Psalm 101 - That Christ might release those in fetters

Les Très Riches Heures du duc de Berry,
Folio 34r - the Musée Condé

Psalm 101: Penitential psalm no 5/ Saturday Matins I, 1

Vulgate	Douay-Rheims
Oratio pauperis, cum anxius fuerit, et in conspectu Domini effuderit precem suam.	The prayer of the poor man, when he was anxious, and poured out his supplication before   the Lord.
1 Dómine, exáudi oratiónem meam: * et clamor meus ad te véniat.	Hear, O Lord, my prayer: and let my cry come to you.
2  Non avértas fáciem tuam a me: * in quacúmque die tríbulor, inclína ad me aurem tuam.	Turn not away your face from me: in the day when I am in trouble, incline your ear to me.
3  In quacúmque die invocávero te: * velóciter exáudi me.	In what day soever I shall call upon you, hear me speedily.
4  Quia defecérunt sicut fumus dies mei: * et ossa mea sicut crémium aruérunt.	4 For my days are vanished like smoke, and my bones are grown dry like fuel for the fire.
5  Percússus sum ut fœnum, et áruit cor meum: * quia oblítus sum comédere panem meum.	5 I am smitten as grass, and my heart is withered: because I forgot to eat my bread.
6  A voce gémitus mei: * adhæsit os meum carni meæ.	6 Through the voice of my groaning, my bone has cleaved to my flesh.
7  Símilis factus sum pellicáno solitúdinis: * factus sum sicut nyctícorax in domicílio.	7 I have become like to a pelican of the wilderness: I am like a night raven in the house.
8  Vigilávi, * et factus sum sicut passer solitárius in tecto.	8 I have watched, and have become as a sparrow all alone on the housetop.
9  Tota die exprobrábant mihi inimíci mei: * et qui laudábant me, advérsum me jurábant.	9 All the day long my enemies reproached me: and they that praised me did swear against me.
10  Quia cínerem tamquam panem manducábam, * et potum meum cum fletu miscébam.	10 For I ate ashes like bread, and mingled my drink with weeping.
11  A fácie iræ et indignatiónis tuæ: * quia élevans allisísti me.	11 Because of your anger and indignation: for having lifted me up you have thrown me down.
12  Dies mei sicut umbra declinavérunt: * et ego sicut fœnum árui.	12 My days have declined like a shadow, and I am withered like grass.
13  Tu autem, Dómine, in ætérnum pérmanes: * et memoriále tuum in generatiónem et generatiónem.	13 But you, O Lord, endure for ever: and your memorial to all generations.
14  Tu exsúrgens miseréberis Sion: * quia tempus miseréndi ejus, quia venit tempus.	14 You shall arise and have mercy on Sion: for it is time to have mercy on it, for the time has come.
15  Quóniam placuérunt servis tuis lápides ejus: * et terræ ejus miserebúntur.	15 For the stones thereof have pleased your servants: and they shall have pity on the earth thereof.
16  Et timébunt gentes nomen tuum, Dómine: * et omnes reges terræ glóriam tuam.	16 All the Gentiles shall fear your name, O Lord, and all the kings of the earth your glory.
17  Quia ædificávit Dóminus Sion: * et vidébitur in glória sua.	17 For the Lord has built up Sion: and he shall be seen in his glory.
18  Respéxit in oratiónem humílium: * et non sprevit precem eórum.	18 He has had regard to the prayer of the humble: and he has not despised their petition.
19  Scribántur hæc in generatióne áltera: * et pópulus qui creábitur, laudábit Dóminum.	19 Let these things be written unto another generation: and the people that shall be created shall praise the Lord:
20  Quia prospéxit de excélso sancto suo: * Dóminus de cælo in terram aspéxit:	20 Because he has looked forth from his high sanctuary: from heaven the Lord has looked upon the earth.
21  Ut audíret gémitus compeditórum: * ut sólveret fílios interemptórum.	21 That he might hear the groans of them that are in fetters: that he might release the children of the slain:
22  Ut annúntient in Sion nomen Dómini: * et laudem ejus in Jerúsalem.	22 That they may declare the name of the Lord in Sion: and his praise in Jerusalem;
23  In conveniéndo pópulos in unum: * et reges ut sérviant Dómino.	23 when the people assemble together, and kings, to serve the Lord.
24  Respóndit ei in via virtútis suæ: * Paucitátem diérum meórum núntia mihi.	24 He answered him in the way of his strength: Declare unto me the fewness of my days.
25  Ne révoces me in dimídio diérum meórum: * in generatiónem et generatiónem anni tui.	25 Call me not away in the midst of my days: your years are unto generation and generation.
26  Inítio tu, Dómine, terram fundásti: * et ópera mánuum tuárum sunt cæli.	26 In the beginning, O Lord, you founded the earth: and the heavens are the works of your hands.
27  Ipsi peribunt, tu autem pérmanes: * et omnes sicut vestiméntum veteráscent.	27 They shall perish but you remain: and all of them shall grow old like a garment:
28  Et sicut opertórium mutábis eos, et mutabúntur: * tu autem idem ipse es, et anni tui non defícient.	And as a vesture you shall change them, and they shall be changed. 28 But you are always the selfsame, and your years shall not fail.
29  Fílii servórum tuórum habitábunt: * et semen eórum in sæculum dirigétur.	29 The children of your servants shall continue and their seed shall be directed for ever.

Psalm 101 as a Penitential psalm

The first psalm of Matins each week is Psalm 101, probably best known as the fifth of the penitential psalms. As St Liguori says:

In this psalm, which is one of the seven penitential psalms, we see one humbling himself before God, praying for himself and for all the people.

The first half of the psalm (verses 1-18) in particular paints a picture of the penitent person who fasts and prays, shedding tears of penitence while hoping for God's mercy.

The second half reminds us that Christ calls us to penitence that we might live with him forever.

Christ as the poor man

There is another interpretation to the psalm though, as St Liguori goes on to point out:

According to St. Augustine, it is Jesus Christ who prays for us; in fact, it cannot be denied that in certain verses the Messias and his coming are spoken of. The very title of the psalm in the Hebrew as well as in the Greek and the Latin clearly indicates its subject: Prayer of the poor man when he is in anxiety, and when he pours out his prayer in the presence of the Lord.

Indeed, St Augustine develops the Christological dimension of the psalm at length:

Behold, one poor man prays, and prays not in silence. We may therefore hear him, and see who he is: whether it be not perchance He, of whom the Apostle says, Though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might be rich. 

If it is He, then, how is He poor? For in what sense He is rich, who sees not? What then is richer than He, by whom riches were made, even those which are not true riches? For through Him we have even these riches, ability, memory, character, health of body, the senses, and the conformation of our limbs: for when these are safe, even the poor are rich. Through Him also are those greater riches, faith, piety, justice, charity, chastity, good conduct: for no man has these, except through Him who justifies the ungodly... 

Reflect also upon these words: I am Your servant, and the Son of Your handmaid. Observe, this handmaid, chaste, a virgin, and a mother: for there He received our poverty, when He was clothed in the form of a servant, emptying Himself; lest you should dread His riches, and in your beggarly state should not dare approach Him. There, I say, He put on the form of a servant, there He was clothed with our poverty; there He made Himself poor, and us rich....

Read in this light, the contrast between earthly mortality and God's unchanging state drawn out in the psalm becomes a commentary on the two natures of Christ.

Christ and the harrowing of hell

In the context of the weekly mini-Triduum of the Office, the key focus St Benedict is perhaps pointing us to is surely the contrast between the mortality of sinful man, and the promise of eternal life.  

In verse 14 we hear that the time for the Resurrection has come:

14  Tu exsúrgens miseréberis Sion: * quia tempus miseréndi ejus, quia venit tempus.

14 You shall arise and have mercy on Sion: for it is time to have mercy on it, for the time has come.

The climax of the psalm, though, is verse 21, which in the context of Holy Saturday can perhaps be seen as referring to the harrowing of hell: 

21  Ut audíret gémitus compeditórum: * ut sólveret fílios interemptórum.

21 That he might hear the groans of them that are in fetters: that he might release the children of the slain:

In the verses that follow, psalm looks forward to the new creation that will replace the old, an age whose first light is seen with the Resurrection.