Also he has given the world into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.

This is a confirmation of the preceding. “Although God has given the world into the hearts of men,” he says, “they still cannot govern it by their own counsels.” “To give into the heart” or “to speak into the heart” is a Hebraism for giving or speaking in a sweet and flattering way. He wants to say: God not only gives the world into the hand of men, so that they can use the things that are present, but also into their heart, so that they can use them joyfully and with pleasure and so that they have fun and delight from it. Nevertheless, man cannot know what the beginning or the end of the work is, when or for how long he is to have these things. Therefore man should be content that he has the world for his use. Paul speaks in similar terms in Acts 14:17: “Yet He did not leave Himself without witness, for He did good and gave from heaven rains and fruitful seasons, satisfying their hearts with food and gladness.” And elsewhere (1 Tim. 6:17): “Who richly furnishes everything.” This happiness the Christian has, and everyone else would have it also if he could be content with the things that are present. St. Jerome says correctly in his preface to the Bible: “The believer has a world of riches, but the unbeliever does not have a penny; as the proverb says, ‘the miser lacks not only what he does not have but also what he does have.’” (Luther’s Works, v.15 p.53)

Ps 85:11. Truth has sprung up from the earth, and righteousness has looked down from heaven. ….. Therefore Christ came to earth that He might lift us up to heaven. He came to us where we are that He might lead us to Himself where He is. But it is the promise that was responsible for His coming to us. Therefore truth springs up from the earth, for it had been promised that He would come to us. And so truth has been fulfilled. But it is His righteousness, which is in heaven, that is responsible for our coming to Him. And thus through truth He comes to us, and through righteousness we come to Him. Hence there is a marvelous mixture. Therefore those who did not want to be in heaven were not justified. For righteousness did not spring up from the earth, but it stays in heaven and looks down from heaven, choosing and imparting itself only to the elect. [Righteousness looks down to see if there is anyone to receive the truth (cf. Ps. 53:2) and ask for it. Truth has been set forth on earth. But they are not justified by it except those who receive it and seek it…. Therefore righteousness looks down from heaven to see if anyone might receive the truth offered, so that … righteousness itself might also receive him who received the truth. Thus truth comes to us so that we might be righteous … and come to life.]  (Luther’s Works, v.11, p.169)

9. What gain has the worker from his toil?

That is, unless the appointed time, or καιρός, is here, he achieves nothing. The worker has nothing else except his own appointed time. If this does not come, he can achieve nothing. But if the appointed time is right, then he is right, too.

10. I have seen the travail, which God has given to the sons of men to be exercised in it.

This is a clarification of everything that has preceded it. “In all those labors,” he says, “I have seen that men cannot achieve anything by themselves unless their appointed time is here.” But those who want to anticipate their appointed time prematurely have travail, care, and anxieties; this is intended to make them learn from their experience and to refrain from care about future things, but to use the things that are present.

11. He has made everything beautiful in its time.

Now this is the second part. Those who do not expect their appointed time are afflicted, while those who do expect it are delighted. For everything that God makes or that happens through the gift of God in its appointed time is pleasant. That is to say, when the heart is empty of cares and yet something happens to it that is pleasant or some interesting sight comes along, this is very delightful. Therefore such people have pleasure where others have affliction, because they do things at the time which has been appointed by God. (Luther’s Works, v.15 p.52-53)