May 18, 2025 Faith at Home : The Child's Foundation | Psalm 127

Today we will continue our series Faith Begins at Home by reflecting on Psalm 127, The Child’s Foundation. Our children’s foundation begins at home where they learn about obedience to the Lord and see how their parents live out their faith in God through obeying his decrees and commands. Our children get a Jesus-centered life when we make Jesus the foundation and God the builder and designer of our homes 

Transcript

The Child’s Foundation

Psalm 127

Psalm 127 is one of the psalms the people would sing as they walked up Mount Zion towards Jerusalem. This psalm’s written by Solomon using the imagery of building a house to describe building Israel with God as the builder, but it also applies to the family. The principles are the same, unless the Lord is the one doing the building, unless the Lord is the one we turn to for what the identity, values, purpose, and meaning for being family or kingdom should be, we’re working in vain. We can build beautiful houses, but if the Lord isn’t the designer and foundation, the house will not last. 

We’re in a series based on the book Faith Begins at Homeand we’ve reflected on how it begins with the family choosing with Joshua, “as for me and my household we will serve the Lord,” and then we heard Moses’ call to obedience to God’s will, laws, and decrees, and this morning we’re reflecting on giving our children a strong foundation for their faith and lives. As we raise our children to become adults equipped to engage the world with purpose and strength, it’s important to turn to the Lord to build them in the faith, to make sure that their foundation and cornerstone is Jesus. Psalm 127 is a wisdom psalm, given to us to ground us in God’s wisdom and ways, showing us how God is involved in every part of our lives. 

Pastor Mark Holman quotes Chuck Swindoll, “The family is the place where principles are hammered and honed on the anvil of everyday living.” God’s the great builder and designer: look all around us; not only at creation, but at culture, art, science, politics, and how everything fits together and has its proper place and even time. Humanity has thrown a lot of glitches into God’s creation because we keep choosing sin and idols, but God continues working out his plan of redeeming everything through Jesus, including our families and homes. God wants to be the builder of our homes and families, the reality is that “unless the Lord builds the house, the workers build in vain.” 

Jesus picks up on the image of building our homes at the end of his Sermon on the Mount, where he tells his listeners that if they don’t build their lives on his teaching, it will end in weaker homes and lives, Matthew 7:24–27, “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.” 

Be honest. Are you building your home on the rock that stays solid through all of life’s storms, building your family on Jesus and his teachings? Jesus commands us to walk his way. What is his way? Start with the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew. Are you really salt and light that transforms our world, are you true to the spirit of the Law and not just the letter, do you trust only in God and not repay evil for evil, are you generous with what God has given you, and quick to prayer and forgiveness? Do your lives show the fruit of the Spirit? This is an all-in living for Jesus with the Lord both the builder and designer of our family, but the reality is we play games with Jesus’ call to walk his way, we don’t go all in, and our children see this and wonder why they should.

The church and Christian schools help build up our children in the faith, but the home is the place where faith is made real and children learn to live their faith out. I love Sunday mornings and our times of worship, but we’re only together for 1 ½ hours. As families, are you are talking about and living out what happens as we worship God? Do you take the times of praise and worship, of confession, assurance, and committing ourselves to living out God’s will, partnering with fellow believers through our personal generosity with God’s work in our community and world, and going deeper into the Word reflected on that day through the week. 20 minutes of preaching can’t open up all that’s in God’s Word. If you’re depending on Sunday mornings to be fed, you’re going to go hungry. We have a responsibility as families to continue to open God’s Word up regularly at home and carry our worship into the rest of the week. It's in our homes where God becomes Lord of our lives and Jesus the foundation of our households. 

Solomon goes on, “Unless the Lord watches over the city, the guards stand watch in vain. In vain you rise early and stay up late, toiling for food to eat—for he grants sleep to those he loves.” The warning is that without the Lord, you build in vain because of enemies and your sleep will never be restful. Jewish teachers often the use the negative to emphasize a positive choice, here Solomon twice says, “Unless the Lord” to encourage the people to ask the Lord to build their houses, to watch over them and the promise is peaceful sleep, trusting in the Lord to keep them safe and providing for them. Worry and fear can make the world feel like it’s shifting under us. Jesus talks about trusting God and not worrying about having the things you need in Matthew 6 and he ends with, “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” 

When we were going through seminary as a family with 5 teens and pre-teens, Joyce and I many times turned to God to provide for our family because we couldn’t. Our children sometimes worried about how we would get by, even though we tried to keep these struggles away from them. God provided for us through many anonymous gifts, a place for Joyce to volunteer at that helped us with clothes and even mattresses for our kids, and a seminary food bank. Even today, our kids remember how God always provided. It’s helped them see God’s hand at work in their own lives, as we often talked about trusting God and following him and who he’s called us to be as his children. 

Jesus “grants sleep to those he loves.” We don’t have to carry the weight of the world on our shoulders when we choose to serve the Lord and obey his will and laws which he’s given to help us flourish as his children. You can give your children everything they want, but without the Lord, there’s no foundation, you’re building their lives and faith on shifting sand that can wash everything away without warning; that’s not loving them. You’re doing them no favours by teaching them that it’s alright to put God second for your own pleasure or to fit in. When your children see you practice real faith and trust in God in everything you do, in your relationships, and how you live for Jesus, it strengthens your children’s foundation.  

Solomon tells us children are a blessing, a heritage from the Lord, a reward. He uses the Hebrew word “sakar” for reward, which also means maintenance, something we’re to take care. Our children are one of God’s greatest gifts, but they come with a responsibility, to raise them in the faith to know, follow, and love the Lord. 

Solomon goes on to describe children as “arrows in the hands of a warrior.” For those of you who have done some archery, you know the importance of making sure your arrows are straight and true so you can hit your target. In Solomon’s day, archers made their own arrows, spending a great deal of time and effort to make sure they would fly true. As families and as a church, our responsibility is to train up our children in the way they should go so they’ll fly true through life; true to Jesus with Jesus as their goal and target. Just like an archer can impact a battle from far away, we can make a difference in the world well into the future through investing the time and effort to raise our children in the Lord. 

When we teach and model faithfulness to the way of Jesus, when we teach the value of sacrificing the ways of the world for Jesus’ way, when we model to our children obedience to Jesus, God promises his blessings, “You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.” The impact you have in following the Lord’s design for your children’s faith built on the foundation of Jesus, can shape generations after you. What an amazing gift of love to your children! 

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