Lo, children are an inheritance from Jehovah, [and] the fruit of the womb a reward.
Psalm 127 is a pilgrim song linked to Solomon. It opens by taking away every human guarantee. The builder works, the watchman guards, the worried man gets up early — and none of it settles anything. Verse 3 answers that emptiness: a family is not won by effort. God hands it over. That raises three questions. What does such a gift cost? What is it for? And what if it never comes?
The verse opens with "Behold." It illustrates everything the psalm has said so far. One writer reads the whole psalm as a single correction of self-reliance:
So everything comes from Jehovah. All His creatures depend on Him alone. Man walked away from this in Eden and set himself up as independent. If God brings him back, it must be back to this. That is what we find in Psalm 127.
Children complete the psalm's short list — the house, the guarded city, restful sleep. God gives each one; no one earns them. The word "reward" points to who stands behind the gift:
But if there are children, they too are God's gift — an inheritance from the Lord. They come as His recompense or reward. They mark His approval and blessing on those who fear Him and obey His word... So in every age God teaches His people one lesson. He is the source of all their blessings. He is a GIVER, the God of all grace. And the secret of a happy, restful life is to live knowing we depend on Him.
If children come from God, they are not finally the parents' property. One writer turns this into a plain duty: parents hold what God gave, and give it back to Him:
May God help every one of us parents to hold our children as the most sacred trust God can place in our keeping. Some of us look after the Lord's goods. How much heavier it is to be handed precious, never-dying souls, and to train them for Him and His service!
That trust shaped how Jesus Himself treated children when His own followers thought them a distraction:
Clearly they thought children were of little importance compared with men. But they are created by God, and given to parents as a heritage from the Lord (Ps. 127:3), to be cared for and trained as for the Lord Himself.
The next verses picture children as arrows in a warrior's hand. One writer explains why that image made sense at the time:
Children are also a means of defence (for enemies are still in the land, as noted before)... The city gate was the place of authority and judgment. People settled their disputes there, and enemies attacked there too. So the psalm's picture is easy to understand. The man whose quiver is full of such arrows — children — has the means to defend his cause when someone attacks it unjustly. He can face his enemies without fear.
The verse can wound. Not every faithful believer receives what it describes. One writer looks back to God's promise to Israel and forward to its full keeping:
In the coming age of Christ's reign on earth, God will bless Israel with many children. Israel will learn that children are a heritage from the Lord, a reward for depending on Him. Today God does not give this blessing to every godly believer. Often the comfort of spiritual children makes up that lack. And every imbalance of this present time, while the world still rejects Christ, He will put right in the coming glory.
Hannah's story is read as this verse's shadow side — a godly woman whose grief was precisely that this reward had not come:
She was suffering — she had not had any children (children being rightly regarded by Israelites as a gift from God: Ps. 127:3).
Dennett takes the same principle into gospel work:
We may remind ourselves that in preaching the gospel too, children are a heritage from the Lord. That keeps us free from human methods for getting results. It keeps us free from appeals to natural feeling. And it leads us to depend only on the almighty power of the Holy Spirit and on the favour and blessing of God.
- Given. Man walked away from dependence on God in Eden. Children are the proof that what matters most still comes as a gift.
- Reward. They arrive as inheritance and reward — the mark of God's approval, not the wage of parental effort.
- Trust. God hands them over, and parents hand them back: never-dying souls to train for His service.
- Reach. The same rule governs gospel work. There too "children" are His heritage. That rules out human methods and throws us on the Spirit.
- Rest. Where God withholds the gift now, one writer points to spiritual children as comfort today, and to the coming glory that puts every imbalance right.
As arrows in the hand of a mighty man, so are the children of youth.
The picture in this verse is a soldier's, not a nursery's: children are weapons in a strong man's grip. The psalm has just called all human building and watching useless without the Lord. So why does it answer that failure with a family rather than a fortress?
The verse follows straight on from the line that children come as an inheritance from the Lord. The order matters. The household does not raise this strength. God hands it over.
Besides, if they needed human strength to drive back the enemy, God could supply it. "Look, the inheritance of Jehovah (that is, what He gives) is children, and His reward the fruit of the womb." For defence or for attack, let them rely on what He will provide.
Commentators take the phrase "children of one's youth" to mean young men. The picture belongs to a settled city.
"Children of the youth," I take to be "young men." The Lord had built the city, so the sons grew up like plants, and their daughters like the polished corners of the temple. The streets of Jerusalem, where the Lord was, would be full of boys and girls playing, themselves a blessing from the Lord. They were like arrows in the hand of the mighty man — His quiver was full of them, and He would speak with His enemies.
Their strength is not the whole point. The hand that directs it matters.
He also gives "the children of youth" — those who have the strength and vigour of youth, whom the Lord will use to defend the house and meet the enemy in the gate.
Enemies are still in the land. The gate is where sons make the difference.
Children, moreover, are a means of defence (for enemies are still in the land, as noticed before): "As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth." The gate was the place of authority and judgment, where people settled their disputes. It may also have been a place of attack by outside enemies. So the psalmist's meaning is easy to understand. The man who "has his quiver full of" such arrows — children — will have the means to defend his cause when enemies attack him unjustly. He can stand up to them with confidence.
A quiver holds more than one arrow. Many children count here as a blessing, not a burden.
Then the psalm likens children to arrows in the hand of a warrior, useful for gaining victories over enemies. "Happy is the man who has his quiver full of them" (v. 5). There are some who criticise those who have more than one or two children, but God does not. Susannah Wesley, we are told, had 22 children, and taught them all to read by using the Word of God.
An arrow can also turn back. David's own family shows it.
Jehovah took pleasure in the families of His people. So we read in a well-known Song of Ascents, "Look, children are an inheritance from Jehovah, the fruit of the womb a reward. As arrows in a mighty man's hand, so are the children of youth..." Yet David tasted bitter sorrow when he set his heart on them too much. What irony in the outcome of the one he called "Father of peace"? He rose up as an empty and unscrupulous pretender against him, and to his own destruction. ... Only he who is born of God has life everlasting.
The picture also reaches past the family, into gospel work.
In the preaching of the gospel, for example, children are an inheritance from the Lord. This keeps us free from all human methods to secure success, and from all appeals to nature and sentiment. It leads us to depend only on the almighty power of the Holy Spirit, and on the favour and blessing of God.
- Given — The arrows are not manufactured by the household. What defends the home is what God provides, for defence or for attack.
- Grown — "Children of the youth" means young men, with the strength and vigour the Lord can use.
- Aimed — Their strength shows at the gate, the place of judgment and of attack, where sons defend a father's cause against unjust attack.
- Multiplied — A full quiver is God's own valuation. Others may criticise large families; God does not.
- Guarded — David's sorrow over a rebel son warns that no arrow is safe by birth. Only the one born of God has life everlasting.
Happy is the man that hath filled his quiver with them. They shall not be ashamed when they speak with enemies in the gate.
In this psalm, a father counting his children is a man counting weapons. The full quiver raises two questions: what enemy is in view, and who fills the quiver.
One writer explains both the arrows and the gate:
Children are also a means of defence, since enemies are still in the land: "Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one's youth." This also explains the next verse. The gate was the place of authority and judgment, where people settled disputes, and perhaps the place where enemies from outside attacked. The man whose quiver is full of such arrows — children — has the means to defend his cause when someone attacks him wrongly. So he can face his enemies without fear.
One writer answers those who look down on large families:
The psalm likens children to arrows in the hand of a warrior, useful for winning victories over enemies. "Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them!" (v. 5). There are some who criticize those who have more than one or two children, but God does not. We are told that Susannah Wesley had 22 children, and taught them all to read by using the Word of God. God used her son John Wesley to bring large numbers to salvation. God gave her son Charles grace to write more hymns than anyone else on record — many of them very good hymns.
One writer reads the whole psalm as one lesson in dependence:
They had learned how useless it was to build the house without the Lord's approval. They had felt their powerlessness to keep the invader out of the city. All extraordinary watchfulness on man's part was only in vain. God would have His people trust Him. Besides, if they needed human strength to drive back the enemy, God could supply it. "Behold, children are a heritage from the LORD (that is, what He gives), the fruit of the womb a reward." For defence or for attack, let them rely on what He will provide.
One writer takes "children of the youth" to mean grown young men, and sets the verse in a day when the city stands built:
"Children of the youth" I take to mean "young men." It was not "Woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing infants in those days," for the Lord had built the city, and the sons grew up as plants, and their daughters as the polished corners of the temple. It was not now to say, "Blessed are the barren and the wombs that never bore" — the full blessing had come in. This was not the prosperity of the world, as in Psalm 49, in a time of sorrow. It was the blessing of the Lord in the time of blessing. The city stood built, and the streets of Jerusalem, where the Lord was, would be full of boys and girls playing — themselves a blessing from the Lord. They were as arrows in the hand of the mighty man — His quiver was full of them, and He would speak with His enemies.
Another writer applies the happy man to the Messiah, who receives a new people:
Then He will have children as "a heritage from the LORD," a new people; "from the womb of the morning, the dew of your youth will be yours" (Psalm 110:3). Then He will be called happy.
Yet the blessing is not automatic. One writer points to David's own family:
Yet David tasted bitter sorrow when he set his heart too much on them. What irony in the outcome of the one he called "Father of peace," who rose up as an empty and unscrupulous pretender against him and to his own destruction. Nor was he by any means the only one who yielded a crop of sin and shame and blood. Yes, "He who sires a fool gets himself sorrow, and the father of a fool has no joy." Only he who is born of God has everlasting life.
One writer carries the picture over into gospel work:
We may well remind ourselves that, in the preaching of the gospel for example, children are an inheritance from the Lord. This will keep us free from all human methods of ensuring success, and from all appeals to nature and sentiment. It will lead us to depend on the almighty power of the Holy Spirit alone, and on the favour and blessing of God.
- Gift — God fills the quiver; man cannot. Without Him the builder and the watchman work for nothing.
- Arrows — The psalm pictures children as weapons: strength for defence or attack that a man receives, not makes.
- Gate — The gate is the place of judgment, where people settle disputes; a full quiver means a man can meet a wrongful charge and not be put to shame.
- Happy — Scripture calls the man with a full quiver blessed; commentators also apply that happiness to the Messiah, who receives a new people.
- Warning — David's grief over a rebel son shows the blessing is not automatic; gospel work needs the same dependence as the home.