Serenity
Unless the Lord builds the house,
the builders labor in vain.
Unless the Lord watches over the city,
the guards stand watch in vain.
In vain you rise early
and stay up late,
toiling for food to eat—
for he grants sleep to those he loves.
Children are a heritage from the Lord,
offspring a reward from him.
Like arrows in the hands of a warrior
are children born in one’s youth.
Blessed is the man
whose quiver is full of them.
They will not be put to shame
when they contend with their opponents in court.
Psalm 127
STORY
LeBron James grew up in Akron, Ohio. A city that was once a thriving steel town that is now engulfed in poverty. He was a basketball star for the Cleveland Cavaliers before moving to play with the Miami Heat, where he won back-to-back championships. After the season that followed, when the Heat lost their third attempt to win a championship, James returned to play for his hometown team. With the Cavaliers he triumphed with his teammates to secure a championship in 2017. In 2018, he once again departed from his birth city, as he signed a contract with the Los Angeles Lakers.
Even though he lived on the West Coast, he hadn’t forgotten his upbringing in Akron, the city of his youth. For the basketball prodigy this will always be his hometown. And it is a hometown that he will never forget or forsake.
LeBron James’ understanding of the meaning of community was publicly demonstrated on Monday, July 30, 2018, when he opened a new public school in Akron. He called the school the “I Promise School.” The motto of the school is “Nothing is given. Everything is earned.” The school, at its opening, had an enrollment of 240 third and fourth graders. Regarding the school James said that it is “the most important” project of his professional career.
The school was created for children at risk of falling behind and offers an infrastructure to improve education and home support. For this reason the hours are long, with classes spanning from 9-5. The school year is also long, as students are in class from July to May, eliminating what experts call the “slide” that occurs during summer vacation. The “I Promise School” is a community school offering after-school programs to prevent children from getting into trouble when the school day ends. The school has a family foodbank and offers nutritional counseling. The school also has an employment counseling center for youth and adults seeking work. Students enrolled in the school and graduate from high school, will be awarded a four-year scholarship to the University of Akron, with the athlete partnering with the university.
In November 2017, when James announced the future opening of the school, he said, “Besides having three kids and marrying my wife, putting my mom in a position where she never has to worry about anything ever again for the rest of her life, this is right up there. Championships, MVPs, I mean, points, rebounds, and assists, that stuff is, whatever.”
James understood the purpose and importance of the school since he battled poverty and homelessness growing up. He wanted to build a school for children like him, as he desired to provide them with a better education, as well as a more secure community infrastructure.
DEVOTION
Psalm 127 is a part of the fifteen psalms that are included in the Song of Ascents. The fifteen psalms reflect the hymns that were sung by the Hebrews as they made a pilgrimage to Zion, the city set upon a hill, and continued to sing as they worshiped in the Temple.
The pilgrimage was a community experience.
As the opening verse mentions the building of a house in Psalm 127 is associated with Solomon. Solomon was the king during whose reign the first temple of Yahweh was built. However, the Hebrew word bayit can refer not just to “house,” as in “house of Yahweh,” i.e., the temple in Jerusalem, but also to a family’s home and to the family itself. In the Old Testament, the English terms “family” and “household” are sometimes used to translate the Hebrew expression beth ab, meaning literally “the house of the father” or “the father’s house.” In the Bible the term “house” can refer to a building in which people live, though, frequently it refers to the family or to the household who lives in the building.
This is the connection between the first part of Psalm 127, which speaks of building a house, of guarding a city, and of laboring diligently (verses 1-2) and the second part which speaks of family and the household, specifically of sons (verses 3-5).
Psalms 127 present a lovely picture of life back home. We see in this hymn life as it should be, life lived in the peace and wholeness of the presence of Yahweh. The daily labor is done in peace, the home is at peace, the family is at peace as Yahweh is guarding the home. Psalms 127 echoes the peaceful home life that is described in the peace song quoted in Micah 4 which reads, “but they shall all sit under their own vines and under their own fig trees, and no one shall make them afraid…” (verse 4a and b).
The pilgrim worshipers prayed for the peace of Solomon, hoping that they will be able to enjoy this tranquility when they return home from their pilgrimage to Jerusalem. They have come to Jerusalem to get away from the conflict, deceit, and hurtful words of the world (Psalm 120, the first of the fifteen psalms) and they have come to Jerusalem to enjoy the peace of the presence of Yahweh (Psalm 122). But as the time draws closer for them to return to their cities, towns, and villages throughout Israel, they are thinking of how life will be back home. They pray that they will be able to enjoy the same peace of the presence of God back home that they enjoyed when they were in Jerusalem (Psalm 127). They pray for “peace upon all of Israel.”
The Israelites made a spiritual pilgrimage to Jerusalem to experience peace. They ascended to Zion to get a respite from the social and civil strife that they were experiencing at home. As they descended back down into the valley of life where they dwelled, it was their hope, it was their desire, that their prayers to Yahweh in the Temple would be answered by allowing them to experience the same serenity at home as they experienced in Zion.
They were seeking for, and hoping for, an “I Promise School.”