Bellarmine on Psalm CXXI: Verse 2

Verse 2

Our feet were standing in thy courts, O Jerusalem.

Stantes erant pedes nostri in atriis tuis, Jerusalem.

He explains why the Hebrews are rejoicing about the return to their country and he says the reason is that they recalled the time when they were there before the captivity, and they saw the beauty and the greatness of Jerusalem. For many who were carried off to Babylon were children or adolescents, and they were easily able to remember Jerusalem as it was previously; and Esdras writes in book I chapter iii, that many were those who returned who had been in Jerusalem before the captivity and had seen the city and the temple; they say therefore:

“Our feet were standing in thy courts, O Jerusalem,” that is, because we recall the time when we were standing in your courts, that is, in your gates, as it expressly has it in the Hebrew codex. Now the Prophet names the gates or courts, the vestibules of the city, rather than the public places or streets, because in those days meetings and business chiefly took place at the gates of the city, for it was there that were to be found the greatest number of people, as may be inferred from Prov. Xxxi. : “Her husband is honourable in the gates, when he sitteth among the senators of the land.”[1] It also appears from II Kings chapter xviii. that the gates at Jerusalem were not ordinary gates but double ones, and there was enough space between them so that here it is perhaps referred to as atrium / a court. “David,” says Scripture, “sat between the two gates:;”[2] and in Jerem. Xxxix. It says “ And all the princes of the king of Babylon came in, and sat in the middle gate;”[3] certainly a great space must have existed in the middle gate for so many princes with their retainers to be contained therein. But how can we Christians say: “Our feet were standing in thy courts, O Jerusalem,” when we have never

been in the courts of our heavenly home?  In fact, we have been  in the courts of our heavenly home; otherwise we would not be exiles and pilgrims; nor would Christ have redeemed us from captivity, unless we had been exiled from our home country and made captives in a foreign land. We were therefore in the courts of the heavenly Jerusalem when, in the person of our father Adam, we dwelled in the earthly paradise, this earthly paradise being like an entrance court leading into the heavenly paradise, and that state of innocence was like a gate and entrance court to the state of glory; and perhaps for this reason the Holy Spirit did not want written “Our feet were standing in thy streets, O Jerusalem,” but in thy courts or gates, so that we might understand the message in this Psalm is about the heavenly Jerusalem and not the earthly one. We have therefore rejoiced at hearing the voice of those who say: “We shall go into the house of the Lord,” because we recall that time when our feet were standing in the earthly paradise and, by reason of this, in the entrance courts of the heavenly paradise; and from these good things we may guess at the far better things prepared for us in the very house of the Lord; and although just previously it was called the house of the Lord, now it is named the city of Jerusalem, for it is one and the same place: for our heavenly home is called now a kingdom, now a city, now a house; for if you consider the multitude and variety of its inhabitants, it will be a kingdom, as John saw in Apoc. Vii., “a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and tribes, and peoples, and tongues;”[4] If you consider the fellowship and friendship that exist between the saints and the blessed, it is a city; for although the number of the elect is great, they all know and love one another, like citizens of a city. Finally, if you think of all the elect having one father and one inheritance, there is no doubt but that it will be a house, in which all will be as brothers under one Father, (who is) God.

[1] Her husband is honourable in the gates, when he sitteth among the senators of the land. Nobilis in portis vir ejus, quando sederit cum senatoribus terrae. [Prov. xxxi. 23]

[2] And David sat between the two gates: and the watchman that was on the top of the gate upon the wall, lifting up his eyes, saw a man running alone. David autem sedebat inter duas portas : speculator vero, qui erat in fastigio portae super murum, elevans oculos, vidit hominem currentem solum. [II Kings xviii. 24]

[3] And all the princes of the king of Babylon came in, and sat in the middle gate: Neregel, Sereser, Semegarnabu, Sarsachim, Rabsares, Neregel, Serezer, Rebmag, and all the rest of the princes of the king of Babylon. et ingressi sunt omnes principes regis Babylonis, et sederunt in porta media : Neregel, Sereser, Semegarnabu, Sarsachim, Rabsares, Neregel, Sereser, Rebmag, et omnes reliqui principes regis Babylonis. [Jerem. Xxxix. 3]

[4] After this I saw a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and tribes, and peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne, and in sight of the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands: Post haec vidi turbam magnam, quam dinumerare nemo poterat, ex omnibus gentibus, et tribubus, et populis, et linguis : stantes ante thronum, et in conspectu Agni, amicti stolis albis, et palmae in manibus eorum : [Apoc. Vii. 9]

Totus tuus ego sum 

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam