Psalms 127:1: A song of Ascent for Solomon: “Unless the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it.”
Labor in vain in Hebrew is: שׁוא עָמְל֣וּ
עָמַל amal labor
בּ֑וֹ bow in
שָׁ֤וְא. šāw vain
This Psalm refers to Solomon and in the scriptures the Second Temple is known as
Solomon’s Temple.
The point is as we read about it we may think that It really should be known as
Our Heavenly Father’s Temple,
however history records it as being Solomon’s Temple.
Historical Hebrew literature says that there was a good reason it was called Solomon’s Temple because with regard to the plans and resulting construction it was more Solomon’s temple design than it was the Lords.
Since the return of the Jews to Israel in 1948 and more recently their gaining control of Jerusalem in 1967; there has been extensive research on Solomon’s Temple so up until recently all that was really known about the first temple was what we were able to find in the Bible.
One thing we do know is that the temple was built by slave labor and that Solomon taxed the people to finance the temple pushing them to the point of rebellion.
It has been made clear that although the Lord God commanded that certain things be made of silver, there was no silver used in the temple because Solomon decided to make them out of gold instead. Furthermore some of the items for the Temple that should have been made of gold, Solomon chose to have them made from brass or copper. He was not obedient to the heavenly pattern and the result was that the temple ended up being more of a monument to King Solomon than to the King of the Universe. He was disobedient in other ways as he had married several pagan wives who brought idolatry with them into Israel, all by the time the temple was ready to be dedicated.
After Solomon died, it was a mere 5 years before his son Rehoboam took much of the gold from the temple to bribe the Egyptians; sadly in less than a lifetime after the temple had been dedicated, it was in decline.
Because of the condition of the nation, God sent His Prophets to warn of coming judgment, but the people mocked the warnings pridefully declaring they were not only Gods people but that He would not suffer the Temple dedicated to Himself to be destroyed.
They were all wrong.
It is worthwhile noting that when the temple was dedicated it was recorded that God’s presence filled it with His Shekinah Glory so strong was His presence that the priests could not stand to minister. Eternal weight of glory … Many experience that real feeling of heaviness when the presence of the Lord manifests.
2 Cor. 4:17-18 For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;
The historical Hebrew writings teach that after this 1st temple was destroyed and the 2nd temple was built, the 2nd temple did not have things that were present in the 1st temple. The 2nd temple did not have the presence of God, the ark of His covenant was gone, nor did it have the fire of our Heavenly Father. Originally The Lord God sent fire from heaven that was never extinguished and the priests would faithfully feed this flame on the temple menorah daily with pure olive oil.
Lev. 9:24 and fire came out from before the LORD and consumed the burnt offering and the fat on the altar. When all the people saw it, they shouted and fell on their faces.
So fire fell and consumed Solomon’s sacrifice at the dedication of the temple. Jewish tradition reports that the fire was always kept alive until the reign of Manasseh, when it became extinguished.
The western lamp was to be kept burning at all times. If it were ever extinguished, it was relit from the continuous fire on the sacrificial altar.
2Chronicles 7:1-2. Tradition assures us that the sacred fire which thus issued forth from the immediate presence of God continued to be nourished on the altar with the fuel especially provided by the congregation, and constituted the perpetual fire. See Leviticus 6:13.
However, when the 1st temple was destroyed the fire of the Lord went out and He never replaced it by sending more fire from heaven. The 3rd thing missing in the 2nd temple was the Fathers’ Holy Spirit and the 4th was that the prophetic power of the Urim and Thummim ceased to give guidance and answers through the High Priest.
The Hebrew Rabbis teach that these 4 things will not return to the temple until the Messiah comes and is glorified:
Messiah had to come to earth as a human, He had to be persecuted and tortured, be sacrificed and then be raised from the dead. He had to ascend to heaven and on the day of Shavuot/Pentecost when He would be given His throne and His glorification would be complete. We know this has already come to pass being fulfilled over 2000 years ago and one day soon the scales will fall from the eyes of the Israelites just as they did from Pauls.
AMP version
I do not want you, believers, to be unaware of this mystery [God’s previously hidden plan]—so that you will not be wise in your own opinion—that a partial hardening has [temporarily] happened to Israel [to last] until the full number of the Gentiles has come in;
AMPC version
Lest you be self-opinionated (wise in your own conceits), I do not want you to miss this hidden truth and mystery, brethren: a hardening (insensibility) has [temporarily] befallen a part of Israel [to last] until the full number of the ingathering of the Gentiles has come in,
What a blessed day of rejoicing that will be!
Gods blessings are poured out into our lives continually however the reality is, if our Heavenly Father had to wait for perfection before He could bless His children; it’s probably true to say that no one would receive blessings, or experience the glory of His spirit of Holiness.
The word glory in Hebrew is kabod
or sometimes spelled kavod,
(b and v being the same Hebrew letter)
which means a heaviness.
The word comes from an ancient Semitic root meaning:
to bear a burden
through the process of reaching the Hebrew language it represented:
the bearing of a burden of love.
Our Heavenly Father God is love 1John 4:8
and so overflowing with perfect unconditional love that He continually pours it out to people with the supreme act so well known in John 3:16 God so loved the world..
HoweverMalachi 2:2reminds us that if a person does not take that love to his heart, he will not appreciate the blessing.
Our Heavenly Father still allowed His presence to stay in the temple, even though it hadn’t been built according to His specific plan. His glory/loving presence filled the house and even though there was corruption among the priesthood many people journeyed to Jerusalem to worship God in the temple with a heart of sincerity and reverent respect.
Psalms 127:1
“Unless the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it.”
The first word of the Psalm which is translated as unless
is the Hebrew word im
אִם
which is more commonly rendered as if.
Strongs 518
im: if
Original Word: אִם Part of Speech: conjunction; hypothetical particle; imperfect; infinitive; interrogative particle Transliteration: im Phonetic Spelling: (eem) Definition: if
אִם conjunction (= Aramaic if [1. hypothetical particle if.
construction (see more fully Dr§ 136-138, 143 FriedrichDie Hebr. Condit. sätze 1884): (1) with imperfect (continued by perfects & waw consecutive; apodosis usually begins with perfect & waw consecutive or bare imperfect; or, if necessary, with imperative or jussive) (a) of future time: For more details ref online at
https://biblehub.com/hebrew/518.htm
The syntax or sentence construction, is a little confusing because there are two constructs together:
If Jehovah and he is not building.
the KJV is correct with the
sentence construction, however there is no definite article on the word house but there is a pronoun; so we could add the pronoun and it would read:
If Jehovah is not building His house.
The word house in Hebrew thought has the idea of
the place of the heart.
This reminds us of our saying:
“Home is where the heart is.”
With this in mind we could say, “
If Jehovah is not building a place within His heart…”
the last part of the verse says,
they labor in vain who build it.
labor עָמְל֣וּ(‘ā·mə·lū) Verb – Qal – Perfect – third person common plural Strong’s 5998: To toil, work severely and with irksomeness
in בּ֑וֹ(bōw) Preposition | third person masculine singular Strong’s Hebrew
The temple was meant to be a place, our Heavenly Fathers house where His presence and love lived and so you were also entering His heart. Tragically it was corrupted because Solomon had filled it with his own designs however, the Father still mercifully allowed His presence to be known and experienced, despite everything in Israel being in a steady downward direction. In 1Cor.6:19 Paul tells us our bodies are the temple of God, actually the sanctuary, the holy of holies, where the glory was manifest over the ark of His covenant.
The heart of God, His Presence in the form of His Holy Spirit, is meant to reside in the very innermost part of us, the heart of our being.
עָמְל֣וּ ‘ā·mə·lū they labor 5998
It’s true that we do work hard and labor to build and maintain this temple/sanctuary.
Work out your salvation. Phil. 2:12-13
Many times our labors are in the form of bringing glory by ministering to our Father declaring our overflowing love to Him. However due to the un-crucified ego in human nature, we like Solomon, cannot resist putting a bit of our own plans and design into this temple, our bodies. It seems that we simply can’t help but to build a monument to ourselves. We are honestly seeking to bring honor to God in our ministry and to give Him the glory, but somewhere deep inside there’s a part of us that wants a little of that honor and recognition for ourselves. It could be that maybe we want to make a good living at it, and have the dream life we see others have in the world, or we may desire to build a great reputation and a develop a large following of admirers. Is there anything wrong with receiving a little praise and kudos for our labors?
Prov. 16:2 all a mans ways are pure in his own sight but Adonai weighs the spirit.
Prov. 27:2 “Let another man praise you, and not your own mouth; A stranger, and not your own lips”
We all need encouragement from time to time, so maybe nothing is wrong with that except; we do run the risk of a leaving something behind us that becomes
a Solomon’sTemple and not God’s Temple.
Praise is dangerous because it can produce pride. This scripture is best understood as a person is tested by those who give the praise. Praise is often flattery and at other times it may simply be courtesy, or for encouragement. Because of insecurity a person can also take praise as an affirmation of his/her own importance. The Bible warns against pride since that often results in forgetting about God.
If that is the case, all our labors
whether in ministry or at secular jobs,
are in vain.
The word vainin Hebrew is Strongs 7723
שָׁ֤וְא
shave, pronounced: shawv
which has the idea of
desolate or waste,
falsely, lie, lying, vain, vanity
Or shav {shav}; from the same as show’ in the sense of desolating; evil (as destructive), literally (ruin) or morally (especially guile); figuratively idolatry (as false, subjective), uselessness (as deceptive, objective; also adverbially, in vain) — false(-ly), lie, lying, vain, vanity.
This would mean that:
all our labors to build a place within God’s heart is all wasted.
One other scripture which speaks of a dwelling place is inJohn 14:2 when Messiah said: “In my father’s house are many dwelling places. I go to prepare a place for you.”
He spoke this in Aramaic and used a word identical to the word for house that was used in Psalms 127:1 which is speaking of His heart/The innermost part of a dwelling.
(Aramaic) corresponding to bayith — house. A place of the heart.
Jesus/Yeshua spoke in the old Galilean dialect of Aramaic. The Aramaic Bible, called the Peshitta, uses the word
bt
which we render as house, yet, like the Hebrew, bt could also be used to express the idea
of the place of the heart
which is identical to the Hebrew word
bayith (house)
which is the word used in Psalms 127. Jesus/Yeshua may very well have said: “In my Father’s heart are many rooms.”Only He can build that place in His heart for us. If we try to build that place with all our ministries and monuments to ourselves, our labors are all wasted.
We are not to be using our days in “building” something apart from God, for our own selfish goals and agenda’s with wrong motives and without faith in our Heavenly Father. Jeremiah 10:23 warns us
O LORD, I know that the path of [life of] a man is not in himself; It is not within [the limited ability of] man [even one at his best] to choose and direct his steps [in life].
Why do we think we know better than the Creator of Heaven and Earth and indeed the universe Who made us from the dust of that same earth?
Yet in His great compassion, empathy and unconditional love in Psalm 103:14 He reminds us 14 For he knows our frame He remembers that we are but dust 15 and that our days are few and brief, like grass, like flowers, 16 blown by the wind and gone forever.
That is, He knows that we are made of dust; that we are frail; that we are subject to decay; that we soon sink under a heavy load. This is given as a reason why He loves and pities us – that we need Him more than we realize.
Our Heavenly Father is the only One Who can build that place in His heart for us. If we try to build that place ourselves with all ‘our ministries’, our books, our talents and creative abilities through great works and monuments to ourselves, our labors are all wasted, desolate and as useless as a ruin.
Time to make sure nothing we do for our Heavenly Father in the name of our Precious savior is prefixed with I, me, my or mine. He deserves ALL the honor and ALL the glory, let’s make certain we do just that.
Shalom aleikhem
chaverim and mishpachah!
Peace to friends and family.
Shavua Tov, Have a blessed week.
Make certain Messiah Jesus/Yeshua is your Redeemer, Savior, Lord and soon returning King and that you have a personal relationship with Him.
It’s all about Life and Relationship, NOT Religion.
You are very precious in His sight.
Not sure ..you can be…
SIMPLY SAY THE FOLLOWING MEANING IT FROM YOUR HEART..don’t delay one more minute,
SAY IT RIGHT NOW…
Heavenly Father I come to you in the Name of Jesus/Yeshua asking for forgiveness of my sins for which I am truly sorry. I repent of them all and turn away from my past.
I believe with my heart and confess with my mouth that Jesus/Yeshua is your Son and that He died on the cross at calvary to pay the price for my sin, so that I might be forgiven and have eternal life in the kingdom of Heaven. Father I believe that Jesus/Yeshua rose from the dead and I ask you to come into my life right now and be my personal Savior and Lord and I will worship you all the days of my life. Because your word is truth I say that I am now forgiven and born again and by faith I am washed clean with the blood of Jesus/Yeshua. Thank you that you have accepted me into your family in Jesus’/Yeshua’s name
Are we laboring in vain?
