Bellarmine on Psalm CXXI: Verse 4

Verse 4

For thither did the tribes go up, the tribes of the Lord: the testimony of Israel, to praise the name of the Lord.

Illuc enim ascenderunt tribus, tribus Domini, testimonium Israel, ad confitendum nomini Domini.

This is the second praise of Jerusalem, the great number of its inhabitants, and this verse is linked

to the second; for he gives a reason why the people of God should have said: “Our feet were standing in thy courts, O Jerusalem;” Although not all were citizens of Jerusalem, but were inhabitants of various cities, all went up to Jerusalem three times each year. Therefore it says: “Our feet were standing in thy courts, O Jerusalem, for thither did the tribes go up, the tribes of the Lord,” that is, many if not all of the tribes, and thus a great multitude assembled in Jerusalem: for it is a Hebraism to use the (repeated) words tribus tribus / the tribes the tribes, instead of many tribes; for where we read in Genesis xiv: “Now the woodland vale had many pits of slime,”[1] in Hebrew it says puteos puteos bituminis / pits pits of slime. What follows next: “The testimony of Israel, to praise the name of the Lord,” explains why so great a multitude should gather in Jerusalem; it was done in accordance with “the testimony,” that is, the law given to Israel which commanded that no-on should omit to visit the temple of the Lord and there confess in the name of the Lord their 

praise and thanks. But in a future sense, which we say is more likely the intent of the Holy Spirit, he gives a reason for saying: “Jerusalem, which is built as a city;” for it is built as a city because thither did the tribes now go up, and every day the tribes of the Lord go up, that is, holy souls from every tribe and nation, like so many living stones, are incorporated into the buildings as spiritual homes, as St. Peter says in I Epist. chapter ii. Now those souls of the Saints have gone up to the heavenly Jerusalem so as to praise the name of the Lord, because this is the sole activity in that house and city, all other activity ceasing. “Blessed are they that dwell in thy house, O Lord: they shall praise thee for ever and ever;”[2] and Tobias, speaking in chap. Xiii. Of the heavenly Jerusalem: “Alleluia shall be sung in its streets;”[3] and this is “the testimony”, that is, the command given to “Israel,” that is, to the soul seeing God, that as she never ceases from love, so she should never to cease to praise God. What this testimony or command might be, we showed in our commentary on Psalm cxviii, where the word testimony is very frequently used for law or command.

[1] Now the woodland vale had many pits of slime. And the king of Sodom, and the king of Gomorrha turned their backs and were overthrown there: and they that remained fled to the mountain. Vallis autem Silvestris habebat puteos multos bituminis. Itaque rex Sodomorum, et Gomorrhae, terga verterunt, cecideruntque ibi : et qui remanserant, fugerunt ad montem. [Gen. Xiv. 10]

[2] Blessed are they that dwell in thy house, O Lord: they shall praise thee for ever and ever. Beati qui habitant in domo tua, Domine; in saecula saeculorum laudabunt te. [Ps. Lxxxiii. 5]

[3] All its streets shall be paved with white and clean stones: and Alleluia shall be sung in its streets. Ex lapide candido et mundo omnes plateae ejus sternentur : et per vicos ejus, Alleluja cantabitur. [Tobias xiii. 22]

Totus tuus ego sum

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam.