mh_parser/vol_split/19 - Psalms/Chapter 127.xml

<div2 id="Ps.cxxviii" n="cxxviii" next="Ps.cxxix" prev="Ps.cxxvii" progress="67.11%" title="Chapter CXXVII">
<h2 id="Ps.cxxviii-p0.1">P S A L M S</h2>
<h3 id="Ps.cxxviii-p0.2">PSALM CXXVII.</h3>
<p class="intro" id="Ps.cxxviii-p1">This is a family-psalm, as divers before were
state-poems and church-poems. It is entitled (as we read it) "for
Solomon," dedicated to him by his father. He having a house to
build, a city to keep, and seed to raise up to his father, David
directs him to look up to God, and to depend upon his providence,
without which all his wisdom, care, and industry, would not serve.
Some take it to have been penned by Solomon himself, and it may as
well be read, "a song of Solomon," who wrote a great many; and they
compare it with the Ecclesiastes, the scope of both being the same,
to show the vanity of worldly care and how necessary it is that we
keep in favour with God. On him we must depend, I. For wealth,
<scripRef id="Ps.cxxviii-p1.1" osisRef="Bible:Ps.127.1-Ps.127.2" parsed="|Ps|127|1|127|2" passage="Ps 127:1,2">ver. 1, 2</scripRef>. II. For heirs
to leave it to, <scripRef id="Ps.cxxviii-p1.2" osisRef="Bible:Ps.127.3-Ps.127.5" parsed="|Ps|127|3|127|5" passage="Ps 127:3-5">ver. 3-5</scripRef>.
In singing this psalm we must have our eye up unto God for success
in all our undertakings and a blessing upon all our comforts and
enjoyments, because every creature is that to us which he makes it
to be and no more.</p>
<scripCom id="Ps.cxxviii-p1.3" osisRef="Bible:Ps.127" parsed="|Ps|127|0|0|0" passage="Ps 127" type="Commentary"/>
<scripCom id="Ps.cxxviii-p1.4" osisRef="Bible:Ps.127.1-Ps.127.5" parsed="|Ps|127|1|127|5" passage="Ps 127:1-5" type="Commentary"/><div class="Commentary" id="Bible:Ps.127.1-Ps.127.5">
<h4 id="Ps.cxxviii-p1.5">Dependence on Providence; God the Giver of
Prosperity.</h4>
<div class="Center" id="Ps.cxxviii-p1.6">
<p id="Ps.cxxviii-p2">A song of degrees for Solomon.</p>
</div>
<p class="passage" id="Ps.cxxviii-p3">1 Except the <span class="smallcaps" id="Ps.cxxviii-p3.1">Lord</span>
build the house, they labour in vain that build it: except the
<span class="smallcaps" id="Ps.cxxviii-p3.2">Lord</span> keep the city, the watchman
waketh <i>but</i> in vain.   2 <i>It is</i> vain for you to
rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows:
<i>for</i> so he giveth his beloved sleep.   3 Lo, children
<i>are</i> a heritage of the <span class="smallcaps" id="Ps.cxxviii-p3.3">Lord</span>:
<i>and</i> the fruit of the womb <i>is his</i> reward.   4 As
arrows <i>are</i> in the hand of a mighty man; so <i>are</i>
children of the youth.   5 Happy <i>is</i> the man that hath
his quiver full of them: they shall not be ashamed, but they shall
speak with the enemies in the gate.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ps.cxxviii-p4">We are here taught to have a continual
regard to the divine Providence in all the concerns of this life.
Solomon was cried up for a wise man, and would be apt to lean to
his own understanding and forecast, and therefore his father
teaches him to look higher, and to take God along with him in his
undertakings. He was to be a man of business, and therefore David
instructed him how to manage his business under the direction of
his religion. Parents, in teaching their children, should suit
their exhortations to their condition and occasions. We must have
an eye to God,</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ps.cxxviii-p5">I. In all the affairs and business of the
family, even of the royal family, for kings' houses are no longer
safe than while God protects them. We must depend upon God's
blessing and not our own contrivance, 1. For the raising of a
family: <i>Except the Lord build the house,</i> by his providence
and blessing, <i>those labour in vain,</i> though ever so
ingenious, <i>that build it.</i> We may understand it of the
material house: except the Lord bless the building it is to no
purpose for men to build, any more than for the builders of Babel,
who attempted in defiance of heaven, or Hiel, who built Jericho
under a curse. If the model and design be laid in pride and vanity,
or if the foundations be laid in oppression and injustice
(<scripRef id="Ps.cxxviii-p5.1" osisRef="Bible:Hab.2.11-Hab.2.12" parsed="|Hab|2|11|2|12" passage="Hab 2:11,12">Hab. ii. 11, 12</scripRef>), God
certainly does not build there; nay, if God be not acknowledged, we
have no reason to expect his blessing, and without his blessing all
is nothing. Or, rather, it is to be understood of the making of a
family considerable that was mean; men labour to do this by
advantageous matches, offices, employments, purchases; but all in
vain, unless God build up the family, and <i>raise the poor out of
the dust.</i> The best-laid project fails unless God crown it with
success. See <scripRef id="Ps.cxxviii-p5.2" osisRef="Bible:Mal.1.4" parsed="|Mal|1|4|0|0" passage="Mal 1:4">Mal. i. 4</scripRef>. 2.
For the securing of a family or a city (for this is what the
psalmist particularly mentions): if the guards of the city cannot
secure it without God, much less can the good man of the house save
his house from being broken up. <i>Except the Lord keep the
city</i> from fire, from enemies, <i>the watchmen,</i> who <i>go
about the city,</i> or patrol upon the walls of it, though they
neither slumber nor sleep, <i>wake but in vain,</i> for a raging
fire may break out, the mischief of which the timeliest discoveries
may not be able to prevent. The guards may be slain, or the city
betrayed and lost, by a thousand accidents, which the most watchful
sentinel or most cautious governor could not obviate. 3. For the
enriching of a family; this is a work of time and thought, but
cannot be effected without the favour of Providence any more than
that which is the product of one happy turn: "<i>It is vain for you
to rise up early and sit up late,</i> and so to deny yourselves
your bodily refreshments, in the eager pursuit of the wealth of the
world." Usually, those that rise early do not care for sitting up
late, nor can those that sit up late easily persuade themselves to
rise early; but there are some so hot upon the world that they will
do both, will rob their sleep to pay their cares. And they have as
little comfort in their meals as in their rest; they <i>eat the
bread of sorrows.</i> It is part of our sentence that we eat our
bread in the sweat of our face; but those go further: <i>all their
days they eat in darkness,</i> <scripRef id="Ps.cxxviii-p5.3" osisRef="Bible:Eccl.5.17" parsed="|Eccl|5|17|0|0" passage="Ec 5:17">Eccl. v.
17</scripRef>. They are continually fell of care, which embitters
their comforts, and makes their lives a burden to them. All this is
to get money, and all in vain except God prosper them, for
<i>riches are</i> not always <i>to men of understanding,</i>
<scripRef id="Ps.cxxviii-p5.4" osisRef="Bible:Eccl.9.11" parsed="|Eccl|9|11|0|0" passage="Ec 9:11">Eccl. ix. 11</scripRef>. Those that
love God, and are beloved of him, have their minds easy and live
very comfortably without this ado. Solomon was called
<i>Jedidiah—Beloved of the Lord</i> (<scripRef id="Ps.cxxviii-p5.5" osisRef="Bible:2Sam.12.25" parsed="|2Sam|12|25|0|0" passage="2Sa 12:25">2 Sam. xii. 25</scripRef>); to him the kingdom was
promised, and then it was in vain for Absalom to rise up early, to
wheedle the people, and for Adonijah to make such a stir, and to
say, <i>I will be king.</i> Solomon sits still, and, being
<i>beloved of the Lord,</i> to him he gives sleep and the kingdom
too. Note, (1.) Inordinate excessive care about the things of this
world is a vain a d fruitless thing. We weary ourselves for vanity
if we have it, and often weary ourselves in vain for it, <scripRef id="Ps.cxxviii-p5.6" osisRef="Bible:Hag.1.6 Bible:Hag.1.9" parsed="|Hag|1|6|0|0;|Hag|1|9|0|0" passage="Hag 1:6,9">Hag. i. 6, 9</scripRef>. (2.) Bodily sleep is
God's gift to his beloved. We owe it to his goodness that our sleep
is safe (<scripRef id="Ps.cxxviii-p5.7" osisRef="Bible:Ps.4.8" parsed="|Ps|4|8|0|0" passage="Ps 4:8">Ps. iv. 8</scripRef>), that it
is sweet, <scripRef id="Ps.cxxviii-p5.8" osisRef="Bible:Jer.31.25-Jer.31.26" parsed="|Jer|31|25|31|26" passage="Jer 31:25,26">Jer. xxxi. 25,
26</scripRef>. God gives us sleep as he gives it to his beloved
when with it he gives us grace to lie down in his fear (our souls
returning to him and reposing in him as our rest), and when we
awake to be still with him and to use the refreshment we have by
sleep in his service. <i>He gives his beloved sleep,</i> that is,
quietness and contentment of mind, and comfortable enjoyment of
what is present and a comfortable expectation of what is to come.
Our care must be to <i>keep ourselves in the love of God,</i> and
then we may be easy whether we have little or much of this
world.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ps.cxxviii-p6">II. In the increase of the family. He
shows, 1. That children are <i>God's gift,</i> <scripRef id="Ps.cxxviii-p6.1" osisRef="Bible:Ps.127.2" parsed="|Ps|127|2|0|0" passage="Ps 127:2"><i>v.</i> 3</scripRef>. If children are withheld it is
God that withholds them (<scripRef id="Ps.cxxviii-p6.2" osisRef="Bible:Gen.30.2" parsed="|Gen|30|2|0|0" passage="Ge 30:2">Gen. xxx.
2</scripRef>); if they are given, it is God that gives them
(<scripRef id="Ps.cxxviii-p6.3" osisRef="Bible:Gen.33.5" parsed="|Gen|33|5|0|0" passage="Ge 33:5">Gen. xxxiii. 5</scripRef>); and they
are to us what he makes them, comforts or crosses. Solomon
multiplied wives, contrary to the law, but we never read of more
than one son that he had; for those that desire children as a
heritage from the Lord must receive them in the way that he is
pleased to give them, by lawful marriage to one wife. <scripRef id="Ps.cxxviii-p6.4" osisRef="Bible:Mal.2.15" parsed="|Mal|2|15|0|0" passage="Mal 2:15">Mal. ii. 15</scripRef>, <i>therefore one, that
he might seek a seed of God.</i> But <i>they shall commit whoredom
and shall not increase. Children are a heritage,</i> and a
<i>reward,</i> and are so to be accounted, blessings and not
burdens; for he that sends mouths will send meat if we trust in
him. Obed-edom had eight sons, for the Lord blessed him because he
had entertained the ark, <scripRef id="Ps.cxxviii-p6.5" osisRef="Bible:1Chr.26.5" parsed="|1Chr|26|5|0|0" passage="1Ch 26:5">1 Chron.
xxvi. 5</scripRef>. Children are a heritage for the Lord, as well
as from him; they are <i>my children</i> (says God) <i>which thou
hast borne unto me</i> (<scripRef id="Ps.cxxviii-p6.6" osisRef="Bible:Ezek.16.20" parsed="|Ezek|16|20|0|0" passage="Eze 16:20">Ezek. xvi.
20</scripRef>); and they are most our honour and comfort when they
are accounted to him for a generation. 2. That they are a good
gift, and a great support and defence to a family: <i>As arrows are
in the hand of a mighty man,</i> who knows how to use them for his
own safety and advantage, so are children of the youth, that is,
children born to their parents when they are young, which are the
strongest and most healthful children, and are grown up to serve
them by the time they need their service; or, rather, children who
are themselves young; they are instruments of much good to their
parents and families, which may fortify themselves with them
against their enemies. The family that has a large stock of
children is like a quiver full of arrows, of different sizes we may
suppose, but all of use one time or other; children of different
capacities and inclinations may be several ways serviceable to the
family. He that has a numerous issue may boldly <i>speak with his
enemy in the gate</i> in judgment; in battle he needs not fear,
having so many good seconds, so zealous, so faithful, and in the
vigour of youth, <scripRef id="Ps.cxxviii-p6.7" osisRef="Bible:1Sam.2.4-1Sam.2.5" parsed="|1Sam|2|4|2|5" passage="1Sa 2:4,5">1 Sam. ii. 4,
5</scripRef>. Observe here, <i>Children of the youth</i> are
<i>arrows in the hand,</i> which, with prudence, may be directed
aright to the mark, God's glory and the service of their
generation; but afterwards, when they have gone abroad into the
world, they are arrows out of the hand; it is too late to bend them
then. But these arrows in the hand too often prove arrows in the
heart, a constant grief to their godly parents, whose gray hairs
they bring with sorrow to the grave.</p>
</div></div2>