Bellarmine on Psalm 124 : Title, theme and Verse 1

Title and subject matter

Titulum et argumentum

A canticle of the steps

Canticum graduum  

In this Psalm, the Prophet gives good advice to the pilgrims going up to their homeland, whether the earthly or heavenly homeland. The advice is that they should place all their hope in God, for God is almighty, completely faithful and He never disappoints those who hope in Him and who hasten to Him with all their hearts.

Verse 1

They that trust in the Lord shall be as mount Sion: he shall not be moved for ever that dwelleth in Jerusalem.

Qui confidunt in Domino, sicut mons Sion : non commovebitur in aeternum, qui habitat in Jerusalem.

The Prophet lays down at the start a general and most certain promise, and he repeats it twice for a greater asseveration[1] of the truth. He says: “They that trust in the Lord shall be as mount Sion,” that is, all those who truly trust in the Lord shall be unmoveable and secure, no matter how great a storm (may come), just like mount Sion which is unmoveable, not only because it is a mountain, but also because it is sacred and most dear to God. He then repeats this, as though explaining what he has said : “He shall not be moved for ever,” that dwelleth in Jerusalem; what he says here, “He shall not be moved for ever,” corresponds to the (earlier) words : he will be unmoveable like mount Sion. The following words, “that dwelleth in Jerusalem,” correspond to the other words, “They that trust in the Lord.” They who dwell in thought and hope in 

the heavenly Jerusalem are the very ones who trust in the Lord. Trust in God is explained by Psalm XC : “He that dwelleth in the aid of the most High, shall abide under the protection of the God of heaven.”[2] With regard to the wording, in the Hebrew codex it has different interpunction,[3] and hence a different word order. But since this interpunction was not in the ancient codices but was added by the Rabbis, it should not be mad so much of as to reject the interpunction found in the Septuagint and the Latin Vulgate editions. Besides this the phrase he that dwelleth in Jerusalem, is ambiguous in Hebrew, as it can refer either to mount Sion, or to a man placing his trust in God; but the Septuagint translators have declared this is to be referred to man and not to the mountain: for mountain in Greek is neuter; and the word qui / who is of the masculine gender in Greek and Latin. It is also to be noted that a mountain, unlike a man, cannot properly be said to dwell in a city. Indeed, not to be moved for ever does not apply to all those who dwell in the earthly Jerusalem, since that very Jerusalem itself cannot last forever; and because, to dwell in Jerusalem means the same thing here as to trust in the Lord, and so we have said with St. Augustine that this refers to the inhabitant of the heavenly Jerusalem through hope and desire, in the same way that they dwelled who said: “Our conversation is in heaven.”[4]

[1] Emphatic confirmation of a statement; a word or phrase used to express confirmation; OED.

[2] The praise of a canticle for David. He that dwelleth in the aid of the most High, shall abide under the protection of the God of Jacob. Laus cantici David. Qui habitat in adjutorio Altissimi, in protectione Dei caeli commorabitur. [Ps. xc 1]

[3] The insertion of points between words, clauses, or sentences; punctuation. OED.

[4] But our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, our Lord Jesus Christ. Nostra autem conversatio in caelis est : unde etiam Salvatorem exspectamus Dominum nostrum Jesum Christum. [Phil. iii 20]

Totus tuus ego sum

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam.