August 8, 2020
Upcoming Events and Notices
Please note the time change for livestream worship service. Please join us for livestream worship at 10 AM, August 9, 2020 here.
You can find the order of worship and songs here.
The August 2, 2020 sermon, Proverbs 2:1–8. "Seek and You Will Find" is available on our church website. You can also catch up on older sermons from our Sermon page and subscribe to sermon podcast here.
We hope to resume our midweek online studies in a few weeks. If you have not already done so, please visit this survey and indiate all days / times you can participate.
August 9 (11:15 AM Lord's Day): Please join us for online fellowship after the worship live-stream via Google Meet. You can also join by phone. Please contact pastor Ken for call-in information.
Thank you for your coninued support of Grace Fallbrook (PCA). Your loving support makes the proclamation of the gospel and the building up of the saints possible. Please continue to mail in your gifts and offerings to our church treasurer, Bruce Summers. In addition, our church website now features online giving. Please visit the church website and click on "Give" which you will find in the upper left corner of our church's website. When you click on "Give Online Now" button on that page, you will be directed to the PCA Foundation where you give towards Grace Fallbrook (PCA).
Before We Worship
Psalm 127 is a cautionary tale, written by the young King Solomon during the early years of his reign when he was still guided by wisdom. Note Ps 127 begins with a concern for building a house: "Unless the LORD builds the house, those who build it labor in vain" and continues with his concern for the city: "Unless the LORD watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain." When Solomon became king, he faced an almost impossible situation. After all, how does he (how does anyone) fill David's shoes? Naturally, Solomon felt inadequate (1 Kings 3:7; 1 Chronicles 29:1). Solomon's concern for building "the house" expresses his trepidation for building both the "house" of the LORD and for building of the "house" (or, dynasty) of David. The question, indeed, is with whose strength and wisdom will Solomon do the work to which he is called?
Solomon wisely recognized that nothing can be achieved by man. Only the LORD can build. Only the LORD can guard. Only the LORD can accomplish work, "for he gives to his beloved sleep." "Solomon" was his official name; his given name was "Jedidah", "Yahweh's Beloved" (2 Samuel 12:24–25). God's love and power gave Solomon rest against the anxiety and fear of stepping into David's shoes. It is no use for him to lose sleep with anxiety, since rising early and staying up late are not what build a house. Rather, it is trust in the LORD, in his gracious and sovereign care, that we find rest for our weary and anxious souls. In other words, this Psalm is both Solomon's prayer, and the Spirit's answer to that prayer, in which the LORD says to Solomon, "Do your best and work hard. But you are not God. Trust me, and get some sleep!"
But, sadly, Psalm 127 is a cautionary tale, for Solomon did not long walk in the wisdom of the LORD. He became almost a caricature of the very person this psalm warns against, a self-trusting, self-promoting, self-driven man who did not lean on the LORD. How easy it is to begin a race well, only to end badly? The same is true for us. It is far easier to begin our pilgrimage well than to finish it well. If we have any hope of finishing our journey well, we had better listen to this "Song of Ascent."
You are not God. Get some rest. This applies as equally to our weekly Sabbath as to the general pattern of our anxiety filled life. How often do we forego worship for fear that worshiping the LORD would put us behind schedule, that we have to work (catching up, preparing, etc.) in order to survive? But nothing you "build" that way will ever survive. Do you doubt this? What was the result of Solomon's striving when he did not rest in God? Everything he built was ruined mere days after his death. Actually, if we have the wisdom to see it, his life began to fall apart long before his kingdom fell apart.
Rest in God. Both on the Lord's Day, and throughout your life. Face all your life's task with a trusting dependence on God, and believe that he will build and accomplish. You are his beloved for Jesus' sake. Now get some sleep.