The Joy of the Dwelling and the Unity of the Inhabitants

Guarding the rights of God by uncircumcised memory (Ps 118:162).

The word has its own meaning for David, that being pursued by Saul in vain and through envy, he ceased to resist through fear toward God; and it extends to the common experience, that of the wars of rulers there is no other way to be escaped from being harmed than by being guarded by the fear of God. After the gift of wisdom, he asks again for salvation from dangers (Ps 118:173); this too is a reward for the voluntary zeal concerning the divine law (Ps 118:174-175).

Thus, he was saying that he expected eternal salvation, and now he observes that this study of the law is being performed with longing. For he says that he will indeed seek and praise God through His all-wise judgments, having been helped by this, which is Christ, descending in place of men to death for the salvation of men, and being driven out to suffer, redeeming those in sufferings and those dying through death; following which, the 'My soul shall live' and the following verses follow (Ps 119:2).

This was indeed immediately after the first apostasy of man when Cain struck down his brother by deceit, but it is also through the whole age of the present, as is shown in other things and in this present matter. Therefore, the man who turns toward God, suffering and being afflicted, asks for salvation from Him. He does not foresee the scarcity lying then, when he shall be brought up to the dwelling of the city of peace and the citizenship with both the good and the bad (Ps 119:5).

Another also makes manifest the foreign land from one part, into which Israel, having fallen, dwelt, and indeed his sojourning to extend for the longest time. Prophesying in lamentation, he brings this forth as reaching even to the present established state; for this is the longest (Ps 119:7).

For the good and God-fearing ones make their own peace and with all men, when they do not lack the critical punishment which God had commanded against the Canaanites and Amorites, forbidding friendship toward them; but the wicked and those ignoring God would never come into friendship with the good, but they loathe godliness and do not favorably receive even the good things from the God-fearing, nor are they moved by the philanthropy of them (Ps 120:1b). Mountains, say...

There are the unsetting and heavenly powers there; and while waiting for help through these, he says that help does not spring from these, but from the Creator.

Regarding Ps 121:1b, joy is to hear what is said by the angels, namely those speaking to the prophets, such as the flocks beginning the Israelite process, which is he who is shown through Zechariah, both acting as an ambassador on behalf of the fallen Jerusalem and speaking of its coming habitation. This is indeed what the singer says he heard and was made glad by, having foreseen the stable habitation in the holy city, perceiving it prophetically as the matter is present. For this is the 'Our feet have been standing in the courts of Jerusalem' (Ps 122:2). But the standing of feet is an immovable habitation, which even the holy prophets proclaim, whereas the opposite was when, according to history, God shook the foot of Jerusalem from its inhabited land. Therefore the singer speaks of the desolation of the city, having seen it just as Ezekiel did, but of the building up as a city being united, not according to the usual way, namely by surrounding it with walls, but by the inhabitants being united to one another. Therefore also he has not said 'a city', but as a city having a togetherness together. For neither does Ezekiel foretell that it shall be inhabited by walls, nor does Zechariah, but without walls; rather its wall shall be the Lord, because God is the guardian and companion of the unity of the saints. He interprets then the being through them of the inhabitants as the union, saying, 'There the tribes ascended, tribes of the Lord, a testimony to Israel to confess in the name of the Lord' (Ps 122:4). Not that they surrounded walls, and because of this they were united, but that they were united through themselves. A testimony indeed to Israel, namely testifying the truth of the promises, but to confess in the name of the Lord, meaning that to him who fulfilled the wonderful promise, a confession of graces is owed by those being benefited. He says that thrones of the house of David were established upon it, since even a kingdom is prophesied by Daniel, not only a principality of someone or the rule of one, but a common rule for the best and most God-fearing, through whom the kingdom of David is restored by the grace of Christ, who gave to the twelve apostles the right to judge, sitting upon the twelve thrones.