What Does Psalm 127:1 Mean in the King James?
A Song of degrees for Solomon. Except the LORD build the house, they labour in vain that build it: except the LORD keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The same Hebrew root names the LORD’s keeping and the watchman’s role, yet the watchman’s wakefulness alone cannot keep the city.
THE MEANING
Your labor and vigilance are real, but they cannot make a house or city secure by themselves. The verse places building and guarding in the LORD’s hands; without that sustaining work, toil and sleeplessness come to nothing.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that enough work or constant vigilance can guarantee that what you build will endure.
THE ROOT
יִשְׁמָר
yishmor
GROWS FROM
שׁמר
sh-m-r
To guard, keep, and watch over.
“keep / watchman” in this verse is yishmor. The LORD’s “keep” and the “watchman” come from the same root, joining divine keeping and human watchfulness in a single word family. The verse’s contrast is not between care and carelessness: it shows that even alert human guarding cannot be the source that preserves the city.
ALSO GROWS
shamar: To guard, keep, or preserve.
שָׁמַר
This is the root verb behind the LORD’s act of keeping the city.
mishmeret: A guard, charge, or watch.
מִשְׁמֶרֶת
This related form carries the sense of an assigned watch, showing how keeping becomes a human duty while its lasting power remains beyond the watchman.
shomer: A keeper or watchman.
שֹׁמֵר
This is the word used for the watchman in the verse, echoing the root of the LORD’s keeping.
THE PATTERN
Human building and vigilance cannot secure their own outcome; what endures depends on the LORD’s sustaining work.
He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: he that keepeth thee will not slumber.I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase.I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.THE THREAD
He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: he that keepeth thee will not slumber.“Keepeth” shares the root שׁמר (sh-m-r) with the LORD’s “keep” and the city’s “watchman” in Psalm 127. Here the Keeper does not slumber, answering the watchman who stays awake but cannot preserve the city by wakefulness alone.
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