Charles Ellicott Commentary Psalms 127

House. — A house, any house, not the Temple. The thought is a general one. Even in the common labors of men, it is the Divine blessing which contributes the success. An Gottes Segen ist alles gelegen.

Wakes. — Perhaps better, watches. The house that has been built with such toil, the city which has been planned with such skill, may suddenly fall before the midnight attack of the robber or the enemy, in spite of the strictest police, unless God’s vigilant providence preserve it.

It ... sleep. —This verse, whose literal rendering is not in question, has encountered many different interpretations. About the first clause there is no difference: Early rising to pursue the business of the day is vain without the Divine blessing on the labor. The next two clauses admit two different interpretations. Some connect the sitting down with the meal: “delaying to sit down and eat the bread of cares” (or sorrow), i.e., being so immersed in business as to allow hardly any time for meals. But it seems far more natural to take the Hebrew in its more extended sense of resting, and so explain it, nearly as the Authorized Version does:—

It is in vain to rise early;
To delay the hour of rest,
To eat the bread that has been won by toil;
At His pleasure He giveth to His beloved (in) sleep.

As to the last clause, it seems right, from its use in Genesis 1:0, it was so, to give so the sense “at His pleasure,” this being also indicated by the general drift of the psalm. The word “sleep” may be either the direct object, as in the Septuagint and Vulgate, or the accusative used adverbially, “in sleep,” or “while they sleep.” There is no question that the latter best suits the context.

The whole intention of the psalm is to assert the truth that the Book of Proverbs sums up in one sentence (Proverbs 10:22): The blessing of Jehovah maketh rich, and toil can add nothing thereto. This is also the truth that was so impressively taught in the Sermon on the Mount, by contrasting human restless ambition with the unconscious dependence of birds and flowers on Divine bounty.

To say that what others toil for from morning till night in vain, God gives to His beloved without all this anxiety and exertion, while they sleep, puts this truth forcibly. This is done with that disregard for apparent paradox that was natural to a Hebrew and which appears so prominently in our Savior’s treatment of the subject.

Labor is decried as unnecessary neither here nor in the Sermon on the Mount, but “carking care” is dismissed as unworthy of those who, from past experience, ought to trust the goodness of the great Provider. The Greek proverb, “The net catches while the fisher sleeps,” and the German proverb, “God bestows His gifts during the night,” bring common expressions to confirm this voice of inspiration, which was, in almost so many words, recalled in our Lord’s parable (Mark 4:27). But old association pleads for the equally true and equally beautiful rendering that makes sleep the gift of God.

If there is one thing that seems to come more directly from Heaven’s bounty than another, one that in its character is more benign and in its effects more akin to the nature of God, it is the blessing of sleep.

In all times, people have rendered thanks to Heaven for this gift. The ancients not only spoke of sleep as the “most grateful of known gifts” but also made sleep itself a god.

The psalmist unconsciously, but most truly, teaches us the further lesson that it is not only a Divine blessing but also a proof of Divine love:

“Of all the thoughts of God that are
Borne inward to souls far away,
Across the psalmist’s music deep,
Now tell me if any is
For gift or grace surpassing this—
He gives His beloved sleep.”
MRS. BROWNING.

Children. —With the true patriarchal feeling of the blessing of a numerous offspring, the poet here directly alludes to Genesis 30:2. “Heritage of Jehovah” is, of course, “heritage from Jehovah,” i.e., a promise granted by Him, just as Israel itself was a possession He made for Himself.

Children of the youth — that is, the offspring of an early marriage. Aquila, “sons of young and vigorous parents.” The young man, with his numerous family around him, is like the vigorous warrior with his quiver full of arrows.

They. —Not the sons. Here there is one of the sudden changes of number in which Hebrew poetry abounds (See especially Psalms 107:43.). Parents who have large families of sons are evidently intended. From the figure of the warrior and the arrows, we should also expect a martial image here. They will not be put to shame, but they will challenge their enemies in the gates. To illustrate, the following may be quoted:

“Therefore men pray to have around their hearth,
Obedient offspring, to requite their foes
With harm, and honour whom their father loves;
But he whose issue is unprofitable,
Begets what else but sorrow to himself,
And store of laughter to his enemies?”

Sophocles, Antigone, 641

On the other hand, it is characteristic of Hebrew poetry to accumulate metaphors. The gate, for example, is frequently mentioned as a place of public assembly, where legal cases were decided (Isaiah 29:21; Amos 5:12, and other similar passages). It is therefore quite as likely that the allusion here is to the support a man’s just cause would receive when clearly supported by a numerous retinue of stalwart sons.

This view certainly receives support from Job 5:4, where we find the very opposite picture: a tyrant’s sons are not only unable to support their father but are themselves crushed in the gate. The phrase speak with their enemies, mentioned in this same verse, may also be illustrated from Joshua 20:4; Jeremiah 12:1.