1 The `title of the hundrid and two and twentithe salm. `The song of grecis. To thee Y haue reisid myn iyen; that dwellist in heuenes.
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 This Psalm is a "Song of degrees;" as we have often said to you, for these degrees are not of descent, but of ascent. He therefore longeth to ascend. And whither doth he wish to ascend, save into heaven? What meaneth, into heaven? Doth he wish to ascend that he may be with the sun, moon, and stars? Far be it!
Bernard of Clairvaux · AD 1153 But shall the hope of so great a joy be without joy? Rejoicing in hope, says the Apostle. And David said not that he would rejoice but that he had rejoiced, because he hoped he would go into the house of the Lord.
2 Lo! as the iyen of seruauntis; ben in the hondis of her lordis. As the iyen of the handmaide ben in the hondis of her ladi; so oure iyen ben to oure Lord God, til he haue mercy on vs.
Ambrose of Milan · AD 397 These are the feet that David washes in spirit when he teaches you how to keep them unsoiled, saying, "Our feet have been standing in your courts, O Jerusalem." Certainly, here "feet" is to be understood not as of the body but as of the soul. For how could a person on earth have his physical feet in heaven?
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 "Our feet were standing in the courts of Jerusalem" (ver. 2) ...Consider what thou wilt be there; and although thou art as yet on the road, place this before thine eyes, as if thou wert already standing, as if thou wert already rejoicing without ceasing among the Angels; as if that which is written were realized in thee: "Blessed are they that dwell in Thy house; they will be a…
3 Lord, haue thou merci on vs, haue thou merci on vs; for we ben myche fillid with dispisyng.
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 "Jerusalem that is being built as a city" (ver. 3). Brethren, when David was uttering these words, that city had been finished, it was not being built. It is some city he speaketh of, therefore, which is now being built, unto which living stones run in faith, of whom Peter saith, "Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house;" that is, the holy temple of God.
4 For oure soule is myche fillid; we ben schenschipe to hem that ben abundaunte with richessis, and dispising to proude men.
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 "For there the tribes went up" [Psalm 122:4]. We were asking whither he ascends who has fallen; for we said, it is the voice of a man who is ascending, of the Church rising. Can we tell whither it ascends? Whither it goes? Whither it is raised? "Thither," he says, "the tribes went up." Whither? To "partaking in the Same." But what are the tribes? Many know, many know not.