Bible Commentaries

Everything Depends upon the Blessing of God

(Note: An Gottes Segen ist alles gelegen.)

The inscribed לשׁלמה is only added to this Song of degrees because there was found in Psalm 127:2 not only an allusion to the name Jedidiah, which Solomon received from Nathan (2 Samuel 12:25), but also to his being endowed with wisdom and riches in the dream at Gibeon (1 Kings 3:5.). And to these is still to be added the Proverbs-like form of the Psalm; for, like the proverb-song, the extended form of the Mashal, it consists of a double string of proverbs, the expression of which reminds one in many ways of the Book of Proverbs (עצבים in Psalm 127:2, toilsome efforts, as in Proverbs 5:10; מאחרי, as in Proverbs 23:30; בּני הנּעוּרים in Psalm 127:4, sons begotten in one's youth; בּשּׁער in Psalm 127:5, as in Proverbs 22:22; Proverbs 24:7), and which together are like the unfolding of the proverb, Proverbs 10:22: The blessing of Jahve, it maketh rich, and labour addeth nothing beside it. Even Theodoret observes, on the natural assumption that Psalm 127:1 points to the building of the Temple, how much better the Psalm suits the time of Zerubbabel and Joshua, when the building of the Temple was imperilled by the hostile neighbouring peoples; and in connection with the relatively small number of those who had returned home out of the Exile, a numerous family, and more especially many sons, must have seemed to be a doubly and threefoldly precious blessing from God.

The poet proves that everything depends upon the blessing ofGod from examples taken from the God-ordained life of the family and ofthe state. The rearing of the house which affords us protection, and thestability of the city in which we securely and peaceably dwell, theacquisition of possessions that maintain and adorn life, the begetting andrearing of sons that may contribute substantial support to the father as hegrows old - all these are things which depend upon the blessing of Godwithout natural preliminary conditions being able to guarantee them, well-devised arrangements to ensure them, unwearied labours to obtain them byforce, or impatient care and murmuring to get them by defiance. Many aman builds himself a house, but he is not able to carry out the building ofit, or he dies before he is able to take possession of it, or the building failsthrough unforeseen misfortunes, or, if it succeeds, becomes a prey toviolent destruction: if God Himself do not build it, they labour thereon (עמל בּ, Jonah 4:10; Ecclesiastes 2:21) in vain who build it. Many a city is well-ordered, and seems to be secured by wise precautions against every misfortune, against fire and sudden attack; but if God Himself do not guard it, it is in vain that those to whom its protection is entrusted give themselves no sleep and perform (שׁקד, a word that has only come into frequent use since the literature of the Salomonic age) the duties of their office with the utmost devotion. The perfect in the apodosis affirms what has been done on the part of man to be ineffectual if the former is not done on God's part; cf. Numbers 32:23. Many rise up early in order to get to their work, and delay the sitting down as along as possible; i.e., not: the lying down (Hupfeld), for that is שׁכב, not ישׁב; but to take a seat in order to rest a little, and, as what follows shows, to eat (Hitzig). קוּם and שׁבת stand opposed to one another: the latter cannot therefore mean to remain sitting at one's work, in favour of which Isaiah 5:11 (where בּבּקר and בּנּשׁף form an antithesis) cannot be properly compared. 1 Samuel 20:24 shows that prior to the incursion of the Grecian custom they did not take their meals lying or reclining ( ἀνα - or κατακείμενος ), but sitting. It is vain for you - the poet exclaims to them - it will not after all bring hat you think to be able to acquire; in so doing you eat only the bread of sorrow, i.e., bread that is procured with toil and trouble (cf. Genesis 3:17, בּעצּבון): כּן, in like manner, i.e., the same as you are able to procure only by toilsome and anxious efforts, God gives to His beloved (Psalm 60:7; Deuteronomy 33:12) שׁנא (= שׁנה), in sleep (an adverbial accusative like לילה בּּקר, ערב), i.e., without restless self-activity, in a state of self-forgetful renunciation, and modest, calm surrender to Him: “God bestows His gifts during the night,” says a German proverb, and a Greek proverb even says: εὕδοντι κύρτος αἱρεῖ . Böttcher takes כּן in the sense of “so = without anything further;” and כן certainly has this meaning sometimes (vid., introduction to Psalm 110:1-7), but not in this passage, where, as referring back, it stands at the head of the clause, and where what this mimic כן would import lies in the word שׁנא.

With הנּה it goes on to refer to a specially striking example insupport of the maxim that everything depends upon God's blessing. פּרי הבּטן (Genesis 30:2; Deuteronomy 7:13) beside בּנים also admits of the including of daughters. It is with בּנים (recalling Genesis 30:18) just as with נהלת. Just as the latter in thispassage denotes an inheritance not according to hereditary right, but inaccordance with the free-will of the giver, so the former denotes not areward that is paid out as in duty bound, but a recompense that isbestowed according to one's free judgment, and in fact looked for inaccordance with a promise given, but cannot by any means be demanded. Sons are a blessed gift from above. They are - especially when they are theoffspring of a youthful marriage (opp. בּן־זקנים, Genesis 37:3; Genesis 44:20),and accordingly themselves strong and hearty (Genesis 49:3), and at the timethat the father is growing old are in the bloom of their years - like arrows inthe hand of a warrior. This is a comparison which the circumstances of his time made natural tothe poet, in which the sword was carried side by side with the trowel, andthe work of national restoration had to be defended step by step againstopen enemies, envious neighbours, and false brethren. It was not sufficientthen to have arrows in the quiver; one was obligated to have them notmerely at hand, but in the hand (בּיד), in order to be able todischarge them and defend one's self. What a treasure, in such a time whenit was needful to be constantly ready for fighting, defensive or offensive,was that which youthful sons afforded to the elderly father and weakermembers of the family! Happy is the man - the poet exclaims - who has hisquiver, i.e., his house, full of such arrows, in order to be able to deal out tothe enemies as many arrows as may be needed. The father and such a hostof sons surrounding him (this is the complex notion of the subject) form aphalanx not to be broken through. If they have to speak with enemies in the gate - i.e., candidly to upbraidthem with their wrong, or to ward off their unjust accusation - they shallnot be ashamed, i.e., not be overawed, disheartened, or disarmed. Geseniusin his Thesaurus, as Ibn-Jachja has already done, takes דּבּר here in the signification “to destroy;” but in Genesis 34:13 this Piel signifies to deal behind one's back (deceitfully), and in 2 Chronicles 22:10 to get rid of by assassination. This shade of the notion, which proceeds from Arab. (dbr), pone esse(vid., Psalm 18:48; Psalm 28:2), does not suit the passage before us, and the expression לא־יבשׁוּ is favourable to the idea of the gate as being the forum, which arises from taking ידברו in its ordinary signification. Unjust judges, malicious accusers, and false witnesses retire shy and faint-hearted before a family so capable of defending itself. We read the opposite of this in Job 5:4 of sons upon whom the curse of their fathers rests.