A Song of Ascents. Of Solomon.
1 Unless the Lord builds the house,
They labor in vain who build it;
Unless the Lord guards the city,
The watchman stays awake 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 gives His beloved sleep.
3 Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord,
The fruit of the womb is a reward.
4 Like arrows in the hand of a warrior,
So are the children of one’s youth.
5 Happy is the man who has his quiver full of them;
They shall not be ashamed,
But shall speak with their enemies in the gate.
Some people believe this psalm was originally written as two separate poems (vs.1-2 and vs.3-5) that were stuck together at a later date. I don’t have any reason to think that’s true, but it does read that way. The connection, as I see it, is that three endeavors—building a house/family, working for a living, and raising children—will be unfruitful and unsatisfying if not done according to God’s will.
The notion of the utter vanity of living life apart from God is emphasized by the three-fold repetition of the key Hebrew term sh?v’ (“in vain,” “vanity”) in verses 1-2a, the notion of “three” signifying utmost degree or emphasis). — Wechsler, pages 303-305.
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While this opening section [v.1] clearly affirms, on the one hand, the general principle of “including” God in one’s decision of when, where and how to build one’s “house” (the structure and the family that fills it), it should also be taken as referring specifically to God’s involvement in the establishment and building of the Temple and Jerusalem considering (1) the attribution of this psalm to Solomon, who both built the Temple and established Jerusalem (uniquely in his time) as the greatest capital city of any kingdom on earth (to which “all the earth” came to seek Solomon’s presence: 1 Kings 10:23), (2) the exilic and/or pilgrimage venue of this psalm, which implies a natural focus on Jerusalem and the Temple, and (3) that in fact the only “house” and the only “city” of which Scripture emphasizes God’s direct involvement in their establishment and building is the Temple and Jerusalem. — Wechsler, page 304.
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In this verse [v.2] Solomon affirms the same principle as in Proverbs 10:22—that any labor undertaken to meet one’s needs, no matter how industrious, if undertaken in a manner and for a purpose inconsistent with God’s Word, will in the end be unsatisfying (i.e., vanity), whereas any work undertaken with God continually in view (i.e., consistent with His Word and with a view to His glory), will be satisfying to the worker and pleasing to God. The specific application of this principle to Solomon himself is implied by the reference to “His beloved,” alluding to the name given to Solomon at birth by God (i.e., Jedediah; see 2 Samuel 12:25). — Wechsler, pages 304-305.
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