Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary

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Matthew Henry Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

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P S A L M S

PSALM CXXVII.

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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,

ver. 1, 2.

II. For heirs to leave it to,

ver. 3-5.

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.

Dependence on Providence; God the Giver of Prosperity.

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

(Hab. ii. 11, 12),

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 raise the poor out of the dust. The

best-laid project fails unless God crown it with success. See

Mal. i. 4.

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. Except the Lord keep the city from

fire, from enemies, the watchmen, who go about the city,

or patrol upon the walls of it, though they neither slumber nor sleep,

wake but in vain, 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: “It is vain for you to

rise up early and sit up late, 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 eat the bread of sorrows. It

is part of our sentence that we eat our bread in the sweat of our face;

but those go further: all their days they eat in darkness,
Eccl. v. 17.

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 riches are not always to

men of understanding,
Eccl. ix. 11.

Those that love God, and are beloved of him, have their minds easy and

live very comfortably without this ado. Solomon was called

Jedidiah–Beloved of the Lord

(2 Sam. xii. 25);

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 will be king. Solomon sits still, and, being

beloved of the Lord, 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,

Hag. i. 6, 9.

(2.) Bodily sleep is God’s gift to his beloved. We owe it to his

goodness that our sleep is safe

(Ps. iv. 8),

that it is sweet,

Jer. xxxi. 25, 26.

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. He

gives his beloved sleep, 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 keep ourselves

in the love of God, and then we may be easy whether we have little

or much of this world.

     

II. In the increase of the family. He shows,

1. That children are God’s gift,
v. 3.

If children are withheld it is God that withholds them

(Gen. xxx. 2);

if they are given, it is God that gives them

(Gen. xxxiii. 5);

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.

Mal. ii. 15,

therefore one, that he might seek a seed of God. But they

shall commit whoredom and shall not increase. Children are a

heritage, and a reward, 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,

1 Chron. xxvi. 5.

Children are a heritage for the Lord, as well as from him; they are

my children (says God) which thou hast borne unto me

(Ezek. xvi. 20);

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: As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man, 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 speak with his enemy in the gate in

judgment; in battle he needs not fear, having so many good seconds, so

zealous, so faithful, and in the vigour of youth,

1 Sam. ii. 4, 5.

Observe here, Children of the youth are arrows in the

hand, 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.

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Matthew Henry Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

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