Psalms 120:2

6. Consider, then, brethren, if perchance John is not one of those mountains concerning whom we sang a little while ago, “I have lifted up mine eyes to the mountains, from whence shall come my help.” Therefore, my brethren, if you would understand, lift up your eyes to this mountain, that is, raise yourselves up to the evangelist, rise to his meaning. But, because though these mountains receive peace he cannot be in peace who places his hope in man, do not so raise your eyes to the mountain as to think that your hope should be placed in man; and so say, “I have lifted up mine eyes to the mountains, from whence shall come my help,” that you immediately add, “My help is from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.” Therefore let us lift our eyes to the mountains, from whence shall come our help; and yet it is not in the mountains themselves that our hope should be placed, for the mountains re …

8. “Thy Righteousness is like the mountains of God: Thy Judgments are a great deep” ( ver. 6 ). Who are the mountains of God? Those who are called clouds, the same are also the mountains of God. The great Preachers are the mountains of God. And as when the sun riseth, he first clothes the mountains with light, and thence the light descends to the lowest parts of the earth: so our Lord Jesus Christ, when He came, first irradiated the height of the Apostles, first enlightened the mountains, and so His Light descended to the valley of the world. And therefore saith He in a certain Psalm, “I lifted up mine eyes unto the mountains, from whence cometh my help.” But think not that the mountains themselves will give thee help: for they receive what they may give, give not of their own. …

5. “Thou enlightening marvellously from the eternal mountains” ( ver. 4 ). What are the eternal mountains? Those which He hath Himself made eternal; which are the great mountains, the preachers of truth. Thou dost enlighten, but from the eternal mountains: the great mountains are first to receive Thy light, and from Thy light which the mountains receive, the earth also is clothed. But those great mountains the Apostles have received, the Apostles have received as it were the first streaks of the rising light.…Wherefore also, in another place, a Psalm saith what? “I have lifted up mine eyes unto the mountains, whence there shall come help to me.” What then, in the mountains is thy hope, and from thence to thee shall there come help? Hast thou stayed at the mountains? Take heed what thou doest. …

4. What is this Jerusalem? He briefly describes it. “The mountains stand around Jerusalem” ( ver. 2 ). Is it anything great, that we are in a city surrounded by mountains? Is this the whole of our happiness, that we shall have a city which mountains surround? Do we not know what mountains are? or what are mountains save swellings of the earth? Different then from these are those mountains that we love, lofty mountains, preachers of truth, whether Angels, or Apostles, or Prophets. They stand around Jerusalem; they surround her, and, as it were, form a wall for her. Of these lovely and delightful mountains Scripture constantly speaketh.…They are the mountains of whom we sing: “I lifted up mine eyes unto the mountains, from whence my help shall come:” because in this life we have help from the holy Scriptures. …

2. Now in that some have believed that the Psalms are divided into five books, they have been led by the fact, that so often at the end of Psalms are the words, “so be it, so be it.” But when I endeavoured to make out the principle of this division, I was not able; for neither are the five parts equal one to another, neither in quantity of contents, nor yet even in number of Psalms, so as for each to contain thirty. And if each book end with, “so be it, so be it,” we may reasonably ask, why the fifth and last book hath not the same conclusion. We however, following the authority of canonical Scripture, where it is said, “For it is written in the book of Psalms,” know that there is but one book of Psalms. And I see indeed how this can be true, and yet the other be true also, without contravening it. …