Psalms 127:2

It is vain for you Builders or watch-men, or other persons engaged in any design, which to you seems important; to rise up early, to sit up late To use constant and unwearied diligence; to eat the bread of sorrows Or, the bread of fatigue, as some render it; to labour hard, and fare poorly. For so By his blessing, and not singly by industry without it; or, as the word כן is rendered in the margin, certainly, or since, as Dr. Hammond translates it; he giveth his beloved sleep His people, who, though hated and maligned by men, are beloved of God, and over whom his providence watcheth in a special manner. He gives them quiet rest, both of body and mind, and that freely, without that immoderate toiling and drudgery wherewith others pursue it. Observe, reader, the psalmist does not intend to say that labour and diligence are vain, but that they are so unless the Lord be with and bless the labourer: the business is not to be done by all the industry and pains, all the care and labour in the world, without him; whereas, if his aid be called in, if part of our time be spent in prayer, and not the whole of it in prayerless care and labour, our work will become easier and go on better: a solicitude and anxiety for its success and completion will no longer prey upon our minds by day, and break our rest at night; we shall cheerfully fulfil our daily tasks, and then, with confidence and resignation, lay our heads upon our pillows, and God will give us sweet and undisturbed sleep, which shall fit us to return every morning with renewed vigour and alacrity to our stated employments: see Horne.