Psalm 127

I'm looking at Psalm 127 atm, in preparation for Monday's CU meeting.

Some good points from the New Bible Commentary:

• "...In the Bible, the opposite of rest is not work, but restlessness,"

This is revolutionary! Society would have us divide our lives into discrete chunks: thus work becomes a separate unit to rest; and we're encouraged to think of relaxation as the absense of work and duty. But this is not the case! Adam had the responsibility of stewarding the garden before the fall; God himself holds all things together in his providence! I'm sure that there'll be work in heaven (minus the painful toil instituted in Genesis 3:17-19)

• "All life must be lived to the full, all its joys enjoyed and its duties performed in unworried reliance on him who is the doer of all. Joyful activity, toilsome activity - but full of untroubled rest."

Often I'm tempted to feel guilty about how good life is; that it's somehow wrong to enjoy peace and wealth and health when so many are poor, at war and ill. But how much more wrong it is for us not to enjoy God's great goodness to us! God's providence means that we can trust him in everything - in work and in play; in abundance and in poverty; in duty and in freedom!