Matthew Henry’s Modern English CommentaryPsalms 127

v. 1.: This psalm, attributed to Solomon, teaches us to have a continual regard to 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; the psalm therefore redirects him—and us—to look higher, and to take God along in every undertaking. He was to be a man of business, and so he is here instructed how to manage that 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, 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, those labour in vain 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 rebuilt 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, and 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: Except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain. 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. The watchmen, though they neither slumber nor sleep, wake but in vain; a raging fire may break out, the mischief of which the timeliest discovery 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: It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows. 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, robbing their sleep to pay their cares. And they have as little comfort in their meals as in their rest; all their days they eat in darkness, (Eccl. v. 17 ), continually full of care, which embitters their comforts and makes their lives a burden to them. All this toil 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 say, I will be king. Solomon sat still, and, being beloved of the Lord, to him God gave sleep and the kingdom too.Note, (1.) Inordinate, excessive care about the things of this world is a vain and 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 of sleep in his service.

v. 2. He giveth his beloved sleep. This is the crown of the preceding verses. All the anxious toil described above—the early rising, the late watching, the joyless meals—is set in deliberate contrast with the quiet rest God freely bestows upon those who trust him. The phrase speaks, first, of literal, bodily sleep: it is God's gift, not the reward of frantic striving. But it speaks of far more than this; it means quietness and contentment of mind, a comfortable enjoyment of what is present, and a comfortable expectation of what is to come. Those who fret and strain receive no more than those who rest in God's provision—and they receive it with far less peace. Our care, then, 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. He who is beloved of the Lord need not scheme like Absalom nor cry out like Adonijah; God accomplishes his purposes for his own in their very hours of rest, without violence or anxiety on their part.

v. 3. Lo, children are an heritage of the Lord: and the fruit of the womb is his reward. The psalmist turns from the affairs and business of the household to the increase of the family itself, and here also we must have an eye to God.II. In the increase of the family. 1. Children are God's gift. 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, as he sees fit. Solomon multiplied wives, contrary to the law, yet 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 he is pleased to give them, by lawful marriage to one wife (Mal. ii. 15 ). Children are a heritage for the Lord as well as from him; they are, says God, my children which thou hast borne unto me (Ezek. xvi. 20 ), and they are most our honour and comfort when they are devoted to him for a generation. He that sends mouths will send meat, if we trust him. Obed-edom had eight sons, for the Lord blessed him because he had entertained the ark (1 Chron. xxvi. 5 ). Children are an heritage and a reward, and are to be so accounted—blessings, not burdens.

v. 4. As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth. 2. Children are not only a good gift but a great support and defence to a family. The comparison is exact and instructive: 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, who are the strongest and most healthful children, and who are grown up and ready to serve by the time their parents need their service. 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 then too late to bend them. While they are yet in the hand, parents and teachers may train and aim them; once loosed, they fly as they have been set. And yet, we must add this solemn word: 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.

v. 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. The man who is richly furnished with such children is truly happy. A large family 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 in many ways serviceable to the family and to the world. He that has a numerous issue may boldly speak with his enemy in the gate—in judgment, at law, in the affairs of the city—for he has many faithful advocates and supporters; 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 ). He shall not be put to shame by his adversaries, for he stands with a company around him that love him and will defend his cause. Thus the psalm ends where it began: the house that the Lord builds is not only raised and kept, but filled—filled with children who are themselves this life.