Psalm 127

Psalm 127
"Except the Lord build the house"
Song of Ascents
Arms of the city council of Edinburgh, with the Latin motto Nisi Dominus Frustra ("Without the Lord, [all is] in vain")
Other name	Psalm 126 (Vulgate) Nisi Dominus "Wo Gott zum Haus"
Language	Hebrew (original)

Psalm 127 is the 127th psalm of the Book of Psalms, beginning in English in the King James Version: "Except the Lord build the house". In Latin, it is known by the incipit of its first 2 words, "Nisi Dominus".^[1] It is one of 15 "Songs of Ascents" and the only one among them attributed to Solomon rather than David.

In the slightly different numbering system used in the Greek Septuagint and the Latin Vulgate, this psalm is Psalm 126.

The text is divided into five verses. The first two express the notion that "without God, all is in vain", popularly summarized in Latin in the motto Nisi Dominus Frustra. The remaining three verses describe progeny as God's blessing.

The psalm forms a regular part of Jewish, Catholic, Lutheran, Anglican and other Protestant liturgies. The Vulgate text Nisi Dominus was set to music numerous times during the Renaissance and Baroque periods, often as part of vespers, including Claudio Monteverdi's ten-part setting as part of his 1610 Vespro della Beata Vergine, Marc-Antoine Charpentier, (3 sets), H 150, H 160, H 231, Handel's Nisi Dominus (1707) and two settings by Antonio Vivaldi. Composers such as Adam Gumpelzhaimer and Heinrich Schütz set the German "Wo Gott zum Haus".