Praise waits for you, O God, in Zion: and unto you shall the vow be performed.
Read Chapter 65
Augustine of Hippo
AD 430
3. "For Thee a hymn is meet, O God, in Sion" (ver. 1). That fatherland is Sion: Jerusalem is the very same as Sion; and of this name the interpretation ye ought to know. As Jerusalem is interpreted vision of peace, so Sion Beholding, that is, vision and contemplation. Some great inexplicable sight to us is promised: and this is God Himself that hath builded the city. Beauteous and graceful the city, how much more beauteous a Builder it hath! "For Thee a hymn is meet, O God," he saith. But where? "In Sion:" in Babylon it is not meet. For when a man beginneth to be renewed, already with heart in Jerusalem he singeth, with the Apostle saying, "Our conversation is in the Heavens." For "in the flesh though walking," he saith, "not after the flesh we war." Already in longing we are there, already hope into that land, as it were an anchor, we have sent before, lest in this sea being tossed we suffer shipwreck. In like manner therefore as of a ship which is at anchor, we rightly say that alrea...
1. The voice of holy prophecy must be confessed in the very title of this Psalm. It is inscribed, "Unto the end, a Psalm of David, a song of Jeremiah and Ezekiel, on account of the people of transmigration when they were beginning to go forth." How it fired with our fathers in the time of the transmigration to Babylon, is not known to all, but only to those that diligently study the Holy Scriptures, either by hearing or by reading. For the captive people Israel from the city of Jerusalem was led into slavery unto Babylon. But holy Jeremiah prophesied, that after seventy years the people would return out of captivity, and would rebuild the very city Jerusalem, which they had mourned as having been overthrown by enemies. But at that time there were prophets in that captivity of the people dwelling in Babylon, among whom was also the prophet Ezekiel. But that people was waiting until there should be fulfilled the space of seventy years, according to the prophecy of Jeremiah. It came to pa...
2. And see ye the names of those two cities, Babylon and Jerusalem. Babylon is interpreted confusion, Jerusalem vision of peace. Observe now the city of confusion, in order that ye may perceive the vision of peace; that ye may endure that, sigh for this. Whereby can those two cities be distinguished? Can we anywise now separate them from each other? They are mingled, and from the very beginning of mankind mingled they run on unto the end of the world. Jerusalem received beginning through Abel, Babylon through Cain: for the buildings of the cities were afterwards erected. That Jerusalem in the land of the Jebusites was builded: for at first it used to be called Jebus, from thence the nation of the Jebusites was expelled, when the people of God was delivered from Egypt, and led into the land of promise. But Babylon was builded in the most interior regions of Persia, which for a long time raised its head above the rest of nations. These two cities then at particular times were builded, so...
Of the captivity. That is, the people of the captivity of Babylon. This is not in the Hebrew, but is found in the ancient translation of the Septuagint. (Challoner)
From the word canticle. (Haydock)
It is of little authority. Jeremias and Ezechiel were never together. (Calmet) (Berthier)
Perhaps the former might have put this psalm of David into the hands of the people, when they were going to Babylon, and Ezechiel might have exhorted them to recite it at their return. (Haydock)
It seems to have been composed by David, in thanksgiving for rain; (Psalm xxviii.; Muis) or some of the Levites wrote it, after God had removed the scourge of drought, with which he had afflicted the people, in consequence of their neglecting to finish the temple, Aggeus i. 4., and Malachi as iii. 9. (Calmet)
David predicts the return from captivity, (Berthier) and the vocation of the Gentiles, (St. Hilary; Menochius) which the prophets Jeremias, had insinuated, by the coming of the nations from Babylon, s...
Hymn. Or Hebrew, "Praise is silent "(Haydock) "waiteth "(Protestants) or "silence is praise for thee, O God. "(Pagnin) Favete linguis. (Horace) (Grotius)
"We worship Him with pure silence. "(Porphyrius, Abst. iii.) (Zacharias ii. 13.) (Haydock)
In Jerusalem, is not in Hebrew, though Houbigant thinks it was originally. (Berthier)
"Only the vows of ecclesiastical religion are useful. "(St. Hilary)
Praises of those who are out of the Church, are not acceptable to God. (Worthington)
