Bellarmine on Psalm 123 : Title, theme and Verse 1

Title and subject matter

Titulus et argumentum

A Canticle of the Steps

Canticum graduum

This Psalm contains the rejoicing of those who were delivered from the direst tribulations. And indeed, the children of Israel who returned from the Babylonian captivity to Jerusalem, are not described as suffering any grave persecutions on their journey : but only while they were held as captives, and between the building of the city and the temple, as may be understood from either of Esdra’s books. Accordingly, insofar as this Psalm pertains to Israelites according to the flesh, it should be referred to those afflictions they suffered either when they were in captivity or while they were rebuilding the city and the temple; insofar as it pertains to spiritual Israelites, that is, to Christians going up to the celestial Jerusalem, it should be referred to the persecutions by pagans and other wicked men, from whom the holy martyrs were delivered and other chosen souls are today being delivered.

Verse 1

If it had not been that the Lord was with us, let Israel now say: If it had not been that the Lord was with us.

Nisi quia Dominus erat in nobis, dicat nunc Israel, nisi quia Dominus erat in nobis.

Incomplete and interrupted speech, at the beginning of the Psalm, is a sign of the great and unaccustomed joy which does not allow the person speaking to utter complete sentences. The multitude of the Saints, delivered from great temptations, say: “If it had not been that the Lord was with us,” that is, unless the Lord almighty had been with us, we might never have escaped. But before he completes this sentence, rejoicing in his gladness, he invites Israel, that is, all of God’s people, to offer praise and thanksgiving, saying: “Let Israel now say;” and he repeats the words: “If it had not been that the Lord was with us.” Concerning the words, the quia / because in the Hebrew follows the noun Dominus / the Lord, in this way: Nisi Dominus quia erat in nobis / Unless the Lord because he was with us. But the Septuagint translators, in order to make the sentence clearer, seem to have changed the order of the words; St. Jerome omitted the particle from his version as being redundant and otiose, and his version reads Unless the Lord had been in us. If anyone wanted to retain it, it could be supplied: Unless the Lord, who was in us, had delivered us: or, according to the Septuagint: Unless we had been delivered, because the Lord was in us. What could have been done if the Lord had not delivered us, is explained in the following section.

Totus tuus ego sum

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam.