Psalm 127

Psalms 127:1-2

The Hebrew title, not carried on this page's text, reads A Song of degrees for Solomon, one of two psalms bearing his name alongside Psalm 72, fitting words for a king whose own house and temple stood only because the Lord established them. Except the Lord build the house frames every undertaking, a household or a watched city, as vain without him, and the word vain returns three times across two verses to press the point home. Rising early and sitting up late to eat the bread of sorrows is set against sleep given to his beloved, not idleness commended but anxious self-reliance refused, so Henry and Clarke both read it.

Psalms 127:3-5

The psalm's second movement reads as one argument with the first, so the bench: if the house stands only because the Lord builds it, children are that building continued, an heritage and not merely an outcome of family effort. Arrows in the hand of a mighty man cast sons as a father's defense, weapons ready for use rather than possessions merely held, the fruit of the womb named his reward rather than his achievement. A full quiver brings happiness because it brings protection, the same theme as verse 1 carried into the next generation: they shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate, where a family's legal and civic standing was settled before witnesses.