Psalm 127:3 NKJV
Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord,
The fruit of the womb is a reward.
The Living Legacy: Children as God’s Heritage
My Notes
Scripture Focus:
“Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, The fruit of the womb is a reward.” — Psalm 127:3 (NKJV)
In the preceding verses of Psalm 127, we learned that God is the Architect of our structures and the Guardian of our safety. Now, the Psalmist pivots to a different kind of “building”—the construction of a family legacy. While a man may build a literal house of stone and timber, it is the Lord who populates that house with a future.
The Powerlessness of Wealth
We live in a world that often measures success by the accumulation of assets. Yet, the Psalmist reminds us that children are a “heritage” that cannot be purchased. Thousands of wealthy individuals would gladly trade half their estates to hear the cry of a newborn child from their own bodies. This serves as a humbling reminder: we are just as dependent on God for the fruitfulness of the family as we are for the success of our labor. If Jehovah does not give the children, the house remains “unbuilt,” regardless of how grand the architecture may be.
Reward, Not Burden
Society often speaks of children in terms of “incumbrance”—costly, demanding, and a hindrance to personal freedom. But God’s Word reclaims the narrative: children are a reward. They are a token of divine favor. When society is rightly ordered, children are received not with regret but with the joy of one receiving an inheritance. They are living evidence of God’s grace, entrusted to us to educate and nurture.
Mouths and Meat
There is a beautiful irony in God’s distribution of wealth. To some, He gives gold and silver but a solitary life. To others, He gives a “heritage” of many children without great lands or money. Let the fruitful family, however poor in spirit or pocket, take heart: God is a responsible Father. There is an ancient maxim that has never failed: “Wherever God sends mouths, He sends meat.” He who gave the life will provide the support, often through a chain of miraculous providences that the solitary man never gets to witness.
Prayer
Abba, I thank You that You are the Giver of life and the Source of every heritage. Thank You for the children You have placed in my life—whether they are my own, or the children of my community. Help me to see them through Your eyes: not as a burden or an expense, but as a reward and a precious gift. I trust You for their provision and their future. Build my house, O Lord, and let my legacy be one that honors Your name for generations to come. I ask this in Jesus’ name, Amen.
Key Takeaways
- Divine Bestowal: Children are not a biological accident or a human right; they are a gift specifically derived from the Lord’s hand.
- Purposeful Building: Descendants are the means by which a family name and legacy are kept alive on the earth.
- The Ultimate Wealth: A poor man with a fruitful family possesses an inheritance that many wealthy individuals deeply covet.
- Trust in Provision: If God has entrusted you with “fruit,” He is committed to providing the “sustenance” required for them to thrive.
Cross-References (NKJV)
- Genesis 33:5 — “And he lifted his eyes and saw the women and children, and said, ‘Who are these with you?’ So he said, ‘The children whom God has graciously given your servant.’”
- Psalm 113:9 — “He grants the barren woman a home, like a joyful mother of children. Praise the Lord!”
- Ruth 4:11 — “And all the people who were at the gate, and the elders, said, ‘We are witnesses. The Lord make the woman who is coming to your house like Rachel and Leah, the two who built the house of Israel…’”
- Genesis 48:9 — “Joseph said to his father, ‘They are my sons, whom God has given me in this place.’ And he said, ‘Bring them to me, please, and I will bless them.’”
Journaling Prompts
- Defining Heritage: How does seeing children as an “inheritance from the Lord” change the way you view the daily demands of parenting or the presence of children in your community?
- Trusting the Provider: If you feel the weight of “many mouths” to feed—physically, emotionally, or spiritually—how does the promise that God “sends meat” where He “sends mouths” comfort you today?
- The House Beyond Stone: If you do not have biological children, how can you “build a house” by investing in spiritual children or the next generation within the church?
Proverb for Today
My son, keep your father’s command, And do not forsake the law of your mother. Bind them continually upon your heart; Tie them around your neck. When you roam, they will lead you; When you sleep, they will keep you; And when you awake, they will speak with you. For the commandment is a lamp, And the law a light; Reproofs of instruction are the way of life, Proverbs 6:20-23 NKJV
Closing
Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. John 14:27 NKJV
Bill
Posted on 1/6/2026 by Bill Stephens
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Summary of Commentaries:
Psalm 127:3 redefines family, declaring children a “reward” rather than a burden. While wealth builds structures, only the Lord builds a household through descendants. Children are a divine heritage, entrusted to us as evidence of God’s favor. For every family, this promise includes a guarantee of provision: the God who sends mouths also sends meat. Our children are not an incumbrance but a sacred investment and the true building blocks of a lasting legacy.
Commentaries:
Charles Spurgeon
“Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD.” This points to another mode of building up a house, namely, by leaving descendants to keep our name and family alive upon the earth. Without this, what is a man’s purpose in accumulating wealth? To what purpose does he build a house if he has none in his household to hold the house after him? What boots it that he is the possessor of broad acres if he has no heir? Yet in this matter, a man is powerless without the Lord. The great Napoleon, with all his sinful care on this point, could not create a dynasty. Hundreds of wealthy persons would give half their estates if they could hear the cry of a babe born of their own bodies. Children are a heritage which Jehovah himself must give, or a man will die childless, and thus his house will be unbuilt.
“And the fruit of the womb is his reward,” or a reward from God. He gives children, not as a penalty nor as a burden, but as a favor. They are a token for good if men know how to receive them and educate them. They are “doubtful blessings” only because we are doubtful persons. Where society is rightly ordered, children are regarded, not as an incumbrance, but as an inheritance; and they are received, not with regret, but as a reward. If we are over-crowded in England, and so seem to be embarrassed with too large an increase, we must remember that the Lord does not order us to remain in this narrow island, but would have us fill those boundless regions which wait for the axe and the plough. Yet even here, with all the straits of limited incomes, our best possessions are our own dear offspring, for whom we bless God every day.
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Enduring Word
Children are a heritage from the LORD: Solomon considered the wisdom of trusting God in building a house (Psalm 127:1), but he also understood that a home is built by more than bricks and wood. He called upon all to see (behold) that children are a blessing. (Guzik)
i. “The Jew would ask, why is the house being built if it is not for the family? And why are the watchmen protecting the city if not for the families that live in it? Then as now, the family was the basic unit and most important element of society.” (Boice)
ii. “Let the fruitful family, however poor, lay this to heart; ‘Children are a heritage of the Lord; and the fruit of the womb is his reward.’ And he who gave them will feed them; for it is a fact, and the maxim formed on it has never failed, ‘Wherever God sends mouths, he sends meat.’” (Clarke)
iii. “He gives children, not as a penalty nor as a burden, but as a favor. They are a token for good if men know how to receive them and educate them. They are ‘doubtful blessings’ only because we are doubtful persons.” (Spurgeon)
The fruit of the womb is a reward: Sadly, though Solomon had 700 wives and 300 concubines (1 Kings 11:3), we know of only one of his specific descendants. Perhaps Solomon knew very little of this reward.
i. “This last was a fit lesson for Solomon, who, by so many wives and concubines, left but one only son that we read of, and him not of the wisest.” (Trapp)
ii. “Like much of Solomon’s wisdom, the lessons of this psalm, relevant as they were to his situation, were mostly lost on him. His building, both literal and figurative, became reckless (1 Kings 9:10ff.,19), his kingdom a ruin (1 Kings 11:11ff.) and his marriages a disastrous denial of God (1 Kings 11:1ff.).” (Kidner)
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Albert Barnes
Lo, children are an heritage of the Lord – They are an inheritance derived from the Lord. They are bestowed by him as really as success is in building a house, or in guarding a city. The idea is that everything which we value, or which we desire, is a gift from God, and is to be received as from him, and to be acknowledged as his gift. The general idea here, as in the previous verses, is that of entire dependence on God.
And the fruit of the womb is his reward – Or rather, “a reward;” that is, they are of the nature of a reward for a life of devotion to God; they are among the blessings which God promises, and are evidences of his favor. Our translation by inserting the words “is his” obscures the sense, as if the meaning were that they belong to God as his “reward” for what he does for us. The reverse of this is the true idea – that they are a blessing with which he rewards or favors his people. Of course, this is not universally true, but the promise is a general one, in accordance with the usual promises in the Bible in regard to the result of piety. Children are to be reckoned among the divine favors bestowed on us, and for their lives, their health, their virtues, and the happiness derived from them, we are, as in other things, dependent on him, as in building a house, in guarding a city, or in the rest and comfort derived from toil.
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John Gill
Lo, children [are] an heritage of the Lord,…. As all success, safety, and the blessings of life, depend on the providence of God; so this very great blessing is a gift of his; having children, and those good ones, as the Targum interprets it; for of such only can it be understood: so, in a spiritual sense, the children of Christ, the antitypical Solomon, are the gifts of his heavenly Father to him; his portion and inheritance, and a goodly heritage he esteems them;
[and] the fruit of the womb [is his] reward; “fruit” is the same with “children” in the preceding clause; see Luke 1:42; a reward he gives to good men, not of debt, but of grace; the Targum, “a reward of good works:” so regenerate persons are a reward to Christ, of his sufferings and death, Isaiah 53:10.
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Matthew Henry
Children are a heritage, and a reward, and are so to be accounted, blessings and not burdens; for he that sends mouths will send meat if we trust in him. Obed-edom had eight sons, for the Lord blessed him because he had entertained the ark, 1 Chr. 26:5. Children are a heritage for the Lord, as well as from him; they are my children (says God) which thou hast borne unto me (Eze. 16:20); and they are most our honor and comfort when they are accounted to him for a generation.
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Miscellaneous Comments
“The fruit of the womb is his reward.” John Howard Hinton’s daughter said to him as she knelt by his deathbed: “There is no greater blessing than for children to have godly parents.” “And the next,” said the dying father, with a beam of gratitude, “for parents to have godly children.”
—Memoir in Baptist Handbook, 1875.
“Children are an heritage of the LORD.” The Hebrew seems to imply that children are a heritage belonging to the Lord, and not a heritage given by the Lord, as most English readers appear to take it. The Targum likewise bears this out.
—H. T. Armfield.
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