Setting
Unless the LORD builds up the house,
Free Church of Scotland psalter · C.M.
The words
Unless the LORD builds up the house, its builders toil in vain; Unless he keeps the city safe, they vainly watch maintain.
In vain you rise before the dawn and late hours vainly keep That you may toil for food to eat— he gives his loved ones sleep.
Sons are a precious heritage, a blessing from the LORD; The children that are born to us are truly his reward.
Like arrows in a warrior’s hand are children of one’s youth. The man whose quiver’s full of them is blessed by God in truth.
Such men will not be put to shame— that will not be their fate— When they contend against their foes who face them in the gate.
Source & provenance
Free Church of Scotland psalter · psalter
An unedited transcription of the Sing Psalms (Free Church of Scotland, 2003) edition.
Full provenance & rights
- Base edition
- Sing Psalms (Free Church of Scotland, 2003)
- Editor
- Psalmody Committee of the Free Church of Scotland
- Editing
- unedited transcription
Rights
- Copyright
- rights-verified (display held); FCS terms recorded 2026-10-08 — verbatim text in a notated setting with independent tune MIDI is within terms (text free, FCS attribution displayed); copy/print/offline not granted; no audio derivatives
- Access
- free
- Display
- permitted
Tunes it can be sung to
3 tunes
Evan
curated well-matchedCM
McKee
curated well-matchedCM
Wiltshire
curated well-matchedCM
How is this list ordered?
Curated pairings come first — a tune a curator recorded against this text, with the fitness they recorded. A tune that merely shares the meter is listed as a tune in the same meter and never as a pairing.
Nothing here is ranked by popularity or use. The page reports what a curator recorded, not a verdict of its own.