What does the worker gain from his toil?
We live in a wheel of nature where one spoke is uppermost, then another; constant ebbing and flowing, waxing and waning. Every change concerning us is fixed by a supreme power, and we cannot alter what is appointed. So in prosperity, be easy yet not secure, humble and even-minded, neither lifted up with hopes nor cast down with fears.
AI summary
Commenting on Ecclesiastes 3:1-10
What profit hath he that worketh in that wherein he laboureth? That is, he has none. This is an inference drawn from the above premises, and confirms what has been before observed, Ecc 1:3; Man has no profit of his labour, since his time is so short to enjoy it, and he leaves it to another, he knows not who; and, while he lives, is...
But these earthly pursuits, while lawful in their season, are "unprofitable" when made by man, what God never intended them to be, the chief good. Solomon had tried to create an artificial forced joy, at times when he ought rather to have been serious; the result, therefore, of his labor to be happy, out of God's order, was disappointment.