For he hath made fast the bars of thy gates, and hath blessed thy children within thee. According to the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament made about two centuries before our Lord's birth, the Psalm from which our Thanksgiving Canticle is taken was the work of the Prophets Haggai and Zechariah. Then the problem became motivating the people to conclude this great work.
Human beings are creatures of habit, some good and some bad.
The restored Israelites had gotten into the bad habit of making do with whatever worship of God that they could manage without the Temple, even though God had commanded its construction, or into the even worse habit of not really worshipping God at all. It was far too easy for them to forget the God who had made them, called them, protected them during their exile, and brought them home again from their captivity. The Prophets Haggai and Zechariah, then, speaking for God, offered the people a better way, and a set of good habits that would draw them closer to God and make them stronger as a people under God's protection. A good life is not a choice between the physical and the spiritual. Rather, a good life is defined by the submission of the physical matters of life to the spiritual governance of God.