The Place Called 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.” Psalm 127:1 

“Nisi dominus frustra.” Without God, it is in vain. Literally: without the Lord, frustration. This is engraved on a structure at the Shing Mun Reservoir Park in Hong Kong, highlighting the Lord’s provision in allowing the reservoir to be built. I’ve always read this verse as a call to work hard, to remember the Lord in your work. To work for Him, with all the zeal of working for the God who created me. 

And yes, do that. Most definitely. “Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men.” Colossians 3:23. 

But Psalm 127 continues past verse 1. Past this call to work for the Lord.  

“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.” Psalm 127:2

To not just work endlessly, but to rest. This psalm is not just a call to work as I’ve always thought it was. It’s a call to rest too. 

Don’t just keep working, sleeping only the bare minimum that’s necessary to get you through the day. Don’t just keep pushing through the exhaustion, waiting for this magical amount of “enough” that you’ll never actually reach. There will always be just one more thing I could do, one more way I could do better before I rest. There’s never a “good” time to rest. 

But God calls us to it. Just as much as He calls us to work. He commands it even. It’s one of the Ten Commandments, to keep the Sabbath. He says to keep it holy. To have time set aside to do nothing. To rest. He devotes four entire verses to it where other commandments get one. You can read the whole thing in Exodus 20:8-11.

He says to rest as He did. When God created the whole universe, He rested on the seventh day and Exodus 20:11 says “therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.” 

To make something holy is to set it apart. He set apart time to rest. And He calls us to do the same. Set aside time to be given to the Lord, to do no work and just rest. 

My best friend and I were talking about this the other day, as it’s something we feel the Lord is calling us to do. We’re both really bad to just keep going until we can’t anymore. We won’t even realize it. And I’m sure this is a really common problem too.

But she made a really good point. She said that when God rested after creating the world, He took a moment to just be. Right in the middle of everything He had made. To take an account for everything He’d done and just sit with it. She said He didn’t overwhelm Himself with what wasn’t made or with what was coming. He just rested in what was. 

God doesn’t need rest. He’s all-powerful. He didn’t rest there because He needed it. He rested to show us how to. He wasn’t done creating. He wasn’t done with all of His work. He still works now. But He took the time to rest in what He’d already done. 

And my friend made the point that we’re meant to rest in the same way. To rest in God is to take today for today. To trust that He’s got tomorrow taken care of already. 

Jesus said this in Matthew 6:34. “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.” 

Rest in today. Rest in the fact that God has tomorrow taken care of. And when tomorrow becomes your today, then you can rest in the fact that God already has it taken care of. 

Stop rushing. God doesn’t call us to rush. He calls us to trust Him. To trust His timing. To trust that He already knows how long we’ll take to do things and He’s not hindered by anything. We’re not throwing off His plans and thwarting all His work if we rest for five minutes. He intends for us to rest. 

Fall in love with the process more than the outcome. Trust that God has His hands in all of it. That He’s got it all worked out already. Lay it at His feet. Don’t feel the need to work everything out yourself all at once. God already worked it all out for you and He’ll lead you where you need to be at the right time. He promises that in Isaiah 60:22, “when the time is right, I, the Lord, will make it happen.” And in Romans 8:28. “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose.” 

Rest is a part of God’s work for us. It’s a command. And it’s really easy to forget that. To continue working because we think we’re sacrificing for the Lord so we must be doing great. But like He says in psalm 127, “unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain.” He says, “it is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil.” 

If the Lord calls me to rest and I choose to work instead, that work is done in vain. He’s not calling me to it right then. And that might be work that He does have for me to do, but if He’s telling me to rest first and I ignore that, then I’m actually being disobedient to Him. I’m not working for Him at that point, I’m working for me. For some sense of accomplishment in myself. For some extra bit of value and worth derived from my own efforts. 

I’m working in vain. And I end up exhausting myself until I’m forced to rest because I can’t hold a thought. 

God designed us for regular periods of rest. 

It’s a form of worship even. An acknowledgment of God’s authority and strength and our lack thereof. 

We can do all things, yes, through Christ. Philippians 4:13 says He gives us the strength to do all things. And resting is one of the ways He gives us that strength. And while we can do all things with His strength, that doesn’t mean to do everything all at once. 

So don’t feel guilty for resting or taking things slower. Don’t wait for your body to force you into rest. Take it willingly and gladly and regularly. Take it as a form of worship, thanking God for the opportunity to rest. For the freedom to take your time and breathe. For working it all out for you. Take it as an opportunity to trust God to take care of everything you need. 

Rest isn’t lazy. It’s necessary. It’s commanded.