Unless the Lord builds the house, its builders will have toiled in vain.
Psalm 127.1

The Psalmist goes on to state that unless the Lord keeps watch over a city, the watchman stands on guard in vain. The explanation of these assertions can best be found in an earlier portion of Scripture, the story of the Tower of Babel (Gen. 11.1-9). The people, full of hubris (insolent pride), decide to build a city for themselves and a tower reaching the very heavens: thus they will make a name for themselves. In the account of this undertaking, God is left out (as he was in the not dissimilar story of the Fall, when Adam and Eve covet the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil without prior divine sanction). The divine presence is, however, not to be permanently excluded, for God confuses their speech so that they do not understand what each is saying to the other. Their design is frustrated, and the people disperse all over the earth.

In the biblical account God is seriously worried lest an intransigent population will attain complete independence so as to eclipse his overall authority; but this is merely a primitive understanding of the divine nature. In fact, there is nothing that God, whose nature is love, will withhold from his creatures once they are qualified to use it responsibly. It is this lack of individual responsibility that thwarts our earthly endeavours, for few of us can see beyond narrow self-interest to a concern for our fellow creatures who, in our climate of enlightened ecological understanding, include our animal and plant neighbours. When humans engage in private schemes of self-aggrandizement, the corrupting effect of power is insidious but horrifyingly final in its destruction.

Looking at the story of the Tower of Babel in more realistic terms, we can see how these ambitious people were so involved in doing their own thing that they became increasingly oblivious of the welfare of their fellow workers. In the course of time conflict soured their relationships until bitter internecine strife brought an end to the undertaking. Even if their spoken language was still mutually intelligible, the inner harmony of love was destroyed - it is not uncommon for people of different political or religious views to abuse each other, so that an outsider can see that they are simply not speaking the same language, though what they articulate is fully comprehensible to everyone. And so the project was disbanded, and the alienated population dispersed all over the country, no longer in fellowship and culturally isolated.

Every plan we make is motivated by desire; only when personal desire is well grounded in love for those around us will the action succeed in its purpose. But love comes from God, who inspires us with his love when we are quiet and receptive. Therefore we are well advised, at the end of the day, to lay open our schemes in the divine presence as we pray for guidance, and also for the strength to put into effect what we have been shown in the silence. This is not an invitation to use God in the furtherance of our private schemes - making God, as it were, our partner - but simply an admission that of ourselves we are not likely to achieve anything other than discord and final chaos. Only when the divine light illuminates our mind and the divine compassion fills our heart, can we proceed in safety, for we will know our limitations and work in trust and honesty with others on the way.

Forgive me, Lord, the many precipitate actions and summary judgements that spoil my work and hurt my relationships. Give me that knowledge of your presence that I may at once call on your help whenever some new work is to be undertaken, so that, getting myself out of the way, I may serve to the best of my ability for the benefit of all around me.