65 Beside their servants and their maids, of whom there were seven thousand three hundred thirty and seven: and there were among them two hundred singing men and singing women.
“A canticle of David, when the house was built after the captivity.” So far as the literal sense is concerned, the heading points to the time when the temple at Jerusalem is known to have been refurbished by Zerubbabel, son of Salathiel, after it had been leveled to the ground by a hostile band of Chaldeans. But since he says nothing of this kind in what follows, and since the headings of psalms are never at variance with their content, it remains for us to investigate it in the spiritual sense. A destroyed house is built up when a soul following the captivity of sin begins to return to an understanding of the truth through the generosity of the Lord. This house, which is the universal church in which Christ dwells, is always raised up on living stones, because every day it gains increase in building from its confessors and does not cease to be built up until the number of the predestined is attained at the end of the world. We must store this psalm in our minds as the second of those proclaiming the first and the second coming of the Lord.
And in those same places, singers and singing women were appointed (II Chronicles XXV). Not only among the Levites were singers found, along with the doorkeepers of the temple and the Nethinim, but also within God's people, joined with singing women, they hastened to restore the buildings of the house of God. According to the literal meaning, he calls singers those who resounded the psalms with sweet modulation; this, we see from the Words of the Days, was customary for the Levites to do in the temple of God among the daily sacrifices. But it is also credible that at that time many from the people themselves did this in each of their places. According to the mystical senses, however, singers in the temple or people of God are those who, with greater sweetness of spirit, keep the heavenly commandments themselves and urge their listeners to keep these same commandments through frequent exhortations. Moreover, it is fitting that women singers are joined to the men, considering the feminine sex, where many individuals are found who, not only by living but also by preaching, kindle the hearts of their neighbors to praise their Creator and, as if with the sweetness of their holy voices, assist in the labor of building up the temple of the Lord. To the ministry of all these people, the title and text of Psalm 115 aptly apply. The title is: When the house of the Lord was being built after the captivity, a song for David. This, according to the literal sense, seems to express the restoration of the temple, about which the present book writes. But in the anagogical sense, that is, in the higher sense, it suggests the building of the holy Church, made up of souls saved from diabolic captivity and recalled to the knowledge of their Creator; in which building of the Church, every chosen person ought to resound with a song of praise and confession, with strong and desirable hand, that is, to the Lord Jesus Christ, sincerely understanding that without His grace, nothing good can be done. To this very title, the psalm corresponds: Sing to the Lord a new song, sing to the Lord, all the earth. Sing to the Lord, bless His name, proclaim His salvation from day to day. Declare His glory among the nations, His wonders among all peoples (Psalm 95), etc. Therefore, we are first commanded in the building of the house of the Lord to sing a new song to the Lord, that is, to retain His love within our hearts and show our observance of His commandments outwardly; and this not by a few, but by all the earth, through which the holy Church is spread. Then, we are commanded to evangelize His salvation, that is, Christ (for in Latin, to evangelize means to announce good news); and this not to a few listeners, but to all peoples among whom the Church is spread throughout the world; not that one individual can evangelize to all nations, but that all of us in our respective times and places can and should wish for the eternal salvation's joy for all, saying: Praise the Lord, all nations, and laud Him, all peoples. For His mercy is confirmed upon us (Psalm 116), etc.
[AD 585] Cassiodorus on Ezra 2:64-70