Bellarmine on Psalm 126 : Title & theme

Title and subject matter

Titulum et argumentum

A canticle of the steps, of Solomon.

Canticum graduum Salomonis.  

This Psalm has always seemed to me exceedingly obscure[1] and even now after long study I confess  that I have not come up with a literal meaning. The most likely explanation is the one which the Greeks, St. John Chrysostom, Theodoret and Euthymius gave, to wit, that this prophetic exhortation or warning pertains to the Hebrew people after their return from the Babylonian captivity, during the time they were working to build the house of God and to restore the city of Jerusalem; and throughout almost all this time they were harassed and obstructed by the gentiles. The title too seems to refer to this : A canticle of the steps, of Solomon; this adhortation[2] is attributed to Solomon because he was the first to build the Lord’s house, extended the city of Jerusalem and filled it with many good things. Solomon is properly included (in the title) as it was he who instructed Zorobabel,[3] who was like a second Solomon, on how he was to conduct himself in the rebuilding, protecting and extending the house of the Lord and the city of Jerusalem. But in a higher sense, the true Solomon, that is the peaceful one, Christ, who is our peace, as the Apostle says,[4] instructs those who aspire to true peace and who by so aspiring go up from this vale of tears to the vision of peace, the heavenly Jerusalem, how they should build and keep safe the house or the city (which is) the Church; for everyone should through his good works build for himself a home in heaven, and keep it safe, so that he may happily dwell there in his own time and then go up to possess it for ever. I know that in the Scriptures the words building of a house are understood as referring to offspring or to an abundance of children. But the explanation common to the fathers teaches that the phrase is to be understood as referring to the true house of God, that is, to either the physical or the mystical the temple, rather than to and abundance of children according to the flesh.

[1] supra modum : “beyond measure.”

[2] adhortation : An address or communication that urges or strongly encourages a person to do something; an exhortation. Also: the action of making such an address; strong encouragement. OED.

[3] The temple which Solomon erected to the Lord about 966 B.C. was destroyed by Nabuchodonozor in 586 B.C. After the return from captivity Zorobabel, (“seed of Babylon,” a descendant of King David through Solomon),  raised it again from its ruins (537 B.C.), but in such modest conditions that the ancients who had seen the former Temple wept. In the eighteenth year of his reign, which corresponds to 19 B.C., King Herod destroyed the Temple of Zorobabel to replace it by another which would equal, if not surpass in splendour, that of Solomon. See Catholic Encyclopedia.

[4] adhortation : An address or communication that urges or strongly encourages a person to do something; an exhortation. Also: the action of making such an address; strong encouragement. OED.

Totus tuus ego sum

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam.