Psalm 127 Laboring and Prospering with the Lord
A Song of Ascents. Of Solomon.

1 Unless the Lord builds the house,
They labor in vain who build it;
Unless the Lord guards the city,
The watchman stays awake in vain.

2 It is vain for you to rise up early,
To sit up late,
To eat the bread of sorrows;
For so He gives His beloved sleep.

3 Behold, children are an inheritance from the Lord,
The fruit of the womb is a reward.
4 Like arrows in the hand of a warrior,
So are the children of one’s youth.
5 Happy is the man who has his quiver full of them;
They shall not be ashamed,
But shall speak with their enemies in the gate.

"Unless the Lord builds the house" 
 So few Christians understand the nature of the House of the Lord in Israel. So many are fascinated by the rabbinic plans to build a third Temple on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, not realizing that is not at all the house the Lord is building in Israel. Yeshua/Jesus is building a spiritual temple, not a temple raised up by the work of unsaved rabbis to reestablish the kind of system that Yeshua infuriated when He walked in the Temple. Those whose focus is on building the Third Temple, and all those who help them are laboring and funding in vain because unless the Lord builds the house it is folly. 

We press into many things, acts to prove our zeal for God, but this Song of Ascent in our journey to "go up higher" to the Lord does not emphasize the activities we do. Instead God is giving us permission to live our lives like 'real people' - to live our lives not as if we belong to some monastery. He is telling us to enjoy our families. It is part of our inheritance to be able to enjoy family life, not consumed with spiritual duties that deprive us of the simple joys of life. We work too hard to be pleasing to the Lord, when what He wants from us to be a blessing to our own families and enjoy our lives in Him. 

It is vain of us to think we are doing what God wants - rising early and staying up late "to eat the bread of sorrows." Even intercessors can turn the life He has given us into something like punching a time clock for the boss. God will tell us when, not only what, to pray. "Unless the Lord guards the city, The watchman stays awake in vain."