Chapter One Hundred Twenty-Seven

The failures that befell the Hebrews in their undertakings upon returning from the captivity, such as, for example, the actions of the Samaritans, oppression from the pagans, insufficient harvests, undermined their energy in the work of building the temple and could cause some fear that the Lord was depriving them of His mercy, as a result of which some coldness of attitude toward the work could arise in them and attempts to improve their external situation by drawing closer to the pagans. All this presented a threat that the Hebrews might not abandon the true God and thereby not completely destroy themselves as the chosen people of God. To instill in them faith in God, to inspire them to continue the work of building the temple and to recreate their former greatness as a holy and chosen people was the need of the moment they were experiencing and served as the subject of the preaching of the prophets Haggai, Malachi, and Zechariah. With the content of the words of these prophets the present psalm has close similarity.

He who walks according to the commandments of the Lord will be rewarded by Him with success in his labors and family happiness (1–4). The Lord will bless him to see the well-being of Jerusalem and his grandchildren (5–6).

Psalm 127:3. Your wife will be like a fruitful vine within your house; your sons like olive plants around your table: A wife is compared to a fruitful “vine in your house.” The Hebrews had the custom, as they do now in the East, of planting grapevines near their dwellings, so that the branches would wind around the building itself.

Psalm 127:5. The Lord will bless you from Zion, and you will see the prosperity of Jerusalem all the days of your life; “The Lord will bless you from Zion,” that is, from the sacred mountain of Jerusalem. The indication of Zion served as a warning – not to be carried away by pagan cults, but to strictly follow the commandments of the Lord, to whom the Temple is being built on Zion, that is, to the true God.