Verse 4. The tribes of the Lord, the true Israel
7. Thither have the tribes ascended. We told you earlier that in this psalm we hear the voice of people ascending, the voice of the Church as it makes the ascent, and so we were prompted to inquire where fallen humans are going in their climb. Are we still wondering about their goal? The height they are bound for, the end of their climb, the goal of their ascent, is that place whither the tribes have ascended, as our psalm now tells us. But where is that? Where have the tribes ascended? Into that city which shares in Being-Itself. That is the goal of our ascent—Jerusalem. There was once a man who, instead of mounting to Jerusalem, went down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell among robbers. If he had not gone down, he would not have fallen foul of them. Anyone who has fallen among robbers on his downward path must change course and climb up instead and encounter angels. Let such a one mount to that place, for thither have the tribes ascended.
But what are these tribes? Many know the answer, but many do not. Let those of us who know what the tribes are go down to those who do not know, so that they may ascend with us to the place whither the tribes have gone. “Tribes” can also be called curiae, if this word is used loosely. There is no exact synonym for the term “tribe,” though curia comes somewhere near it. In the strict sense we use curia for the council which sits in an individual city, whence are derived the names curiales and decuriones, so called because they are members of a curia or a decuria. You know how every city has one curia of this kind. But there are also (or formerly were) groups of people in these same cities, each of which could be called a curia. When the word is used in this sense we can say that each city has many of them; Rome has thirty-five. These may be styled “tribes.” The people of Israel had twelve, corresponding to the number of Jacob’s sons.
8. The people of Israel comprised twelve tribes, but among them were both bad people and good. What a bad tribe they were, what a wicked party, that crucified the Lord! And what a good fraternity acknowledged the Lord! The clans that crucified the Lord are the tribes of the devil. The psalm says not merely, Thither have the tribes ascended; it specifies the tribes of the Lord to make it clear that not all the tribes are meant. What, then, are these tribes of the Lord? Those who knew the Lord. Among the twelve bad tribes were some good people, members of good clans that acknowledged the architect of the city. They were grains of wheat among the tribes, but they were mixed up with the chaff. They went up, but not in the company of the chaff; they went up as sifted, purified, elect tribes, as tribes of the Lord. Thither have the tribes ascended, the tribes of the Lord.
Now what else is said about the tribes of the Lord? That they are the testimony to Israel. Listen, brothers and sisters, and understand what this testimony to Israel is, who these people are in whom the proof of the true Israel may be discerned. What does “Israel” mean? The interpretation of the name has been mentioned before, but it is as well to repeat it frequently, for it may have slipped the minds of some, even though we spoke of it not long ago. By repeating it we make sure that it is not forgotten even by those unable or unwilling to read; let us serve as a book for them. “Israel” is taken to mean “seeing God.” Or rather, if we analyze the name more exactly, we can say that “Israel” means “the seeing one is.” So when we put these two interpretations together we get “the one who sees God, is.” No human being is in his or her own right, for we are inconstant and subject to change, unless we participate in him who is the Selfsame. A human being truly is when he sees God. He is when he sees Him Who Is, for, in seeing Him Who Is, the creature too comes to be in his measure. Thus he becomes Israel, for Israel is the seeing one.
A proud person is not Israel, for, instead of sharing in Being-Itself, the proud person wants to be his own absolute being. Anyone who tries to be the source of his own being is no Israel. No impostor can be Israel, and every proud person is an impostor. What I mean is this, brothers and sisters: any proud person pretends to be something he is not; he cannot do otherwise. It would not be so bad if a proud person tried to appear what he is not in the sense, say, of wanting to be thought a flautist, when he is no such thing. He could soon be proved bogus if people said to him, “Go on, then, sing. Let’s hear what you can do.” If he could not, he would be shown up as having made false claims when he tried to appear as something he was not. Or again, if someone said he was a fluent orator, we could say to him, “Very well; give us a speech, and prove it.” As soon as he began to speak, he would be shown up; he would not be what he claimed to be. But what is much worse is the claim of a proud person to be righteous when he is not. Righteousness is difficult to discern, and hence it is not easy to detect proud persons. Yet the proud want to seem what they are not, and therefore they do not share in Being-Itself, and they do not belong to Israel, “the one who sees God.”
Who, then, does belong to Israel? One who shares in the Selfsame. And who is that? One who confesses that he is not what God is and that he holds from God whatever good he can claim to have, that of himself he is nothing but sin and that he possesses righteousness only as a gift from God. Such a person is one in whom there is no guile. What did the Lord say on catching sight of Nathanael? Look, there is a true Israelite, in whom there is no guile (Jn 1:47). If the true Israelite is one in whom no guile is to be found, we infer that the tribes that have ascended to Jerusalem are those found free of guile. They are the authentic Israel, the ones who give proof of being the real thing, because through them it can be seen that there were grains of wheat among the straw all the time, even though to an onlooker the threshing-floor seemed to contain nothing but chaff. The grains were there among it, but when they have ascended in heavenly splendor and the winnowing is finished, then will the testimony to Israel be rendered, for then will all the evildoers say to each other, “When the whole lot looked bad to us, there really were righteous people among the bad. We thought everyone was as bad as we were ourselves.” Thus the good are a testimony to Israel.
Why do they ascend? To confess to your name, O Lord. No more glorious motive could be envisaged. As pride makes one presumptuous, so does humility prompt confession. As a presumptuous person tries to pose as something he is not, so a confessing person has no wish to appear other than he is but loves what God is. The Israelites in whom there is no guile mount to this confession because they are truly Israelites. In them is the testimony to Israel, and they ascend for this purpose: to confess to your name, O Lord.
Verse 5. The apostles sit on seats to judge, but they are themselves the Lord’s seat
9. There the seats sat in judgment.
This is a puzzling expression and likely to raise problems unless it is rightly understood. Our translation renders as seats what the Greeks call θρόνοι. The Greeks use the word θρόνοι for benches of honor, or sedilia. There is nothing remarkable, brothers and sisters, about people sitting on seats or judicial benches. But how are we to understand a statement that the seats themselves sit down? It is as strange as though someone were to say, “Let the bishop’s chair sit here, and the benches sit there.” People sit on benches, on seats, and on chairs. Seats are for sitting on; the seats themselves do not sit.
What can the psalm mean, then, by saying, There the seats sat to exercise judgment? Well, you are certainly familiar with a saying of the Lord, Heaven is my throne, but the earth is my footstool (Is 66:1; Acts 7:49). This amounts to God telling us that his seat is heaven. But now who are the heavens? Who else but just persons? These heavens are a single heaven, just as the individual churches are the one Church: they are many, but in such a way as to form one; and the same is true in the inverse sense of the just, for they are heaven, but in their separate individuality they are heavens. God has his seat in them, and from them God exercises judgment. A psalm had good reason to say, The heavens proclaim God’s glory (Ps 18:2(19:1)), for the apostles were made into heaven. How did that come about? By their being justified. As a sinner was made into earth when he was told, Earth you are, and back to earth you shall go (Gn 3:19), so were the justified made into heaven. They carried God, and from them God constantly flashed the lightning of his miracles, thundered his terrors, and rained down his consolations. They were heaven; they truly were. And they incessantly proclaimed the glory of God. The psalm left you no room for doubt about the apostles being heaven, for it went on to say, Their sound went forth throughout the world, their words to the ends of the earth (Ps 18:5(19:4)). Whose sound, whose words? Those of the heavens.
Well now, if heaven is God’s seat, and the apostles are heaven, it follows that they are God’s seat, God’s throne. Scripture says elsewhere, The soul of a just person is the throne of wisdom (Prv 12:23, LXX). That is a tremendous statement: The soul of a just person is the throne of wisdom; it implies that in the soul of a righteous person wisdom sits as on a judicial bench, or a throne, and from there judges all things. The apostles were thrones for wisdom and yet the Lord said to them, You will sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel (Mt 19:28). It seems, then, that they will themselves sit upon the twelve seats, but at the same time they are seats for God. This is what our present psalm teaches when it speaks of the seats sitting: There the seats sat. Who sat? The seats. And who are the seats? The heavens. Who are the heavens? Heaven. And what is heaven? That of which the Lord said, Heaven is my seat (Is 66:1; Acts 7:49).
We are taught three things, therefore. The just are seats, and they have seats, and it is in Jerusalem that the seats will sit. To what purpose? For judgment. The Lord promised, You will sit upon twelve seats, you who yourselves are my seats, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. Whom will they judge? Those below, on earth. Who will judge? Those who have become heaven.
Those amenable to their judgment will be divided into two groups, one to the right, the other to the left. The saints will join Christ in judging; as Isaiah says, the Lord will come in judgment, with the elders of his people (Is 3:14). Those who will collaborate with him are distinct from those subject to his judgment and to theirs. The people facing judgment will be segregated into two groups. One will be placed at his right, and the acts of mercy they have performed will be enumerated to them. The others will be relegated to his left, and they will be reminded of their cruelty and their barrenness where mercy was called for. To those stationed at his right the invitation will be extended, Come, you who are blessed by my Father, take possession of the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. And why? I was hungry, and you fed me, he will tell them. But they will protest, When did we see you hungry? He will reply, When you did that for even the least of those who are mine, you did it for me (Mt 25:34–35, 37, 40).
What is the implication, brothers and sisters? The apostles will judge concerning those people who have been advised to make friends for themselves by using iniquitous mammon, so that they may welcome you into the tents of eternity (Lk 16:9). The saints will sit in judgment with the Lord, marking carefully who among those before them have performed acts of mercy; they will take into their company those placed at the Lord’s right and welcome them into the kingdom of heaven. And this, even this, is the peace of Jerusalem. In what does the peace of Jerusalem consist? In the conjunction of corporal works of mercy with spiritual works of preaching, so that in both giving and receiving there may be peace. The apostle saw almsdeeds as a matter of due payment and receipts, for he said, If we have sown spiritual seeds for your benefit, is it too much to ask that we reap a carnal harvest from you? (1 Cor 9:11) On the same subject he said in another passage, The one who gathered much had no surplus, and the one who gathered little, no lack (2 Cor 8:15). Why did the one who had gathered a great deal have nothing left over? Because anyone who had more than enough gave to someone in need. And why did the one who gathered little not go short? Because he received from someone else who had plenty. This was done that there might be equality (2 Cor 8:14). And this is the peace for which our psalm prays, May peace reign in your strength.
Verse 6. The peace of Jerusalem is founded on love
10. What we have just said is certain, for the psalm makes it clear. It has told us that there the seats sat in judgment over the house of David, which means “over Christ’s household,” to which they conscientiously gave food in due season. But immediately after this the psalm turns to the seats and admonishes them, “Ask what makes for the peace of Jerusalem. You are the seats that are sitting to judge. You have become the Lord’s seats and so you function as judges. But it is the duty of judges to ask questions, and of those before them to answer when questions are put to them. So then, ask what makes for the peace of Jerusalem.” What will their interrogation reveal? That some people have been active in works of mercy and others have not. They will call into Jerusalem those who have performed works of mercy, for these are the things that make for the peace of Jerusalem.
Love is a powerful thing, brothers and sisters; love is a powerful thing. Would you like a proof of how strong it is? Consider, then: if someone is prevented by circumstances from carrying out a duty enjoined by God, let him love someone else who performs that duty, and he fulfils it through that other. Note this carefully, beloved. Suppose, for instance, a man has a wife whom he cannot leave. He must obey the apostle’s orders, Let the husband render his debt to his wife (1 Cor 7:3), and again, Are you bound to a wife? Then do not seek to be unbound. (1 Cor 7:27) It will occur to him that there is a better way of life, concerning which the same apostle says, I wish everyone were as I am (1 Cor 7:7). He marks those who have taken this course, he loves them for it, and in them he carries out what he is unable to do himself. Love is a powerful thing. It is our strength, and anything else we may have is useless without it. If I speak with human tongue or angel’s tongue, but have no charity, I have become like a booming gong or a clashing cymbal, warns the apostle; and then he adds something even weightier: If I distribute all my resources to feed the poor, and deliver my body to be burnt, yet have no charity, it profits me nothing. (1 Cor 13:1, 3) If charity exists alone and has no goods to distribute to the poor, let it simply love and give only a cup of cold water, and the act will be judged as meritorious as that of Zacchaeus, who gave half his patrimony to the poor. How can that be? The one gave so little, the other so much. How can the one be as highly deserving as the other? Yet he is indeed just as deserving. The material possibilities were not comparable, but charity was equal in the two cases.
11. The judges are questioning you, then, and you must assess what you are. We have been told, We are going to the Lord’s house. We were certainly gladdened by those who gave us those tidings: We are going to the Lord’s house. Find out, then, if we are truly going there. We travel not on foot but by our affections. Test whether we are on the way. Each one of you must question himself about his attitude to the holy poor person, the needy brother or sister, the penurious beggar. Let each one check that his compassion is not too narrow, because the seats which will sit in judgment will have to interrogate you, and their duty is to seek out what makes for the peace of Jerusalem. How will they conduct their interrogation? As seats for God. Is God interrogating you, then? Does anything lie hidden from God, and can anything elude those interrogators who are bidden, Ask what makes for the peace of Jerusalem?
But what makes for the peace of Jerusalem? There are abundant riches for those who love you. The psalmist has now turned to address Jerusalem herself. There are great riches for those who love her—riches after poverty, for here below her lovers are in need, but affluent there; here they are weak, there strong; here in penury, there in wealth. How did they become rich? Here below they gave away what they had received from God for a limited time, and there they receive the reward that God will give them for eternity. Here on earth, brothers and sisters, even the rich are paupers. A rich man is lucky if he recognizes his poverty, for if he thinks himself full, that is no more than puffed-up pride, not plenitude. Let him acknowledge that he is empty so that he may be deserve to be filled. What does he possess? Gold. What does he not yet possess? Eternal life. Let him take stock of what he has and recognize what he has not. Let him give to others from what he has, brothers and sisters, that he may receive what he has not; let him use what he has to buy himself what he does not have, and there will be abundant riches for those who love Jerusalem.
Verse 7. Love is the city’s strength
12. May peace reign in your strength. O Jerusalem, city being built like a city, city whose share is in Being-Itself, may peace reign in your strength. Let there be peace in your love, for your strength lies in your love. Listen to the Song of Songs: Love is as mighty as death (Sg 8:6). That is a solemn utterance, brothers and sisters: Love is as mighty as death. There could be no more glorious assertion of the strength of charity than Love is as mighty as death, for who can stand firm against death? Fire, water, the sword—against all these we can make a stand; we can resist potentates, we can resist kings. But death, death alone, no one can resist. This is why death is used as a comparison to suggest the power of love: Love is as mighty as death. Moreover, love itself effects a kind of death in us, for charity slays what we once were so that we may become what we were not. The man who said, The world has been crucified to me, and I to the world (Gal 6:14), had died that death, and so too had those to whom he said, You are dead, and your life is hidden with Christ in God (Col 3:3). Love is as mighty as death. If it is mighty, it has great power and force; it is strength itself. Through love weak people are ruled by the strong, earth by heaven, the nations by the seats; and therefore the psalm prays, May peace reign in your strength, may peace reign in your love.
What is more, through that strength, through that love, through that peace, may there be abundance in your towers, which means in your elevated places. Only a few will sit in judgment, but the great crowds at Christ’s right hand make up the population of the city. There are many under the protection of each one of the exalted judges, many who are welcomed by the judges into the tents of eternity; and thus there will be abundance in its towers. God himself is the fullness of delights and our all-sufficient riches. He is Being-Itself, in which the city participates; in this will our abundance consist. But how can this be? Through charity, which is to say, through the city’s strength. But who has charity, brothers and sisters? The person who in this life is not self-seeking. The apostle Paul was a man of charity. Listen to what he tells us: Try to appease everyone in all circumstances, as I too make myself agreeable to all in every respect (1 Cor 10:33). What has become of the claim you made elsewhere, Paul? You said, If I were still out to please men, I would not be Christ’s servant (Gal 1:10), yet now you say that you try to mollify others, and you exhort your disciples to do the same! But in denying that he tried to please men he omitted to mention the object some have in making such efforts; they curry favor with others for their own advantage, not for the promotion of charity. The person who is intent on his own reputation is not seeking the salvation of other people. But Paul elaborates: Try to appease everyone … as I too make myself agreeable to all in every respect, seeking not my own advantage but the profit of the many, that they may be saved (1 Cor 10:33).
Saint Augustine, Expositions of the Psalms 121–150, ed. Boniface Ramsey, trans. Maria Boulding, vol. 20, The Works of Saint Augustine: A Translation for the 21st Century (Hyde Park, NY: New City Press, 2000), 10–18.
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