Psalms 128 in plain modern English. New Ground English Translation.
Time Period
Composed in the era of the kings or after the exile, and sung by pilgrims from roughly 500 BC onward
Location
A family home in Judah, with a grapevine trained against the house wall and olive trees in the yard
Audience
Israelite households making the pilgrimage to Jerusalem
Situation
This psalm blesses the person who respects God and lives accordingly, promising that he will eat what his own hands produced. It pictures his wife as a fruitful vine inside the house and his children as olive shoots around the table, then extends the blessing to grandchildren and to Jerusalem itself.
Key Background
Eating the fruit of your own labour was not a given in this period, since invading armies, forced tribute and bad debt regularly took a family's harvest before the family could, so the promise names a real relief. Grapevines were commonly trained along the walls of a courtyard house and olive trees put up young shoots around the base of the parent trunk, so both images came from what people saw daily. Israelite blessings usually ran outward from the household to the nation, since a family's wellbeing and the security of Jerusalem were understood as parts of the same thing.