Behold, children are a heritage from the LORD, 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 Psalm's Argument
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:
F. W. GrantSo 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.
Gift, Not Achievement
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:
Edward DennettBut 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.
Held in Trust
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:
George C WillisMay 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:
Leslie M. GrantClearly 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.
Arrows in the Gate
The next verses picture children as arrows in a warrior's hand. One writer explains why that image made sense at the time:
Edward DennettChildren 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.
When the Gift Is Withheld
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:
Leslie M. GrantIn 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:
Mark GrassoShe was suffering — she had not had any children (children being rightly regarded by Israelites as a gift from God: Ps. 127:3).
Beyond the Home
Dennett takes the same principle into gospel work:
Edward DennettWe 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.
Summary
- 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.