Bellarmine on Psalm 119 : Title, theme & Verse 1

Title and subject matter

Titulus et argumentum

A canticle of the steps

Canticum graduum  

The fifteen Psalms which follow one another starting from Psalm CXVIII all have in their title the words: A Canticle of the Steps; and although step could refer either to an ascending or a descending, in this text it pertains only to ascending: for the Hebrew word implies ascending; and similarly the Greek ἀναζαθμὧν. These fifteen Psalms are therefore canticles of ascending, the canticles of those who ascend steps upwards, and the Greek writers Theodoret and Euthymius teach that these canticles are to be understood literally as being about the going up of the Jews from Babylon to Jerusalem, with the Holy Spirit, through the mouth of David, foretelling the calamity of the Babylonian captivity and the joy of deliverance therefrom. Others prefer the view that these fifteen Psalms were composed to be sung whilst going up the fifteen steps of the temple of Solomon: for this was the number of the steps of the temple, not only according to the writings of Nicolas Lyranus and other more recent commentators, but also of St. Augustine at the end of his tract On the Psalms: “The number,” he says, “of the psalms that are called of the steps is the same as the number of steps in the in the temple.” But whatever may be the case with these opinions, one thing is certain, this going up, whether from Babylon to Jerusalem, or ascending the steps in the temple of Solomon,  prefigured the ascent of the elect who ascend from this valley of tears to the heavenly Jerusalem by the steps of the virtues, the chief of which being charity; and of this ascent the Holy Spirit sings most powerfully.

Verse 1

In my trouble I cried to the Lord: and he heard me.

Ad Dominum cum tribularer clamavi, et exaudivit me.

In the various calamities of this exile, one is especially to be deplored, namely, a deceitful tongue in those amidst whom we are obliged to dwell; the prophet sings that he has sought and obtained deliverance from this, so that by his example he may instruct other travellers (in this exile). “In my trouble,” he says, I did not look for the help of men but “I cried out” in prayer to the Lord, and He through His goodness “heard me.” The words are clear in the Hebrew, Greek and Latin codices.

Totus tuus ego sum

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam.