Matthew Poole's Commentary A Song of degrees. Blessed is every one that feareth the LORD; that walketh in his ways. THE ARGUMENT This Psalm contains a description of the blessedness of good men. The psalmist showeth the happy state of such as fear God, in his labour, Psalm 128:1,2, wife, and children, Psalm 128:3, He shall also see the good of Jerusalem, and peace upon Israel, Psalm 128:4-6. No text from Poole on this verse. For thou shalt eat the labour of thine hands: happy shalt thou be, and it shall be well with thee. Thou shalt eat the labour of thine hands; thy labour shall not be vain and fruitless, and the fruit of thy labours shall not be taken away from thee, and possessed by others, as God threatened to the disobedient, Deu 28, but enjoyed by thyself with comfort and satisfaction. Well with thee, both in this world and in the world to come, as even the Chaldee paraphrast explains these words. Thy wife shall be as a fruitful vine by the sides of thine house: thy children like olive plants round about thy table. As a fruitful vine; like the vine for fruitfulness; or like that sort of vines known by this name for its eminent fruitfulness, as some trees amongst us are for the same reason called the great bearers. By the sides of thine house, where the vines are commonly planted for support and other advantages; which being applied to the wife, may signify either, 1. The wife’s duty to abide at home, Titus 2:5, as the harlot is deciphered by her gadding abroad, Proverbs 7:11,12. Or rather, 2. The legitimateness of the children, which are begotten at home by the husband, and not abroad by strangers. Like olive plants, numerous, growing and flourishing, good both for ornament and manifold uses, as olive trees are. Round about thy table; where they shall sit at meat with thee, for thy comfort and safety. Behold, that thus shall the man be blessed that feareth the LORD. No text from Poole on this verse. The LORD shall bless thee out of Zion: and thou shalt see the good of Jerusalem all the days of thy life. Out of Zion; from the ark in Zion, and with those spiritual and everlasting blessings which are to be had no where but in Zion, and from the God who dwelleth in Zion, and with all other mercies which thou shalt ask of God in Zion. The good of Jerusalem; the prosperity of that city to which thou belongest, and which is the only seat of God’s special presence, and of his worship, whose felicity therefore is very delightful to every good man, and upon whose peace the peace and safety of every member of it depends, as every seaman is concerned in the safety of the ship in which he is. Yea, thou shalt see thy children's children, and peace upon Israel. Not only upon Jerusalem, and the parts adjacent, but upon all the tribes and people of Israel. |
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