Showing posts with label Ps 129. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ps 129. Show all posts

Saturday, April 8, 2017

With Christ there is plenteous redemption: Psalm 129 (Gradual Psalm No 11)




As well as being one of the Gradual Psalms, Psalm 129 is also the first psalm of Tuesday Vespers, one of the seven penitential psalms; and is used in the Office of the Dead at Vespers.  It is a traditional preparatory prayer for Mass; and it carries an indulgence if said for those in purgatory.

Psalm 129: De Profundis
Vulgate
Douay-Rheims
Canticum graduum.
Canticum graduum.
De profúndis clamávi ad te, Dómine: * Dómine, exáudi vocem meam :
Out of the depths I have cried to you, O Lord:
2  Fiant aures tuæ intendéntes: * in vocem deprecatiónis meæ.
2 Lord, hear my voice. Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my supplication.
3  Si iniquitátes observáveris, Dómine: * Dómine, quis sustinébit?
3 If you, O Lord, will mark iniquities: Lord, who shall stand it.
4  Quia apud te propitiátio est: * et propter legem tuam sustínui te, Dómine.
4 For with you there is merciful forgiveness: and by reason of your law, I have waited for you, O Lord.
5  Sustinuit ánima mea in verbo ejus: * sperávit ánima mea in Dómino.
My soul has relied on his word: 5 My soul has hoped in the Lord.
6  A custódia matutína usque ad noctem: * speret Israël in Dómino.
6 From the morning watch even until night, let Israel hope in the Lord.
7  Quia apud Dóminum misericórdia: * et copiósa apud eum redémptio.
7 Because with the Lord there is mercy: and with him plentiful redemption.
8  Et ipse rédimet Israël: * ex ómnibus iniquitátibus ejus.
8 And he shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities


Historical context

The psalm is almost certainly Davidic in origin, as 2 Chronicles 6:36-42, which is part of a prayer of King Solomon, alludes to and explains this psalm, and explicitly mentions Solomon's father, King David in this context.

Here are the verses in question from Chronicles:
"And if they sin against you (for there is no man that sins not) and you be angry with them, and deliver them up to their enemies, and they lead them away captive to a land either afar off, or near at hand, and if they be converted in their heart in the land to which they were led captive, and do penance, and pray to you in the land of their captivity saying: We have sinned, we have done wickedly, we have dealt unjustly: And return to you with all their heart, and with all their soul, in the land of their captivity, to which they were led away, and adore you towards the way of their own land which you gave their fathers, and of the city, which you have chosen, and the house which I have built to your name: Then hear from heaven, that is, from your firm dwelling place, their prayers, and do judgment, and forgive your people, although they have sinned: For you are my God: let your eyes, I beseech you, be open, and let your ears be attentive to the prayer, that is made in this place. Now therefore arise, O Lord God, into your resting place, you and the ark of your strength: let your priests, O Lord God, put on salvation, and your saints rejoice in good things. O Lord God, turn not away the face of your anointed: remember the mercies of David your servant."
Christ reconciles us, reopening the way to heaven

The focus of this psalm is Christ's work of reconciliation: we have now surely reached the harrowing of hell and reopening of the way to heaven in Christ's life recounted in the psalms of the steps.

In this light, Pope Benedict XVI suggested that:
"the text is first and foremost a hymn to divine mercy and to the reconciliation between the sinner and the Lord, a God who is just but always prepared to show himself "a merciful and gracious God, slow to anger and rich in kindness and fidelity, continuing his kindness for a thousand generations, and forgiving wickedness and crime and sin" (Ex 34: 6-7)."
In terms of our own ascent in imitation of him, one can perhaps use it to meditate on incidents in the Gospel such as Jesus' repeated forgiveness of sins of those he healed through his miracles; the tearful repentance of Mary Magdalene; the story of the woman caught in adultery and more.

Competing textual traditions?

It is worth noting that this is one of those psalms where the Septuagint Greek (and thus Vulgate) and the (late medieval) Hebrew Masoretic Text are in places very different, in ways impossible to reconcile by looking for alternative readings of the Hebrew.  

In particular, from verse 4 onwards, the Hebrew puts much more emphasis on fear of God, and omits two references to the hope of the Christ’s redemption.  This may well be the result of early rabbinical reaction to Christianity, and in fact the text is so corrupt that in places even protestant bibles that usually prefer the Hebrew have adopted the Vulgate tradition.

Liturgical and Scriptural uses of the psalm

NT references
Rom 3:24 (v7);
Mt 1:21,
Tit 2:14,
Rev 1:5 (v8)
RB cursus
Tuesday Vespers+AN 2116 (1-2); 4990 (4)
Monastic feasts etc
Gradual Psalms
Penitential Psalms
Vespers of Christmas and its octave (alternating days);
1 Vespers of Sacred Heart;
Office of the Dead V
AN 5094(4-5), 1446 (7)
Roman pre 1911
Wednesday Vespers
Responsories
Epiphanytide Sat v2 (6495);
7143 (alt verse for Sept 3&4)
Roman post 1911
1911-62: Wednesday Vespers  
Mass propers (EF)
Septuagesima Sunday: TR (1-4)
PP22 IN 1-4
PP 23: AL (102); OF (1-2)



You can find notes on the individual verses of the psalm in this series, in the context of Vespers:

Introduction to Psalm 129
Ps 129 v 1-2
Ps 129 v3-5a
Ps 129 v5b-6
Ps 129 v7-8


Tuesday, April 8, 2014

Introduction to Psalm 129 as a penitential psalm pt 2

Belles Heures of Jean de France,
duc de Berry, folio 71v*
www.metmuseum.org

Today, the second part of my introduction to the sixth of the penitential psalms, Psalm 129.

I said in the first part of this introduction to Psalm 129 that its essential theme is God’s willingness to forgive even the gravest sins, and I want to provide some material that develops that theme a little more today.

God is always willing to forgive

The idea that there are some sins that cannot be forgiven, or that there is a limit to the number of times a particular sin can be forgiven is one of those recurrent heresies that still gains traction in our time.

One even hears articulated the idea that repenting at times of personal disaster, even on the deathbed, is somehow wrong or too late - somehow a cowardly act going contrary to how one has lived one's life.

This is a horrendous error, for the very opposite is true!

Bad times are exactly when we should turn back to God.  It takes courage to renounce a lifetime of error.  And it takes a gift of a great grace from God.

Indeed, Pope St Leo the Great used this psalm to instruct a bishop that absolution should not be withheld from those who express penitence, no matter what the circumstance, or what doubts there may be around the case:

“...because we cannot place limits to God’s mercy nor fix times for Him with whom true conversion suffers no delay of forgiveness, as says God’s Spirit by the prophet, “when thou hast turned and lamented, then shalt thou be saved;” and elsewhere, “Declare thou thy iniquities beforehand, that thou may’st be justified ;” and again, “For with the Lord there is mercy, and with Him is plenteous redemption.” And so in dispensing God’s gifts we must not be hard, nor neglect the tears and groans of self-accusers, seeing that we believe the very feeling of penitence springs from the inspiration of God, as says the Apostle, “lest perchance God will give them repentance that they may recover themselves from the snares of the devil, by whom they are held captive at his will..”

In such cases there may well be temporal punishment left to be worked off either in this world or in purgatory.  But as the psalm sets out, redemption will come, as surely as the dawn comes after the night.

Reverent awe

And God's merciful forgiveness, expressed in verses 3-4, should in turn invoke in us a sense of reverent awe, as Pope Benedict XVI has pointed out:

“It is significant that reverent awe, a sentiment in which respect and love are mingled, is not born from punishment but from forgiveness. Rather than sparking his anger, God's generous and disarming magnanimity must kindle in us a holy reverence. Indeed, God is not an inexorable sovereign who condemns the guilty but a loving father whom we must love, not for fear of punishment, but for his kindness, quick to forgive.”

God’s forgiveness brings additional gifts

Fresco of the annunciation to St Zachariah,
Florence
Pope Benedict XVI concluded his catechesis on this psalm with some commentary from St Ambrose on the benefits that can flow from absolution from our sins, and I commend it to you also:

“Let us choose St Ambrose's words: in his writings he often recalled the reasons that motivated him to invoke pardon from God. "We have a good Lord who wants to forgive everyone", he recalled in his Treatise on Penance, and he added: "If you want to be justified, confess your fault: a humble confession of sins untangles the knot of faults.... You see with what hope of forgiveness you are impelled to make your confession" (2, 6, 40-41: Sancti Ambrosii Episcopi Mediolanensis Opera [SAEMO], XVII, Milan-Rome, 1982, p. 253). In the Exposition of the Gospel according to Luke, repeating the same invitation, the Bishop of Milan expressed his wonder at the gifts that God added to his forgiveness: "You see how good God is and ready to pardon sins: not only does he give back everything he had taken away, but he also grants unhoped for gifts". Zechariah, John the Baptist's father, lost the ability to speak because he did not believe the angel, but subsequently, in pardoning him, God granted him the gift of prophecy in the hymn of the Benedictus: "The one who could not speak now prophesies", St Ambrose said, adding that "it is one of the greatest graces of the Lord, that those who have denied him should confess belief in him. Therefore, no one should lose trust, no one should despair of the divine reward, even if previous sins cause him remorse. God can change his opinion if you can make amends for your sin" (2, 33: SAEMO, XI, Milan-Rome, 1978, p. 175).”

I've written notes on all of the verses of Psalm 129, which you can find in a series starting here.  

Alternatively, you can jump onwards to the last of the Penitential Psalms, Psalm 142.





Psalm 129 (130) – De Profundis

Vulgate
Douay-Rheims
Canticum graduum.
Canticum graduum.
De profúndis clamávi ad te, Dómine: * Dómine, exáudi vocem meam :
Out of the depths I have cried to you, O Lord:
2  Fiant aures tuæ intendéntes: * in vocem deprecatiónis meæ.
2 Lord, hear my voice. Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my supplication.
3  Si iniquitátes observáveris, Dómine: * Dómine, quis sustinébit?
3 If you, O Lord, will mark iniquities: Lord, who shall stand it.
4  Quia apud te propitiátio est: * et propter legem tuam sustínui te, Dómine.
4 For with you there is merciful forgiveness: and by reason of your law, I have waited for you, O Lord.
5  Sustinuit ánima mea in verbo ejus: * sperávit ánima mea in Dómino.
My soul has relied on his word: 5 My soul has hoped in the Lord.
6  A custódia matutína usque ad noctem: * speret Israël in Dómino.
6 From the morning watch even until night, let Israel hope in the Lord.
7  Quia apud Dóminum misericórdia: * et copiósa apud eum redémptio.
7 Because with the Lord there is mercy: and with him plentiful redemption.
8  Et ipse rédimet Israël: * ex ómnibus iniquitátibus ejus.
8 And he shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities

*Belles Heures of Jean de France, duc de Berry, 1405–1408/9. Herman, Paul, and Jean de Limbourg (Franco-Netherlandish, active in France by 1399–1416). French; Made in Paris. Ink, tempera, and gold leaf on vellum; 9 3/8 x 6 5/8 in. (23.8 x 16.8 cm). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, The Cloisters Collection, 1954 (54.1.1).

Monday, April 7, 2014

The Penitential Psalms - Introduction to Psalm 129

Les Très Riches Heures du duc de Berry, Folio 70r
Musée Condé, Chantilly.

In this Lent series on the penitential psalms, we are now up to the sixth penitential psalm, Psalm 129 (130). Psalm 129, or the De Profundis, is, like, the Miserere, extremely well known, and I've previously written more detailed notes on it, so I won’t linger over it here.  Instead I'll provide part I of an introduction to it today; with Part II tomorrow providing some links to verse by verse notes on it.

The opening of this psalm,‘Out of the deep', or ‘from the abyss’ suggests that the speaker is coming from a very dark place in his life. But in fact this is a wonderfully optimistic psalm, full of the virtue of hope; and a psalm that serves well as a prayer for strength against the danger of despair. Like the last psalm, the motivation now is the hope of heaven, not the fear of hell.  As such, it reflects the spiritual progression evident in the sequence of the penitential psalms. 

A prayer for those in purgatory

As with its predecessor Psalm 101, Psalm 129 combines both an individual’s concern for himself, and a more communal dimension. It is a traditional preparatory prayer for Mass.  In the Christian context, however, the De Profundis is actually best known as a prayer for those in purgatory – it is used in the funeral services, and has a partial indulgence attached to the saying of it.

St Francis rescuing souls from purgatory
Molleno (circa 1805-1850)
Brooklyn Museum

I'm not here going to explore those aspects of the psalm relating to its place in the Office of the Dead here (though they are obviously closely related to its role as a penitential psalm) beyond noting the obvious focus on the virtue of hope, and the promise of redemption the psalm offers. 

All the same, as you take the time to read it through again, perhaps you might say it aloud, with the intention of applying the indulgence to a particular soul or the souls in purgatory in general.

Psalm 129 (130) – De Profundis
Vulgate
Douay-Rheims
Canticum graduum.
Canticum graduum.
De profúndis clamávi ad te, Dómine: * Dómine, exáudi vocem meam :
Out of the depths I have cried to you, O Lord:
2  Fiant aures tuæ intendéntes: * in vocem deprecatiónis meæ.
2 Lord, hear my voice. Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my supplication.
3  Si iniquitátes observáveris, Dómine: * Dómine, quis sustinébit?
3 If you, O Lord, will mark iniquities: Lord, who shall stand it.
4  Quia apud te propitiátio est: * et propter legem tuam sustínui te, Dómine.
4 For with you there is merciful forgiveness: and by reason of your law, I have waited for you, O Lord.
5  Sustinuit ánima mea in verbo ejus: * sperávit ánima mea in Dómino.
My soul has relied on his word: 5 My soul has hoped in the Lord.
6  A custódia matutína usque ad noctem: * speret Israël in Dómino.
6 From the morning watch even until night, let Israel hope in the Lord.
7  Quia apud Dóminum misericórdia: * et copiósa apud eum redémptio.
7 Because with the Lord there is mercy: and with him plentiful redemption.
8  Et ipse rédimet Israël: * ex ómnibus iniquitátibus ejus.
8 And he shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities


Historical context

The dating of this psalm is not clear cut. Many commentators (including St Alphonsus Liguori) suggest that it was composed probably during the Babylonian Exile, mainly because of its references to the redemption of Israel.

Yet 2 Chronicles 6:36-42, which is part of a prayer of King Solomon, alludes to and explains this psalm, and mentions Solomon's father, King David. And it is possible that the last few lines of the psalm were later additions. So the psalm may well be by David himself. 

Of course, there is a whole other debate on the sources, purpose and date(s) of composition of Chronicles. But still...

Here are the verses in question from Chronicles:

"And if they sin against you (for there is no man that sins not) and you be angry with them, and deliver them up to their enemies, and they lead them away captive to a land either afar off, or near at hand, and if they be converted in their heart in the land to which they were led captive, and do penance, and pray to you in the land of their captivity saying: We have sinned, we have done wickedly, we have dealt unjustly: And return to you with all their heart, and with all their soul, in the land of their captivity, to which they were led away, and adore you towards the way of their own land which you gave their fathers, and of the city, which you have chosen, and the house which I have built to your name: Then hear from heaven, that is, from your firm dwelling place, their prayers, and do judgment, and forgive your people, although they have sinned: For you are my God: let your eyes, I beseech you, be open, and let your ears be attentive to the prayer, that is made in this place. Now therefore arise, O Lord God, into your resting place, you and the ark of your strength: let your priests, O Lord God, put on salvation, and your saints rejoice in good things. O Lord God, turn not away the face of your anointed: remember the mercies of David your servant."

God’s great mercy calls forth great penitents

The main theme of this psalm is God’s offer to us of redemption, fulfilled in Christ.

Human nature makes us all sinners, the psalmist points out, yet not only is God willing to forgive, but he offers the ‘fullness of redemption’. There is an important message here, for although one of the key reasons for the neglect of the sacrament of penance is the loss of the sense of sin, the other perhaps is the loss of the sense of God’s mercy, symbolized for me at least by the attempt in recent decades to sanitize St Mary Magdalene’s history, and reject the traditional identification of her with the woman whose sin’s Our Lord forgave in Luke 7.

Yet the idea that even the greatest sinner – whether a murderer and adulterer King David, a prostitute, or one who, like St Peter did, denies Our Lord – can still repent and be forgiven is crucial to our Catholic faith.

Penitent Magdalene, Titian, c1565

It is particularly important, of course, firstly as a message to those who do commit serious sins. St Robert Bellarmine comments:

To be truly penitent, (the subject of the Prophet's instruction in this penitential Psalm,) we need two things; to reflect on our own wretched condition, and to know the extent of God's mercy; because he that is ignorant of the state he is in, seeks for no medicine, does no penance; and he that has no idea of God's mercy, falls into despair, and looks upon penance as of no value.”

But it is also an important doctrinal message for all of us, no matter what the state of our souls at any particular point in time, namely to encourage us to pray for the conversion of others.  For this psalm reminds us that as long as they remain alive, even the most hardened sinner may yet repent and be saved.

More in the next part, continue on here.

In the meantime, a setting by Aarvo Pärt.

Monday, January 20, 2014

St Benedict's psalter and the election of the Gentiles**


This is a cross-post from my Saints Will Arise Blog.

There is a very interesting series over at the always excellent Fr Hunwicke's Mutual Enrichment blog, which I strongly recommend reading, on what is known as 'two covenants theory', the idea that Judaism is not superseded by the New Covenant.

The situation of modern Jews when it comes to the Church is sensitive territory these days, for many in the Church, swayed by the desire to promote inter-religious unity, advocate ideas that are at odds with both Scripture and tradition.  Fr Hunwicke does a fairly comprehensive demolition on these erroneous theories in the light of the tradition, what Vatican II's Nostra Aetate actually says, and other evidence.

Fr Hunwicke's posts (as on some many other issues) have been rather helpful for my own understanding of this touchy subject, so I thought it might be timely to share some of my speculations on St Benedict's ordering of his psalm cursus that may reflect his understanding of this topic by way of a minor footnote.

The traditional understanding of the Old and New covenants

Fr Hunwicke provides a very carefully nuanced articulation of the tradition on this topic; let me provide the un-nuanced version for the sake of debate.

I would suggest that the hardline version of the traditionalist position is that modern-day Jews are no longer the chosen people: for God's promise to Abraham is fulfilled in the Church, which was founded by the faithful remnant of the Jewish people that he preserved, consisting of the apostles and disciples and their subsequent converts.  Catholics, in other words, are the new Jews.

In this view, instead of the whole Jewish people being granted a privileged place in ongoing salvation history (or at least are still the inheritors of an eschatological promise of reconciliation), they have been dispossessed just as the Canaanites were in their time, and their inheritance given to the new Israel, the Church, which is open to gentiles and Jews alike; Rabbinic Judaism, in other words, is not the Judaism of Our Lord's time.

Fr Hunwicke demolishes some of the obviously erroneous liberal views on this subject, but many traditionalists still struggle with the suggestion made by modern theologians, including Pope Benedict XVI, to the effect that while the Mosaic Covenant has been closed, modern Jews still have a privileged place in salvation history by virtue of the covenant with Abraham.

Fr Hunwicke suggests that Pope Benedict's rewrite of the (EF) Good Friday prayer, which reflects St Paul's words on the subject, arguably reflects an eschatological explanation for this view of the continuing covenant, while leaving the traditional view, that Jewish worship and practices have no salvific value, intact.

I want to draw your attention to five insights on this issue that can, I think, be gained from St Benedict's version of the Divine Office, which I think helps support the eschatological promise approach advocated by Pope Benedict and others.

1.  The old sacrifices have been superseded: Psalm 91 (92) on Friday

In the traditional version of the Roman Office, Psalm 91 (Bonum est confiteri Domino) is said on Saturday, perhaps because the title given to in Scripture is 'For (or 'on the day of' in the Vulgate) the Sabbath'.

St Benedict, however, places it on Friday at Lauds.  It is a change that contemporary liturgical scholar Paul Bradshaw, for one, finds puzzling (Daily Prayer in the Early Church, p147).

Ex-Trappist turned Orthodox scholar Patrick Reardon, in his book Christ in the Psalms, though offers a very elegant and plausible rationale for this change, for he notes that as well as the Sabbath, Jewish commentaries state that it was sung daily as an accompaniment to the morning sacrifice of a lamb.  Reardon, accordingly, sees the shift of the psalm to Friday Lauds as a testimony to the idea that Friday is "our true the true Pascha and Atonement Day, on which the Lamb of God took away the sins of the world."(p181)

Reardon sees Psalm 91 as a reminder that the Old Covenant, which merely foreshadowed what was to come, has ended, and the New has replaced it:

"Prayed on Friday mornings, as the ancient Western monastic rule prescribed, this psalm reminds the Church why it is no longer necessary to make the daily offering of lambs in the temple, for those sacrifices had only "a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very image of the things" (Heb. 10:1). With respect to those quotidian lambs offered of old, we are told that "every priest stands ministering daily and offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins" (10:11). But, with respect to the Lamb in the midst of the Throne, we are told that "this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God . . . For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified" (10:12-14). This is the true Lamb to whom we chant: "You are worthy to take the scroll, / And to open its seals; / For You were slain, / And have redeemed us to God by Your blood" (Rev. 5:9)." (p181)

2.  Psalm 118: the new testament is superior to the old

In the Roman Office, Psalm 118 is sung over the course of Sunday from Prime to None (and in the older form of the Office, daily at these hours).  St Benedict, by contrast, splits the longest psalm in the psalter between Sunday (Prime to None) and Monday (Terce to None).   And he organises the split so as to end Sunday Nones with a stanza where the psalmist claims to have outshone his teachers and those of old in his understanding:

"Through your commandment, you have made me wiser than my enemies: for it is ever with me. I have understood more than all my teachers: because your testimonies are my meditation. I have had understanding above ancients: because I have sought your commandment." (verses 98-100)

It could of course just be how things fell out.  But St Benedict's contemporary Cassiodorus (author of easily the most popular commentary on the psalms amongst medieval monks) certainly understood these verses as affirming the new covenant over the Old:

“Certainly the new people had better understanding than the older Jewish people, for they happily accepted the Lord Christ who the Jews with mortal damage to themselves believed was to be despised.”

Cassiodorus actually sees the reference in another verse of the stanza, verse 103, which refers to the law being sweeter than honey, as another allusion to this same idea:

“Honey has particular reference to the Old Testament, the comb to the New; for though both are sweet, the taste of the comb is sweeter because it is enhanced by the greater attraction of its newness. Additionally, honey can be understood as the explicit teaching of wisdom, whereas the comb can represent that known to be stored in the depth, so to say, of the cells. Undoubtedly both are found in the divine Scriptures.”

3.  The canticle of Hannah and younger sons

Over at Fr Hunwicke's blog, commenters have noted that the recent tendency to refer to Jews as our 'older brother' is something of a mixed message given the fate of so many older brothers in the Bible!   Indeed, St Paul uses just this typology in one of his discussions on the status of the Jews, in Galatians 4:

"21 Tell me, you who are so eager to have the law for your master, have you never read the law? 22 You will find it written there, that Abraham had two sons; one had a slave for his mother, and one a free woman. 23 The child of the slave was born in the course of nature; the free woman’s, by the power of God’s promise. 24 All that is an allegory; the two women stand for the two dispensations. Agar stands for the old dispensation, which brings up its children to bondage, the dispensation which comes to us from mount Sinai.25 Mount Sinai, in Arabia, has the same meaning in the allegory as Jerusalem, the Jerusalem which exists here and now; an enslaved city, whose children are slaves. 26 Whereas our mother is the heavenly Jerusalem, a city of freedom. 27 So it is that we read, Rejoice, thou barren woman that hast never borne child, break out into song and cry aloud, thou that hast never known travail; the deserted one has more children than she whose husband is with her. 28 It is we, brethren, that are children of the promise, as Isaac was. 29 Now, as then, the son who was born in the course of nature persecutes the son whose birth is a spiritual birth. 30 But what does our passage in scripture say? Rid thyself of the slave and her son; it cannot be that the son of a slave should divide the inheritance with the son of a free woman."

Wednesday, in the Christian week, is traditionally associated with the betrayal of Judas.  That's the reason that Wednesday was a fast day in the early Church as it is in the Benedictine Rule, and in the Office, this is reflected, inter alia, in the choice of Psalm 63 at Lauds.  The variable (ferial) canticle of the day, though, is the Canticle of Hannah (I Kings [1 Sam] 2:1-10), a song of rejoicing at her pregnancy (with the prophet Samuel) that put paid to the taunts of her husband's fecund other wife.  We today tend to interpret this canticle as foreshadowing the Magnificat, which it certainly does.  But one of the earliest Benedictine monastic commentaries on the Office Canticles, by Rabanus Maurus (780-856), also interprets that typology in the light of St Paul's Galatians typology, saying by way of summary:

"But on Wednesday the Canticle of Anna the prophetess is sung, in which the expulsion of the perfidious Jews is set out, and the election of the Church of the gentiles is demonstrated."

And indeed St Benedict's psalm selections for this day come back to the theme of God's choice of peoples several times, most notably in Psalms 134 and 135.

4.  The redemption triptych (Psalms 113, 129 and 134/5) - redemption comes only through Christ

In the Benedictine Office, Psalm 113 (In exitu Israel) is said at Vespers on Monday rather than Sunday as it is in the Roman Office.  In part I think that is because it provides a type of baptism, in the parting of the Red Sea and the Jordan (especially in verse 3: Mare vidit, et fugit: Jordánis convérsus est retrórsum), one of the themes Maurus identifies in the Monday Lauds canticle (along with the Incarnation).  But it also, I think, sets up a nice triptych of opening psalms at Vespers on the first three days of the week around our redemption through Christ.

The two outer panels are provided by Psalms 113 on Monday and 134 and 135 (known as the Great Hallel in Jewish liturgy) on Wednesday.  These three psalms share both common themes and several verses between them, and take us through God's power compared to empty idols, manifested through the creation of the universe, and intervention in history to lead his people out of Egypt,and into the Promised Land.

If he were being consistent, St Benedict would have placed Psalm 128 as the first Psalm at Vespers on Tuesday, for on that day all of the other Gradual psalms are said from Terce through Vespers.  But St Benedict actually places Psalm 128 (where it arguably fits well for other reasons) on Monday, and instead, in the middle of the triptych sits Psalm 129 (De Profundis), with its promise of Christ's redeeming action ('For with the Lord there is mercy, and with him is plenteous redemption: he shall redeem Israel from all his iniquity').  Dom Gueranger, in his Liturgical Year, notes that this psalm above all, was often interpreted by medieval commentators, as a prophecy of that final reconciliation of the Jews.

5. The Hallel psalms reversed: The first shall be last?

St Benedict’s arrangement of the Sunday Office at both Lauds and Vespers is significantly different to the old Roman he is assumed to have started from.  Two key changes he makes are to start the variable psalmody  at Lauds with Psalm 117 (it was in Prime in the old Roman Office), and to end it with Psalm 112, at Vespers (moving Psalm 113 to Monday in order to do so).  These are, of course, the last and first respectively of the ‘Hallel’ psalms, the psalms sung at the three major Jewish festivals each year.

The more prominent St Benedict accords to Psalm 117 is easily explained: it is one of the most quoted psalms in the New Testament, important in particular for the verses directly prophesying the Resurrection, and pointing to Christ as the stone the builders rejected.

Is it possible, though, that the ending of Vespers on Psalm 112 was also meant to provide a subtle reference to the idea that the first shall come last in relation to St Paul's prophesy in Romans that  'all Israel shall come in'?

St Benedict (485-547) may very well have been familiar with the Bishop of Ravenna, St Peter Chrysologus' (380-450) teaching to just this effect (now used in the readings of the Liturgy of Hours as Fr Hunwicke notes).  And it is certainly nicely consistent with Pope Benedict's rewrite of the Good Friday prayer:

"Let us also pray for the Jews: That our God and Lord may illuminate their hearts, that they acknowledge Jesus Christ is the Savior of all men. (Let us pray. Kneel. Rise.) Almighty and eternal God, who want that all men be saved and come to the recognition of the truth, propitiously grant that even as the fullness of the peoples enters Thy Church, all Israel be saved. Through Christ Our Lord. Amen"

So, is this all too much of a stretch?  Do let me know what you think.

Friday, November 29, 2013

Psalm 129: Verse 7- 8

Michelangelo: Last Judgment
The closing verses of Psalm 129 deal with the promise of redemption, but remind us also of the need to fight the good fight until the end.

Verse notes

7
V/NV
Quia apud Dóminum misericórdia: * et copiósa apud eum redémptio.
JH
quia apud Dominum misericordia, et multa apud eum redemptio. 

τι παρ τ κυρί τ λεος κα πολλ παρ' ατ λύτρωσις

Quia (for/because) apud (with) Dóminum (the Lord) misericórdia (mercy) et (and) copiósa (plentiful) apud (with) eum (him) redemptio (redemption)

misericordia, ae, f. (misericors), mercy, kindness, favor, compassion, loving-kindness.
copiosus, a, um (copia), plentiful, plenteous.
redemptio onis  buying back, ransoming, deliverance, redemption

DR
Because with the Lord there is mercy: and with him plentiful redemption.
Brenton
for with the Lord is mercy, and with him is plenteous redemption
Cover
for with the Lord there is mercy, and with him is plenteous redemption.
KJV
Let Israel hope in the LORD: for with the LORD [there is] mercy, and with him [is] plenteous redemption.

The psalm ends on a high note, with the promise of God's mercy in sending us his only Son to redeeem us, as St Alphonse Liguori comments:

"The prophet points out here the foundation of all our hopes, namely, the blood of Jesus Christ by which he was to redeem the human race. He says: For mercy with God is infinite; and he is well able to redeem us by abundant help from our evils."

8
V/NV/JH
Et ipse rédimet Israël: * ex ómnibus iniquitátibus ejus.

κα ατς λυτρώσεται τν Ισραηλ κ πασν τν νομιν ατο

Et (and) ipse (he himself) rédimet (he will redeem) Israël ex (from) omnibus (all) iniquitátibus (sins/iniquities) ejus (its)

redimo emi emptum ere 3 to redeem, buy back, ransom, rescue, set free, save
omnis, e, all, each, every; subst., all men, all things, everything.


DR
And he shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities
Brenton
And he shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities
Cover
And he shall redeem IsraeI from all his sins.
KJV
And he shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities.

The collective nature of our redemption is important here, for though the Church is holy, and offers the sacraments as a source of transforming grace for us, she is made up of sinners in constant need of reform and conversion, as the abuse scandals attest to all too well.  St Robert Bellarmine remind us that the struggle will not be over until our death as individuals, and the last day of the world in the case of the Church:

"This redemption has begun, and is going on, and will be completely accomplished on the last day, when we shall be delivered not only from our sins, but even from the punishment due to them, and from any danger of relapse..." 

Psalm 129: De Profundis
Vulgate
Douay-Rheims
Canticum graduum.
Canticum graduum.
De profúndis clamávi ad te, Dómine: * Dómine, exáudi vocem meam :
Out of the depths I have cried to you, O Lord:
2  Fiant aures tuæ intendéntes: * in vocem deprecatiónis meæ.
2 Lord, hear my voice. Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my supplication.
3  Si iniquitátes observáveris, Dómine: * Dómine, quis sustinébit?
3 If you, O Lord, will mark iniquities: Lord, who shall stand it.
4  Quia apud te propitiátio est: * et propter legem tuam sustínui te, Dómine.
4 For with you there is merciful forgiveness: and by reason of your law, I have waited for you, O Lord.
5  Sustinuit ánima mea in verbo ejus: * sperávit ánima mea in Dómino.
My soul has relied on his word: 5 My soul has hoped in the Lord.
6  A custódia matutína usque ad noctem: * speret Israël in Dómino.
6 From the morning watch even until night, let Israel hope in the Lord.
7  Quia apud Dóminum misericórdia: * et copiósa apud eum redémptio.
7 Because with the Lord there is mercy: and with him plentiful redemption.
8  Et ipse rédimet Israël: * ex ómnibus iniquitátibus ejus.
8 And he shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities


And that completes this mini-series on Psalm 129.

For an introduction to the second psalm of Tuesday Vespers in the Benedictine Office, Psalm 130, continue on to here.

For a look at the next (and last) of the Seven Penitential Psalms, continue on to Psalm 142.

Thursday, November 28, 2013

Psalm 129: verses 5b-6

Bulgarian icon
Today's verses of Psalm 129 focus on that most Christian of virtues, hope.

Notes on the verses

5b
V/NV
sperávit ánima mea in Dómino.
JH
Anima mea ad Dominum 

λπισεν  ψυχή μου π τν κύριον

sperávit (it has hoped) ánima (soul) mea (my) in Dómino (in the Lord) 

The Hebrew Masoretic Text (MT) and Septuagint readings of this phrase are quite different.  In particular, the MT omits all reference to that particularly Christian virtue of hope (speravit). But without the verb, the verse makes little sense, hence its inclusion even in translations that normally follow the Hebrew, such as the Revised Standard Version.  

spero, avi, atum, are (spes), to hope or trust in


DR
My soul has hoped in the Lord.
Brenton
My soul has hoped in the Lord;
Cover
In his word is my trust.
KJV
and in his word do I hope.

St Robert Bellarmine's commentary on this verse points to the great Old Testament model of repentance and endurance under persecution, namely King David himself, as the model for our encouragement:

"David's example ought to be of great value to us; for he was in the depth of misery, whether we regard his sins or what he suffered for them. His sins were most grievous; he had been guilty of adultery, took the life of a most faithful soldier; offended that God who had bestowed a kingdom on him, the gift of prophecy, strength, beauty, prudence, riches on him. He was also in the depths of misery when he was constantly persecuted by Saul, and in daily danger of his life; and yet, as he did not despair; but rather clung to hope, he was delivered."


6
V
A custódia matutína usque ad noctem: * speret Israël in Dómino.
NV
magis quam custodes auroram. Magis quam custodes auroram speret Israel in Domino
JH
a uigilia matutina usque ad uigiliam matutinam. Expectet Israhel Dominum; 

π φυλακς πρωίας μέχρι νυκτός π φυλακς πρωίας λπισάτω Ισραηλ π τν κύριον

A (from) custódia (watch) matutína (morning) usque (until) ad (to) noctem (the night) speret (let it hope) Israël (Israel) in Dómino (in the Lord). 

Again here the two text traditions differ.  The Vulgate (following LXX) makes it 'from the morning watch unto the night'; the MT makes it a comparative (more than watchmen watch for the morning).  The neo-Vulgate reflects the MT rather than the more evocative Septuagint.

custodia ae f a guard, watch; watch; custody, prison
matutinus, a, um,  pertaining to the morning, early in the morning.
usque, adv., to, up to, as far as; till, as far as; to express an extreme degree.
nox, noctis, f  night.


DR
From the morning watch even until night, let Israel hope in the Lord.
Brenton
from the morning watch till night. Let Israel hope in the Lord
Cover
My soul fleeth unto the Lord before the morning watch, I say, before the morning watch. O Israel, trust in the Lord;
KJV
My soul [waiteth] for the Lord more than they that watch for the morning: [I say, more than] they that watch for the morning.

The psalm now moves from the individual to the Church as a whole, attesting to the duty of the Church to watch and pray, to hope, until the world's end, as Cassiodorus explains:

"He is now untroubled as regards his sins, and proclaims to the people that they must hope in the Lord Christ throughout their lives, for He can transform the most troublesome sufferings of His Church into eternal joys."

Importantly, Cassiodorus interprets the morning to night references allegorically:

 The morning watch refers to that appearance of the Lord Saviour, when before the Jews who guarded the tomb He rose in the true nature of the body which He had resumed. Night denotes the close of this world; so the universal Church must continue to hope in the Lord until the world's end."

Psalm 129: De Profundis


Vulgate
Douay-Rheims
Canticum graduum.
Canticum graduum.
De profúndis clamávi ad te, Dómine: * Dómine, exáudi vocem meam :
Out of the depths I have cried to you, O Lord:
2  Fiant aures tuæ intendéntes: * in vocem deprecatiónis meæ.
2 Lord, hear my voice. Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my supplication.
3  Si iniquitátes observáveris, Dómine: * Dómine, quis sustinébit?
3 If you, O Lord, will mark iniquities: Lord, who shall stand it.
4  Quia apud te propitiátio est: * et propter legem tuam sustínui te, Dómine.
4 For with you there is merciful forgiveness: and by reason of your law, I have waited for you, O Lord.
5  Sustinuit ánima mea in verbo ejus: * sperávit ánima mea in Dómino.
My soul has relied on his word: 5 My soul has hoped in the Lord.
6  A custódia matutína usque ad noctem: * speret Israël in Dómino.
6 From the morning watch even until night, let Israel hope in the Lord.
7  Quia apud Dóminum misericórdia: * et copiósa apud eum redémptio.
7 Because with the Lord there is mercy: and with him plentiful redemption.
8  Et ipse rédimet Israël: * ex ómnibus iniquitátibus ejus.
8 And he shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities



And for the next set of notes on this psalm continue on here.