Friday, August 15, 2025

Cassiodorus (6th century) on Psalm 132:8 (LXX: 131:8)

  

8. Arise, O Lord, into thy resting-place: thou and the ark which thou hast sanctified. Once the prophet realised that the Lord Christ’s promises previously mentioned had been fulfilled, he cried out to the Lord: Arise into thy resting-place, for he did not wish any debt to remain unpaid. He sought to make clear the outcome of events in the dispensation of the attained truth: in other words, that Christ should rise again from the world below into the enduring blessedness of His divinity. Observe that he added thy resting-place; for Your own majesty bestowed it on You, since You reign with the Father in equal power and everlasting glory. He did not wish you to think that the Head could abandon the members, so he added: Thou and the ark which thou hast sanctified, in other words, “the Church which You have deigned to sanctify by making it Your members.” He did not specify the ark of Noah, or the ark of the covenant, though both of these appeared to represent a type of the Church; instead he designated her in a special way when he added: Which thou hast sanctified. Now observe what follows. (Cassiodorus, Cassiodorus: Explanation of the Psalms, 3 vols. [trans. P. G Walsh; Ancient Christian Writers 53; New York: Paulist Press, 1991], 3:326)