Psalm 127

"eating the bread of anxious toil"

The opening verses of Psalm 127 describe the vanity and futility of human effort separated from God:

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.
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.

Unless the Lord builds, we labor in vain. Unless the Lord watches, we watch in vain. It is vain to rise early and go to sleep late, eating the bread of anxious toil.

What’s striking in the final line is how those who trust in the Lord, the beloved, are given sleep as a blessing. The picture is one of anxious fretting contrasted with peace and rest. And the critical issue is trust.

What drives us to eat the bread of anxious toil? What is at the root of this vain striving? Why can’t we find rest?

In The Slavery of Death I describe how our lives become ensnared by basic and neurotic anxieties. Basic anxieties concern survival and resource-based concerns. These are the anxieties highlighted in Psalm 127. Building shelter. Watching over a city to prevent attacks. Working hard to provide for your material needs. Trusting in the Lord in the face of these basic anxieties means expressing confidence that the Lord will provide and protect. We are finite creatures and we must live into a glad dependence upon the Lord.

Beyond basic anxieties, there are also neurotic anxieties. These worries are less about survival than with self-esteem. Neurotic anxiety concerns our anxious striving for significance, how our self-esteem becomes entangled in contingent metrics of worth. Think about workaholism. At some point, you’ve worked enough to provide for yourself and your family. The concerns of basic anxiety have been addressed. So why won’t you rest? Well, because the work has shifted into a neurotic register. You’re pushing to achieve some vision of success and significance. As I describe in The Shape of Joy, you’re addicted to your superhero complex.

Neurotic anxiety doesn’t seem to be a primary concern in the opening lines of Psalm 127. But I am struck by the description “beloved.” That the beloved of God sleep well. The reason we become trapped within our neurotic hero games is because we don’t experience ourselves as God’s beloved, unconditionally and fully so. There is still some game of love-worthiness we are trying to win. Neurotically pursuing success and significance, we eat the bread of anxious toil.

Only the beloved can truly rest.