Psalms 128:2

2 For thou shalt eat the travails of thine hands; thou art blessed, and it shall be well to thee. (For thou shalt eat the fruit of thy labour; thou shalt be happy, and it shall be well with thee.)

Psalms 128:2 Meaning and Commentary

Psalms 128:2

For thou shall eat the labour of thine hands
That is, thou that fearest the Lord, and walkest in his ways. It is an apostrophe, or address to such, even to everyone of them; instancing in one part of the blessedness that belongs to them, enjoyment of what their hands have laboured for; which may be understood both in a literal and spiritual sense: man must labour and get his bread with the sweat of his brow; he that will not work should not eat, he that does should; and a good man may have a comfortable enjoyment of the good of his labour; than which, as to temporal blessings, there is nothing better under the sun, ( Ecclesiastes 5:18 ) ; and, in a spiritual sense, good men labour in prayers at the throne of grace, there lifting up holy hands to God, wrestling with him for a blessing, which they enjoy; they labour in attendance on the word and ordinances, for the meat which endures to everlasting life; and they find the word and eat it, and Christ in it, whose flesh is meat indeed; and feed by faith on it, to the joy and comfort of their souls;

happy [shall] thou [be], and [it shall be] well with thee;
or, to thy soul, as the Syriac version; happy as to temporal things, and well as to spiritual ones: such having an apparent special interest in the love, grace, mercy, and delight of God; in his providence, protection, and care; in the supplies of his grace, and in his provisions for his people, in time and eternity. It is well with such that felt God, in life and at death, at judgment and for ever: and the Targum is,

``thou art blessed in this world, and it shall be well with thee in the world to come;''

and so Arama.

Psalms 128:2 In-Context

1 The song of degrees. Blessed be all men, that dread the Lord; that go in his ways. (Happy be all those, who fear the Lord/who revere the Lord; and who go in his ways.)

2 For thou shalt eat the travails of thine hands; thou art blessed, and it shall be well to thee. (For thou shalt eat the fruit of thy labour; thou shalt be happy, and it shall be well with thee.)

3 Thy wife shall be as a plenteous vine; in the sides of thine house. Thy sons as the new springs of olive trees; in the compass of thy board. (Thy wife shall be like a fruitful vine; by the side of thy house. And thy sons and thy daughters shall be like the new branches of olive trees; all around thy table.)

4 Lo! so a man shall be blessed; that dreadeth the Lord. (Lo! so shall the man be blessed; who feareth the Lord/who hath reverence for the Lord.)

5 The Lord bless thee from Zion; and see thou the goods of Jerusalem in all the days of thy life. (May the Lord bless thee from Zion; and may thou see the prosperity of Jerusalem/and may thou share in the prosperity of Jerusalem, all the days of thy life.)