The Most Important Person in the Home

“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.” (Ps 127:1)

Probably the three most important words in this psalm are recorded in this first verse – “unless the LORD.” This phrase appears 2x and tells us the importance of God’s involvement in every activity. The Latin phrase is Nisi Dominus Frusta, which means “without the Lord, frustration.” Without God, everything is useless.

The “house” is the actual raising of a family. Most agree with this view, because the context demands it. Vs. 3 refers to the building of a family through the increase of children.

Also, there are a number of times in the Scripture where building a house refers to the family (e.g., the family of Israel). God promised to build the “house” or the family of Samuel in I Samuel 2:35. David promised to expand his family or “house” to God in II Samuel 7:27. The psalmist wrote, “He gives the barren woman a home, making her the joyous mother of children. Praise the Lord!” (Ps 113:9)

Again, the point is this: unless God is about building a home and unless we acknowledge Him at the center, our lives are futile.

A good example of a people who tried to build without God’s assistance were those who built the Tower of Babel. Consider the failure of a people who didn’t have God at the center.

“¹ Now the whole earth had one language and the same words.² And as people migrated from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. ³ And they said to one another, ‘Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly.’ And they had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar. ⁴ Then they said, ‘Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves (the goal of man when he is not serving God), lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth.’⁵ And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of man had built. ⁶ And the Lord said, ‘Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them.⁷ Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another’s speech.’ ⁸ So the Lord dispersed them from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city. ⁹ Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth. And from there the Lord dispersed them over the face of all the earth” (Gen 11:1-9).

The most important Person in the home is God. If God is omitted, anything is futile. It is either God’s work or it is pointless. Unless God assists, labor is worthless – for health, strength, wisdom.  God must drive everything we do. Christians do not just go to work. They go to work for God. Christians don’t just do jobs. They do jobs with God. God is with them.