In my last post, I provided a bit of an overview of Psalm 4. I now want to provide verse by verse notes, starting with crib notes for those who want to say the Office in Latin, but haven't studied the language much or at all (or who have forgotten what they did know!).
The first verse of Psalm 4 is a reminder to place our trust in God, and pray to him without ceasing.
The Latin
The Vulgate translates the first verse of Psalm 4 as follows:
In English
A very literal word by word translation goes as follows:
Cum (when = cum+subj) invocárem (I called) exaudívit (he heard) me (me) Deus (the God) justítiæ (of justice) meæ (of me): in (in+abl=in) tribulatióne (distress/anguish) dilatásti (you have enlarged) mihi (to me).
A selection of translations of the verse from various sources is provided below to help give a better flavour of it.
The first verse of Psalm 4 is a reminder to place our trust in God, and pray to him without ceasing.
The Latin
The Vulgate translates the first verse of Psalm 4 as follows:
Cum invocárem exaudívit me Deus justítiæ meæ: * in tribulatióne dilatásti mihi.Key vocab
invoco, avi, atum, are, (1) to invoke, call upon (God). (2) to put trust in
exaudio, ivi, Itum, ire, to hear, hearken to, listen to, give heed to; to regard, answer.
justitia, ae, justice, righteousness, innocence, piety, moral integrity
tribulatio, onis, trouble, distress, anguish, affliction, tribulation
dilato, avi, atum, are to enlarge, set at large, set at liberty, be open wide, grow thick or fat.
In English
A very literal word by word translation goes as follows:
Cum (when = cum+subj) invocárem (I called) exaudívit (he heard) me (me) Deus (the God) justítiæ (of justice) meæ (of me): in (in+abl=in) tribulatióne (distress/anguish) dilatásti (you have enlarged) mihi (to me).
A selection of translations of the verse from various sources is provided below to help give a better flavour of it.
|
Douay Rheims |
When I called upon him, the God of
my justice heard me: when I was in distress, you have enlarged me. |
|
Monastic Diurnal |
When I cried for help, the God of my
justice heard me; when I was straightened Thou didst set me at large. |
|
Revised Standard Version |
Answer me when I call, O God of my
right! Thou hast given me room when I was
in distress. |
|
New Jerusalem |
When I call answer me God, upholder
of my right |
|
Brenton (from the Septuagint) |
When I called upon him, the God of
my righteousness heard me: thou hast made room for me in tribulation; |
|
Coverdale |
Hear me when I call, O God of my
righteousness. Thou hast set me at liberty when I
was in trouble; |
|
Knox |
When I call on thy name, listen to
me, O God, and grant redress; still, in time of trouble, thou hast brought me
relief; |
|
Grail |
When I call, answer me, O God of
justice; from anguish you released me, |
St Robert Bellarmine places this verse in the context of the history of King David:
David, in the person of the Church, or any faithful soul advising sinners to follow its example, exhorts them to be converted, to put their confidence in God, to abandon evil, and do good, giving himself as an example—for when he was in trouble, he invoked the Almighty, and was heard.The verse is therefore, first and foremost, a call to constant prayer, for when do we not need God's help?
The sixth century commentator St Cassiodorus similarly saw it as an injunction to keep asking God for what we need:
Mother Church in the one verse says that she has been heard, yet begs to be heard again. She shows that this is the way of perfect prayer; though the requests we sought are granted, we should continually ask to be heard, for our solicitation is always commendable. As Paul says: Pray without ceasing; in all things give thanks.'Why is then that it doesn't always seem that God answers our prayers?
The first problem, St John Chrysostom explained, is that we don't always apply ourselves properly to the task:
Prayer is no small bond of love for God, developing in us the habit of converse with him and encouraging the pursuit of wisdom. ... We are, however, not as aware as we should be of the benefit of prayer, for the reason that we neither apply ourselves to it with assiduity nor have recourse to it in accord with God's laws.
Typically, when we converse with people of a class above us, we make sure that our appearance and gait and attire are as they should be and dialogue with them accordingly. When we approach God, by contrast we yawn, scratch ourselves, look this way and that, pay little attention...If on the contrary we were to approach him with due reverence and prepare ourselves to converse with him as God, then we would know even before receiving what we asked how much benefit we gain…If we do this, he argues, we will be successful, for God is always ready to help:
God, after all, looks not for beauty of utterance or turn of phrase but for freshness of spirit; even if we say what just comes into our mind, we go away with our entreaties successful...he is not the one to say, now is not a good time to make your approach, come back later." …there is no obstacle to his heeding to your entreaty as long as you call on him as you should . . . being of sober mind and contrite spirit, approaching him in a flood of tears, seeking nothing of this life, longing for things to come, making petition for spiritual goods…God of justice
The next phrase of the verse, ‘Deus justitiae meae’ literally means ‘the God of my justice’, but reflects a Hebrew construction that could mean either ‘my just God’ or ‘the God who vindicates my (just) cause’.
St Thomas Aquinas interprets this as a requirement that our cause be just:
A second idea is that a person is required to be just. Because, if the Lord God does not hear sinners, this is so through divine mercy, and not through his divine justice. Hence is said: "O God of my right." (Verse 1). The "Gloss" states: "A bestower of justice," or of my justification. For: "The eyes of the Lord are towards the righteous and his ears towards their cry." (Psalm 34)It is not that we have to be perfect ourselves to invoke God's justice, St Cassiodorus noted, but rather that 'there are certain actions in which the faithful appear clearly innocent'.
Indeed, the key point, as St Robert Bellarmine pointed out in his commentary on the psalm, is that we become just through grace, and the consequent 'enlargement of heart':
The God of my justice heard me, that is to say, the God from whom all my justice proceeds, whose grace makes me just.You have enlarged me
The verb 'dilatare' (to enlarge) is a key concept, but hard to translate into modern English in a meaningful way. The psalms often use the concept of narrowness of space restricting movement to symbolize pain and sorrow, and enlargement to suggest strength and gladness.
This concept is particularly important for Benedictines, since St Benedict uses the idea of ‘enlargement of heart’ (quoting Psalm 118) in his Rule to explain the process by which we grow in virtue, so that doing good becomes easy, done out of love rather than fear, and presents enlargement of heart as the goal of the monastic life, a metaphor for reaching that state where out of perfect love of God, practicing virtue becomes automatic and easy.
In this, St Benedict was surely building on St Augustine's several expositions of the topic in his commentaries on the psalms. St Augustine, in common with St John Chrysostom and others, started from the proposition that trials and tribulations are designed to provide occasion for us to be infused with the gift of patience:
You have enlarged me. You have led me from the straits of sadness into the broad ways of joy. For, tribulation and straitness is on every soul of man that does evil. But he who says, We rejoice in tribulations, knowing that tribulation works patience; up to that where he says, Because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, which is given unto us; he has no straits of heart, they be heaped on him outwardly by them that persecute him.As St Robert Bellarmine noted, when God answers us by enlarging our hearts, he can employ several different mechanisms:
God sometimes hears us by removing the tribulation; sometimes by giving patience to bear it, which is a greater favor; sometimes by not only giving the patience to bear it, but even to be glad of it, which is the greatest favor of all, and it is that of which the Prophet speaks here. Tribulation hems us in; joy enlarges our hearts; but when one glories in tribulation, his sadness is changed into joy, and tribulations bring to such persons not hemming in, but enlargement.This purpose of all this, St Augustine argues, is to enhance our interior conversation with God:
Now the change of person, for that from the third person, where he says, He heard, he passes at once to the second, where he says, You have enlarged me; if it be not done for the sake of variety and grace...in this very enlargement of heart he preferred to speak with God; that he might even in this way show what it is to be enlarged in heart, that is, to have God already shed abroad in the heart, with whom he might hold converse interiorly. Which is rightly understood as spoken in the person of him who, believing on Christ, has been enlightened...And enlargement of heart is shown also in our ability to carry out good works:
But as His very prayer against trouble is a sign rather of our infirmity, so also of that sudden enlargement of heart the same Lord may speak for His faithful ones, whom He has personated also when He said, I was an hungered, and you gave Me no meat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me no drink, and so forth. Wherefore here also He can say, You have enlarged me, for one of the least of His, holding converse with God, whose love he has shed abroad in his heart by the Holy Ghost, which is given unto us.Trials and persecutions occur, of course, not just at the individual level, but to the Church as a whole, and lead to its growth, for the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church, as Cassiodorus reminds us:
Distress always enlarges the Church, since simultaneously confessors emerge and martyrs are crowned. The whole crowd of the just is ever increased by tribulations.
Psalm 4: Cum invocarem
Vulgate
|
Douay-Rheims
|
In finem, in carminibus. Psalmus David.
|
Unto the end, in verses. A psalm for David.
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1 Cum invocárem exaudívit me deus justítiæ meæ: * in tribulatióne dilatásti mihi.
|
When I called upon him, the God of my justice heard me: when I was in distress, you have enlarged me.
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2 Miserére mei, * et exáudi oratiónem meam.
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Have mercy on me: and hear my prayer.
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3 Filii hóminum, úsquequo gravi corde? * ut quid dilígitis vanitátem et quæritis mendácium?
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O you sons of men, how long will you be dull of heart? Why do you love vanity, and seek after lying?
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4 Et scitóte quóniam mirificávit dóminus sanctum suum: * dóminus exáudiet me cum clamávero ad eum.
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Know also that the Lord has made his holy one wonderful: the Lord will hear me when I shall cry unto him.
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5 Irascímini, et nolíte peccáre: * quæ dícitis in córdibus vestris, in cubílibus vestris compungímini.
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Be angry, and sin not: the things you say in your hearts, be sorry for them upon your beds.
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6 Sacrificáte sacrifícium justítiæ, et speráte in dómino, * multi dicunt quis osténdit nobis bona?
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Offer up the sacrifice of justice, and trust in the Lord: many say, Who shows us good things?
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7 Signátum est super nos lumen vultus tui, dómine: * dedísti lætítiam in corde meo.
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The light of your countenance, O Lord, is signed upon us: you have given gladness in my heart.
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8 A fructu fruménti, vini et ólei sui * multiplicáti sunt.
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By the fruit of their corn, their wine, and oil, they rest
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9 In pace in idípsum * dórmiam et requiéscam;
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In peace in the self same I will sleep, and I will rest
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10 Quóniam tu, Dómine, singuláriter in spe * constituísti me.
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For you, O Lord, singularly have settled me in hope.
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