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,
A song of degrees for Solomon.
1 Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it: except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but 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 giveth his beloved sleep. 3 Lo, children are a heritage of the Lord: and the fruit of the womb is his reward. 4 As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth. 5 Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them: they shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate.
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,
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: Except the Lord build the house, by his providence
and blessing, those labour in vain, though ever so
ingenious, that build it. 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
(
II. In the increase of the family. He
shows, 1. That children are God's gift,