Ecclesiastes 4 (3)

Pray Psalm 72.17.
His name shall endure forever;
His name shall continue as long as the sun.
And men shall be blessed in Him;
All nations shall call Him blessed.

Read Ecclesiastes 4.4.

Prepare.
1. To what does successful toil often lead?

2. What does this say about life “under the sun”?

Meditate.
Why do people “under the sun” go to work? Partly, we suspect, to find some meaning for their lives. But seasons of recession and hard times remind us that for most people, work is primarily a way of making a living so that they can possess the good things of life.

But then, what standards do people employ for determining how much stuff will make them happy? They look at the people next door. “Keeping up with the Joneses” is a way of life for many people – the Joneses being anyone who has a little more than they do. We have to own all the latest gadgets, or to live in just the right neighborhood and drive only the best cars if we want to be happy. We need more of this and that and everything else – just like the people with whom we associate – or we’ll be seen to be less than successful, less than happy. But someone will always have more, and we’ll always have more than someone else.

Thus we live in a kind of perpetual adolescence. Without eternal standards of value, we get our values from one another and from the temper of the times. And in our day, the primary value seems to be that of “more stuff”. That, too, is vanity and striving after the wind.

The deeper we get into Solomon’s meditations, the more contemporary and relevant they become. People stuck in the effects of the fall, and living “under the sun”, are not what they think they are. Because they are made in the image of God, though they deny this, something in them longs for meaning, happiness, fulfillment, and purpose. But everything about their environment discourages them from thinking they may know these in anything other than merely relativistic terms.

This verse is a kind of “section sub-heading” to the theme opened in verse 1. Solomon will follow this general statement about the vanity of comparing ourselves with others with additional thoughts about relationships – what they should be and what they actually are “under the sun”.

His point is clear, although subtle: You have to deal with people, even “under the sun”, but you have to be careful. How will you do this?

Reflect.
1. What is covetousness? In what sense is it true that covetousness is the gateway to all sin?

2. Can I love people whom I envy? Whose prosperity I covet? How can we guard ourselves against covetousness?

3. Why is covetousness “vanity and grasping for the wind”?

Among acquaintances, neighbors and fellow workmen, or those who are otherwise brought into close contact, are envied, and among these again, those of the same age and kinsmen and brothers. In short, as the red blight is a common pest to corn, so envy is the plague of friendship. Basil the Great (330-379), Homily Concerning Envy

Guard me against envy and covetousness, Lord, so that I may love my neighbor and…

Pray Psalm 72.15-17.
Praise the Lord, Who owns the wealth of the world, and thank Him for all that He has entrusted to you.

Sing Psalm 72.15-17.
Psalm 72.15-17 (Martyrdom: Alas! And Did My Savior Bleed)
Let Christ be praised and all the gold of Sheba be His right.
Let blessings to His Name be told, and prayers made both day and night.

And let the earth abound with grain, let fields His fame proclaim.
And may our King forever reign, and nations bless His great Name.

T. M. Moore

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Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. All psalms for singing adapted from The Ailbe Psalter. All quotations from Church Fathers from Ancient Christian Commentary Series, General Editor Thomas C. Oden (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2006). All psalms for singing are from The Ailbe Psalter (available by clicking here).