Psalms 127:1
Everything Depends upon the Blessing of God ▼▼An Gottes Segen ist alles gelegen.
The inscribed לשׁלמה is only added to this Song of degrees because there was found in Psa 127:2 not only an allusion to the name Jedidiah, which Solomon received from Nathan (2Sa 12:25), but also to his being endowed with wisdom and riches in the dream at Gibeon (1Ki 3:5.). And to these is still to be added the Proverbs-like form of the Psalm; for, like the proverb-song, the extended form of the Mashal, it consists of a double string of proverbs, the expression of which reminds one in many ways of the Book of Proverbs (עצבים in Psa 127:2, toilsome efforts, as in Pro 5:10; מאחרי, as in Pro 23:30; בּני הנּעוּרים in Psa 127:4, sons begotten in one’s youth; בּשּׁער in Psa 127:5, as in Pro 22:22; Pro 24:7), and which together are like the unfolding of the proverb, Pro 10:22 : The blessing of Jahve, it maketh rich, and labour addeth nothing beside it. Even Theodoret observes, on the natural assumption that Psa 127:1 points to the building of the Temple, how much better the Psalm suits the time of Zerubbabel and Joshua, when the building of the Temple was imperilled by the hostile neighbouring peoples; and in connection with the relatively small number of those who had returned home out of the Exile, a numerous family, and more especially many sons, must have seemed to be a doubly and threefoldly precious blessing from God.
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