1. Psalms In Honor Of Mothers
Look At The Book!
Psalms
In Honor Of Mothers

2. Happy Mother’s Day! Today is a day designated as Mother’s Day.
One day set aside each year to celebrate motherhood and remember the women who make our lives bright, joyful, and meaningful. No number of days is sufficient to properly honor mothers!
In keeping with our Look At The Book theme, we’ll discuss moms (and dads) today from Psalm 127.
It is a psalm that speaks of the joy of parenthood, especially when we trust in God.

3. Parenting Without God Is CRAZY!
I cannot imagine the stress and anxiety that would be involved in raising a child outside of the Lord.
Parenting is a tremendous challenge anytime. Much worse if God is not guiding and leading your parenting.
Today, let’s consider Psalm 127, one of the beautiful psalms of ascents.

4. Psalm 127
The psalm is divided into two stanzas. Without careful consideration, it might at face value seem as though the two stanzas don’t belong together.
Stanza One: Fruitless labor if God is not involved.
Stanza Two: The joy of parenthood as a blessing from God.

5. Stanza One: Verses 1-2
“Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it; Unless the Lord guards the city, the watchman keeps awake in vain. It is vain for you to rise up early, to retire late, to eat the bread of painful labors; For He gives to His beloved even in his sleep.”
The key thought here is VANITY.
It is VAIN to try and build anything – especially a house – without the help of the Lord.

6. Is This A House? Or a House?
It seems to me that building a physical dwelling is NOT in view here. Rather, it is building a home.
Much as Joshua said in Joshua 24:15 -- “If it is disagreeable in your sight to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves today whom you will serve: whether the gods which your fathers served which were beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”
Either way – building anything without considering the Lord and His will is catastrophic.

7. A Concern For Safety/Protection
It is vain to build without God.
Without God we lack the protection and help of heaven. Every house needs to be protected by God. Every city needs to be under God’s protective hand.
James 4:15 – “Instead, you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that.”

8. Building With God Is Necessary
Psalm 46:1 – God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.”
Proverbs 3:5-6 – “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding.”
Psalm 40:17 – “Since I am afflicted and needy, Let the Lord be mindful of me. You are my help and my deliverer; Do not delay, O my God.”
Do you remember “Calgon! Take Me Away!”
Calgon is NOT a substitute for parenting with God.

9. Our Children On Loan From God
We must raise our children understanding they are a gift from God!
Illustration: Woman at storage shed and her poor son.
1 Samuel 1:27-28a – “For this boy I prayed, and the Lord has given me my petition which I asked of Him. So I have dedicated him to the Lord; as long as he lives he is dedicated to the Lord.”
Do you see your children as precious gifts? Or little monsters?

10. God Gives Even While We Sleep
The last line of the first stanza is a bit uncertain.
Either God will give the sleep.
Or God gives to them even as they sleep.
Either way, our houses need to be built trusting in God so we can be blessed from heaven.

11. Stanza Two: Verses 3-5
“Behold, children are a gift of the Lord, the fruit of the womb is a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior, so are the children of one’s youth. How blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them; they will not be ashamed when they speak with their enemies in the gate.”

12. The Fruit Of The Womb This is to speak of the joy of motherhood.
Only through women can birth take place.
God declares in this Psalm that children are both a gift and a reward.
The world has worked so hard to convince women that they are a convenience or an inconvenience.

13. Children Compared to Warriors
The children of one’s youth grow into strong adults in time.
They will be useful, supportive, and will even protect their parents in their old age.
When they “speak with their enemies in the gate” is to say that a large family sticks together and supports one another in good times and in bad.

14. The Joy Of Well-Reared Children
When children are reared in the strength and admonition of the Lord, they are a blessing to their parents and indeed to everyone around them. (Ephesians 6:4)

15. With The Strength Of God
Raising godly children takes the strength that God supplies.
1 Peter 4:11 – “Whoever speaks, is to do so as one who is speaking the utterances of God; whoever serves is to do so as one who is serving by the strength which God supplies; so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belongs the glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.

16. Thank You, Mothers
Thanks to all our mothers, grandmothers, great- grandmothers, great-great grandmothers and every woman who has ever offered help in the raising of godly children.
Our world will be a much sadder place if godly parents fail to raise children trusting in the Lord.