Psalms 127:1
Except the LORD build the house, they labour in vain that build it: except the LORD keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain. Except the LORD build the house, they labour in vain that build it: except the LORD keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.
Unless the Lord builds the house and guards the city, all human building and watching is useless and comes to nothing. This is true of homes and daily work, and it is true of raising up churches and schools, which can succeed only by His blessing, cooperation and sustaining care. Building His church demands entire dependence on Him in practical, lived faith, for He Himself must shape the will and actions of the workers, and plans that abandon His direction and principles to gain popularity and worldly favor cannot prosper. Watching is likewise vain unless He upholds it, so each one must faithfully stand at the post entrusted to him while trusting the Lord and the abiding Holy Spirit for protection against danger. The same keeping belongs to the heart, where lasting happiness and a full Christian life are never found in any human being or earthly support, but only when every affection is centered on God and guarded by unceasing watchfulness and prayer.
Building Only With the Lord
Except the Lord build the house, those who build it labor in vain, for human plans and work are worthless without God's aid and cooperation, whether in building homes, preparing land, or designing ships. Establishing churches and schools succeeds only with the Lord's help, and without Him the builders labor in vain. Believers express fitting dependence on Him in this work, singing the verse as they build a humble meeting-house and establish a school for children, with children and parents joining in, in trust that the Lord will bless, sustain, protect, and make the work succeed.
The house is the church, so building it requires entire dependence on God. Leading members of the church who are satisfied to walk in the sparks of their own kindling and do not feel that dependence cannot be used by God. Labor in building God's work is vain unless the Lord Himself is building it, which calls for practical, lived religion and dependence on God who works in people to shape their will and actions.
Plans to make God's work a popular success fail when they leave God's direction, change God-given principles, and suppress present truth. Dropping the name Seventh-day Adventist and silencing the Sabbath in The American Sentinel to gain patronage from great men of the world and affiliate with unbelievers cannot secure success, because the Sabbath principles published as truth for this time are the sum and substance of that work and remain under God's special supervision. God gave a place to His staunch servants and carried the work forward before present managers put their hands to it, and He can still carry it forward and find a place for the truth without those builders. To alter those principles is to meddle with what belongs to God, like Uzzah steadying the ark by human hands and doing a work that does not belong to men to do, so those in councils must take heed what they do.
Work for God depends on His power and care, not merely on human effort. The Reformation was God's work and Luther was only an instrument, and when he feared it would be corrupted by superstition or fanaticism he found peace in trusting God with its outcome. Human efforts cannot prosper without God's blessing and approval, and those who serve God recognize their work can succeed only with His approval and do not rely on their own counsel. Building the Christian life without fully accepting Christ and knowing God and His Son is building and laboring in vain, and eternal life is at stake.
Kept Only by the Lord
Human watching and labor are empty unless the Lord keeps the city. I AM means eternal presence, with past, present, and future alike clear to God. Because human beings do not know what is before them, God gives opportunity to exercise faith and trust in the great I AM. This dependence on the Lord to keep was revealed by Christ during His mission on earth as the eternal I AM, and His keeping is a wonderful truth made known in that earthly mission.
Watchfulness is vain unless the Lord sustains and protects it. Each worker must faithfully keep the charge entrusted to them, stand in the place entrusted to them, and watch for danger. Such vigilance depends on the Lord, and on the Holy Spirit abiding with the worker.
Applied to the heart, the verse means that human effort and protection are in vain without the Lord, and lasting happiness and a round, full Christian experience can never be derived from any human being or rest on human relationships or earthly support. Placing special, select friends in the heart where God should be dishonors God, imperils happiness, and keeps the soul from full experience until every earthly support is removed and the entire affections are centered on God. It requires unceasing watching of the natural affections and tendencies of the heart lest they estrange the soul from God. God must be made the soul's trust and center by watching and praying and by cherishing a faith that works by love and purifies the soul.