Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Meditations on Psalms functions on two levels. It is a book of probing, personal ruminations on the Psalms and their implications for practical Christian living. And it is a revelation of the man behind the message who allowed the Psalms to search his heart and change over time his understanding of God's Word and his conduct as a citizen of the world.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Meditations on Psalms
Copyright © 2002 by Edwin Robertson
Formerly titled My Soul Finds Rest
Requests for information should be addressed to:
Zondervan, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49530
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Bonhoeffer, Dietrich, 1906-1945.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Meditations on Psalms / editor and translator,
Edwin Robertson. — 2nd ed.
Rev. ed. of: My soul finds rest. c2002
Includes bibliographical references.
p. cm.
ISBN-10: 0-310-26703-X
ISBN-13: 978-0-310-26703-4
1. Bible. O.T. Psalms—Meditations. 2. Bible. O.T. Psalms—Sermons.
3. Lutheran Church—Sermons. 4. Sermons, German—Translations into
English. I. Robertson, Edwin Hanton. II. Bonhoeffer, Dietrich, 1906–
1945 My soul finds rest. III. Title.
BS1430.54 .B66 2005
223'.206—dc22
2005017554
This edition printed on acid-free paper.
All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible:
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Interior design by Beth Shagene
Printed in the United States of America
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Sermon to the
Preachers’ Seminar
Berlin, May 20, 1926
Psalm 127
ON DIETRICH BONHOEFFER’S TWENTIETH BIRTHDAY, February
4, 1926, he was a senior theology student at the
University of Berlin. This was his third year. He had previously
studied in Tübingen and, with his brother, taken
a three-month tour of Rome and North Africa. The
importance of this visit was his discovery of the power
and beauty of the Roman Liturgy in Holy Week. It did
nothing, however, to change his theological objections to
Rome.
On May 20, he delivered the following sermon on
Psalm 127 at the preachers’ seminary. He was quite
aware of the secluded life of the seminary and the turmoil
of Berlin outside its walls, where Fascists and Communists
fought in the streets. After its defeat in the Great
War, Germany, a once-proud nation, had been forced to
sign the hated Versailles Treaty. Inflation was rampant
and unemployment had reached an unprecedented peak.
An unpopular government in Weimar cared little for the
church and seemed unable to govern the state. The more
sober elements in the German population put their heads
down and worked all hours for low pay to rebuild the
nation.
Bonhoeffer found Psalm 127 to be a very timely word
for a desperate nation.
PSALM 127
Unless the LORD builds the house,
its builders labor in vain.
Unless the LORD watches over the city,
the watchmen stand guard in vain.
In vain you rise early
and stay up late,
toiling for food to eat—
for he grants sleep to those he loves.
Sons are a heritage from the LORD,
children a reward from him.
Like arrows in the hands of a warrior
are sons born in one’s youth.
Blessed is the man
whose quiver is full of them.
They will not be put to shame
when they contend with their enemies in the gate.
Sermon to the Preachers’ Seminar
We live in a time when more than ever before we speak
and must speak of building and rebuilding. We speak of
how our commerce must grow and what trade agreements
will bring about this result today or tomorrow, as
quickly as possible. We speak of the best arrangements
on workers’ wages and how workers and employers alike
can find a common interest in success. We ask ourselves
how we can begin to become once more a rich, troublefree,
happy, and respected people. We work today as
perhaps we have never worked before to achieve that
goal as soon as possible. We all want to do our best to
add our one stone to this building.
God knows there are others who do not think like
this. Let us pray to God that he restores their sight! But
we speak here only of those who use the word “building”
seriously, who really put their life and their working
strength into it. And of these, there truly are many,
very many. Woe betide us if we are not among them!
With the question of commerce, there is another question,
closely associated with it—the social question! How
much this is talked about and how much is already being
done! And we thank those men and women who dedicate
themselves to this and do fruitful work. And every
one of us here would wish to belong to this band of men
and women who take seriously love of their neighbor in
this work.
Woe betide our Christianity if we do not do this. The
people should be rich, healthy, and strong. To this end,
the scientists sit from morning to night at their benches,
in their institutes, and with their apparatus. Science, technology—
they all work toward building the future. Take
up any newspaper and read the print or between the lines
and you will hear the word, loud and clear: build, build!
So far as we speak of really serious people, they want
not only to be rich and respected but a people who are
healthy in body and soul. We provide the young people of
our cities with opportunities to explore, to dance, and to
play. We rejoice that they go out into the countryside
instead of seeking their pleasures in dirty and undesirable
places in the cities. We speak much more of moral rebuilding,
without which nothing can happen, and know that
such cannot come about unless each of us begins with his
own personal moral building. There are many men and
women who see their vocation in the moral training of
our youth. They work at it with all their strength and do
not complain but are proud of their calling. We are lucky
to have such people! And should we not all, so far as we
can, have at least a small part of this work? Woe betide
us if it is not so! Otherwise we are truly only Sunday
Christians, from 9:00 to 10:00 in the morning!
But let us hear the words of the Psalms: “Unless the
LORD builds the house . . .”
Anyone who hears these words aright sees in them
judgment over all times of frantic building and over all
times of secure possession. If only the hands of men build
and the Lord does not build, there is nothing. There are
only two things that we must fully understand: “Unless
the LORD builds” and “its builders labor in vain.”
But what does it mean that God should build? Is there
on earth a building, a house, a city, that has fallen from
heaven, that was not built by men? Does this verse mean
that we have to wait until such a miracle happens? If all
our building is in vain, really in vain, which means “of no
value,” why do we begin to rebuild what has been
destroyed instead of waiting for God to build? Why do
we continue to work to establish

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Excerpted from Meditations on Psalms by Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Edwin Robertson
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