John Calvin Commentary Psalms 127:2

"It is vain for you to rise up early, To take rest late, To eat the bread of toil; [For] so he giveth unto his beloved sleep." — Psalms 127:2 (ASV)

It is vain for you in hastening to rise early. Solomon now expresses more plainly that men in vain wear themselves out with toiling, and waste themselves by fasting to acquire riches, since these also are a benefit bestowed only by God. To move them more effectively, he addresses himself to every man in particular. It is, he says, in vain for you. He particularizes two means which are thought to contribute significantly to amassing riches.

It is not surprising to find those growing rich in a short time who spare no exertion, but consume night and day plying their occupations, and allow themselves only scanty fare from the product of their labor. Solomon, however, affirms that neither living at a small expense nor diligence in business will by themselves profit anything at all.

Not that he forbids us to practice temperance in our diet and to rise early to engage in our worldly business; but to stir us up to prayer and to calling upon God, and also to recommend gratitude for the divine blessings, he brings to nothing whatever would obscure the grace of God.

Consequently, we will then enter upon our worldly endeavors in a right way when our hope depends exclusively upon God, and our success in that case will correspond to our wishes. But if a man, taking no account of God, eagerly makes haste, he will bring ruin upon himself by his too precipitate course.

It is not, therefore, the Prophet's intention to encourage men to give way to sloth, so that they should think about nothing all their lives, but fall asleep and abandon themselves to idleness. His meaning, rather, is that, in carrying out what God has enjoined upon them, they should always begin with prayer and calling upon His name, offering to Him their labors that He may bless them.

The expression the bread of sorrows may be explained in two ways: either as denoting what is acquired by hard and anxious toil, or what is eaten with anxiety of mind, just as we see parsimonious and close-fisted persons who, when they have scarcely tasted a bit of bread, pull back their hand from their mouth. It is of no great importance which of these senses is adopted, for we are simply taught that parsimonious men profit nothing—no, not even when through their own miserliness they are reluctant to eat as much as nature requires.

For thus will He give sleep to His beloved. The inspired writer intimates that the blessing of God, of which he has spoken, is actually seen in His children and servants. It will not suffice to believe this doctrine—that whatever men attempt is to no purpose; it is necessary that the promise be added, so that they may be led with assured hope to perform their duty.

The sentence may be read either—He will give sleep to His beloved, or, He will give in sleeping; that is, He will give them those things which unbelievers labor to acquire by their own industry. The particle כן, ken, thus, is used to express certainty. For with the aim of producing a stronger conviction of the truth—that God gives food to His people without any great care on their part, which seems incredible and a fiction—Solomon points to the matter, as it were, with his finger.

He indeed speaks as if God nourished the slothfulness of His servants by His gentle treatment; but as we know that men are created with the purpose of being occupied, and as in the subsequent Psalm we will find that the servants of God are considered happy when they eat the labor of their hands, it is certain that the word sleep is not to be understood as implying slothfulness, but a placid labor, to which true believers subject themselves by the obedience of faith.

From what source does this great ardor in unbelievers come—that they do not move a finger without a tumult or bustle, in other words, without tormenting themselves with superfluous cares—if not from this: they attribute nothing to the providence of God! The faithful, on the other hand, although they lead a laborious life, yet follow their vocations with composed and tranquil minds.

Thus their hands are not idle, but their minds repose in the stillness of faith, as if they were asleep. If it is again objected that God’s people are often agitated with distressing cares, and that, oppressed with pinching poverty and destitute of all resources, they are anxiously concerned about tomorrow, I answer that if faith and love to God were perfect in His servants, His blessing, of which the Prophet makes mention, would be manifest.

Whenever they are tormented excessively, this happens through their own fault, in not resting entirely upon the providence of God. I further add that God punishes them more severely than unbelievers because it is profitable for them to be agitated by anxiety for a time, so that eventually they may attain to this peaceful sleep.

In the meantime, however, God’s grace prevails and always shines forth in the midst of darkness, in His cherishing His children as it were by sleep.