USB ~ Psalms 127

The Need of God’s Blessing

1 A song of ascents. Of Solomon. Unless the LORD build the house, they labor in vain who build. Unless the LORD guard the city, in vain does the guard keep watch.

2 It is vain for you to rise early and put off your rest at night, To eat bread earned by hard toil— all this God gives to his beloved in sleep. a

3 Certainly sons are a gift from the LORD, the fruit of the womb, a reward. b

4 Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the sons born in one’s youth.

5 Blessed is the man who has filled his quiver with them. He will never be shamed for he will destroy his foes at the gate.† * Psalm 127 The Psalm puts together two proverbs (Ps 127:1-2, 3 -5) on God establishing “houses” or families. The prosperity of human groups is not the work of human beings but the gift of God.

Footnotes

†. 127:5 At the gate: the reference is not to enemies besieging the walls of a city but to adversaries in litigation. Law courts functioned in the open area near the main city gate. The more adult sons a man had, the more forceful he would appear in disputes, cf. Prv 31:23.

127:2 Eccl 2:24.
127:3 Ps 115:14; 128:3; Dt 28:11; Prv 17:6.