Therefore I began to build, to plant vineyards, and omitted no labor or effort. But all I got from all these labors was vanity, because I wanted to direct myself by my own counsel.” The wish to direct oneself by one’s own counsel is a vain one. In fact, anyone who seeks to direct himself by his own counsel afflicts himself with a double disadvantage: first, he tortures himself with his own counsels; second, he accomplishes nothing, or if he does accomplish something, sorrow intervenes and undoes it. So Nero built a magnificent royal palace but did not enjoy it. That is the way it usually happens, that one man builds but another possesses and enjoys what has been built; as the parable in the Gospel says (John 4:37), “One sows and another reaps.” …(Luther’s Works, v.15 p.34)

Eccl. 2:3.  And I thought in my heart that I would abstain from wine and govern my heart wisely and comprehend prudence, till I might see what was good for the sons of men to do under the sun during all the days of their life.

…. Therefore I shall undertake a rigid and austere way of life, one of total abstinence and strictness.” …. This passage is like a thunderbolt against all the regulations and the religiosity of the monks, by which they subject to themselves and to their own planning such things as do not belong to them. This is not to say that abstinence is evil; what is evil is to seek it out by one’s own planning and to bind oneself to it as something necessary. For time, things, and places are gifts of God, which they nevertheless want to take captive through their rules and prescriptions. Besides, all they get out of it is sorrow and misery, while they torture the flesh and torment themselves in vain. For this is what the Carthusians prescribe: One is not to eat meat even if one were dying of hunger. The worst part of it is that they look for sanctity in such things, as though the devil himself could not be a saint this way, since, after all, he neither drinks wine nor dresses in purple, etc.

For Love. CONFIRM, O Lord, we beseech Thee, the hearts of Thy children, and strengthen them with the power of Thy grace, that they may both be devout in prayer to Thee and sincere in love for each other; through Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, who livest and reignest with the Father and the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen  (Oremus, 1925, p.35).

Therefore he is saying: “All things would be good for me, whether abstaining or eating and drinking, but they become very evil when I add my own ideas.” God has not prescribed place or time, food or abstinence, but in our foolishness we prescribe: “Now I shall eat meat, now I shall not eat it.” God Himself says: “When you have it, eat; if you do not have it, abstain.” Therefore if you want to be abstinent, wait for the counsel of the Lord. He is able to cast you into prison, into hunger, into infirmity, and the like. There you should be abstinent, for there you have a rule that has been prescribed for you not by yourself but by God Himself. But now by your own ideas you make up a form of abstinence that is contrary to the will of God. These outstanding despisers of the world, moreover, everywhere abstain from things in such a way that they never lack for anything. They act in such a way as never to have to abstain. In short, just as they are puffed up above God through their own righteousness, so they are puffed up above the creation through their own ordinances. (Luther’s Works, v.15 p.32-33)

Eccl. 2:2.  I said of laughter: It is mad, and of pleasure: What use is it?

You should take all these things as referring to human counsels. He wants to say: “I wanted to use skill to seek the good, to seek pleasures and happiness. But this thought was sheer madness, which brought me double affliction. In the first place, the very labor of thinking and seeking brings affliction to the heart. In the second place, when I was hoping that I had achieved it, suddenly there came another conflict or trouble, and I lost both the labor and the joy.” By “laughter” he means what I myself seek, and by “pleasure” what I try to accomplish. What use is it? “Because it never turns out right for me, and some kind of trouble always arises.” Therefore the best happiness and gaiety is that which is not sought but is offered unexpectedly by God without your caring or planning. Thus outward happiness is indeed a good thing, but only for those who know how to use it well. The wicked, by contrast, even when they are lost in revelry, still are not happy, because they do not recognize that this is a gift of God and are always bored, dissatisfied with the things that are present and looking for something else.  (Luther’s Works, v.15 p.331-320)

Therefore he says: I said to myself: Come now, I will make a test of pleasure, that is, “I wanted to measure it by manners and rules, but this was nothing but vanity.” Here again it is appropriate to warn that we should not stray from the theme, as Jerome did when he foolishly boasted that from this book he had learned contempt for the world and for all things. He was then followed by monks and sophists, who did not know what it was to flee the world—in fact, did not know what the world was. For this is in fact to teach a contempt for the good creatures of God and to forbid their use, contrary to the clear words of Holy Scripture. Fleeing the world, therefore, does not mean abstaining from things, but it means abstaining from one’s own counsels. This would have been the right way for Jerome to teach his disciple Blesilla: “Do not despise things, but rather despise the strivings, plans, affections, and concerns by which you seek to obtain everything for yourself by your own exertions. It is not honor and desire for things that is evil, but an anxiety about things and your schemes to obtain them are to be despised. Nor is a contempt for the world the same as wearing dirty clothes, wearying your flesh with vigils, growing weak through fasting, and the like, but using these very things as they come. If God has given you food, eat it; if fasting, bear it; if honor, accept it; if condemnation, suffer it; if He casts you into prison, put up with it; if He wants you to be king, obey Him when He calls; if He casts you down, do not worry.” So David was a real despiser of the world when with equanimity he administered his kingdom and bore his exile. The real despisers of the world are those who accept everything as God sends it to them, using everything with thanksgiving while it is present and freely doing without it if the Lord takes it away. (Luther’s Works, v.15 p.31)

In sum, we should not find enjoyment in happiness, goods, our own counsels, or any other thing; only as God has given them should we use them. One should let God have His way. It is not up to us to prescribe the place, the person, or the manner; if we do, we shall go wrong. This does not mean that happiness is condemned as something evil or vain. What is condemned is human striving and planning, when we ourselves want or try to create happiness without respect to the will of God. But as both come from God, so let us use them. As it is a sin to invite anxiety and sorrow by our own counsels and also a sin to refuse to suffer them when they are imposed on us by God, so it is also to be condemned if we run away from happiness and do not accept it when it is given by God. This is what those sanctimonious killjoys do when they “disfigure their faces” (Matt. 6:16). They seek out places, times, and persons that are gloomy, and they prescribe strict regulations, which is hypocritical and vain. They want us to weep with those who weep, but they themselves refuse to rejoice with those who rejoice (cf. Rom. 12:15). Sorrow, happiness, and all such things, whether external or internal, must not be measured on the basis of places, times, etc.; but as they come from God in His complete freedom, so one should use them in complete freedom. (Luther’s Works, v.15 p.30)

The same thing happens in other areas of life. One seeks pleasure in love but soon experiences bitterness. Augustine also complains in his Confessions that he was tormented horribly in the very midst of his amorous affairs.  Thus when we seize upon pleasure, it is soon covered with bitterness. Therefore, the best thing is to abide in the Word and work of God, to instruct the heart this way in how to be peaceful and content with the things that are present. If the Lord has given one a wife, one should now hold on to her and enjoy her. If you want to exceed these limits and add to this gift which you have in the present, you will get grief and sorrow instead of pleasure. One should therefore simply stick to what the Lord wills and gives. If you want joy and delight, wait to receive it from Him. As He offers it to you, accept it. “Rejoice with those who rejoice” (Rom. 12:15). Do not try to be wise and solemn in the midst of those who are rejoicing, as sanctimonious people do, who dampen the happiness of other people, which God has given. Just be sure to acknowledge that all of this comes to you from God; accept it from His hand and use it as His gift. (Luther’s Works, v.15 p.29-30)

Eccl. 2:1. I said to myself: Come now, I will make a test of pleasure.

It is as though he were saying: “Since anxieties and my own plans cannot achieve anything, I shall refrain from them. I shall turn to the right hand and make a more tranquil life for myself. I shall create ease and tranquility, take delight in good things, let everything happen as it happens and chooses, and live a life of pleasure.” But this, too, was useless and was no more successful than his earlier reliance on human wisdom and anxiety, for God resists this also. Tranquility is not attainable except from the Word and work of God. Experience itself teaches this. Often dinner parties are arranged to create a happy atmosphere, with foods and entertainment intended to make the guests happy. But usually it comes out just the opposite way, and only seldom does a good party result. Either there are gloomy and solemn faces present, or something else upsets all the arrangements, especially when there is such deliberation and planning about how much fun it will be. By contrast, it often happens that someone happens upon a most joyful dinner party by accident, that is, by the gift of God. (Luther’s Works, v.15 p.29)

Eccl. 2:1. I said to myself: Come now, I will make a test of pleasure; enjoy yourself. But behold, this also was vanity.

In the preceding chapter he showed that the anxiety and solicitude and planning of men, particularly when we want to be of aid and counsel to others, are vain and empty. He teaches that we should be content with the Word and work of God, so that we are not presumptuous about anything except what the Word of God prescribes or His work requires. Often this seems to be contrary to the Word, as when He oppresses us in some way even though we have acted correctly according to the Word. Then we need faith and patience, so that we do not seek our own counsels and try to evade what He has sent, but commit ourselves to Him and bear the hand of God in His work. Now he turns to the other side. (Luther’s Works, v. 15, p.29)

And here we can put these four things, as also above, namely:
Rejoicing at the words of God in the spirit,
Being sad according to the cross in the flesh,
Rejoicing at the reality of the world in the flesh,
Being sad at the cross in the conscience or spirit.
Joy inwardly over the Word.
Joy outwardly over the reality.
And
Sadness externally over the lack of the reality.
Sadness inwardly over the lack of the Word.
Therefore happy is the sadness of the faithful, which has such joy with it, and unhappy is the joy of the unbelievers, which has such sadness with it. This joy of the former is founded on the Word of the Lord, which abides forever, while the joy of the latter is founded on the flesh, which is grass because its flower has dried up and fallen (Is. 40:7). (Luther’s Works, v. 11, p.521)

This also must be noted, that as the Word of God appears to the carnal to be lacking much and in many things, so it appears to the spiritual to abound in all things like many spoils. As in the figure of the children of Israel, who seemed to be lacking everything in the wilderness, so that even the manna was sickening to them, complaining that they were in a desert of barrenness, so it is necessary for the hearers of the Word of God to be led into the wilderness where there is nothing that the flesh demands. But when the flesh has been crucified and all that is of the flesh has been removed, only the spirit should be fed and led into the land of promise, that is, the spiritual man.

Therefore the carnal man necessarily murmurs here, because he finds nothing that pleases him. Thus the more carnal and worldly a man is, the more he has to bring up against the Word of God. And what wonder? Since it is altogether foolishness to him, he knows nothing useful in it. Therefore great is the praise of the church, which has the Spirit so abundantly that it esteems only the words of God, to rejoice in them above all spoils. Rejoicing in those things which to others seem to be sad things and nothings without a doubt puts a great void between the latter and the former. (Luther’s Works, v. 11, p.520-521)