Bellarmine on Psalm 127 : Verse 2

Verse 2

For thou shalt eat the labours of thy hands: blessed art thou, and it shall be well with thee.

Labores manuum tuarum quia manducabis, beatus es, et bene tibi erit.

He begins to enumerate the blessings of the man who fears God, and he addresses his words to him in particular, saying : Your first blessing will be that “thou shalt eat the labours of thy hands,” that is, you will enjoy all those good things which you have acquired by the work of your hands or of your labours. Here we should consider carefullly how the Prophet does not place the happiness of good people in having great quantities of riches, but in those good things which they acquire through their own labour, which are normally quite moderate. For great riches are for the most part had either through inheritance from parents, or through rapine[1] and usury, and other wicked practices. In his epistle ad Hedibiam, St. Jerome praises that popular saying: “A rich man is either a criminal or the son of a criminal.” The prophet says the same 

thing in Psalm XXXVI : “Better is a little to the just, than the great riches of the wicked;”[2] and in Psalm LXXII : “Behold these are sinners; and yet abounding in the world they have obtained riches.”[3] and in Psalm CXLIII : “Their storehouses full, flowing out of this into that. Their sheep fruitful in young, abounding in their goings forth: Their oxen fat. There is no breach of wall, nor passage, nor crying out in their streets. They have called the people happy, that hath these things: but happy is that people whose God is the Lord.”[4] Now holy David is preaching not only to the Hebrews but also to Christians, when he does not make their happiness consist in great riches; but that they 

should live only on what they obtain from their just labours : here, he condemns two extreme vices : one is that of those who “eat the labours” of others; the other is that of those who do not eat the labours of their own hands but avariciously hoard them so that they may increase their riches. They alone are happy who  eat the labours of their hands. If perchance some of those who fear God and walk in His ways, are unable to enjoy their own goods, but are forced to be hungry and thirsty because their goods have been taken away from them, the promise made in this text will not for this reason be rendered false : for if God permits some of His 

friends to desire to be filled  with the crumbs that fall from the tables of the rich, as we read of the beggar Lazarus in Luke XVI, and no-one gives them anything, most assuredly God will give them something far better, namely, “joy in tribulation,”  as the Apostle says in Hebrews X, “took with joy the being stripped of your own goods;”[5] and the Apostle says of himself in II Corinth. VII : “I exceedingly abound with joy in all our tribulation;”[6]  and then the sense of this verse will be : “For thou shalt eat the labours of thy hands: blessed art thou, and it shall be well with thee,” that is, now thou shat eat (the fruits of) thy labour, that is, thou shalt be restored by the joy of thy labour and of thy tribulation; and afterwards thou shalt truly be fattened by very the fruit of the labour, that is, by the reward of thy good works; and now, therefore, “blessed art thou” in hope, and afterwards “it shall be well with thee,” in actuality. This properly pertains to spiritual exiles, who rejoice in the tribulation of want and difficulties, knowing that “...tribulation worketh patience; and patience trial; and trial hope; and hope confoundeth not: because the charity of God is poured forth in our hearts...”[7] Concerning the words used, in Hebrew it has the same words we have : the labours of thy hands; but in Greek it seems to have the labours of thy fruits, and many read and translate it like this from the Greek. But the Greek καρπῶν, means both fruits and volas manuum / the palms or hollows of the hands. Hence the Septuagint most properly has translated the Hebrew word which signifies volas manuum / the palms or hollows of the hands. Accordingly, our Vulgate edition clearly agrees with the original Hebrew and with the Septuagint.

[1] The act or practice of seizing and taking away by force the property of others; plunder, pillage, robbery. OED.

[2] Better is a little to the just, than the great riches of the wicked. Melius est modicum justo, super divitias peccatorum multas; [Ps. XXXVI 16]

[3] Behold these are sinners; and yet abounding in the world they have obtained riches. Ecce ipsi peccatores, et abundantes in saeculo, obtinuerunt divitias. [Ps. LXXII 12]

[4] Their storehouses full, flowing out of this into that. Their sheep fruitful in young, abounding in their goings forth: Their oxen fat. There is no breach of wall, nor passage, nor crying out in their streets. They have called the people happy, that hath these things: but happy is that people whose God is the Lord. Promptuaria eorum plena, eructantia ex hoc in illud; oves eorum foetosae, abundantes in egressibus suis; boves eorum crassae. Non est ruina maceriae, neque transitus, neque clamor in plateis eorum. Beatum dixerunt populum cui haec sunt; beatus populus cujus Dominus Deus ejus.  [Psalm CXLIII 13] 

[5] For you both had compassion on them that were in bands, and took with joy the being stripped of your own goods, knowing that you have a better and a lasting substance. Nam et vinctis compassi estis, et rapinam bonorum vestrorum cum gaudio suscepistis, cognoscentes vos habere meliorem et manentem substantiam. [Hebr. X 34]

[6] Great is my confidence for you, great is my glorying for you. I am filled with comfort: I exceedingly abound with joy in all our tribulation. Multa mihi fiducia est apud vos, multa mihi gloriatio pro vobis : repletus sum consolatione; superabundo gaudio in omni tribulatione nostra. [II Corinth. VI 4]

[7] And not only so; but we glory also in tribulations, knowing that tribulation worketh patience; And patience trial; and trial hope; And hope confoundeth not: because the charity of God is poured forth in our hearts, by the Holy Ghost, who is given to us. Non solum autem, sed et gloriamur in tribulationibus : scientes quod tribulatio patientiam operatur : patientia autem probationem, probatio vero spem, spes autem non confundit : quia caritas Dei diffusa est in cordibus nostris per Spiritum Sanctum, qui datus est nobis. [Romans V 3-5]

Totus tuus ego sum

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam.