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                  Unless the Lord Shall Build the House
                               Psalm 127


1.   Unless the Lord shall build the house, the weary builders toil in vain;
     Unless the Lord the city shields, the guards maintain a useless watch. In
     vain you rise ere morning break, and late your nightly vigils keep, And
     bread of anxious care partake; God gives to His beloved sleep.

2.   Lo, children are the gift of God, and sons the blessing He commands;
     These whom in youthful days bestowed, are like the shafts in warriors'
     hands. And happy they whose quivers bear full store of arrows such as
     these; They in the gate are free from fear, and boldly face their enemies.

3.   That man is blest who fears the Lord, who lives and walks in all His ways;
     For of his labor shall he eat, and he shall prosper all his days. His wife shall
     be a fruitful vine; his children all like olive plants. Behold the man who
     fears the Lord! To him His blessing will afford.