Introduction to Psalm 125 - (Gradual Psalm No 7/1)

Biserica Ortodoxă din Deal, Cluj-Napoca), Romania.

Psalm 125 is the second of the second block of the Gradual Psalms when said devotionally, but in the Benedictine Office it opens weekday None.

Psalm 125: In convertendo Domino 

Vulgate	Douay-Rheims
Canticum graduum.
1  In converténdo Dóminus captivitátem Sion: * facti sumus sicut consoláti:	When the Lord brought back the captivity of Sion, we became like men comforted.
2  Tunc replétum est gáudio os nostrum: * et lingua nostra exsultatióne	2 Then was our mouth filled with gladness; and our tongue with joy.
3  Tunc dicent inter Gentes: * Magnificávit Dóminus fácere cum eis.	Then shall they say among the Gentiles: The Lord has done great things for them.
4  Magnificávit Dóminus fácere nobíscum: * facti sumus lætántes.	3 The Lord has done great things for us; we have become joyful.
5  Convérte, Dómine, captivitátem nostram, * sicut torrens in austro.	4 Turn again our captivity, O Lord, as a stream in the south.
6  Qui séminant in lácrimis, * in exsultatióne metent.	5 They that sow in tears shall reap in joy.
7  Eúntes ibant et flebant, * mitténtes sémina sua.	6 Going they went and wept, casting their seeds.
8  Veniéntes autem vénient cum exsultatióne, * portántes manípulos suos.	7 But coming they shall come with joyfulness, carrying their sheaves.
Gloria Patri et Filio et Spiritui Sancto.	Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost
Sicut erat in principio, et nunc, et semper, et in saecula saeculorum. Amen.	As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

Scriptural context: foreshadowing the reopening of heaven

Joy and the cross?

In the context of None there is something of a paradox associated with this psalm, since this psalm is about joy and comfort, whereas None is traditionally associated with the hour when Christ died on the Cross, when the Temple veil was torn in two by a dramatic earthquake.

The paradox is readily resolved though, if one considers St Benedict's constant orientation towards the Resurrection: as Our Lord pointed out immediately before the events of holy week, and alluded in verse 5, the seed has to die in order to bring forth new life.  Accordingly this psalm focuses on the triumph of the Cross, presenting us with the image of God as our comforter, who turns sorrow into joy.

Pope Benedict XVI’s commentary on this psalm at a General Audience developed this theme, drawing on St Bede:

….St Bede the Venerable (672/3-735), commenting on the words by which Jesus announced to his disciples the sorrow that lay in store for them, and at the same time the joy that would spring from their affliction (cf. Jn 16: 20). Bede recalls that "Those who loved Christ were weeping and mourning when they saw him captured by his enemies, bound, carried away for judgment, condemned, scourged, mocked and lastly crucified, pierced by the spear and buried. Instead, those who loved the world rejoiced... when they condemned to a most ignominious death the One of whom the sight alone they could not tolerate. The disciples were overcome by grief at the death of the Lord, but once they had learned of his Resurrection, their sorrow changed to joy; then when they had seen the miracle of the Ascension, they praised and blessed the Lord, filled with even greater joy, as the Evangelist Luke testified (cf. Lk 24: 53).”

Convert us O Lord

A number of modern commentators start from the reference to captivity to suggest that this psalm originated as a response to the return of the Exiles to Jerusalem after being freed by the Persians.  While that is certainly plausible, this view is entirely conjectural, and the sentiments, as St John Chrysostom points out, fit any number of historical occasions.  The real captivity that Scripture is pointing us to, surely, is our captivity to our sins, and in particular the legacy of Adam's sin, which locked mankind out of heaven.

  

In salvation history, the deliverance of the chosen people from Egypt and the return after the Babylonian captivity both foreshadow the spiritual sense of the psalm: St Augustine explains that Sion here really means heaven; our captivity is that due to sin which makes all of us in this world pilgrims rather than immediate citizens of the heavenly realm.  But due to Christ’s sacrifice on the cross, we are freed from the captivity of sin, and can rightly rejoice. 

There is though, perhaps a two stage process suggested in this psalm: verses 1-4 point to the things God has previously done for us, in reopening the way to heaven; but verses 5-7 can perhaps be interpreted as about us individually in the here and now, who still need to have Christ's redemption applied to us.  We have to sow through faith and good works, so that we can reap our reward through Christ.

Freedom from attachment to the things of this world

St Robert Bellarmine gives the reference to captivity a slightly different spin that I think is also worth considering, seeing it as a reference to attachment to the things of this world:also picks up this theme, warning us not to be too attached to our captivity to the world:

Having asked God to bring back all the captives to their country, he now addresses the captives themselves, and exhorts them not to be deterred by the labor of the journey, or to be detained by regard for any property they may have acquired in a foreign land, as they were sure to have much more and more valuable property in their own; and most happily compares them to the sower and the reaper… 

This applies peculiarly to us, pilgrims as we are; for those who are content with their captiv­ity, and are so engaged by the love of this world as never to think on their country, heaven; they look upon the road adopt­ed by the just to be nothing better than a positive loss and an injury. While the true exiles make all the haste they can to their country above; they freely give to the poor, who will never return what is given; they labor, without fee or reward, in teaching their brethren, as did the apostles; they freely renounce all manner of pleasure; all which seems the height of folly to those who know not what is to come of it, while, in real­ity, it is "sowing in tears," that they may afterwards, in due time, "reap in joy." 

And if they who are still so attached to their captivity, would seriously reflect on this, they certainly would change their mind, would begin to go up, and, no matter what it may cost them, they would sow the seed, that they may soon after reap it in joy in the kingdom of heaven.”

Scriptural and liturgical uses of the psalm

NT references	Lk 1:49 (4);  Rev 21:4 (6); Jn 12:24: 16:20 (7)
RB cursus	None Tues to Sat
Monastic feasts etc	Gradual Psalms; LOOL None An 2839 (1); 2736, 5334 (6),
Responsories	Dedication of a church no 2 (Fundata), 6756 6402 (alt verse for St clement in H);
Roman pre 1911	Tuesday Vespers
Roman post 1911	1911-62: Tuesday Vespers . 1970: Evening Prayer - Wednesday of Wk 3
Mass propers (EF)	Common of several martyrs: TR (5-6)

And you can find verse by notes on the psalm either by continuing on here, or jumping to the relevant verse:

Psalm 125 verse 1
Psalm 125 verse 2
Psalm 125 verses 3-4
Psalm 125 verse 5
Psalm 125 verse 6
Psalm 125 verse 7
Psalm 125 verse 8

God's blessing on us - Psalm 133 v4

Paris, Bibl. Sainte-Geneviève, 1124

The final verse of Psalm 133 is a blessing that is similar to that of the priestly blessing found in Numbers 6:24.

4	V/NV	Benedícat te Dóminus ex sion, * qui fecit cælum et terram.
	JH	Benedicat tibi Dominus ex Sion,  factor caeli et terrae.
		εὐλογήσει σε κύριος ἐκ Σιων ὁ ποιήσας τὸν οὐρανὸν καὶ τὴν γῆν

benedico, dixi, dictum, ere 3, to bless

Sion, Mt Zion, one of the hills on which Jerusalem was built.

facio, feci, factum, ere 3,  to make, do, cause, bring to pass

caelum, i, n., or caeli, orum, m.  heaven, the abode of God; the heavens as opposed to the earth

terra, ae, the earth, in both a lit. and a fig. sense. (a) orbis terrae, the world;  a country, esp. the Land of Israel

DR	May the Lord out of Sion bless you, he that made heaven and earth
B	May the Lord, who made heaven and earth, bless thee out of Sion.
MD	May the Lord bless thee from Sion: He Who made heaven and earth!
C	The Lord that made heaven and earth give thee blessing out of Sion.
RSV	May the LORD bless you from Zion, he who made heaven and earth!
K	May the Lord who dwells in Sion bless thee, the Lord who made heaven and earth!
G	May the Lord bless you from Zion, he who made both heaven and earth.

He blesses you, individually

The Latin here conveys something that the English cannot, namely the shift to you singular in this verse (te).  Cassiodorus, following St Augustine, sees it as a reference back to the previous psalm:

Earlier he used the plural throughout, but he now ended the psalm in the singular, so that once he had gathered his faithful brethren in unity, the gifts of blessing could be bestowed on the people who now loved the Lord. So if we wish to be blessed, the love of the holy Trinity and the unity of the blessed Church must enfold us.

St Augustine expands on this theme:

He exhorts many to bless, and Himself blesses one, because He makes one out of many, since "it is good and pleasant for brethren to dwell together in one." It is a plural number, brethren, and yet singular, to dwell together in one. Let none of you say, It comes not to me. Do you know of whom he speaks, "the Lord bless you out of Zion." He blessed one. Be one, and the blessing comes to you.

Creator and redeemer

 The final blessing, which can also be interpreted as that from the priests over the departing pilgrims at the literal level, serves as a reminder that God alone is our creator and redeemer.  Cassiodorus comments:

So if we wish to be blessed, the love of the holy Trinity and the unity of the blessed Church must enfold us. Observe too how aptly a perfect conclusion has enclosed this psalm; the person who has mounted up to the heavenly Jerusalem has received as reward a heavenly blessing.

St Jerome is more expansive on the image of Jerusalem:

You bless the Lord, the Lord blesses you….from the watchtower, from the Church, from true Christian doctrine, from devout faith….from the heavenly Jerusalem; in the mother of the first born, where the joys of the future are; where the archangels are; where the rest of the heavenly powers are; where the apostles, the prophets, the saints, the martyrs are; where throngs of angels and saints follow the Lamb wherever he goes…

Continuing the ascent

St Jerome though, also interprets the final words  as an exhortation to further effort, with heaven a reference to the saints, and earth to sinners.  Those who have reached the heights, he suggests, must not become complacent, for they can still fall.  And those who have not yet made the ascent, still have time to repent and reach heaven.

And so, let us resume our climb!

 Psalm 133: Compline daily; Gradual Psalm No 15

Vulgate	Douay-Rheims
Canticum graduum	A gradual canticle
1 Ecce nunc benedícite Dóminum, * omnes servi Dómini	Behold now bless the Lord, all you servants of the Lord
2 Qui statis in domo Dómini, * in átriis domus Dei nostri.	Who stand in the house of the Lord, in the courts of the house of our God
3 In nóctibus extóllite manus vestras in sancta, * et benedícite Dóminum.	In the nights lift up your hands to the holy places, and bless the Lord.
4 Benedícat te Dóminus ex Sion, * qui fecit cælum et terram.	May the Lord out of Sion bless you, he that made heaven and earth.

And for the next part in this series on the Gradual Psalms, continue on here, to Psalm 125.

Lift up your hands with Christ on the cross - Psalm 133 v3

Cathedral of St Sophia, Kiev

Verse 3 of Psalm 133 presents us with the image of a person praying with uplifted hands, an image with rich Scriptural associations.

3	V	In nóctibus extóllite manus vestras in sancta, * et benedícite Dóminum.
	NV	Extollite manus vestras ad sanctuarium et benedicite Dominum.
	JH	Leuate manus uestras ad sanctum, et benedicite Domino
		ἐν ταῖς νυξὶν ἐπάρατε τὰς χεῖρας ὑμῶν εἰς τὰ ἅγια καὶ εὐλογεῖτε τὸν κύριον

nox, noctis,  night.

extollo, extuli, ere 3, to lift up, raise up, exalt. 

manus, us, /.,  hand

sanctus, a, um,  holy; sanctuary

benedico, dixi, dictum, ere 3, to bless

DR	In the nights lift up your hands to the holy places, and bless the Lord.
B	Lift up your hands by night in the sanctuaries, and bless the Lord.
MD	At night lift up your hands to the sanctuary, and bless the Lord
C	Lift up your hands in the sanctuary, and praise the Lord.
RSV	Lift up your hands to the holy place, and bless the LORD!
K	lift up your hands towards the sanctuary and bless the Lord.
G	Lift up your hands to the holy place and bless the Lord through the night.

Lifting up in prayer

Read literally, lift up your hands (extollite manus vestras) is an exhortation to adopt an attitude of prayer.  Holy (in sancta) in this context surely means towards the sanctuary or Holy of Holies in the Temple.  This can be interpreted then as the pilgrims about to leave the Temple for the night asking the priests and Temple dwellers to pray on behalf of the people.

Lifting up one's hands though, has several other Scriptural connotations that the Fathers point to in relation to this psalm.  St Jerome, for example, points to the story of  Moses having his arms held up by other, for God had promises that as long as his hands were held up, the Israelites would advance:

While you are in this world, while you are in the nights, lift up your hands.  Do not let them down, but lift them up, raise them up with Moses.  If you lift up your hands, Amalec is conquered; if you lower them, Jesus is vanquished…

Moses, he argues, is a type of Christ on the cross:

Lift up your hands, the prophet says, because Jesus also lifted them up on the cross.

Good works

 St Jerome interprets hands as meaning good works:

...if we lift up our hands in good works, through our good works, Christ overcomes the devil.  Hands, moreover, connote works…

Cassiodorus takes this idea further, seeing it as an injunction to almsgiving:

Notice the significance of Lift up; it means “give more alms abundantly” for the Lord demands of us not only words of devotion but also deeds...In this way he teaches that love of the Lord is to be fulfilled both by sacred praises and by devoted works. When these have been performed, observe how worthy a recompense follows.

The spiritual night

At the literal level, prayer at night is particularly appropriate, as St John Chrysostom points out:

Why does he say at night?  To teach us to spend it all in sleep, and show us that prayers are purer at that time when the mind is clearer and more leisure is available.  …Now in a holy manner was well put, to show that in praying one should get rid of evil thoughts, of grudges, of avarice, of any other such sin that harms the mind.  

Night also has symbolic meaning though.  St Augustine suggests that it can mean in the bad times in our life, when we naturally struggle, citing the model of Job:

It is easy to bless by day. What is "by day"? In prosperity. For night is a sad thing, day a cheerful. When it is well with you, thou dost bless the Lord. Your son was sick, and he is made whole, thou dost bless the Lord. Your son was sick, perchance you have sought an astrologer, a soothsayer, perchance a curse against the Lord has come, not from your tongue, but from your deeds, from your deeds and your life. Boast not, because you bless with your tongue, if you curse with your life. Wherefore bless ye the Lord. 

When? By night. When did Job bless? When it was a sad night. All was taken away which he possessed; the children for whom his goods were stored were taken away. How sad was his night! Let us however see whether he blesses not in the night. "The Lord gave, the Lord has taken away; it is as the Lord willed; blessed be the name of the Lord."  And black was the night.…

More broadly, though, the night stands for the darkness of sin, sickness and adversity.  As St Jerome puts it:

 …The whole world is in the power of the evil one and ‘our wrestling is not against the flesh and blood, but against the world-rulers of this darkness.’  …This world is night; the future world is the true day…whether we will it or not, we are in the night; as long as we are in this world, we are in the hours of the night.  The night has darkness, the darkness of the sins of men.  … 

Towards the holy of holies

The reference to raising our arms towards the sanctuary can best, I think, be interpreted as a reminder to keep our eyes always firmly focused on heaven as our objective, and to bless God for the hope he gives us of everlasting life.

Above all, we bless the Lord, St John Chrysostom teaches, when we live well:

this most of all is properly conducted blessing, when your life is in harmony with your words, and through your deeds you glorify the God who made you…

 Psalm 133: Compline daily; Gradual Psalm No 15

Vulgate	Douay-Rheims
Canticum graduum	A gradual canticle
1 Ecce nunc benedícite Dóminum, * omnes servi Dómini	Behold now bless the Lord, all you servants of the Lord
2 Qui statis in domo Dómini, * in átriis domus Dei nostri.	Who stand in the house of the Lord, in the courts of the house of our God
3 In nóctibus extóllite manus vestras in sancta, * et benedícite Dóminum.	In the nights lift up your hands to the holy places, and bless the Lord.
4 Benedícat te Dóminus ex Sion, * qui fecit cælum et terram.	May the Lord out of Sion bless you, he that made heaven and earth.

And for the final part in this series on Psalm 133, go here.

Standing in the house of God - Psalm 133 v2 - Gradual Psalm No 15/3

2	V	Qui statis in domo Dómini, * in átriis domus Dei nostri.
	NV	qui statis in domo Domini per noctes.
	JH	qui statis in domo Domini  in noctibus.
		οἱ ἑστῶτες ἐν οἴκῳ κυρίου ἐν αὐλαῖς οἴκου θεοῦ ἡμῶν

Text notes:  References to the night office in the Temple can be found in Is 30:29 and 1 Chron 23:30.  In those references, ‘To stand before the Lord’ means to take part in the public worship of God in the Temple, or for us the public liturgy of the Church.   But as Britt points out, “To be or to dwell in God's courts does not necessarily imply physical presence, but rather a close union with God, and a consciousness of His presence.”

sto, steti, statum, are, to stand, stand up, remain standing; Continue; stand at the side of, to support, to stand opposite

domus, us, /.  house, structure; Temple: domus Dei, God's house

atrium, li, n., a court, often pi., courts; esp. the open courts surrounding the Tabernacle and Temple. To be or to dwell in God's courts does not necessarily imply physical presence, but rather a close union with God, and a consciousness of His presence.

DR	Who stand in the house of the Lord, in the courts of the house of our God
B	who stand in the house of the Lord, in the courts of the house of our God
MD	Who stand in the house of the Lord, in the courts of the house of our God;
C	Ye that by night stand in the house of the Lord, even in the courts of the house of our God
RSV	who stand by night in the house of the LORD!
K	you that wait on the Lord’s house at midnight
G	who stand in the house of the Lord, in the courts of the house of our God.

Liturgical praxis: At the literal level, this psalm reminds us firstly of the importance of keeping the first commandment and actually taking the time to worship God properly.   In saying the Office liturgically we unite ourselves to the prayers of the Church around the world, as well as the heavenly liturgy to maintain a constant hymn of praise to God.  Nor should such worship be undertaken casually.

Body postures – standing, sitting, kneeling, bowing - all have important meanings and purposes in a liturgical context, helping to ensure that mind and body are united in worship.  St Ambrose, for example, suggests that standing promotes alertness:

Men sit when speaking against others, they stand when they praise the Lord, to whom it is said: “Behold now, praise the Lord, all ye servants of the Lord, ye that stand in the house of the Lord.” He who sits, to speak of the bodily habit, is as it were loosened by ease, and relaxes the energy of his mind. But the careful watchman, the active searcher, the watchful guardian, who keeps the outposts of the camp, stands. The zealous warrior, too, who desires to anticipate the designs of the enemy, stands in array before he is expected. Letter 63 (to Christians at Vercellae)

Do we too stand in the house of God?  At the spiritual level, the Gradual psalms remind us that life is a pilgrimage towards our heavenly home.  In order to do this, we have to stand with the Lord.  The Fathers provide a number of different takes, all worth considering on just what it means to stand in God's house.

St Jerome sees the verse as pointing to holding the truths taught by the Church:

Standing – not falling.  …The Church does not consist in walls, but in the truths of her teachings.  The Church is where there is true faith…In this city, Christ reigns; in this city the inhabitants themselves are both dwellers and gates, both houses and dwellers.  Would you know how they are houses?  Christ dwells in them; Christ moves about in them…You are the temple of God, he says, and the Holy Spirit dwells in you.  Let us make ready our temple, that Christ may come and take up his abode in us, that our soul may be Sion, that it may be set upon the heights, that it may be ever up, never down….

St John Chrysostom adds to this the necessity of good works:

Now, he wishes servants of the Lord to be in keeping not only with his teachings but also with the exact way of life – hence he added, who stand in the house of the Lord….  It is not proper, you see, for the impure and profane person to enter the sacred precincts.  And so if any are worthy to enter, they are worthy also to bless: the house of the Lord is like heaven, and, as it is not proper for any opposing powers to enter there, so neither is it in the house of God.

Reflect, human being that you are, on the great dignity you enjoy, and the degree of purity it would be right for you to exhibit, at least on those occasions when you become a temple in your own right…If you were to expel every evil thought, if you were to deny entry of the devil’s workings to the precincts of your mind, if you continue to embellish your mind as though in the holy sanctuary...

Similarly, as I mentioned in the introduction to this psalm, St Augustine suggests that the reference to the 'courts' is pointing us to the idea of wide spaces, suitable for one whose heart is enlarged through love of God.

Our aim is to reach heaven: St Benedict ends his Rule with a reference to those who hasten to the heavenly country, reminding us that our aim must be to stand as closely to God as is possible in this life.  Each night this psalm serves as a reminder that our objective is union with God.

Each day we must try to build and maintain the house of God, both physically around us in our surroundings, and within us.

Psalm 133: Compline daily; Gradual Psalm No 15

Vulgate	Douay-Rheims
Canticum graduum	A gradual canticle
1 Ecce nunc benedícite Dóminum, * omnes servi Dómini	Behold now bless the Lord, all you servants of the Lord
2 Qui statis in domo Dómini, * in átriis domus Dei nostri.	Who stand in the house of the Lord, in the courts of the house of our God
3 In nóctibus extóllite manus vestras in sancta, * et benedícite Dóminum.	In the nights lift up your hands to the holy places, and bless the Lord.
4 Benedícat te Dóminus ex Sion, * qui fecit cælum et terram.	May the Lord out of Sion bless you, he that made heaven and earth.

And for the next part in this series, go here.

Are you truly a servant of God? - Psalm 133 v1 (Gradual Psalm No 15/2)

Ely Cathedral
Source: Portmanteaus Blog

** Apologies to those who saw a note on the previous post suggesting I was ending the series at that point. I had inadvertently left comments from a previous draft there - the series will continue!**

The first verse of Psalm 133 can be interpreted either as a call to worship, or more generally, to live according to God's precepts.

1	V/NV	Ecce nunc benedícite Dóminum, * omnes servi Dómini
	JH	Ecce benedicite Domino,  onmes serui Domini,
		ᾠδὴ τῶν ἀναβαθμῶν ἰδοὺ δὴ εὐλογεῖτε τὸν κύριον πάντες οἱ δοῦλοι κυρίου

  

ecce, adv. (from en and ce), lol see! behold

nunc, adv. at present, at this moment

benedico, dixi, dictum, ere 3, to bless

omnis, e, all, each, every; subst., all men, all things, everything

servus – servant;

DR	Behold now bless the Lord, all you servants of the Lord
MD	Come now, bless the Lord, all ye servants of the Lord
B	Behold now, bless ye the Lord, all the servants of the Lord
RSV	Come, bless the LORD, all you servants of the LORD,
Cov	Behold now, praise the Lord, all ye servants of the Lord
K	Come, then, praise the Lord, all you that are the Lord’s servants
Grail	O come, bless the Lord, all you who serve the Lord,

Ecce can be translated here as either behold or perhaps 'come'.  St Jerome suggests the latter interpretation, saying:

When one says ‘Come’ the invitation is just as definite as if one were pointing at you with his finger...

This is then, one last call to repentance, to ensuring we are on the right, and true path that reflects God's way.

Why the emphasis on now (nunc) though?  Cassiodorus provides two explanations: the first being that only at this point, after we have advanced in virtue are we worthy to worship.  He says:

Now is added because after the ascent of all these steps, only He who permit­ted such great progress deserved to be praised. There was first the fact that he had successfully made the ascent, and secondly that after this upward step he had no other to mount; the Lord is to be proclaimed with greater zeal when by His generosity He makes us untroubled. 

The ‘servants of the Lord’ probably literally referred to priests and levites who exercized priestly functions in the Temple.  But 'servant of the Lord’ has a much more general meaning as well, applied in the Old Testament to those entrusted with special missions (such as Moses) and in the New to all who truly follow Christ.  The key point, the Fathers emphasise, is that we are not talking about just anyone here, but those who can rightfully claim the title title of servant of God.  Theodoret of Cyrus, for example, comments that for those who have not yet attempted to make the ascent:

those who have been affected by the wounds of sin it is appropriate to weep, to lament, and to request the divine loving kindness.

 Psalm 133: Compline daily; Gradual Psalm No 15

Vulgate	Douay-Rheims
Canticum graduum	A gradual canticle
1 Ecce nunc benedícite Dóminum, * omnes servi Dómini	Behold now bless the Lord, all you servants of the Lord
2 Qui statis in domo Dómini, * in átriis domus Dei nostri.	Who stand in the house of the Lord, in the courts of the house of our God
3 In nóctibus extóllite manus vestras in sancta, * et benedícite Dóminum.	In the nights lift up your hands to the holy places, and bless the Lord.
4 Benedícat te Dóminus ex Sion, * qui fecit cælum et terram.	May the Lord out of Sion bless you, he that made heaven and earth.

And for the next part of this series, go here.

Introduction to Psalm 133 (Gradual Psalm No 15)**

St Jerome, in his notes on the first of the Gradual Psalms says:

Let anyone who is still on the lowest step fix his gaze on the highest step, the fifteenth.

And I'm going to use that as my justification to jump to the last psalm of the group, Psalm 133, said at Compline each night in the Benedictine Office, next (though I will come back to the rest of the set after I have looked at this one).

The last of the psalms of ascent, Psalm 133 is very short.  But it can be read quite a number of different ways, making it a very rich source indeed for our meditation.

 Psalm 133: Compline daily; Gradual Psalm No 15

Vulgate	Douay-Rheims
Canticum graduum	A gradual canticle
1 Ecce nunc benedícite Dóminum, * omnes servi Dómini	Behold now bless the Lord, all you servants of the Lord
2 Qui statis in domo Dómini, * in átriis domus Dei nostri.	Who stand in the house of the Lord, in the courts of the house of our God
3 In nóctibus extóllite manus vestras in sancta, * et benedícite Dóminum.	In the nights lift up your hands to the holy places, and bless the Lord.
4 Benedícat te Dóminus ex Sion, * qui fecit cælum et terram.	May the Lord out of Sion bless you, he that made heaven and earth.

The literal interpretation: worship in the night

The first interpretation focuses on the literal meaning of the words and their historical context.

If you read many modern commentaries, you will get variants on the idea that this verse is literally an invitation to worship God: in its original context, the pilgrims have finally arrived in Jerusalem, and enter the Temple in the evening.  The pilgrims call out to the priests and Levites to obtain a blessing from them to mark the occasion (v1-3).  The priests and Levites, then reply (v4).

In the context of its ancient Jewish Temple liturgy, some suggest that this psalm marks a kind of handover point: it would have been said as the laity left the inner Temple at night, with the priests remaining behind to keep the night vigil.

In the context of Compline, then. the psalm directs us to stand together one last time before he go to bed, to give thanks God for all the blessings we have received during the day, and asking him to bless our rest, symbolised by the night.

This literal  explanation is fine as far as it goes, but there is, I think, much more spiritual juice to be extracted!

The citadel of virtue

The second interpretation focuses on the idea that this set of psalms represents our step by step progress in climbing the ladder of humility, and thus building a temple within ourselves, a 'citadel of virtue' as several of the Fathers, such as SS Ambrose, Cassian, Gregory and Bede put it.

St Augustine, for example, interprets the reference to the courts of the house of God as having achieved the enlargement of heart that St Benedict speaks of in his Rule as the measure of perfection:

Courts mean the wider spaces of a house. He who stands in the courts is not straitened, is not confined, in some fashion is enlarged. Remain in this enlargement, and you can love your enemy, because you love not things in which an enemy could straiten you. How can you be understood to stand in the courts? Stand in charity, and you stand in the courts. Breadth lies in charity, straitness in hatred.

It is only when we have reached this highest level of the ascent, when we can truly claim to be servants of God, witnessing to his goodness (blessing) through our good works, that we can truly worship him.  We lift up our arms to the Lord, Cassiodorus says, 'by means of good works, so that the devil our foe may be overcome by the majesty of heaven'.

Indeed, several of the Fathers point to the story of Moses in the battle against Amalec (Exodus 11) in relation to the idea of lifting up our hands: when Moses arms were held aloft, the Israelites had the advantage, but if he let them down, they lost.  This verse invites us to be co-workers with Christ, St Jerome, argues: by holding up our arms as Christ did on the Cross, we lend our aid in the battle for the world.

In the night then, we can pray freely as our Lord so often did, unencumbered by distractions, enjoying the peace that is the meaning of the word Sion, and that God confers on those who truly seek him.  As St Jerome says:

Since now the brethren have come together as one [Ps 132], and the Church of the Lord has now assembled, what is the counsel of the last psalm?  Come bless the Lord…because it is good and pleasant for brethren to dwell united, and together you have formed a community: Come, bless the Lord.  Praise Christ now after His coming, for in Him you have come together; now bless Him in the last psalm of ascent, for you have gathered together on the summit of the virtues.  Before you reached the top, the fifteenth step, you were not able to bless the Lord, but I say to you now, Come, bless the Lord.

 The temple as a microcosm of heaven?

A third interpretation is that, consistent with the idea of the steps as a variant of Jacob's Ladder, in ascending into the inner courtyard, we have now metaphorically entered heaven.

St Jerome, for example suggests:

He who is on the fifteenth step is already in the vestibule of the temple..Consider for a moment how this earthly temple is a figure of the heavenly temple.  'For star differs from star in glory, so also with the resurrection of the dead'.  Happy the man who has merited to be on the fifteenth step in the heavenly Jerusalem and in the temple!  Because that height is so sublime, and is, I think, the place of the apostles and the holy martyrs...

At this happy level, God blesses us with his presence, allowing us into our permanent home, as St Robert Bellarmine puts it:

Now that you have been delivered from all temptations and persecutions, it is time for you to give your whole thoughts to praising God; and, therefore, "bless ye the Lord, all ye servants of the Lord," who now have nothing else to do, but to render him the tribute of everlasting praise and thanks..  you, who have now a permanent house, and no longer, like pilgrims, have to dwell in tents. And, in addition to the house you have, is "a court," so that you cannot but be supremely happy, having a house within, in which to behold God, and a court without, in which to behold his creatures.

In the night of this world

There is, however, a reminder built into this psalm that in reality we are not there quite yet, and that is in the reference to prayer in the night.  St Jerome, for example, argues that night is a reference to this world:

This world is night; the future world is the true day…whether we will it or not, we are in the night; as long as we are in this world, we are in the hours of the night.  

Accordingly, he warns us not to be complacent: those who seem to have attained the height of virtue can still fall, while those who have not yet even started on the ascent may yet have time to make it:

Just as is said to the sinner: 'Dust you are, and to dust you shall return,' so, likewise to the saint, heaven you are, and to heaven you will return...It behooves one who is of heaven not to feel secure, nor ought he who is of earth lose hope of life.

We have though, a helper in this task in Christ:

When Jacob was in flight from his brother...he placed a stone under his head...'He dreamed that a ladder was set up on the ground with its top reaching to heaven; angels were ascending and descending on it...Would you know that the stone that at Jacob's head was Christ, the cornerstone?  The stone which the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.  That is the stone that is called Abenezer in the Book of Kings.  That stone is Christ.  The name Abenezer, moreover, means 'the Stone of Help'. (Jerome, Sermon 46, on Psalm 133)

Scriptural and liturgical uses of the psalm

NT references	Rev 19:5 (vs 2)
RB cursus	Compline daily
Monastic feasts etc	Gradual Psalms AN 4874
Roman pre 1911	Compline daily
Responsories	-
Roman post 1911	1911-62: Sunday Compline . 1970:
Mass propers (EF)	Lent 4 OF V - 1

You can find the next post in this series on the Gradual Psalms here.

For verse by verse notes on Psalm 133:

Psalm 133 verse1
Psalm 133 verse 2
Psalm 133 verse 3
Psalm 133 verse 4