Psalm 127
5 verses · BSBPsalms book hub →
Speaks with:Proverbs 16×11 Corinthians 3×1Proverbs 21×1Ecclesiastes 5×1Psalms 4×1Job 11×1
Summary
Chapter summary
A song of Solomon among the Ascents: 'Except Jehovah build the house, they labor in vain that build it: except Jehovah keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.' Vain to rise early and sit up late, eating the bread of toil: 'for so he giveth unto his beloved sleep.' Then the house's true wealth: 'Lo, children are a heritage of Jehovah; and the fruit of the womb is his reward.' As arrows in the hand of a mighty man, so are the children of youth: 'happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them.'
Context
Poetry · David, Asaph, Sons of Korah, others — Psalms overview
The world behind this chapter
Psalms 127The history
Three jobs are named in order: builder, watchman, and worker. Building a house meant quarrying and hauling stone, laying courses without mortar, and roofing with beams, brush, and packed earth — months of heavy labor by the whole household. A watchman on a city wall paced all night and called the hours; if he failed, the gate could be opened from inside before anyone woke.
Eating the bread of anxious toil describes subsistence farming honestly. Rising before light and sitting down late was normal, not exceptional, and a bad season could still take everything.
The children are described as arrows in a warrior's quiver. A quiver held a fixed number, and a man went out with what he had. In the same way a household got the sons it got, and each one added to what the family could do.
The last line puts them at the gate. The open space inside the city gate was the courtroom, where property disputes and accusations were settled in front of the elders. A man with grown sons standing behind him could not be quietly cheated there. That is what it meant not to be put to shame when speaking with enemies in the gate.
What it meant to them
In a pilgrim collection sung on the way to the temple, this psalm takes the whole ordinary week and says the effort is not what makes it hold. God gives to his beloved while they sleep.
It was not an argument for laziness. Israelites worked hard. It was an argument against believing that the working was what kept the house standing.
Sources cited
- Roland de Vaux, Ancient Israel: Its Life and Institutions
- Walton, Matthews and Chavalas, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament
The text of this chapter
This page carries no textual note on Psalms 127. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →
This page draws on Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.