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Office Of Readings | Week 19, Wednesday, Ordinary Time | A Reading From The Discourses Of Saint Augustine On The Psalms | Come, Let Us Go Up To The Mountain Of The Lord
‘Oh come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord.’
Augustine’s meditation draws on the conviction that the Church stands as both the fulfilment of Israel’s hope and the visible sign of God’s promises realised in history. His opening phrase, As we have heard, so also have we seen, comes directly from Psalm 48 (/Vg. 47), a psalm celebrating Zion as the city of God. In its original Old Testament setting, the psalm rejoices in Jerusalem’s security and God’s protection; Augustine applies it to the Church, understood as the true and enduring ‘city of the Lord of hosts’.
Saint Augustine contrasts two stages of revelation: first ‘hearing’ through prophecy, then ‘seeing’ through the Gospel. The early Church, in Augustine’s reading, has the privilege of experiencing what ancient Israel only anticipated. Prophetic statements such as All the kings of the earth will adore him, all the nations will serve him (Psalm 72 (/Vg. 71)) are no longer future hopes but present realities, visible in the global spread of Christianity.
Augustine layers multiple psalm references to reinforce the continuity of prophecy and fulfilment. Be exalted above the heavens, O God, and your glory above all the earth (Psalm 57 (/Vg. 56)) now applies to Christ risen and enthroned. The Passion prophecies of Psalm 22 (/Vg. 21) — the piercing of hands and feet, the counting of bones, and the casting of lots for garments — are directly linked to the crucifixion narratives of the Gospels. Augustine invites the listener to recognise the one who was ‘despised when he walked on the earth’ as the one who now reigns from heaven.
In citing Hear, O daughter, and see, and forget your people and your father’s house (Psalm 45 (/Vg. 44)), Augustine interprets the Church as the bride of Christ, called from among the Gentiles. The order of the verbs — hear first, see later — supports his theological point: the Gentile nations heard the Gospel through apostolic preaching before seeing the fulfilment of the prophecies they had never previously known.
A subtle reversal emerges in his observation that those to whom the prophets were originally sent (the Jewish people) ‘remained behind’, in the sense of possessing Scripture without recognising its fulfilment, while those who were not sent prophets (the Gentiles) heard, obeyed, and understood. This reading mirrors Paul’s argument in Romans 9–11 about the surprising dynamics of God’s call.
Finally, Augustine warns against division by quoting Christ’s caution, ‘See, here is Christ; see, he is there’ (Matthew 24:23). The secure foundation of the Church is grounded in unity, not in factions. When he insists, ‘God has made this city firm for ever’ (Psalm 48 (/Vg. 47)), Augustine is making an ecclesiological claim: the Church’s stability is guaranteed by divine action, not human effort, and cannot be overthrown despite the changing fortunes of the world.
Augustine weaves psalmody, prophecy and Gospel together into a single vision of the Church as the living, visible continuation of God’s covenantal promises — no longer confined to a single city or people, but extended to all nations under the reign of Christ.
A Reading From The Discourses Of Saint Augustine On The Psalms | Come, Let Us Go Up To The Mountain Of The Lord
As we have heard, so also have we seen. Truly blessed Church! You have both heard and seen. You have heard the promises, and you see their fulfilment; you have heard in prophecy, and you see in the Gospel. Yes, all that has now been brought to completion was prophesied in times past. Raise up your eyes, then, and cast your gaze around the world. See God’s people, your heritage, spread to the ends of the earth. See the Scripture now fulfilled: All the kings of the earth will adore him, all the nations will serve him. See fulfilled what has been said: Be exalted above the heavens, O God, and your glory above all the earth. See him whose hands and feet were pierced by nails, whose bones were numbered as they hung upon the wood, and for whose garments they cast lots. See him reigning, whom they saw hanging upon the cross; see him enthroned in heaven, whom they despised when he walked on the earth. See the word fulfilled: All the ends of the earth shall turn to the Lord, and all nations shall worship in his sight. See all this and shout with joy: As we have heard, so also have we seen.
Deservedly then the Church is itself called from among the Gentiles: Hear, O daughter, and see, and forget your people and your father’s house. Hear and see. First you hear what you do not see; later you will see what you have heard. For he says: A people I did not know served me, as soon as they heard me they obeyed. If they obeyed as soon as they heard, it follows that they did not see. What then of the passage: Those who were not told of him will see, and they who have not heard will understand? Those to whom the prophets were not sent were the first to hear and understand the prophets, whereas those who at first did not hear them were astonished when they heard them later. Those to whom the prophets were sent remained behind, possessing the books of Scripture but not understanding the truth, possessing the tables of the law but not keeping their inheritance. As we have heard, so also have we seen also applies to us.
In the city of the Lord of hosts, in the city of our God, that is where we have heard; there too we have seen. God has made this city firm for ever. No one should say boastfully: See, here is Christ; see, he is there. Such a claim only leads to factions. But God has promised unity. The kings were gathered together in unity, not scattered through schisms. Yet perhaps that city which had gained possession of the world will at some time be overthrown? No, God has made it firm for ever. If God has made its foundation firm for ever, how can you fear that this foundation may collapse?
Christian Prayer With Jesus Christ
Lord Jesus Christ,
You are the fulfilment of the promises once spoken through the prophets.
You have gathered peoples from every nation into one flock,
And made your Church a city founded for ever on your love.
Open our ears to hear your word with faith,
Open our eyes to see your works with joy,
And keep us steadfast in the unity you have willed.
Defend your Church from division and falsehood,
That we may walk together to the mountain of the Lord,
Where you reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit,
One God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Glossary Of Christian Terms
City of God – Augustine’s image for the Church as the spiritual Jerusalem, the dwelling place of God among his people. Not to be confused with his later work The City of God; here it means the universal Church.
Gentiles – A biblical term for nations other than Israel. In the New Testament, it refers to non-Jewish peoples brought into God’s covenant through Christ.
Hebrew (/Vg.) numbering – A way of identifying psalms by both the Hebrew (Masoretic) numbering and the Latin Vulgate numbering, since they mostly differ (e.g., Psalm 48 Hebrew = Psalm 47 Vulgate).
Inheritance – In biblical language, the blessings and promises of God, originally given to Israel and now shared with the Church.
Prophecy – A message from God, often foretelling future events, given through inspired speakers in Scripture. Augustine reads the psalms and prophets as pointing to Christ.
Schism – A formal split or division in the Church’s unity, often caused by false teaching or refusal of legitimate authority.
Unity – The oneness of faith, worship, and governance in the Church, rooted in Christ and sustained by the Holy Spirit.
Zion – The hill in Jerusalem where the Temple stood; symbolically, the dwelling place of God and, in Christian interpretation, the Church itself.
The crowd listening to Jesus know how to ‘read’ nature in order to predict the weather. They are accustomed to this level of being and recognize the signs there. The crowds’ prescience stops at this level, however, the level of practical, everyday matters, and does not extend to a deeper contemplation and understanding of the spiritual reality with which Christ confronts them [ … ]
Psalm 140 is a prayer for deliverance from evil, invoking God’s protection against the schemes and violence of wicked adversaries. The psalmist appeals to God as shield and saviour, expressing trust in divine intervention to preserve from harm. Central to Psalm 140 is a contrast between the malice of the wicked and the steadfastness of divine justice. The psalm concludes with confidence in the Lord’s ability to uphold the cause of the afflicted and the assurance that righteousness will ultimately dwell in God’s presence [ … ]
We process. Glass exhibition cases, old reliquaries. A forearm here; here a nun’s fingertip. In chapel, at a glance, there are the usual faces. But they all stand to attention. Jonathan breaks from the procession to – fire the organ with oomph and dignity: Ride on! ride on in majesty! The angel-squadrons of the sky look down with sad and wondering eyes to see the approaching sacrifice. When we’ve done the readings, the Arch holds that tree in his hands to deliver the homily. He rocks quietly on his feet, some few seconds, as if balance defeated it. A way you might affect as the Spirit moves… Copying. Then he says: ‘Our palm fronds may seem to us today rather dry. I mean this not in a literal sense, but by the standards of those who originally lined the roadways in order to welcome Jesus into Jerusalem, as they proclaimed Jesus to be the Messiah, who would be clambering up and ripping their palm branches fresh from off the trees. I think perhaps also our faith is somewhat distant from that of the people there on that highroad into Jerusalem, and something of our sense of the meaning has shifted in vividness from what it was then. And of course the expectation of all those many people is markedly different, but in many important respects the same. There are the same essential qualities to all our faith in God, which springs complete from our humanity, and that is one and the same in value for all of us, and time is consistent on this point. So then, let us renew the fullness of Catholic faith, and let us ask the Lord’s blessing as we embark upon our Holy Week. ‘Our Lord enters into Jerusalem in order to refresh us. He is to die in order that we may have life. There is a living reality here, both spiritual and as entangled in the joy of our daily living. We have Ladies’ Day where I grew up. They still have it, and they close the roads off, and little children parade, dressed-up like spring brides. When I was a boy, there was a May Day festival, and there was a May pole on the field, with the people dancing, like Morris dancers might be one way of visualizing this if you’ve never seen it, with their ribbons tied onto the top of the May pole, and they would weave around each other, dressing the pole, which is what we called it. It was like a dance with red and white and blue ribbons all hung off of the top of the May pole, which stood there all year, only like a telegraph pole, but it was concreted in, and then there was a slide, and swings – one baby-swing and two you could have a go at – terrible health and safety but that’s what it was in those days. ‘There was a round-a-bout – we used to run it round and round to try to get it off its central axis. It were rusty as anything and creaked like mad – on concrete. And climb up where it was all greased up at the top. Ruth, who was big as the next four of us, used to sit there sucking on the lollipops we nicked for her from Raddies, and she’d direct matters. We were trying to destroy it, and get it to dislodge from its central axis, and fly away – roll off into that farmer’s field, which he only ever kept for silage, but we never succeeded. There was a car someone had left there so we spent forever smashing that up, until someone who lived in one of the houses there took exception to our doing that, so he put thick grease under the door handles and gave us a right talking to. ‘It would only be a few stands, hot-dogs and things like that. The man selling the hot dogs would have his records on full blast. There’d be a couple of set-up stalls. Air-rifles – that sort of thing. But we all had them, and we all went shooting, of course, if not with twelve bores then with smaller gauge. Or pay a pound – I have no idea how much it was in actual fact then – it might have only been a few pennies – and we’d get all that time smashing up the crockery the man would put up for us to smash on the dressers. That was my particular favourite thing to do at these festivals, by the way, in case you were wondering. You got a little bucket of so many cricket balls. ‘I dread to think what went into those hot dogs. Probably EE rules would forbid it now. But it was a fair mix in those days. A lot of young people then were C of E. We’ve done a lot to hang onto our young people, which is a tremendous encouragement when you consider how things are, while in recent decades the Church of England hasn’t been so successful. People still want it on feast days and what are essentially now civic celebrations. It’s strange to see, though, how all the little stands there people have are run by the police and people like that along those lines. There’s no May pole. That was a sort of faith that ran and ran beneath all the theoreticals of it in the 1960s and the 1970s and into the 1980s. The May pole isn’t there now in the particular place I’m thinking of. Considering May poles were officially suppressed hundreds of years ago – as a part of the protestant reformation. One or two of you are probably thinking I’m remembering things from that time! ‘I should have liked to say that those processionals were so hardwired into us, that even after the last thirty years, when I became a bishop, they are still with us. They were […]
