The first two express the notion that "without God, all is in vain", popularly summarized in Latin in the motto Nisi Dominus Frustra.

[6] The Authorized Version describes the psalm as "a Song of degrees for Solomon",[7] and Wycliffe's translators recognised both options.

[8] Isaac Gottlieb of Bar Ilan University suggests that the reference in verse 2 to "his beloved" (yedido) "recalls Solomon's other name, Yedidiah".

He writes:We are here taught that builders of houses and cities, systems and fortunes, empires and churches all labour in vain without the Lord; but under the divine favour they enjoy perfect rest.

Sons, who are in the Hebrew called "builders", are set forth as building up families under the same divine blessing, to the great honour and happiness of their parents.

Keil and Delitzsch (1883) accept the reading of the accusative as adverbial, paraphrasing "God gives to His beloved in sleep, i.e., without restless self-activity, in a state of self-forgetful renunciation, and modest, calm surrender to Him".

[22] In the current texts of the Liturgy of the Hours, Psalm 127 is recited at Vespers on the third Wednesday of the four-week liturgical cycle.

[23] The Vulgate text of the psalm, Nisi Dominus, has been set to music many times, often as part of vespers services.

Notable compositions include:[24] "Wo Gott zum Haus" is a German metrical and rhyming paraphrase of the psalm by Johann Kolross, set to music by Luther (printed 1597) and by Hans Leo Hassler (c. 1607).

Adam Gumpelzhaimer used the first two lines for a canon, Wo Gott zum Haus nicht gibt sein Gunst / So arbeit jedermann umsonst ("Where God to the house does not give his blessing / There toils every man in vain").

Heinrich Schütz composed a metred paraphrase of the psalm, "Wo Gott zum Haus nicht gibt sein Gunst", SWV 232, for the Becker Psalter, published first in 1628; He set Wo der Herr nicht das Haus bauet, SWV 400, in 1650.