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Bible study · Psalm 127:1-5

Psalm 127: Unless the LORD builds the house

Read Psalm 127:1-5 before you meet.

In a few lines

Psalm 127 says vain three times in two verses (127:1-2), and no other psalm has that Hebrew word more than twice. The watchman's guards is a verb Strong's gives as "to be alert, i.e. sleepless", and the next verse ends with sleep, given to his loved ones (127:2). Then children are called a heritage of the LORD, and the fruit of the womb a reward, a Hebrew word for wages (127:3).

The verse to carry

“It is vain for you to rise up early, to stay up late, eating the bread of toil, for he gives sleep to his loved ones.”

Psalm 127:2

To talk about

  1. 1. "Unless the LORD builds the house, they who build it labor in vain" (127:1). What are you building right now, and what would it look like to let the LORD build it?

  2. 2. "It is vain for you to rise up early, to stay up late, eating the bread of toil, for he gives sleep to his loved ones" (127:2). What gets you up early or keeps you up late, and what would it mean to trust him with it?

  3. 3. The psalm moves from labor that is vain unless the LORD builds (127:1-2) to what the LORD gives (127:2-3). What in your life has come to you as a gift rather than from your own work?

Prayer requests