain.
Unless the LORD watches over the city,
the watchman stays awake in vain. (Psalm 127:1 ESV)

In the Bible, the building of a house can often be referred to as your life or family (Genesis 16:2, Ruth 4:11, 2 Corinthians 5:1-4). The most important part when building a house, or any building for that matter, is the foundation. I have a favorite Starbucks, and it’s my favorite because of how big and open it is (unlike the other two Starbucks in town). The reason it is so much larger and open is because it was built from scratch. They were able to lay the foundation they wanted for it, while the other two were constrained by the size of the pre-existing foundation they were using.

All of our lives are built on foundations which determine their direction. Jesus tells us in a parable that when we build our house on a foundation of our own choosing, it ends up crumbling when the bad times happen (Matthew 7:24-27). When we build our own foundation, instead of a foundation that is on Christ and his words, we build it in vain. All the hard work we put in ends up crumbling down from one thing, or another.

As we lay the foundation for our lives on Jesus, we allow him to do the heavy lifting. When we let God construct the foundation, He is the one who ends up building our house and the direction of our lives. When this happens, all things work for our good (Romans 8:28) and when the storms of this life come, we are still left standing (Matthew 7:24-27). We also begin to pray that not our will, but His will be done (Luke 22:42). We find our lives are no longer built in vain, but on a foundation that will never fail.
Daily Devotionals