Mid-term elections on November 3 brought sweeping changes to politics across our nation. While it is normal for midterms to be detrimental to the party in power, this year’s election was a wave. As I posted last week, worldviews (elections) have consequences, and this year’s midterms will have significant influence across the political landscape for years to come.
I’m not qualified to diagnose all the political issues that drove the midterm rebuke of the President and the Republican Party, but I do want to offer several theological/historical observations using Psalm 127 to help us make sense of the times in which we’re living.
1 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.
2 It is in vain that you rise up early
and go late to rest,
eating the bread of anxious toil;
for he gives to his beloved sleep.3 Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord,
the fruit of the womb a reward.
4 Like arrows in the hand of a warrior
are the children of one’s youth.
5 Blessed is the man
who fills his quiver with them!
He shall not be put to shame
when he speaks with his enemies in the gate.Psalm 127
It is prideful and vain to build our own kingdoms. The Psalmist tells us a house built without the Lord is constructed in vanity. This goes for homes, nations, kingdoms, political parties, or businesses. In context, the people of Israel had not trusted in the Lord’s strength or guidance at times through her history. They worshiped idols and faced judgment. Their vanity resulted in exile.
It is a normal tendency to treat our lives, careers, and decisions as our own kingdoms. Nebuchadnezzar did so in the book of Daniel. He even built a great statue to his own glory and pride. He labored in vain, and the only legacy he left behind is a name and a kingdom associated with evil. We can see this in other instances throughout history. Kingdoms like Alexander’s Greek Empire or the Roman Empire or the Holy Roman Empire or Nazi Germany or communist Russia (and many, many other examples) were kingdoms built in vain. They no longer hold sway in our world today.
This is also true of politicians and parties. Parties are voted in and voted out. Politicians rise and fall. Kingdoms advance and recede. Democrats win sometimes, and republicans win sometimes. But unless the Lord builds the house (kingdom), those who labor, labor in vain. No doubt consequential decisions are made by politicians. Often we are influenced (negatively and positively) by legislation and decisions. After all, worldviews (elections) have consequences. But it should encourage us greatly that much of the influence and labor of politicians is simply vanity. What is not done for the Lord will not last.
It is vanity to be so anxious when our Lord promises rest. As humans we can be anxious and vexed at the strangest things. I’ve been anxious about sport’s teams I’ve pulled for. In years past, I’ve stayed up to the early morning hours watching election results. I’ve been anxious about decisions, situations, and troubles. I’ve been anxious to work and anxious about work. And so much of my anxiety over the years has come from things outside of my control. This is part of the psalmist’s point. God wants us to trust him to build his kingdom and our house so that he gives sleep to his beloved.
We are his beloved. God has promised steadfast and enduring love to his people. See Psalm 136 and Ephesians 3 among many other passages. God’s love should settle us.I was talking with a church member recently who remembered a song prior to a procedure, “God Will Take Care of Me.” This is his promise. Rest in him.
It is wise to acknowledge what the Lord considers a blessing. Even as we are instructed to trust in the Lord to build his house and to forsake anxiety, there is something we can do. We can and should invest in the inheritance that lasts. In Psalm 127, God tells us children are a heritage and a blessing. Essentially, humans are immortal. C.S. Lewis addresses this idea rather poignantly.
There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations – these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub and exploit – immortal horrors or everlasting splendors. This does not mean that we are to be perpetually solemn. We must play. But our merriment must be of that kind (and it is, in fact, the merriest kind) which exists between people who have, from the outset, taken each other seriously – no flippancy, no superiority, no presumption.
C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory
People are a heritage because people are eternal or to use Lewis’ term immortal. As such one of the best things we can possibly do to address the culture around us is get married, have children, raise them to know and follow the Lord, and invest in the relationships around us. As I noted in last week’s post, many countries and worldviews are experiencing declining birth rates. Practically, within one generation of raising children to know God and believe the Bible, massive political changes could take place. This is why governments all across the world (including ours) emphasize control over the educational arena and entertainment. If they cannot govern what we teach in our homes, they will imbed false ideologies in the hearts and minds of our children. This means our most significant participation in what the Lord wants to build is in our homes and relationships where we help people meet and follow the living God.
Follow Jesus wherever he goes. Invest in relationships with friends and family. Lead them to follow Jesus. These are the activities of those in the Lord’s house. This is how we participate in what is not vain. This is how we live a life that lasts.
Photo by TROY ALLEN on Unsplash