Psalm 127
5 verses · KJVPsalms book hub →
Psalms 127:1-2
Except the Lord build the house: 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.
Voices on this verse, 2What preachers and commentators have said about Psalms 127:1, in their own words.
Psalms 127:1
“Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it. The word vain is the keynote here, and we hear it ring out clearly three times. Men desiring to build know that they must labour, and accordingly they put forth all their skill and strength; but let them remember that if Jehovah is not with them their designs will prove failures.”
Charles Spurgeon· The Treasury of David, Vol. 7 (1885)Particular (Reformed) Baptist / Five-point Calvinist / 1689 LBCF / 19th-c. evangelical
Psalms 127:1-2
“Did you notice, when we were reading this Psalm, that it is entitled, "A Song of Degrees for Solomon"? The title may be either, "for Solomon," or, "bySolomon." If it is bySolomon, I can only say that it is worthy to be placed side by side with the Book of Proverbs or Ecclesiastes. It is a Psalm which is very brief and which has the soul of wisdom in it. It is, in fact, a Solomonic Psalm—it is quite after his style of writing.”
Charles Spurgeon· The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 2559: “Co-workers With God” (lightly modernized text, CCEL edition)Particular (Reformed) Baptist / Five-point Calvinist / 1689 LBCF / 19th-c. evangelical
Voices on this verse, 1What a preacher or commentator has said about Psalms 127:2, in their own words.
Psalms 127:2
“It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows. Because the Lord is mainly to be rested in, all carking care is mere vanity and vexation of spirit. We are bound to be diligent, for this the Lord blesses; we ought not to be anxious, for that dishonours the Lord, and can never secure his favour. Some deny themselves needful rest; the morning sees them rise before they are rested, the evening sees them toiling long after the curfew has tolled the knell of parting day.”
Charles Spurgeon· The Treasury of David, Vol. 7 (1885)Particular (Reformed) Baptist / Five-point Calvinist / 1689 LBCF / 19th-c. evangelical
Psalms 127:3-5
children are an heritage of the Lord: 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.
Voices on this verse, 4What preachers and commentators have said about Psalms 127:3, in their own words.
Psalms 127:3
“Lo, children are an heritage of the Lord. This points to another mode of building up a house, namely, by leaving descendants to keep our name and family alive upon the earth. Without this what is a man's purpose in accumulating wealth! To what purpose does he build a house if he has none in his household to hold the house after him? What boots it that he is the possessor of broad acres if he has no heir? Yet in this matter a main is powerless without the Lord.”
Charles Spurgeon· The Treasury of David, Vol. 7 (1885)Particular (Reformed) Baptist / Five-point Calvinist / 1689 LBCF / 19th-c. evangelical
Psalms 127:3
“Children - The chief of these blessings. Heritage - Only from God's blessing, even as an inheritance is not the fruit of a man's own labour, but the gift of God.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Psalms 127:3-5
“Solomon was called Jedidiah--Beloved of the Lord ( 2 Sam. xii. 25 ); to him the kingdom was promised, and then it was in vain for Absalom to rise up early, to wheedle the people, and for Adonijah to make such a stir, and to say, I will be king. Solomon sits still, and, being beloved of the Lord, to him he gives sleep and the kingdom too.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Psalms 127:3
“Observe here, Children of the youth are arrows in the hand, which, with prudence, may be directed aright to the mark, God's glory and the service of their generation; but afterwards, when they have gone abroad into the world, they are arrows out of the hand; it is too late to bend them then.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Voices on this verse, 1What a preacher or commentator has said about Psalms 127:4, in their own words.
Psalms 127:4
“As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth. Children born to men in their early days, by God's blessing become the comfort of their riper years. A man of war is glad of weapons which may fly where he cannot: good sons are their father's arrows speeding to hit the mark which their sires aim at. What wonders a good man can accomplish if he has affectionate children to second his desires, and lend themselves to his designs!”
Charles Spurgeon· The Treasury of David, Vol. 7 (1885)Particular (Reformed) Baptist / Five-point Calvinist / 1689 LBCF / 19th-c. evangelical
Voices on this verse, 2What preachers and commentators have said about Psalms 127:5, in their own words.
Psalms 127:5
“Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them,.... That is, his house full of them; called a quiver, referring to arrows before mentioned, this being the case in which they are put up: to have many children was always reckoned a great temporal blessing and happiness; see Job 1:2. The Septuagint, Vulgate Latin, Ethiopic, and Arabic versions, render it, "that fills his desire" has as many as he desires or wishes for: the Targum, "who fills his school of them:'' so Jarchi interprets the children, of the disciples of the wise men.”
Psalms 127:5
“Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them. Those who have no children bewail the fact; those who have few children see them soon gone, and the house is silent, and their life has lost a charm; those who have many gracious children are upon the whole the happiest. Of course a large number of children means a large number of trials; but when these are met by faith in the Lord it also means a mass of love, and a multitude of joys.”
Charles Spurgeon· The Treasury of David, Vol. 7 (1885)Particular (Reformed) Baptist / Five-point Calvinist / 1689 LBCF / 19th-c. evangelical
Where the chapter sits
Psalms 127 falls in Book V: Hallel and Hallelujah (chapters 107–150). Songs of Ascents (120–134); Hallel (113–118); Great Hallel (136); Torah-praise acrostic Ps 119; fivefold Hallelujah doxology (146–150) as the Psalter's close.
Before it: Book IV: YHWH reigns, chapters 90–106.
The whole shape of Psalms→Key words
The Hebrew words this chapter turns on, by how often it uses them. Each one opens its word study.
| Word | What it means | Verses |
|---|---|---|
| יְהֹוָהYᵉhôvâh3 times, as יְהוָ֤ה׀, יְהוָ֥ה, יְהוָ֣ה | LORD | 1, 3 |
| שָׁוְאshâvᵉʼ3 times, as שָׁ֤וְא׀, שָׁ֤וְא | vanity | 1, 2 |
| בָּנָהbânâh2 times, as יִבְנֶ֬ה, בוֹנָ֣יו | to build | 1 |
| שָׁמַרshâmar2 times, as יִשְׁמָר־, שׁוֹמֵֽר׃ | to keep | 1 |
| בֵּןbên2 times, as בָּנִ֑ים, בְּנֵ֣י | son | 3, 4 |
Cross references
The 8 chapters this one speaks with, most first. Open a row for the verses it shares.
Proverbs 161 verse
Psalms 127:1
Proverbs 16:9A man’s heart deviseth his way: but the Lord directeth his steps.- Read Proverbs 16 →
1 Corinthians 31 verse
Psalms 127:1
1 Corinthians 3:7So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase.- Read 1 Corinthians 3 →
Proverbs 211 verse
Psalms 127:1
Proverbs 21:30There is no wisdom nor understanding nor counsel against the Lord.- Read Proverbs 21 →
Ecclesiastes 51 verse
Psalms 127:2
Ecclesiastes 5:12The sleep of a labouring man is sweet, whether he eat little or much: but the abundance of the rich will not suffer him to sleep.- Read Ecclesiastes 5 →
The rest of the chapters this one speaks with, 4 of them, for a reader following a thread past the four above
- Psalms 41 verse
- Job 111 verse
- Psalms 1281 verse
- Deuteronomy 281 verse
Cross-references from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge and OpenBible.info.
Featured studies
Pages of this site that take up something in this chapter. Each one opens on its own.
- The Housev. 1
- The Watchmanv. 1
The world behind itThe place, the time and the people around this chapter, for a reader who wants the setting.
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 Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Charles Spurgeon; John Gill; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765) and Matthew Henry.