Worthy.Bible » DARBY » Psalms » Chapter 127 » Verse 1

Psalms 127:1 Darby English Bible (DARBY)

1 {A Song of degrees. Of Solomon.} Unless Jehovah build the house, in vain do its builders labour in it; unless Jehovah keep the city, the keeper watcheth in vain:

Cross Reference

Proverbs 16:9 DARBY

The heart of man deviseth his way, but Jehovah directeth his steps.

1 Corinthians 3:7 DARBY

So that neither the planter is anything, nor the waterer; but God the giver of the increase.

1 Corinthians 3:9-15 DARBY

For we are God's fellow-workmen; ye are God's husbandry, God's building. According to the grace of God which has been given to me, as a wise architect, I have laid the foundation, but another builds upon it. But let each see how he builds upon it. For other foundation can no man lay besides that which [is] laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any one build upon [this] foundation, gold, silver, precious stones, wood, grass, straw, the work of each shall be made manifest; for the day shall declare [it], because it is revealed in fire; and the fire shall try the work of each what it is. If the work of any one which he has built upon [the foundation] shall abide, he shall receive a reward. If the work of any one shall be consumed, he shall suffer loss, but *he* shall be saved, but so as through [the] fire.

Proverbs 21:30-31 DARBY

There is no wisdom, nor understanding, nor counsel against Jehovah. The horse is prepared for the day of battle; but safety is of Jehovah.

Psalms 33:16-18 DARBY

The king is not saved by the multitude of [his] forces; a mighty man is not delivered by much strength. The horse is a vain thing for safety; neither doth he deliver by his great power. Behold, the eye of Jehovah is upon them that fear him, upon them that hope in his loving-kindness,

Zechariah 2:4-5 DARBY

and said unto him, Run, speak to this young man, saying, Jerusalem shall be inhabited as towns without walls for the multitude of men and cattle therein; and I, saith Jehovah, I will be unto her a wall of fire round about, and will be the glory in the midst of her.

Jeremiah 51:12 DARBY

Lift up a banner towards the walls of Babylon, make the watch strong, set the watchmen, prepare the ambushes; for Jehovah hath both devised and done that which he spoke against the inhabitants of Babylon.

Isaiah 62:6 DARBY

I have set watchmen upon thy walls, Jerusalem; all the day and all the night they shall never hold their peace: ye that put Jehovah in remembrance, keep not silence,

Psalms 122:1 DARBY

{A Song of degrees. Of David.} I rejoiced when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of Jehovah.

Psalms 121:3-5 DARBY

He will not suffer thy foot to be moved; he that keepeth thee will not slumber. Behold, he that keepeth Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. Jehovah is thy keeper, Jehovah is thy shade upon thy right hand;

Psalms 121:1 DARBY

{A Song of degrees.} I lift up mine eyes unto the mountains: whence shall my help come?

Psalms 123:1 DARBY

{A Song of degrees.} Unto thee do I lift up mine eyes, O thou that dwellest in the heavens.

Psalms 124:1 DARBY

{A Song of degrees. Of David.} If it had not been Jehovah who was for us -- oh let Israel say --

Psalms 126:1 DARBY

{A Song of degrees.} When Jehovah turned the captivity of Zion, we were like them that dream.

Song of Solomon 3:3 DARBY

The watchmen that go about the city found me: -- Have ye seen him whom my soul loveth?

1 Corinthians 15:14 DARBY

but if Christ is not raised, then, indeed, vain also [is] our preaching, and vain also your faith.

1 Chronicles 22:10-11 DARBY

He shall build a house unto my name; and he shall be my son, and I will be his father; and I will establish the throne of his kingdom over Israel for ever. Now, my son, Jehovah be with thee, that thou mayest prosper, and build the house of Jehovah thy God, as he has said of thee.

1 Chronicles 28:10 DARBY

Consider now, that Jehovah has chosen thee to build a house for the sanctuary: be strong, and do [it].

1 Chronicles 28:20 DARBY

And David said to Solomon his son, Be strong and courageous, and do it; fear not nor be dismayed: for Jehovah Elohim, my God, will be with thee; he will not leave thee, neither forsake thee, until all the work for the service of the house of Jehovah is finished.

1 Chronicles 29:19 DARBY

And give to Solomon my son a perfect heart, to keep thy commandments, thy testimonies, and thy statutes, and to do all, and to build the palace, for which I have made provision.

Psalms 78:69 DARBY

And he built his sanctuary like the heights, like the earth which he hath founded for ever.

Psalms 120:1 DARBY

{A Song of degrees.} In my trouble I called unto Jehovah, and he answered me.

Ecclesiastes 9:11 DARBY

I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to the intelligent, nor yet favour to men of knowledge; but time and chance happeneth to them all.

Psalms 125:1 DARBY

{A Song of degrees.} They that confide in Jehovah are as mount Zion, which cannot be moved; it abideth for ever.

Galatians 4:11 DARBY

I am afraid of you, lest indeed I have laboured in vain as to you.

Ezekiel 33:2-9 DARBY

Son of man, speak to the children of thy people, and say unto them, When I bring the sword upon a land, and the people of the land take one man from among them all, and set him for their watchman: if he see the sword coming upon the land, and blow the trumpet, and warn the people; then whosoever heareth the sound of the trumpet, and taketh not warning, if the sword come and take him away, his blood shall be upon his own head. He heard the sound of the trumpet, and took not warning; his blood is upon him: whereas had he taken warning, he would have delivered his soul. But if the watchman see the sword coming, and blow not the trumpet, and the people be not warned, if the sword come and take a person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at the watchman's hand. So thou, son of man, I have set thee a watchman unto the house of Israel; and thou shalt hear the word from my mouth, and warn them from me. When I say unto the wicked, Wicked [man], thou shalt certainly die; and thou speakest not to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked [man] shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thy hand. But if thou warn the wicked of his way to turn from it, and he do not turn from his way, he shall die in his iniquity; but thou hast delivered thy soul.

Isaiah 56:10 DARBY

His watchmen are all of them blind, they are without knowledge; they are all dumb dogs that cannot bark, dreaming, lying down, loving to slumber:

Isaiah 27:3 DARBY

I Jehovah keep it, I will water it every moment; lest any harm it, I will keep it night and day.

Isaiah 21:5-12 DARBY

Prepare the table, appoint the watch; eat, drink: arise, ye princes, anoint the shield. For thus hath the Lord said unto me: Go, set a watchman, let him declare what he seeth. And he saw chariots, horsemen by pairs, a chariot with asses, a chariot with camels; and he hearkened diligently with much heed. And he cried [as] a lion, Lord, I stand continually upon the watchtower in the daytime, and I am set in my ward whole nights. -- And behold, there cometh a chariot of men; horsemen by pairs. And he answered and said, Babylon is fallen, is fallen; and all the graven images of her gods he hath broken unto the ground. O my threshing, and the corn of my floor! What I have heard of Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, have I declared unto you. The burden of Dumah. He calleth to me out of Seir, Watchman, what of the night? Watchman, what of the night? The watchman said, The morning cometh, and also the night: if ye will inquire, inquire; return, come.

Song of Solomon 5:7 DARBY

The watchmen that went about the city found me; They smote me, they wounded me; The keepers of the walls took away my veil from me.

Psalms 72:1 DARBY

{For Solomon.} O God, give the king thy judgments, and thy righteousness unto the king's son.

Jeremiah 51:31 DARBY

Courier runneth to meet courier, and messenger to meet messenger, to announce to the king of Babylon that his city is taken from end to end;

Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Psalms 127

Commentary on Psalms 127 Matthew Henry Commentary


Psalm 127

This is a family-psalm, as divers before were state-poems and church-poems. It is entitled (as we read it) "for Solomon,' dedicated to him by his father. He having a house to build, a city to keep, and seed to raise up to his father, David directs him to look up to God, and to depend upon his providence, without which all his wisdom, care, and industry, would not serve. Some take it to have been penned by Solomon himself, and it may as well be read, "a song of Solomon,' who wrote a great many; and they compare it with the Ecclesiastes, the scope of both being the same, to show the vanity of worldly care and how necessary it is that we keep in favour with God. On him we must depend,

  • I. For wealth (v. 1, 2).
  • II. For heirs to leave it to (v. 3-5).

In singing this psalm we must have our eye up unto God for success in all our undertakings and a blessing upon all our comforts and enjoyments, because every creature is that to us which he makes it to be and no more.

A song of degrees for Solomon.

Psa 127:1-5

We are here taught to have a continual regard to the divine Providence in all the concerns of this life. Solomon was cried up for a wise man, and would be apt to lean to his own understanding and forecast, and therefore his father teaches him to look higher, and to take God along with him in his undertakings. He was to be a man of business, and therefore David instructed him how to manage his business under the direction of his religion. Parents, in teaching their children, should suit their exhortations to their condition and occasions. We must have an eye to God,

  • I. In all the affairs and business of the family, even of the royal family, for kings' houses are no longer safe than while God protects them. We must depend upon God's blessing and not our own contrivance,
    • 1. For the raising of a family: Except the Lord build the house, by his providence and blessing, those labour in vain, though ever so ingenious, that build it. We may understand it of the material house: except the Lord bless the building it is to no purpose for men to build, any more than for the builders of Babel, who attempted in defiance of heaven, or Hiel, who built Jericho under a curse. If the model and design be laid in pride and vanity, or if the foundations be laid in oppression and injustice (Hab. 2:11, 12), God certainly does not build there; nay, if God be not acknowledged, we have no reason to expect his blessing, and without his blessing all is nothing. Or, rather, it is to be understood of the making of a family considerable that was mean; men labour to do this by advantageous matches, offices, employments, purchases; but all in vain, unless God build up the family, and raise the poor out of the dust. The best-laid project fails unless God crown it with success. See Mal. 1:4.
    • 2. For the securing of a family or a city (for this is what the psalmist particularly mentions): if the guards of the city cannot secure it without God, much less can the good man of the house save his house from being broken up. Except the Lord keep the city from fire, from enemies, the watchmen, who go about the city, or patrol upon the walls of it, though they neither slumber nor sleep, wake but in vain, for a raging fire may break out, the mischief of which the timeliest discoveries may not be able to prevent. The guards may be slain, or the city betrayed and lost, by a thousand accidents, which the most watchful sentinel or most cautious governor could not obviate.
    • 3. For the enriching of a family; this is a work of time and thought, but cannot be effected without the favour of Providence any more than that which is the product of one happy turn: "It is vain for you to rise up early and sit up late, and so to deny yourselves your bodily refreshments, in the eager pursuit of the wealth of the world.' Usually, those that rise early do not care for sitting up late, nor can those that sit up late easily persuade themselves to rise early; but there are some so hot upon the world that they will do both, will rob their sleep to pay their cares. And they have as little comfort in their meals as in their rest; they eat the bread of sorrows. It is part of our sentence that we eat our bread in the sweat of our face; but those go further: all their days they eat in darkness, Eccl. 5:17. They are continually fell of care, which embitters their comforts, and makes their lives a burden to them. All this is to get money, and all in vain except God prosper them, for riches are not always to men of understanding, Eccl. 9:11. Those that love God, and are beloved of him, have their minds easy and live very comfortably without this ado. Solomon was called Jedidiah-Beloved of the Lord (2 Sa. 12:25); 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. Note,
      • (1.) Inordinate excessive care about the things of this world is a vain and fruitless thing. We weary ourselves for vanity if we have it, and often weary ourselves in vain for it, Hag. 1:6, 9.
      • (2.) Bodily sleep is God's gift to his beloved. We owe it to his goodness that our sleep is safe (Ps. 4:8), that it is sweet, Jer. 31:25, 26. God gives us sleep as he gives it to his beloved when with it he gives us grace to lie down in his fear (our souls returning to him and reposing in him as our rest), and when we awake to be still with him and to use the refreshment we have by sleep in his service. He gives his beloved sleep, that is, quietness and contentment of mind, and comfortable enjoyment of what is present and a comfortable expectation of what is to come. Our care must be to keep ourselves in the love of God, and then we may be easy whether we have little or much of this world.
  • II. In the increase of the family. He shows,
    • 1. That children are God's gift, v. 3. If children are withheld it is God that withholds them (Gen. 30:2); if they are given, it is God that gives them (Gen. 33:5); and they are to us what he makes them, comforts or crosses. Solomon multiplied wives, contrary to the law, but we never read of more than one son that he had; for those that desire children as a heritage from the Lord must receive them in the way that he is pleased to give them, by lawful marriage to one wife. Mal. 2:15, therefore one, that he might seek a seed of God. But they shall commit whoredom and shall not increase. Children are a heritage, and a reward, and are so to be accounted, blessings and not burdens; for he that sends mouths will send meat if we trust in him. Obed-edom had eight sons, for the Lord blessed him because he had entertained the ark, 1 Chr. 26:5. Children are a heritage for the Lord, as well as from him; they are my children (says God) which thou hast borne unto me (Eze. 16:20); and they are most our honour and comfort when they are accounted to him for a generation.
    • 2. That they are a good gift, and a great support and defence to a family: As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man, who knows how to use them for his own safety and advantage, so are children of the youth, that is, children born to their parents when they are young, which are the strongest and most healthful children, and are grown up to serve them by the time they need their service; or, rather, children who are themselves young; they are instruments of much good to their parents and families, which may fortify themselves with them against their enemies. The family that has a large stock of children is like a quiver full of arrows, of different sizes we may suppose, but all of use one time or other; children of different capacities and inclinations may be several ways serviceable to the family. He that has a numerous issue may boldly speak with his enemy in the gate in judgment; in battle he needs not fear, having so many good seconds, so zealous, so faithful, and in the vigour of youth, 1 Sa. 2:4, 5. 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. But these arrows in the hand too often prove arrows in the heart, a constant grief to their godly parents, whose gray hairs they bring with sorrow to the grave.