Als de Heer he huis niet bouwt = If The House Is Not Build By God (Ps 127), 1967 - 2001

If the Lord does not build the house.... This post-Exilic text is in two parts: the ultimate futility of human effort if God is not part of the process (vv 1-2), and the rich blessings endowed by family and progeny, which God provides to those who keep covenant in trust (vv 3-5). Although of later composition in a Wisdom tradition, it shows an early Sumerian influence which honored, in song, the goddess Nisaba without whom no human endeavor would reach fulfilment and who alone granted the blessings of fertility to the family. The cultic setting may have been the Consecration of the Temple, rebuilt half-heartedly and only long after the Babylonian captives return from Exile. It may have been sung each year during the Feast of Tabernacles, as the pilgrims approached the priests seeking blessings and advice. It is in the collection of Songs of Ascent. In the cultic sense, this may have accompanied the ascent of the pilgrims up the steps of the sanctuary as they approached the priest. But in the literary sense, each verse contains cue words or key ideas linking it to the next, as a chain device.