Christ ascends the cross - Psalm 122 (Gradual Psalm No 4)

Church of St. Peter in Santander, Spain

In the previous Gradual Psalm, the speaker focused his attention on the holy city.

Now, with the first psalm of Sext, Psalm 122, we are invited to look even higher, lifting our eyes towards God himself.  There may be something programmatic about this, for Sext of course, was traditionally said at (solar) midday when the Sun is at its highest point, and also the hour when Christ ascended the cross.

Psalm 122 - Ad te levavi

Vulgate	Douay-Rheims
Canticum graduum
1  Ad te levávi óculos meos, * qui hábitas in cælis.	To you have I lifted up my eyes, who dwell in heaven.
2  Ecce sicut óculi servórum, * in mánibus dominórum suórum.	2 Behold as the eyes of servants are on the hands of their masters,
3  Sicut óculi ancíllæ in mánibus dóminæ suæ: * ita óculi nostri ad Dóminum, Deum nostrum, donec misereátur nostri.	As the eyes of the handmaid are on the hands of her mistress: so are our eyes unto the Lord our God, until he have mercy on us.
4  Miserére nostri, Dómine, miserére nostri: * quia multum repléti sumus despectióne:	3 Have mercy on us, O Lord, have mercy on us: for we are greatly filled with contempt.
5  Quia multum repléta est ánima nostra: * oppróbrium abundántibus, et despéctio supérbis.	4 For our soul is greatly filled: we are a reproach to the rich, and contempt to the proud

This psalm, I think, takes us to the fundamental orientation we need to cultivate as we undertake this earthly pilgrimage, namely our focus on God.   Beset by the effects of our own sins and the attacks of enemies, we wait anxiously and pray for God to show us the signs of his forgiveness, and wait for the second coming.  Origen, for example, interpreted the psalm as urging those who trust in God to follow the example of Christ in lifting their eyes to heaven in anticipation of receiving God's mercy.  

The opening verses set before us the idea of our total dependence of God for his gifts - and punishments - just as a slave is dependent on his or her master/mistress.  The analogy of the slave or servant’s relationship to their master or mistress, however, is not one that has many resonances to a modern Western reader.  Accordingly, we might, perhaps, better think of the psalm as being firstly about self-abandonment: the slave is totally dependent on his master for food, clothing, instructions on what to do, punishments and rewards; so too should we think of our relationship to God, acknowledging that nothing truly comes from our own efforts, but all requires his grace.  St Ambrose writes, 'Christ is everything for us'.

The second dimension of the slave/servant analogy that is worth considering is the implication of the reverent awe with which we should raise our eyes to God.  Several of the Fathers see this psalm as representing a progression from fear of God based on the threat of punishment (looking to the mountains), to filial fear, based on love of God.  Cassiodorus, for example, comments that:

First he raised his eyes to the mountains, but now he has lifted up the eyes of his heart to the Lord Himself. Thus in his struggle to mount higher by spiritual steps, he has sought happily to draw near to the divine mercy. What a fine sight to see men drawing close to God and raising this sluggish mass of flesh to the rewards of heavenly grace! But this is the doing only of Him who bade Lazarus emerge from the tomb, who stretched out His right hand and saved Peter when he was drowning, who translated Elias and Enoch to heaven while they were still alive,1 and who performed other similar miracles such as the Godhead's power performs every day. It is men who are one in charity on this earth who mount these steps; only those who have deserved to be Christ's members can hasten to their Head. So just as in our hearts we have observed this wonderful ascent, so now with attentive minds let us discuss this lofty psalm. 

The sense of verses 4 and 5 is that we are fed up with being looked down on by the rich and proud - noting that rich and proud doesn't just mean material wealth, but rather evildoers in general who pursue their own pleasure at everyone else's expense (though the two conditions often coincide). The psalm serves as reminder that adherence to the good is somehow affronting to many, and brings forth attempts to humiliate those who pursue truth.  The moral truth pointed to here is that we must bear our sufferings with patience, knowing that God will fill us up with good things.

Liturgical and Scriptural uses of the psalm

NT references	-
RB cursus	Sext Tues-Sat+AN 4473
Monastic feasts etc	Gradual Psalms; LOOL Sext AN 3775 (3);
Roman pre 1911	Tuesday Vespers
Responsories	-
Roman post 1911	1911-62: Tuesday Vespers . 1970:
Mass propers (EF)	Lent 1 Monday, IN (1-3); Lent 3 Sunday, TR (1-3)

You can find more detailed notes on the individual verses by following the links below:

• verses 1-3; and
• verses 4-5.

Or you can go on to Psalm 123.

Jesus as the temple - Psalm 121 (Gradual Psalm no 3)

St Patrick's Colebrook, Tasmania,
where the house of God is being built once more by the new Prior of Our Lady of Cana
Photo credit: Joshua, Oriens Journal

The third of the Gradual Psalms, and the last of Terce through the week, is Psalm 121, in which the pilgrims have finally decided to set out on their journey, and so look forward to the glories of the heavenly city, the Church Triumphant, to which they are headed.

Yet the psalm also reflects that tension between the promise of heaven, and foretaste of it we experience now in the liturgy, since for the Christian, the Church Militant is our Jerusalem; more, Scripture tells us that Christ himself is the temple.

Psalm 121: Laetatus sum

Vulgate	Douay-Rheims
Canticum graduum.
1  Lætátus sum in his, quæ dicta sunt mihi: *  In domum Dómini íbimus.	I rejoiced at the things that were said to me: We shall go into the house of the Lord.
2  Stantes erant pedes nostri, * in átriis tuis, Jerúsalem.	2 Our feet were standing in your courts, O Jerusalem.
3  Jerúsalem, quæ ædificátur ut cívitas: * cujus participátio ejus in idípsum.	3 Jerusalem, which is built as a city, which is compact together.
4  Illuc enim ascendérunt tribus, tribus Dómini: * testimónium Israël ad confiténdum nómini Dómini.	4 For thither did the tribes go up, the tribes of the Lord: the testimony of Israel, to praise the name of the Lord.
5  Quia illic sedérunt sedes in judício, * sedes super domum David.	5 Because their seats have sat in judgment, seats upon the house of David.
6  Rogáte quæ ad pacem sunt Jerúsalem: * et abundántia diligéntibus te:	6 Pray for the things that are for the peace of Jerusalem: and abundance for them that love you.
7  Fiat pax in virtúte tua: * et abundántia in túrribus tuis.	7 Let peace be in your strength: and abundance in your towers
8  Propter fratres meos, et próximos meos, * loquébar pacem de te:	8 For the sake of my brethren, and of my neighbours, I spoke peace of you.
9  Propter domum Dómini, Dei nostri, * quæsívi bona tibi.	9 Because of the house of the Lord our God, I have sought good things for you.

Liturgical uses of Psalm 121

Psalm 121 is a Vespers psalm in the Roman Office, but in the Benedictine Rite, it closes Terce.

NT references	Eph 2: 19-22 (3)
RB cursus	Terce Tues-Sat
Monastic feasts etc	Gradual psalms; Vespers in Common of female; Circumcision; LOOL Terce, Vespers AN 3229 (1); 1895 (v2)
Roman pre 1911	Tuesday Vespers
Responsories	-
Roman post 1911	1911-62: Tuesday Vespers. 1970: Evening Prayer - Sunday of Wk 4
Mass propers (EF)	Lent 4 (IN V, 1; GR:1,7; CO, 3-4); Post Pentecost 18 In V (1); (GR 1, 7)

It also features in the 'Common' for all of the types of women saints, including feasts of Our Lady.

In the Mass, it is used in both the Gradual and Communio for the fourth Sunday of Lent (Laetare Sunday), which focuses heavily on the theme of Jerusalem, as well as on the Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost.

The pilgrimage sets off

Although some modern commentators seem to read this psalm very literally, suggesting that the pilgrims have now arrived at Jerusalem, the more traditional explanation of it is that the pilgrims are actually only just setting off on their journey, and are here contemplating where they are headed.  In the previous two psalms, we've been getting ready to go: in the first, realising that it is time; and in the second, considering the help we can hope for along the way.  In this psalm, the pilgrims are finally ready to set out, for the first verse of Psalm 121 is a formulaic way of announcing that one is going on a pilgrimage.

Where are they headed?  The courts of Jerusalem (or gates in the Hebrew Masoretic Text) of verse 2 can be seen as a looking forward to our final destination of heaven, with the towers and abundance of verses 6&7 referring to the promise of safe haven and eternal happiness that is enjoyed by the Church Triumphant.

The Church in the here and now

Yet there is a sense in which we are already standing in the courts of heaven, at least when we worship, for the Jerusalem of the psalm can also be read as a reference to Christ's earthly mission, and his establishment of the Church in the here and now, the Church Militant.

From this perspective, the compactness of the city that makes it easily defensible is a reminder that the culture we must embrace is not the secularist one that surrounds us, but rather that which comes from Christ.  Dom Gueranger’s commentary, in his Liturgical Year, on this psalm on the context of its use as an Introit explains this dual meaning:

...celebrate once more the joy felt by the Christian people at hearing the glad tidings, that they are soon to go into the house of the Lord. That house is heaven, into which we are to enter on the last day, our Lord Jesus Christ leading the way. But the house is also the temple in which we are now assembled, and into which we are introduced by the representatives of that same Lord of ours, that is, by His priests.

There is of course a considerable challenge in this for us, in that the human representatives of the Church in this world all too often seem all too intent on leading us away from heaven, leading the People of God to hell instead, and of persecuting those who do remain faithful.  Verse 5, though, reminds us that those who are supposed to be leading the tribes of the true Israel will themselves be held accountable, and that:

...he that shall scandalize one of these little ones that believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone should be hanged about his neck, and that he should be drowned in the depth of the sea.

The peace of Christ

The second half of the psalm is intended to excite our desire for heaven, for it speaks of that very Benedictine virtue, the pursuit of a truly Christian peace.

In a General Audience on this psalm, Pope Benedict XVI drew on Pope St Gregory the Great to explains what this should mean for us:

"Pope St Gregory the Great tells us what the Psalm means for our lives in practice. He tells us that we must be a true Jerusalem in the Church today, that is, a place of peace, "supporting one another" as we are; "supporting one another together" in the joyful certainty that the Lord "supports us all". In this way the Church will grow like a true Jerusalem, a place of peace."

More reading

You can notes on the individual verses of the psalm here:

• Introduction to Psalm 121
• verses 1-3;
• verses 4-6;
• verses 7-9; and
•  in the context for the Mass propers of the 18th Sunday after Pentecost.

Or you can go on to Psalm 122.