Chapter 121

The third hymn preaches the good news to those still on their way about entering the house of God. That's why he says: Ps.121:1. We rejoiced because they said to me: Let us go to the house of the Lord. Ps.121:2. Our feet are standing in your courts, Jerusalem. These are the words of the elders who survived the captivity and tell how their feet, now weary of travel, in former times stood in Jerusalem. Ps.121:3. Jerusalem is built like a city. In former times it was a city, not scattered here and there, but so built up that it seemed like one house, because the buildings were frequent and arranged in order. Ps.121:4. There, my knee went up. All the tribes that came out of Egypt by the Lord’s power hurried to this city to testify or thank the God of Israel. Confess the name of the Lord that the Lord fulfilled his wondrous promise. He says that the thrones of the house of David are set in it; because David prophesies about the kingdom of all, meaning not the rule of any one, but the general authority over the perfect and godly, by whom the kingdom of David is erected by the grace of Christ, who gave the power to judge Israel to the twelve Apostles sitting on twelve thrones. Ps.121:5. Yako tamo gray thrones for judgment. And according to history, there were the dwellings of kings and the thrones of priests, which adorned the city, as if with a double crown and a double diadem. And now everything is lost, and the smallest remnants of the former prosperity are visible. Thrones in the House of David. In this city, that is, in Jerusalem, royal thrones were established in order to carry out truthful judgment. The first David sat on them, and then those who were descended from him according to the flesh sat. Therefore, the prophet names the house of David himself. Ps.121:6. Ask also about the peace of Jerusalem. Having learned what Jerusalem once was, pray for its peace, seeking nothing other than that which will promote its peace. Ps.121:7. May there be peace in your strength and abundance in your pillars, that is, in your royal palaces. I wish, he says, good things for you, for the sake of those who dwell in you, as neighbors and brothers. For this is what the elders desire for Jerusalem, that is, that within its walls (since the word “strength” means walls) there would be peace, or, in another sense, there would be saints. Ps.121:9. To the house for the sake of the Lord our God I seek good things for you. Since in you, Jerusalem, is the house of our God, then, as a reward for that, “I will seek what is good for you.” You might be interested in: