Psalm 127

What Psalm 127 means

Psalm 127 has two halves that look different but make the same point. The first half is about work: building, guarding, and long days of labour. The second half is about family. In both, the psalm says the real builder is God.

Verse 1 does not tell anyone to stop building or stop keeping watch. The builders still build and the watchman still wakes. The point is that their effort only counts if the LORD builds the house and keeps the city. Without him the same work is in vain.

Verse 2 speaks to anxious overwork: rising early, sitting up late, eating the bread of sorrows. It calls that vain too, and sets beside it a quiet gift: for so he giveth his beloved sleep. Many readers take this as permission to rest, trusting that God provides even while we sleep.

Verses 3 to 5 turn to children. They are an heritage of the LORD, a gift handed down, not something earned. The picture of arrows in a warrior's hand suggests children who go out into the world, and a man with a full quiver who is not ashamed when he meets his enemies in the gate, where disputes were settled in an ancient town.

Background and context

The KJV heading reads, A Song of degrees for Solomon. It is one of the fifteen Songs of Degrees (Psalms 120-134), traditionally sung by pilgrims going up to Jerusalem for the feasts. It is the only one of the fifteen linked with Solomon, the king who built the temple, which fits its opening line about building the house.

Psalm 128, the next psalm, continues the theme with a picture of a blessed home and children like olive plants round about the table.

Key verses

Cross references

• Psalm 128:3 The companion psalm: thy children like olive plants round about thy table.Thy wife shall be as a fruitful vine by the sides of thine house: thy children like olive plants round about thy table.
• 1 Corinthians 3:6-7 Paul says one plants and another waters, but God gave the increase, the same idea as verse 1.I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase. So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase.
• Ecclesiastes 2:22-23 The Preacher's picture of restless labour (Ecclesiastes is traditionally linked with Solomon) whose heart taketh not rest in the night.For what hath man of all his labour, and of the vexation of his heart, wherein he hath laboured under the sun? For all his days are sorrows, and his travail grief; yea, his heart taketh not rest in the night. This is also vanity.
• Psalm 4:8 David lies down in peace and sleeps because the LORD makes him dwell in safety.I will both lay me down in peace, and sleep: for thou, LORD, only makest me dwell in safety.
• Matthew 6:34 Jesus: take therefore no thought for the morrow.Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.
• Genesis 33:5 Jacob calls his children the children which God hath graciously given thy servant.And he lifted up his eyes, and saw the women and the children; and said, Who are those with thee? And he said, The children which God hath graciously given thy servant.
• Proverbs 10:22 The blessing of the LORD makes rich, and he addeth no sorrow with it.The blessing of the LORD, it maketh rich, and he addeth no sorrow with it.