Commentary on Psalms Volume 3 John Calvin
COMMENTARY ON PSALMS - VOLUME 3 labor to acquire by their own industry. The particle,,כןken, thus, is put to express certainty; 541 for with the view of producing a more undoubted persuasion of the truth — that God gives food to his people without any great care on their part — which seems incredible, and a fiction, Solomon points to the thing as it were with the finger. He indeed speaks as if God nourished the slothfulness of his servants by his gentle treatment; but as we know that men are created with the design of their being occupied, and as in the subsequent Psalm we shall find that the servants of God are accounted happy when they eat the labor of their hands, it is certain that the word sleep is not to be understood as implying slothfulness, but a placid labor, to which true believers subject themselves by the obedience of faith. Whence proceeds this so great ardor in the unbelieving, that they move not a finger without a tumult or bustle, in other words, without tormenting themselves with superfluous cares, but because they attribute nothing to the providence of God! The faithful, on the other hand, although they lead a laborious life, yet follow their vocations with composed and tranquil minds. Thus their hands are not idle, but their minds repose in the stillness of faith, as if they were asleep. If it is again objected, that God's people are often agitated with distressing cares, and that, oppressed with pinching poverty, and destitute of all resources, they are anxiously concerned about the morrow, I answer, that if faith and love to God were perfect in his servants, his blessing, of which the Prophet makes mention, would be manifest. Whenever they are tormented above measure, this happens through their own default, in not resting entirely upon the providence of God. I farther add, that God punishes them more severely than unbelievers, because it is profitable for them to be agitated by disquietude for a season, that at length they may attain to this peaceful sleep. In the meantime, however, God's grace prevails, and always shines forth in the midst of darkness, in respect of his cherishing his children as it were by sleep.
Psalm 127:3-5
3. Lo! children are the heritage of Jehovah: the fruit of the womb is the reward which he bestows. 542 4. As arrows in, the hand of a Walford reads — "He truly granteth sleep to his beloved;" and observes that the sentence is enfeebled by the word "so" in the vulgar translation. "It most likely means," he adds, "'in truth,' i.e., truly; and the sense will be, though all exertion is vain without God, yet he truly bestows refreshing sleep, free from anxiety and excessive exertion, upon those who are the objects of his love, inasmuch as they combine all their endeavours with due regard to him." Cresswell adopts the rendering of the Septuagint, which is "since he giveth his beloved sleep."
"Fructus. Merces, fructus ventris " — Lat. "Le fruict du ventre est loyer qu'il donne " — Fr.