Psalm 127-129

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

¹ Unless the Lord builds the house,
    those who build it labor in vain.
Unless the Lord guards the city,
    the guard keeps watch in vain.^(A)
2 It is in vain that you rise up early
    and go late to rest,
eating the bread of anxious toil,
    for he gives sleep to his beloved.^[a](B)

¹ Happy is everyone who fears the Lord,
    who walks in his ways.^(E)
2 You shall eat the fruit of the labor of your hands;
    you shall be happy, and it shall go well with you.^(F)

¹ Often have they attacked me from my youth
    —let Israel now say—^(J)
2 often have they attacked me from my youth,
    yet they have not prevailed against me.^(K)
3 The plowers plowed on my back;
    they made their furrows long.
⁴ The Lord is righteous;
    he has cut the cords of the wicked.^(L)
5 May all who hate Zion
    be put to shame and turned backward.^(M)
6 Let them be like the grass on the housetops
    that withers before it grows up,^(N)
7 with which reapers do not fill their hands
    or binders of sheaves their arms,
⁸ while those who pass by do not say,
    “The blessing of the Lord be upon you!
    We bless you in the name of the Lord!”^(O)