Tractates on the Psalms 121.1–121.15

One who is held by the hope of heavenly desire will find nothing obscure in this psalm; for from his own sense he will attain the understanding of the prophecy's lofty speech. For when he remembers that he is written down as a coheir of God and a sharer of eternal goods, to be renewed like the angels by the resurrection and, corruption laid aside, to be conformed to the glory of the body of our God and Lord Jesus Christ, and to be a dweller in the heavenly city built of living stones, of which it is written in the gospel, when the Lord forbade swearing by heaven, saying, "nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King" (not meaning that city which kills and stones the prophets, but that which blessed Paul the apostle mentions thus: "You are fellow citizens of the saints and members of God's household, built upon the foundation of the apostles"); and when he has read that the things that now are are in part and that we see meanwhile through a mirror and in a riddle, but when the perfect comes, what is now in part is to be done away, and we shall contemplate face to face, as with bodily sight, the things that will then be visible to us, where there is no sickness, no death, no sorrow, no terror: when anyone has recognized that these things, announced by angels, prefigured in the law, set forth by the prophets, represented by the Lord in examples, preached by the apostles, are possible for him through faith, he must cry out after the prophet's example: "I rejoiced in the things that were said to me."

But what are those things that were said, from which joy was received? Surely what follows: "We will go into the house of the Lord." From this comes gladness, from this exultation, because these things were said, that we are to go into the house of the Lord. What the house of the Lord is he taught in another psalm, saying: "For the Lord has chosen Zion, he has chosen it for his dwelling. This is my rest for ever and ever; here I will dwell, for I have chosen it": not, as we said, this earthly and perishable one, paying the penalties of its impiety, but that free and heavenly Jerusalem, which is also Zion, through whose dwelling, because it is God's house, we too are fellow citizens of the saints and members of God's household. So the joy is from this, that it has been said that we shall go into the house of the Lord.

But who said these things? Lest perhaps they not know, or be strangers to that same house into which they announce that we shall go; but they say: "Our feet were standing in the courts of Jerusalem." They do not announce uncertain things, nor promise unknown things. We have recognized this house as desired and loved by many. For Scripture says: "One thing I have asked of the Lord, this I will seek, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, that I may see the will of the Lord and visit his temple"; and again: "Lord, I have loved the beauty of your house and the place of the tabernacle of your glory." This is the desirable house, this the joyful hearing: that on a foundation of twelve living gems living stones are built, hewn first for the work of building by Moses in the law, by the prophets in their sufferings, by the Lord in the body, by the apostles in their martyrdoms, by the Holy Spirit in powers. These are the builders, these the buildings, this the city. Hence the feet standing in its courts, namely the keepers, to whom the keys of this house were given (for it was said, "To you I will give the keys of the kingdom of heaven"), announcing the form of the house to those who do not know it, blessed feet and rightly praised by the prophet: "How most beautiful are the feet of those who announce peace!"

And lest any of these things be thought to fit that Jerusalem which was earthly, there followed: "Jerusalem, which is built as a city." Not a city, but as a city; because the building of that earthly city and the construction of the temple and the setting up of the tabernacle prefigured the form of that eternal and heavenly city. And because the building of this heavenly city is to be completed through all time and until the consummation of the age and through the age of all generations, he signifies that it is being built without limit of time, saying, "is built as a city," until, as the apostle says, the fullness of the nations comes in, and then the remnant of Israel will be saved.

But because the body of the church is one, not mixed by some confusion of bodies nor with individuals united into an indiscriminate heap and shapeless mass, but through unity of faith, through the fellowship of love, through concord of works and will, through the one gift of the sacrament in all, we are all one, to which Paul exhorts us, saying: "I beseech you, brothers, that you all think the same thing, exercising the same love"; and when it shall be, as it is written, "The heart and soul of all who believed was one," then we shall be the city of God, then the holy Jerusalem, because Jerusalem is built as a city whose sharing is in the selfsame. But those who dissent from the assembly of the saints and separate themselves from the body of the church by sins, pride, and quarrels do not have a share in this holy house, because the sharing of this city is in the selfsame. For from the fellowship of a perfect city those of one mind cannot have a share in difference, but in the selfsame. All, then, who will be one will be in it. And the psalm is witness; for it says: "There the tribes went up, the tribes": not one, but many.

But perhaps the city will seem to be built by all without exception, since no exception is made in the tribes named, and there will be a common entry into this house for peoples who do not know the Lord? But Scripture does not allow this to be understood, adding to what it had said, "There the tribes went up," "the tribes of the Lord." For there are some who are not the Lord's, to whom it was said, "You are of the devil," and again, "Depart, you cursed, into the fire prepared for the devil and his angels." So the tribes that are the Lord's will go up,

But perhaps Israel will claim that this is owed to it, that is, the Israel which is according to the letter and not according to the spirit, which is fleshly and not heavenly, which crucifies the Lord, not which worships him? But it has been driven back from this hope. For there the tribes went up, the tribes of the Lord, "a testimony of Israel": not the tribes of Israel as a testimony to the nations, but the tribes of the Lord as a testimony to Israel. For the tribes of the Lord said: "Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord and to the house of the God of Jacob, and he will announce to us his way, and we will walk in it. For out of Zion will go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem." For the word of the Lord, going out from Jerusalem, came to the nations. These enter the holy city, as a testimony to Israel.

To what testimony, after all? "To confess," it says, "the name of the Lord." The tribes of the Lord confess the name of the Lord. And this is the testimony of Israel. That Israel, delivered by the Lord from Pharaoh, washed in the sea, fed in the desert with the food of angels, trained in the law, rebuked in the prophets, received by the Lord at his birth through sharing a body, saved on the cross if it had believed, glorified in the resurrection if it had confessed, believed none of these things to be its own, wished none of them to remain its own. Having manna, it longed for the cucumbers of Egypt; expecting the law of life from God, it worshipped a calf; hearing the prophets, it killed them; it defamed the virgin birth prophesied to it, did not believe God in the flesh, accused the forgiver of sin as guilty of a false sin, bought him for death, raised him on the cross; it corrupted the witnesses of the resurrection into silence; it cut off the apostles by death. As a testimony of this crime of theirs the tribes of the Lord go up. To them it was promised, these obtain it. To them the covenant, but the inheritance is these tribes'. The tribes confess this one, whom they crucified, as their God. So in this testimony Israel recognizes him whom it pierced, and is kept from approaching him whom it did not believe had risen. Him the archangels worship, him all the heavenly powers serve, he makes his tribes conformed to the glory of his body. So they confess the name of the Lord, because he is God, because he is the only-begotten Son of the unbegotten. In this testimony against Israel, then, the tribes of the Lord go up into the house of the Lord, confessing the name of the Lord.

But this confession is a judgment. For Israel is judged by those to whom it was said: "You will sit on twelve judgment seats judging the twelve tribes of Israel." Not only these will judge, but the queen of the south will also condemn, and the Ninevites will condemn; because these repented at Jonah's preaching, and she, coming from the farthest parts of the earth, heard the wisdom of Solomon: in whom there is a prefiguring of the church, which, a stranger and unknown, both believed in repentance and desired to hear wisdom.

Here, then, will be the seat of judgment, where the tribes of the Lord will go up as a testimony to Israel to confess the name of the Lord: in the church, that is, the city of holy stones, which is the house of the Lord. For he says: "For there the seats sat for judgment, seats over the house of David." David here too, as in other places, is the Lord's name from his body. For wherever Scripture mentions the taking of a body, it is accustomed to call him David, taking his name from the parent of his flesh. Nor should confusion of understanding arise from the fact that the prophets spoke certain things in the past tense; for we have already given the reason for this in many places and often. For to God, who embraces all things in himself, future things are as done; and his foreknowledge is so faithful that things not yet done are already held by him as past and done. And then the prophet at once shows that he is speaking of things of future time.

For when he had recalled as of the past that the tribes of the Lord had gone up there and sat on the seats of the house of David, now with the feeling, as it were, of public teaching and admonition he warned about the future, saying: "Ask for the things that are for the peace of Jerusalem": so as to show the certainty of foreknowledge in what he had said was done, but to keep the order of times in what was to be done. So its building is in peace, its sharing is in the selfsame, and that house is of one mind, faith, and love. So the teaching of peace must be learned. For "ask" here is a word not of praying but of inquiring, according to the proper sense of the Greek. But learning peace lies in the will of the hearers. For when they have inquired about its peace, then they will rejoice that it is said to them: "We will go into the house of the Lord."

Nor is the fruit of peace inquired after small, because there follows: "And abundance to those who love you." The love of peace expects perfect fruits and hopes for an abundant store of happy harvests. This very thing the blessing on Jacob, prefigured for the hope of the faithful, signifies; for he was blessed thus, having taken over his brother's blessings: "Behold, the smell of my son is like the smell of a full field, which God has blessed." A full and fertile field, yielding a hundredfold fruit, will abound with eternal riches. And now indeed we meanwhile abound with blessed fruits, which the mystery of the church and the unity of peace supply to us as a likeness of eternal fruits. This mystery of the common hope has been shown under the names of bodily and common things, which those who know will understand. For the same prophet recalls this abundance and plenty in another psalm, saying: "You have put gladness in my heart; from the time of their grain and wine and oil they are multiplied in the selfsame." This, then, is the abundance in the selfsame. For through this abundance of peace and of the sacraments that blessed and unfailing peace and eternal abundance of heavenly goods is prepared.

Then follows: "Let there be peace in your strength, and abundance in your heavy towers." The peace and strength of this house are joined to each other. For it will not be able to do anything except in peace, since its sharing is in the selfsame, and only peace achieves being in the selfsame. And perfect strength belongs only to those who are gathered into the selfsame; and therefore he says: "Let there be peace in your strengths."

A city must consist of different kinds of buildings. For not everything is wall, gate, tower, nor everything streets, porticoes, shops, nor houses, forum, temples, palace: and as the splendors of the houses differ from one another, so too the ranks of those who live together differ. But in every kind of city nothing is firmer, more useful, or higher than towers. Scripture is accustomed to call heavy what is firm and immovable; so where it says: "Among a heavy people I will praise you." Now too, after speaking of the peace of strength, he assigned the abundance of perfect blessedness to the leaders of this eternal city as the firmest and heaviest, saying: "and abundance in your heavy towers." Above he had said, "and abundance to those who love you"; so abundance does not belong to all, but to those who love God. Then he added, "Let there be peace in your strength"; for the peace and unity of the church give us strength and firmness, according to that saying of the apostle: "And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts in Christ Jesus." Now too he recalls that this abundance, which he had promised to those who love, belongs properly to the heavy towers, signifying that whoever love are the heavy towers. By this we must understand that this abundance is not indiscriminate nor of the whole city entirely, but only of those faithful and holy men who have excelled the rest of the building of this city as with the firmness of towers.

Then follows the prophet's great feeling and the concern of loving admonition toward every believing person. For he says: "For the sake of my brothers and my neighbors I spoke peace about you; for the sake of the house of the Lord my God I sought good things for you." By his brothers and neighbors he signifies the multitude of this city, for whose sake he spoke peace about it, so that those hearing might fit themselves into the building of this city that is to be completed. But he who speaks peace about it for the sake of his brothers and kin seeks good things for that same city for the sake of God's house, saying: "For the sake of the house of the Lord my God I sought good things for you." So good things were sought for the city for the sake of the Lord's house. For distinguishing the glory of God's house from the whole of the city, since the adornment of the royal house must be put before the building of the whole city, he sought good things for that same city. For first his brothers and kin were made the Lord's city by the preaching of peace. Second, the city itself, now made up of his kin and brothers, hearing of the dignity of God's house, hastened to be itself wholly God's house. And so good things were sought for this city, while it advances from the city of the Lord into the house of God, according to that saying of the apostle: "You are the temple of God, and the Spirit of the Lord dwells in you." For faithful is he who says: "Father, I ask you for these, that we may all be one, I in them, and you in me": our Lord Jesus Christ, who is blessed for ever and ever. Amen.