The last psalms of Vespers: Psalm 132 on Tuesdays

This week, by way of a wrap of this Lent series of psalm notes, I want, this week, to come back to a point I made much earlier concerning the the selection of the last psalm of each day at Vespers.

All of these, I want to suggest, all have a focus on aspects of the monastic vocation, but each of which also have broader implications for all of us, as we prepare for Easter.

I want to start with the most explicit connection between the monastic life and the last psalms of the hour, which is Psalm 132 said on Tuesday, whose opening words about brethren living in unity have long been interpreted as referring to the monastic life.

Psalm 132

Here is the text of the psalm:

Vulgate	Douay-Rheims
Canticum graduum David.	A gradual canticle of David.
Ecce quam bonum, et quam jucúndum * habitáre fratres in unum.	Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity:
2  Sicut unguéntum in cápite, * quod descéndit in barbam, barbam Aaron.	Like the precious ointment on the head, that ran down upon the beard, the beard of Aaron,
3  Quod descéndit in oram vestiménti ejus: * sicut ros Hermon, qui descéndit in montem Sion.	which ran down to the skirt of his garment: As the dew of Hermon, which descends upon mount Sion.
4  Quóniam illic mandávit Dóminus benedictiónem, * et vitam usque in sæculum	For there the Lord has commanded blessing, and life for evermore.

The early church in Jerusalem as the model for monks

St Augustine in his Enarration on the Psalm, explains that the psalm is the very origin of the name for monks, from the Greek monos, or one:

For these same words of the Psalter, this sweet sound, that honeyed melody, as well of the mind as of the hymn, did even beget the Monasteries. By this sound were stirred up the brethren who longed to dwell together. This verse was their trumpet. It sounded through the whole earth, and they who had been divided, were gathered together. The summons of God, the summons of the Holy Spirit, the summons of the Prophets, were not heard in Judah, yet were heard through the whole world. They were deaf to that sound, amid whom it was sung; they were found with their ears open, of whom it was said, They shall see him, who were not told of him; they shall understand who heard not. 

...From the words of this Psalm was taken the name of Monks, that no one may reproach you who are Catholics by reason of the name...Since the Psalm says, Behold, how good and how pleasant is it, that brethren should dwell together in one, why then should we not call Monks so? For Monos is one. Not one in any manner, for a man in a crowd is one, but though he can be called one along with others, he cannot be Monos, that is, alone, for Monos means one alone. They then who thus live together as to make one man, so that they really possess what is written, one mind and one heart...,

He goes on to point to the model of the Jerusalem community described in Acts as the key model, a model also reflected in St Benedict's Rule.  The first Jewish converts, St Augustine explains:

they first dwelt together in unity; who sold all they had, and laid the price of their goods at the Apostles' feet, as is read in the Acts of the Apostles.  And distribution was made to each one as he had need, and none called anything his own, but they had all things common. And what is together in unity? They had, he says, one mind and one heart God-wards. So they were the first who heard, Behold how good and how pleasant is it, that brethren dwell together. They were the first to hear, but heard it not alone.

Oblates and others as dwellers in unity

We do not have to limit the meaning of the verse only to monks however, as St Cassiodorus' commentary on the psalm explains, arguing that 'to dwell in unity means maintaining the right path doctrinally and in doing good works:

...the dwelling which the Lord seeks, not that of an enclosing wall uniting our bodies, but that which joins together our souls in an alliance of piety.. His expression, brethren in unity, denotes those established under the one Father in the comradeship of faith, possessing as the Acts of the Apostles has it: One heart and one soul. Yet those too who wander through desert wastes dwell in unity, for though they seem to be separated physically, they are known to be undivided in the harmony of faith. 

May we all be unified in faith and good works this Easter.