Deeper Commentary
Psa 127:1
A Song of Ascents. By Solomon-
Ecclesiastes is so packed with contradictions. Solomon knew and perceived
God’s truth, and yet felt it meant nothing to him personally. Thus he
teaches truth in Ecclesiastes, but intersperses it with his own personal
depression and sense that none of it really has any meaning for him
personally. The themes of labour, vanity, sleep and children which are
found in Ecclesiastes all occur in Psalm 127, a Psalm of or for Solomon-
where the message is clearly given that unless the Lord builds the temple,
all this labour is in vain. And yet knowing this Solomon
did labour for it so hard, and then came to the
conclusion that it was indeed in vain. If only he had believed the words
he earlier composed and sung in Ps. 127, he needn’t have had to come to
that sad conclusion.
Unless Yahweh builds the house, they labour in vain who build it. Unless
Yahweh watches over the city, the watchman guards it in vain-
The songs of ascents, part of the restoration Psalms, are relevant to
any ‘ascent’ or ‘going up’ to the Lord’s house. They are full of reference
to God’s eternal purpose with Jerusalem and the temple. It seems to me
that they may have been re-written under inspiration with reference to
God’s people returning from Babylon to Jerusalem. Psalm 127 has obvious
relevance too: “Except the Lord build the house [the temple], they labour
in vain that build it… the watchman [cp. Nehemiah placing watchmen on the
rebuilt walls] wakes but in vain… it is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late [cp. working so hard on the wall they had no time to even change their
clothes]… they shall speak with their enemies in the gate” [cp. Nehemiah
talking to the Arab traders and enemies in the rebuilt gate of Jerusalem,
and setting watches over the city].
We can understand the house as the temple, and the city as Jerusalem. For God is the builder of the house of Israel (Am. 9:11; Jer. 31:28), and He is the watchman of Israel (Ps. 121:4). To build up a house is a figure for God giving a family (Ex. 1:21), and it is in this context that we can understand why the Psalm goes on to speak of the blessing of children (:3). All human efforts to build a family / dynasty are vain without God's blessing. He indeed promised to David that He would do this, but it was only fulfilled through the Lord Jesus, David's greater Son- and the blessed children described in :3-5 are those in Him. As discussed on :3, any hope this applies simply to literal children is ill founded.
Perhaps the Psalm originated in Solomon's reflections as he began
building the temple, and was then rewritten and reapplied to the exiles
rebuilding it. More likely it is God's inspired advice to him as he began
the building work. To build a house and not live in it was a curse for
breaking the covenant (Dt. 28:30; Zeph. 1:13), and this was to be the
curse if the house of the temple was built but not inhabited by the
shekinah glory. And this is indeed how it worked out; the temple was
rebuilt, but the glory didn't return to it as foreseen in Ezekiel's
visions of Ez. 40-48, because the exiles weren't obedient to that vision.
But God didn't really want a physical house built for Him; rather had He promised to build up the house or seed of David (2 Sam. 7:27 s.w.). And this is why this Psalm goes on in :3-5 to say that God will build up the family / house of the faithful. Solomon correctly perceived all this, as noted on :1, and yet insisted on going ahead with the grandiose building program which was not really what God wanted.
Psa 127:2
It is vain for you to rise up early, to stay up late, eating the
bread of toil; for He gives sleep to His beloved ones-
Ps. 132:4 "I will not give sleep to my eyes, or slumber to my
eyelids" therefore appears to be a studied disregard for the revelation of
Ps. 127:2, which urges David and his seed not to stay up late planning to
build a physical temple, but to accept sleep from God and trust Him to
build him a house in the sense of a Messianic seed and family /
kingdom.
David seems to have recognized that the building of the temple was conditional on Solomon's spirituality, but he overlooked this in his enthusiasm for Solomon to be the Messiah. He tells Solomon to show himself a man (1 Kings 2:2), and goes on in v. 4 to speak of how “a man” would eternally reign on his Messianic throne. He was encouraging Solomon to be and act like Messiah. Ps. 127 is "For Solomon" (v.2 "beloved" = Heb. Jedidiah), and warns him that his labour for the temple will be in vain unless God builds it. The Psalm basically says that God will build Solomon a house in the sense of a family centred in the beloved seed who would die [“sleep”] to enable it; and therefore Solomon should not be so sweating himself day and night to build God a house / temple. This is the very message which God had given David earlier. David and Solomon evidently shelved their knowledge of the fact that Heaven is God's dwelling place.
But more than this; the idea may be that instead of building the temple / house for Yahweh, Solomon is advised to let Yahweh build up his house / family as the seed of David (Ps. 127:3-5). God would give sleep to the beloved, "Jedidiah", Solomon, and he would awake and find his house / seed built for him by God- rather than Solomon frantically building a house for God. The same phrase is only used of Solomon not giving sleep to his eyes in his mad addiction to works (Prov. 6:4; Ecc 8:16). Ps. 127 was "for Solomon" rather than necessarily "by" him. And it seems he refused the offer of having his house / seed built up for him, but rather chose to try to build God a house. Hence LXX "It is vain for you to rise early: ye rise up after resting, ye that eat the bread of grief; while he gives sleep to his beloved".
It could be that initially, Psalm 127 was David’s Psalm for Solomon written at the very end of his life; he tells Solomon that unless God builds this house / temple, it will all be “in vain” and Solomon will but eat the bread of sorrows, labouring hard all his days for nothing. And this is very much the picture of Solomon in Ecclesiastes. David said that such labour in vain was made unnecessary by the fact that “So he giveth his beloved sleep” (Ps. 127:2). ‘David’ means ‘beloved’, and it could be that David was gently trying to focus Solomon’s attention on the future David who would be made to sleep / due by the Father, in order to build the real house.
Possibly in the Solomon context he is recalling how he slept and was given the vision of wisdom (1 Kings 3:5-15). We could translate "So He gives to His beloved [Jedidiah, Solomon] in sleep". Or perhaps he is reflecting on how his father David, which means "beloved", didn't give sleep to his eyes because he was so concerned with building the temple; and God closed his eyes in the sleep of death: "I will not give sleep to my eyes, or slumber to my eyelids" (Ps. 132:4). The psalmist is perhaps reflecting that this labour of David was all in vain. He didn't build the temple in his lifetime, and fell asleep in death before the building even started. And now, in the time of the exile, it was all in vain anyway because the temple had been destroyed. All Solomon's building had been in vain- hence we could read the title of the Psalm as "about Solomon" rather than "of Solomon".
The allusion is clearly to the curse of labour in vain in Gen. 3:16,17; and we have children referred to in :3. The allusions seem to show that with God on our side, the curse can be lifted- if our labour, toil and bringing forth of children are for Him. Otherwise, they are all part of the curse and futile in eternal terms. Possibly the Lord has this psalm in view in His teaching of the seed sown for the Kingdom; the labour for it all brings forth a glorious harvest: "So is the kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed upon the earth. He sleeps and rises, night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows; he does not know how" (Mk. 4:26,27). Hezekiah's labour was ultimately in vain because he raised an evil son, Manasseh, and all his weath and achievements were taken away by the Babylonians. We reflect on Prov. 10:22, "The blessing of Yahweh, it makes rich, and He adds no toil therewith". And only our labour in the Lord is labour "not in vain" (1 Cor. 15:58). That is why it is worth "always abounding in", because we know that our labour is not in vain, in the Lord. We can live like that now; but that will be our eternal experience in God's Kingdom: "They shall not labour in vain, nor bring forth for trouble; for they are the seed of the blessed of Yahweh" (Is. 65:23).
Psa 127:3
Behold, children are a heritage of Yahweh. The fruit of the womb
is His reward-
We are God's heritage, His reward / wages (Heb.), His recompense for
all His labour for us (Ps. 127:3 Heb.).
Psa 127:4
As arrows in the hand of a mighty man, so are the children of
youth-
LXX "As arrows in the hand of a mighty man; so are the children of
those who were outcasts". The reference is clearly to the restoration of
the children of Zion after the restoration. Their children were to inherit
the Kingdom- potentially. This scenario was precluded by the impenitence
and disobedience of the exiles and their intermarriages. I suggested
on :1-3 that Solomon was initially being told to allow God to build up his
house / seed whilst he "slept", unable to do any works, rather than him
building a house for God. But he refused this, not wanting to see the
spiritual side of things, but rather only the external and material,
centered around his own works.
Psa 127:5
Happy is the man who has his quiver full of them; they won’t be
ashamed when they speak with their enemies in the gate-
The allusion may be to the boasting matches held when enemies came to the
gate [we recall Goliath's boasting to the Israelites]. The house Solomon
built didn't have Yahweh building it, and so it was taken down. The
"house" was to be the family built through the promised seed of
Abraham and David, who would eternally "possess the gate of his enemies".
The promise to Abraham is the only other reference to God's people
possessing the gate of enemies: "I will multiply your seed greatly like
the stars of the sky, and like the sand which is on the seashore. Your
seed will possess the gate of his enemies" (Gen. 22:17). These things
didn't happen for the temple... the gates of the temple were entered by
her enemies (Lam. 4:12). “Happy is the man that has his quiver full of” children is
surely to be connected with Ps. 126:6, where the sower [the preacher]
returns with joy, “bringing his sheaves [converts] with him”. In
the restoration context, these were to be the children of Zion, the new
generation of returned exiles who would rise to govern a Messianic kingdom
which would dominate the peoples who were their former enemies.
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