Bellarmine on Psalm CXXI: Title, theme & verse 1

Title and subject matter

Titulum et argumentum

Canticum graduum.

This is the third Gradual Psalm, in which the Prophet describes the beauty and the nobility of the Holy City Jerusalem, to which the Hebrews longed to return from their Babylonian captivity. But as that was a type of the Father’s celestial home (Heaven), so the Hebrews returning from captivity to the earthly Jerusalem were a figure for our pilgrimage and ascent to the heavenly Jerusalem. And so the whole Psalm may be understood of either city and of either group of travellers (pilgrims); but the primary intention of the Holy Spirit is undoubtedly directed to the former.

Verse 1

I rejoiced at the things that were said to me: We shall go into the house of the Lord.

Lætatus sum in his quae dicta sunt mihi : In domum Domini ibimus.

The words are those of God’s people who are rejoicing at having received the wonderful news of their return to their country. In fact, the messenger who told the Hebrews they were now to return to Jerusalem was Jeremias; he had foretold that after seventy years the captivity would end and that the city and the temple would be rebuilt, see Jerem. xxv and xxix; but Daniel, Aggeus and Zacharias, who lived at the very time the captivity came to an end, foretold it more clearly. They, therefore, filled the people with great joy when, at the end of the seventy years, they said: “We shall go into the house of the Lord,” that is, we shall return to our country, where it will given to us to see mount Sion and the site of the house of the Lord; and, the temple having been rebuilt, we shall go once more into the house of the Lord. But, beyond any comparison, Christ was a messenger with happier news who tells us in the Gospel: “Do penance, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand;”[1]  and even more clearly in John xiv: “ In my Father's house there are many mansions. If not, I would have told you: because I go to prepare a place for you. I shall go, and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and will take you to myself; that where I am, you also may be.”[2]  This message filled with indescribable joy those who have learned how good it is to go into the  house of the Lord; and in that house not be a (mere) passing visitor or stranger, but a (fellow-) citizen of the Saints and someone belonging to the house.

Anyone knew this who thought carefully on the words of the Prophet: “They shall be inebriated with the plenty of thy house;”Psalm xxxv;[3] and again, “We shall be filled with the good things of thy house;”[4] and the words of the Apostle to the Ephesians: “that you may know what the hope is of the glory of his inheritance in the saints.”[5] Such is he who desires in his heart to go into the house of the Lord and so he sings from his heart: “I rejoiced at the things that were said to me: We shall go into the house of the Lord.” But the sensual man perceiveth not these things that are of the Spirit of God,[6] and when death draws nigh, that is, the end of his exile and wandering, he does not rejoice but is troubled and groans, quite rightly, because just as in his heart he hath not disposed to ascend by steps,[7] while he yet lived, just so will he have no hope to ascend into the house of the Lord, which is on high; but he will be afeared of descending into the prison of the damned to be punished for all eternity. It matters little that the Hebrew and Greek text has an active participle when rendering the things that were said to me; for the Vulgate translator expresses the sense of the Latin phrase so as to be more easily understood.

[1] From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say: Do penance, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Exinde coepit Jesus praedicare, et dicere : Poenitentiam agite : appropinquavit enim regnum caelorum. [Matt. iv. 17]

[2] In my Father's house there are many mansions. If not, I would have told you: because I go to prepare a place for you. In domo Patris mei mansiones multae sunt; si quominus dixissem vobis : quia vado parare vobis locum.  And if I shall go, and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and will take you to myself; that where I am, you also may be. Et si abiero, et praeparavero vobis locum, iterum venio, et accipiam vos ad meipsum : ut ubi sum ego, et vos sitis. [Ioann. Xiv. 2-3]

[3] They shall be inebriated with the plenty of thy house; and thou shalt make them drink of the torrent of thy pleasure. Inebriabuntur ab ubertate domus tuae, et torrente voluptatis tuae potabis eos; [Ps. xxxv. 9]

[4] Blessed is he whom thou hast chosen and taken to thee: he shall dwell in thy courts. We shall be filled with the good things of thy house; holy is thy temple, Beatus quem elegisti et assumpsisti : inhabitabit in atriis tuis. Replebimur in bonis domus tuae; sanctum est templum tuum, [Ps. Lxiv. 5]

[5] The eyes of your heart enlightened, that you may know what the hope is of the glory of his inheritance in the saints. illuminatos oculos cordis vestri, ut sciatis quae sit spes vocationis ejus, et quae divitiae gloriae haereditatis ejus in sanctis, [Eph. i. 18]

[6] But the sensual man perceiveth not these things that are of the Spirit of God; for it is foolishness to him, and he cannot understand, because it is spiritually examined. Animalis autem homo non percipit ea quae sunt Spiritus Dei : stultitia enim est illi, et non potest intelligere : quia spiritualiter examinatur. [I Cor. ii. 14]

[7] Blessed is the man whose help is from thee: in his heart he hath disposed to ascend by steps, Beatus vir cujus est auxilium abs te, ascensiones in corde suo disposuit, [Ps. Lxxxiii. 6]

Totus tuus ego sum 

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam