Tractates on the Psalms 126.1–126.21

The present psalm demands that we apply careful attention to the circumstances both of the times and of the prophecy, lest perhaps a mere outward appearance of the words, and that very sequence of bodily events, lure us into an empty understanding: especially since many, not knowing the inner reasons of prophetic teaching, suppose with a Jewish sense that these songs of ascents contain a prophecy of times now past, so that what was foretold is the captivity of Jerusalem that happened in the days of Jeremiah, and what is prophesied is the rejoicing at that same captivity's being removed again, and that what these psalms express belongs to those times, whether the grief of servitude or the joy of return. We do not reject this sense, nor do we refute their understanding. For it is fitting that the Spirit of the prophet should, according to the knowledge of providence, speak beforehand of the pitiable fall of the people, the punishment due to its impiety, the satisfaction, after long servitude, sufficient for grave sins, and God's merciful will toward them in granting their return.

But since a heavier and unremitting captivity followed upon the return from that captivity, and the rebuilding of the recovered city is succeeded by a pitiable and unchangeable devastation; and since they know that the glory of a spiritual return is reserved for the remnant of Israel, and that the building of the heavenly and holy Jerusalem is being prepared until the times of the blessed kingdom of the Lord; and above all since the hope of those days and the substance of them are attested by the force and character of all these psalms: I do not understand why they would have the grief of the prophecy concern only perishable and changeable evils and not also eternal ones, and why they understand the joy shown to be joy over temporal things, and over things that were afterward to be changed into the gravest calamities, rather than over unchangeable and eternal things, since it is more worthy of prophetic magnificence to have proclaimed what is blessed, eternal, and heavenly. Although, then, the preceding psalms have been shown to contain a captivity that is not only bodily and earthly, just as a freedom that is not perishable, not present, not of this world, yet this psalm too is understood to contain nothing earthly, nothing lowly, nothing suited to past times. Rather, according to prophetic, evangelical, and apostolic authority, it foretells all those hopes toward which the longing of the patriarchs, the expectation of the saints, the faith of the apostles, the confession of the martyrs, and the course of all believers stretch out: that is, toward the holy times, toward residence and fellowship in the eternal city, toward the blessedness of the Lord's kingdom, toward the new glory of spiritual freedom, toward partnership in divine eternity and kingdom. And so that this may be understood more completely, let us treat the force and the proper meanings of the words themselves.

"Unless the Lord build the house for himself, they have labored in vain who build it. Unless the Lord guard the city, they have kept watch in vain who guard it. It is vain for you to rise at dawn." Many hold that Solomon, while intent on building the city and the temple, at the very time of his construction prophesied the overthrow of the city and temple he was founding, since the title too shows him to be the author of this psalm. For with great resources and all the wealth of his kingdom he was attempting to accomplish something magnificent and worthy of God; for, as it is written, as many as one hundred and fifty thousand men were occupied in the various uses and services of the building. And although, when everything was completed, the greatest care for guarding the city and the temple had to be applied by the practice he had himself established, yet, since he was not unaware that the work of so great a labor would prove vain, and that this same city would be torn down by the Babylonians because of the sins of the people, they say he spoke these words: "Unless the Lord build the house for himself, they have labored to no purpose who build it." They think, moreover, that this prophecy was fulfilled in the times when, after the captivity, King Darius granted the people their return, and the city was rebuilt by Zorobabel and Josedec.

The completion of the building itself could refute their poor sense. For through the prophet Haggai the Lord spoke thus to these same restorers of Jerusalem: "Yet once more I shake heaven and earth and sea and dry land, and I will overturn the thrones of kings." The force of the psalm, then, is to be understood as fitting not only the times of Solomon but also those of Haggai. For the labor of both buildings is vain: the city built by Zerubbabel today offers nothing of itself but the ash of its burning and the ugliness of shapeless ruins. And these thrones of kings, which the builders thought they were restoring for the glory of an eternal kingdom, a repeated devastation has overturned, while the throne of the other kingdoms is still to be overturned.

Rightly, then, did the prophet prophesy that the works of the human race are empty. He knows that the watches of human guards are useless; he knows that the morning cares of those who rise early are to no purpose. The city, both founded by him and restored by others, is now nothing: neither the first building nor the later one availed. And rightly is he himself the prophet of the city's overthrow who had been the author of its construction. The house, then, that is to remain must be built by God, because unless it is built by the Lord it will not remain. The city must be guarded by God so that it may not perish, because unless the city is guarded by God it will be torn down. And first let us understand what the house of God is, so that through this it may be known in what way, being built by him, it is to remain.

A house is the dwelling of one who dwells in it. For the divine word adapts itself to the habit and nature of our understanding, fitting the common names of things to the expression of its teaching and instruction; for it speaks to us, not to itself, and therefore uses our words in speaking. Our custom, indeed, has been to call the assemblies of the churches, or in those days of the temple, which the enclosures of buildings shut in for the secret worship of the mysteries, either the house of God or the temple; and Scripture too, prophetic or apostolic, has used these names to designate places. But we are taught by his own words that this, which is so called by us and among us, is not the house of God. For he says: "Heaven is my throne, and the earth the footstool of my feet: what house will you build for me, or what will be the place of my rest? Did not my hand make all these things?" The infinite God, then, is not shut in by the houses of buildings, nor is the boundless power that made all things contained in any places, as the apostle testifies to this very thing: "God, who made the world and all that is in it, since he is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands."

Has God, then, no rest, no dwelling? And perhaps one who is nowhere is not believed to exist at all. Let us hear him, then, testifying of his own rest and dwelling; for he says: "This is my rest for ever and ever; here I will dwell, for I have chosen it." He chose Zion. But surely not that Zion about which the present prophecy makes its complaint: "Unless the Lord build the house, they have labored in vain who build it"? Zion, in which the temple had been, has been overthrown: and where is the Lord's eternal throne? Where his everlasting rest? What temple is habitable for him? Surely that of which it is said: "You are the temple of God, and the Spirit of God dwells in you." This is the house and this is the temple of God, full of God's teachings and virtues and, by holiness of heart, able to receive the divine indwelling, to which this same prophet has testified thus: "Your holy temple, wonderful in equity." Holiness, holiness, human self-control is a temple for God.

The house, then, must be built by God. For one constructed by human works does not endure, nor does one founded on the teachings of the world stand firm, nor will it be guarded by the empty care of our labor and anxiety. It is to be constructed otherwise, and guarded otherwise: it is not to be begun on flowing, slipping sand, but its foundation is to be laid on the prophets and apostles. It is to be enlarged with living stones, held together by the cornerstone, and built up by the growth of mutual joining into the perfect man and the measure of the body of Christ, and adorned also with the beauty and grace of spiritual gifts. Built thus by God, that is, by his teachings, it will not fall. The building of this house captive Israel will now attain after the fullness of the Gentiles. This house grows into many houses, through the various buildings of the faithful in each one of us, for the adornment and spaciousness of that blessed city.

Of this city the Lord has long been the watchful guardian: when he protects Abraham the stranger, when he spares Isaac who was to be sacrificed, when he enriches Jacob in his service, when he sets Joseph, who had been sold, over Egypt, when he strengthens Moses against Pharaoh, when he chooses Joshua as leader in wars, when he frees David from all dangers, when he rewards Solomon with the gift of wisdom, when he stands by the prophets, when he catches up Elijah, when he chooses Elisha, when he feeds Daniel, when he bedews the youths in the furnace, when he stands as a fourth beside the three; when, in being born of the virgin, he instructs Joseph through an angel, strengthens Mary, sends John ahead, chooses the apostles, and prays to the Father, saying: "Holy Father, keep them; while I was with them, I kept them in your name"; when at last, after his passion, he promises the watches of his eternal guarding over us, saying: "Behold, I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the age." This is the eternal guard of that blessed and holy city, which, from many coming together into one and in each one of us, is a city for God. For this is the possession pleasing to him: a holy body and a faithful soul.

That it is to be built by the Lord, he himself testifies in the Gospels, saying: "Amen I say to you, you will not complete the cities of Israel until the Son of Man comes." And the blessed apostle recalls this time and this building, saying: "But when the fullness of the Gentiles has come in, then what remains of Israel will be saved." These cities, then, that is, the dwelling and fellowship of each holy body and soul pleasing to God, have this one craftsman of their perfected dwelling. This city, then, must be built by the Lord, so that it may grow toward the increase of its completion; for a building begun is not yet perfection, but through building the completion of perfection is attained.

In building these houses of bodies and cities of souls, however, human arts are idle. For all the watches of the philosophers are empty, their anxieties idle, and their zeal in investigating the secrets of nature and searching out the labors of the world is frustrated. Such work builds a house that will soon fall. Empty too will be their morning resurrection. Although it has been appointed for all bodies that have come into the light, those that have not been built by the Lord will in no way attain the glory of the morning resurrection that has already begun in the Lord rising from the dead.

And so that the psalm might admit no notion of an earthly and bodily understanding, it teaches by the very order of its words the time of this perfection and the meaning of the things to be built. For after rejecting human buildings, earthly guards, and their rising in the morning, it says: "Rise after you have sat, you who eat the bread of sorrow. When he has given sleep to his beloved, behold, the inheritance of the Lord are sons, the reward of the fruit of the womb." No room for doubt is left in these words: only the faith of understanding is needed, for the words speak the thing itself. Events afterward fulfil the truth of the prophecy, and the teaching of the Gospels and apostles supplies the knowledge of the events. The city, then, that is to remain must be built by God, since human building is weak and perishable. And lest we think this city is stones, mortar, and timber, it teaches what this city is and when the city will be perfect, saying: "Rise after you have sat." Sitting is the rest of those who are at rest; from it those are commanded to rise who are to be fitted for this perfect city.

And who, pray, are these who are commanded to rise after they have sat? Surely "you who eat the bread of sorrow." He eats the bread of sorrow who remembers that he is a man born in vices and living in them. For while our will, through fear of God and hope of eternal things, strives toward the perfect works of innocence, and on the other hand a kind of natural habit of vices holds us back in those very things from which we struggle to emerge, we receive the sorrow of life through the weakness of a will left helpless, according to the saying of the prophet: "He who adds knowledge adds sorrow." For since the knowledge of truth urges our will to advance toward gaining what is profitable, and the habit of nature holds back the will that knows it ought to advance, progress in knowledge is progress in sorrow: it grieves at being held back by nature in the same measure as it understands, through knowledge, that nature must be left behind. Hence, then, is the sorrow of life; hence is the bread of sorrow. This same prophet recalls this life and sorrow, saying: "You will feed us with the bread of tears, and give us tears to drink in measure." Yet we must always strive and never cease, nor must we fail to press toward perfection because we grieve that what we strive for cannot be reached; rather, in the very persistence of striving, we must grieve that we cannot reach what we strive for. The Lord recalls this sorrow, saying: "Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted," granting the blessedness of comfort on account of the mourning and sorrow over a completion not yet attained.

The very order of the words, arranged in time, has kept the prophetic force, when it says: "Rise after you have sat." One of these is in the present, that is, "rise," so that faith might not hesitate as about uncertain and doubtful things, since the truth of the prophetic admonition brought, as it were, a present effect and instilled in us while still alive the confidence of an unhesitating hope. But the time of this command, which is present, he deferred to the future in saying: "when you have sat." In the commands, which are not to be doubted, lies the truth of the present; in the attaining of them, the dispensation of a time to be awaited is reserved.

And so that they may know when they are to rise, once they have sat, the fullness of the time itself has been shown: "When he has given," it says, "sleep to his beloved." God very often calls the death of the saints sleep, as to David himself: "When you have fallen asleep and rested with your fathers, then I will raise up from your seed one who will be to me a son and to whom I will be a father"; and the Lord says of Lazarus: "Lazarus is sleeping"; and the apostle says of those who will rise: "For we who are alive will not go before those who have fallen asleep." So when the fullness of the Gentiles has been received into the sleep of death and the remnant of Israel has been saved, then after this sitting and sleep comes the time of resurrection. And since, while the fullness of the times is being concluded, the fullness of the Gentiles who are to believe will also, according to the apostle, be completed, he therefore says: "When he has given sleep to his beloved," showing that the time for those sitting to rise is also the time for giving sleep to the beloved, that is, when all the fullness has already been received.

What the sleeping beloved and the sitting who will rise are, he shows at once, with a certain indication of a present thing, saying: "Behold, the inheritance of the Lord." The saints, namely those sleeping and those sitting who will rise, are the inheritance of the Lord: not that carnal Jacob, nor the earthly Israel that became a portion and the measured lot of inheritance by the division of the nations, according to Moses, who says: "When the Most High divided the nations according to the number of the angels of God, and Jacob became the Lord's portion, Israel the measured lot of his inheritance." And since this Israel, because of its impiety, no longer deserves to be the inheritance, he shows what the inheritance is, saying: "Behold, the inheritance of the Lord are sons, the reward of the fruit of the womb." The Lord's inheritance, then, is in the sons, which he has received from the reward of the fruit of the womb. For this fruit is not empty, by which God, remaining what he was before, is born from a virgin's womb. For his reward is the inheritance, and the inheritance is the sons. "As many," it says, "as received him, to them he gave power to become sons of God"; and again: "Little children, yet a little while I am with you." These sons, then, are the inheritance, and this inheritance is the reward of the fruit of the womb. The Lord, then, is the fruit of the womb, whom the virgin brought forth, bearing him from herself as the fruit of our life. And this is his reward who willed, by being born of a virgin, to be the fruit of the womb: that the nations, which he would beget as sons through faith, should be his inheritance.

That he received this reward of the inheritance because he became the fruit of the womb, another psalm testifies, saying: "Ask of me, and I will give you the nations as your inheritance, and the ends of the earth as your possession"; and the apostle testifies, saying: "Who, though he was in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, made in the likeness of men and found in appearance as a man; he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross. Therefore God exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, of things in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that the Lord Jesus is in the glory of God the Father." This, then, is the reward of the fruit of the womb, which is given in a name, conferred in honor, bestowed in glory. And the birth in human weakness, taken up by his immortal nature, has this recompense: that, because he himself became the fruit of the womb, his reward too should become the inheritance of the nations, and the inheritance itself should be the sons.

Then follows: "As arrows in the hand of the mighty, so are the sons of the shaken off." The use of arrows is this: that once loosed they are carried in swift flight and directed in an unswerving line to whatever target is set. That there are arrows the Lord uses, we read thus, when it says: "He sent his arrows and scattered them." In Isaiah too it is written thus, which perhaps may also be understood as said of the Lord himself: "And he made me like a chosen arrow and hid me in his quiver, and said to me: It is a great thing for you to be called my servant." Such, then, are God's arrows, swift in flight, faithful in striking: by which, as spiritual reasoning shows, we must understand to be meant the prophetic and apostolic teachings in which the word of God is, sent everywhere, piercing, convicting, flying.

Although we recall that in very many places there are also deadly and lethal arrows, of which it is written: "He has made his arrows for those who will burn," yet here nothing can be understood as said of avenging arrows, since it now says: "As arrows in the hand of the mighty, so are the sons of the shaken off." Pharaoh was shaken off into destruction in the Red Sea for the crime of impiety. We know too that the dust shaken off the apostles' feet is a sentence of curse. And since either the prophets themselves, who were sons of the shaken off, that is, of sinners and the cursed, were sent like flying and faithful arrows of heavenly teaching, or the apostles and teachers of the churches believed from among the nations shaken off into the curse through their impiety, he therefore says: "As arrows in the hand of the mighty, so are the sons of the shaken off": traversing the world in their flight, wounding unbelieving hearts with the dart of teaching, and piercing the incitements of all sins with a saving shaft.

And so that this might be understood as said of those whom God would now send forth from the sons of the shaken off, after the manner of arrows, for the teaching of salvation, there follows in the words: "Blessed the man who will fill his desire from them; they will not be put to shame when they speak to their enemies in the gate." Blessed, then, is he who has been able to fill his desire from them, that is, either from the arrows or from the sons of the shaken off: to fill himself, namely, with the desirable words of teaching and to be satisfied with the proclaimed and awaited fruits of good things to come. And to show that these, by God's teaching, are the builders of that city he mentioned above, he therefore concluded thus: "From them they will not be put to shame when they speak to their enemies in the gate." This "from them" either belongs to the blessed man who will fill his desire from them, or will be proper to the sons of the shaken off themselves, who from them are not put to shame when they speak to their enemies in the gate.

Nor is there any doubt what those will speak in the gate of the city built by the Lord through their preaching. We remember that it is said in another psalm: "You who lift me up from the gates of death, that I may proclaim all your praises in the gates of the daughter of Zion." And here indeed there are many gates, in which the prophet, lifted up from the gates of death, proclaims all the praises of God; but we know there is one royal, lordly, heavenly gate, of which it is said: "This is the gate of the Lord; the righteous shall enter by it." And since these sons of the shaken off will not be put to shame speaking to their enemies in the gate, they must, in speaking to their enemies, who will not be counted worthy to enter with the righteous, not be put to shame: reproaching them for their impiety toward God, their disobedience toward those who preach, their unbelief toward the eternal promises, their hatred of the innocent and their savagery against the very members of the church; themselves confident and trembling at no doubt about their faith and religion, but keeping these enemies of theirs from the approach and entrance of him who says: "No one goes to the Father except through me," our Lord Jesus Christ, who is blessed for ever and ever. Amen.