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.
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Dependence on
Providence
; God the Giver of
Prosperity.
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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 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
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.
