Prosperity Comes from the Lord

I. We Should be Dependence on God for success

A. Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it: Except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain. The word House in this Verse comes from the Hebrew word “Bayit” meaning dwelling place, palace, temple, family, dynasty. The statement is universal, and is designed to indicate a universal dependence on God in human undertakings. You see in verse one lets us know unless God builds it it wont last forever. And he built his sanctuary like high palaces, like the earth which he hath established for ever.

B. Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep. 5 The Lord is thy keeper: the Lord is thy shade upon thy right hand.Since the concern for protection involves watchmen over a city (v. 1), the likely setting is of a king who diligently strives to develop and protect his kingdom. In vain waketh the keeper." The word rendered waketh means to be sleepless; and then, to watch. The allusion is to the watch or guard appointed to keep a city, and the idea is, that, whatever may be the diligence, the care, the fidelity of one thus appointed to guard a city, its safe-keeping must depend on God alone. Fires may break out in spite of the watchmen; a tempest may sweep over it; bands of armed people may assail it; or the pestilence may suddenly come into it, and spread desolation through its dwellings. after all the care for their own preservation which people can employ, their safety depends wholly on God.

B. And he built his sanctuary like high palaces, like the earth which he hath established for ever.

1 Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it: Except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.

II. The vanity of all efforts

5 The Lord is thy keeper: the Lord is thy shade upon thy right hand.

Except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.

Barry, J. D., Mangum, D., Brown, D. R., Heiser, M. S., Custis, M., Ritzema, E., … Bomar, D. (2012, 2016). Faithlife Study Bible (). Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.

A. It is vain for you to rise up early, To retire late, To eat the bread of painful labors; For He gives to His beloved even in his sleep. Mere early rising, without his blessing, would not secure what they hoped to accomplish, for everything is still in the hand of God. Health, strength, clearness of mind, and success, are all under his control; and though early rising may tend to produce all these - as it does in fact - yet still people are not the less dependent on God for success.

Mere early rising, without his blessing, would not secure what they hoped to accomplish, for everything is still in the hand of God. Health, strength, clearness of mind, and success, are all under his control; and though early rising may tend to produce all these - as it does in fact - yet still people are not the less dependent on God for success.

2 It is vain for you to rise up early,

B. In the second part of verse 2 we see To eat the bread of painful labors; For He gives to His beloved even in his sleep. And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life. The meaning is, that it is in vain that you labor hard, that you exhaust your strength, in order to get bread to eat, unless God shall bless you. After all your toil the result is with him.

III. The fact that children belong to God, and are to be regarded as his.

To retire late, To eat the bread of painful labors;

To eat the bread of painful labors;

A.

A. Behold, children are a gift of the LORD, The fruit of the womb is a reward. And he lifted up his eyes, and saw the women and the children; and said, Who are those with thee? And he said, The children which God hath graciously given thy servant. They are an inheritance derived from the Lord. They are bestowed by him as really as success is in building a house, or in guarding a city. The idea is, that everything which we value, or which we desire, is a gift from God, and is to be received as from him, and to be acknowledged as his gift. The general idea here, as in the previous verses, is that of entire dependence on God.

Behold, children are a gift of the LORD,

For He gives to His beloved even in his sleep.

B.  And he will love thee, and bless thee, and multiply thee: he will also bless the fruit of thy womb, and the fruit of thy land, thy corn, and thy wine, and thine oil, the increase of thy kine, and the flocks of thy sheep, in the land which he sware unto thy fathers to give thee.Children are to be reckoned among the divine favors bestowed on us, and for their lives, their health, their virtues, and the happiness derived from them, we are, as in other things, dependent on him - as in building a house, in guarding a city, or in the rest and comfort derived from toil.

The fruit of the womb is a reward

IV. Like Arrows in the hand of a warrior

A. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior, So are the children of one’s youth. (“the hand of a warrior”) in v. 4 indicates that banim (“children”) could refer figuratively to subjects of the king. His seed shall be mighty upon earth: the generation of the upright shall be blessed. these are the warriors of youth, they shall protect their house.

V. Happy is the man Full of the Lord

Barry, J. D., Mangum, D., Brown, D. R., Heiser, M. S., Custis, M., Ritzema, E., … Bomar, D. (2012, 2016). Faithlife Study Bible (). Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.

A. How blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them; They will not be ashamed, When they speak with their enemies in the gate. That hath his quiver full of them - The quiver is a case in which arrows are carried; and as a man - a hunter or warrior - feels secure when he has his quiver full of arrows, so a man is blessed in proportion to the number of his sons. This is in accordance with the idea often presented in the Bible, and the promise often made there of a numerous posterity as a proof of the divine favor. 2nd part of the verse “They will not be ashamed” My son, be wise, and make my heart glad, that I may answer him that reproacheth me. kher-paw´; contumely, disgrace, the pudenda:—rebuke, reproach (-fully), shame.

B. Last part of When they speak with their enemies in the gate. That make a man an offender for a word, and lay a snare for him that reproveth in the gate, and turn aside the just for a thing of nought. 22 Therefore thus saith the Lord, who redeemed Abraham, concerning the house of Jacob, Jacob shall not now be ashamed, neither shall his face now wax pale. 23 But when he seeth his children, the work of mine hands, in the midst of him, they shall sanctify my name, and sanctify the Holy One of Jacob, and shall fear the God of Israel. In time of war, gates were the weak spots in city walls, and therefore the location of much of the armed conflict when a city was attacked. However, a king with many subjects is able to protect his city gates.

22 Therefore thus saith the Lord, who redeemed Abraham, concerning the house of Jacob, Jacob shall not now be ashamed, neither shall his face now wax pale.

Conclusion:

23 But when he seeth his children, the work of mine hands, in the midst of him, they shall sanctify my name, and sanctify the Holy One of Jacob, and shall fear the God of Israel.

God wants us to trust in him fully, when we trust in him other things seem to fall into place; but that doesn’t mean its all roses either. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong. If we aren’t doing right then the devil doesn't have to mess.

They will not be ashamed, When they speak with their enemies in the gate.

When they speak with their enemies in the gate.

So are the children of one’s youth