Psalm 127

Verse 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."

This evening I read a transcript of a sermon that Ligon Duncan preached on this psalm:

Apart from the Lord, apart from active dependence upon the Lord, apart from trust in the Lord, our lives are pointless, restless, and fruitless. This psalm appeals to three basic activities of life, to explain and apply the truth that we need to depend upon the Lord, that we need to deliberately trust the Lord in every aspect of our lives. The illustrations in this psalm revolve around construction (building a house), security (protecting a city), and parenting (rearing a family). And in those three spheres, Solomon charges us to trust God, to depend upon God, to recognize that all of our efforts will be in vain unless the Lord blesses.

William Plumer, the great Old Testament commentator and the author of a marvelous commentary on the Psalms, asked this searching question:  How many millions sleep and wake up like atheists? That is, do we go to bed and wake up in our worries as if God did not exist? Do we think that we can worry ourselves to security? Worry ourselves to fruitful labor as if God did not exist? Or do we work and then trust Him to establish the work of our hands?

What a needed reminder for me this evening! No amount of worry and anxiety is going to help me finish this degree, make a living, find a husband, or bring about any other objective I may have.