Fathers

Psalms 127

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Unless Yahweh builds the house, they who build it labor in vain. Unless Yahweh watches over the city, the watchman guards it in vain. It is vain for you to rise up early, to stay up late, eating the bread of toil, for he gives sleep to his loved ones. Behold, children are a heritage of Yahweh. The fruit of the womb is his reward. As arrows in the hand of a mighty man, so are the children of youth. Happy is the man who has his quiver full of them. They won’t be disappointed when they speak with their enemies in the gate.

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What the Fathers say

Psalms 127:1

Eastern Fathers

John Chrysostom

"That good thing which was committed unto thee keep,"—how?—"by the Holy Ghost which dwelleth in us." For it is not in the power of a human soul, when instructed with things so great, to be sufficient for the keeping of them. And why? Because there are many robbers, and thick darkness, and the devil still at hand to plot against us; and we know not what is the hour, what the occasion for him to set upon us. How then, he means, shall we be sufficient for the keeping of them? …

Homilies On 2 Timothy 3 ↗

Western Saints

Augustine of Hippo

But someone, perhaps, will say, "I did indeed receive faith, but it is I who have guarded and kept it." You perhaps say this, whoever you are, listening to all this and having no sense: "I received faith, but it is I who have guarded and kept it." It is not what our Paul says, "It is I who have guarded and kept it." He had his eyes, you see, on [the words] "unless the Lord keeps watch over the city, he labors in vain who guards it." Labor, by all means, guard it; but it is good for you that you are being guarded. …

Sermon 297:7 ↗

Jerome

And someone may say, as Epicurus and Aristippus and the Cyrenaics do, and the rest of the beasts called philosophers. But reflecting carefully within myself, I find that not, as some mistakenly believe, everything is done by chance, and that fortune plays a varied role in human affairs, but rather that everything is done by the judgment of God. For even if a swift runner were to think that he determines his own course with his feet, he does not. …

Commentary on Ecclesiastes ↗