Psalm 140: Overview

Psalm 140 has long been regarded as the quintessential Vespers psalm. St John Chrysostom for example recorded that it was said daily at Lucernarium (Vespers) in his time, and interprets the reference to prayer rising like incense as referring to the substitution of the Office for the sacrifices of incense made in the temple in the morning and evening.

Psalm 140 and Maundy Thursday

Its placement on Thursday in the Benedictine Office is surely not random, but rather reflects the Patristic interpretation of it (set out in both Chrysostom and Augustine for example) as specifically referring to Christ's sacrifice on the cross replacing the sacrifices of the Old Covenant.  And Cassian made a particular link to its appropriateness to a Thursday:

 "The lifting up of hands in an evening sacrifice" is a prophecy of the sacrifice of Christ on the cross, the benefits of which were given to the apostles on Maundy Thursday in the sacrament of the Lord's Supper for their eternal salvation. 

Pope John Paul II on the psalm

Pope John Paul II gave a General Audience on this psalm in November 2003:

Verse two of this Psalm can be considered as the distinctive sign of the entire hymn and as the apparent justification of the fact that it has been included in the Liturgy of Vespers. The idea expressed reflects the spirit of prophetic theology that intimately unites worship with life, prayer with existence. The same prayer made with a pure and sincere heart becomes a sacrifice offered to God. The entire being of the person who prays becomes a sacrificial act, a prelude to what St Paul would suggest when he invited Christians to offer their bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God:  this is the spiritual sacrifice acceptable to him (cf. Rom 12: 1). Hands raised in prayer are a bridge to communication with God, as is the smoke that rises as sweet odour from the victim during the sacrificial rite of the evening. 

The Psalm continues in a tone of supplication, transmitted to us by a text which in the original Hebrew is unclear and presents certain interpretative difficulties (especially in vv. 4-7). The general sense may, however, be identified and transformed into meditation and prayer. Above all else, the person praying calls upon the Lord that He not permit his lips (cf. v. 3) and the motions of his heart to be attracted and enticed by evil, thus inclining him to commit "wicked deeds" (cf. v. 4). 

In fact, a person's words and actions express his or her moral choice. Evil exercises such an attraction that it easily provokes even the faithful to taste "the delights" that sinners can offer, sitting down at their table; that is, taking part in their perverse actions. The Psalm even acquires the character of an examination of conscience, which is followed by the commitment to always choose the ways of God. 

At this point, however, the person praying starts by bursting out with a passionate declaration that he will not associate with the evildoer; he will not be a guest of the sinner, nor let the fragrant oil that is reserved for privileged guests (cf. Ps 23[22]: 5) bear witness to his connivance with the evildoer (cf. Ps 141[140]: 5). To express his downright disassociation from the wicked with greater vehemence, the Psalmist then declares an indignant condemnation in his regard, in vivid images of vehement judgment. It is one of the typical imprecations of the Psalter (cf. Ps 58[57] and 109[108]), whose purpose is to affirm, in a realistic and even picturesque way, hostility towards evil, the choice of good and the certainty that God intervenes in history with his judgment of severe condemnation of injustice (cf. vv. 6-7). 

The Psalm closes with a final invocation of trust (cf. vv. 8-9): it is a hymn of faith, thankfulness and joy in the certainty that the faithful one will not be engulfed by the hatred that the perverse reserve for him and will not fall into the trap they set for him, after having noted his firm choice to do what is right. In this way, the righteous person is able to surmount every deceit unscathed, as it is said in another Psalm:  "We were rescued like a bird from the fowler's snare; broken was the snare, and we were freed" (Ps 124[123]: 7). 

Let us end our reading of Psalm 141[140] by returning to the first image: that of evening prayer as a sacrifice pleasing to God. John Cassian, a great spiritual master and native of the East, who lived between the fourth and fifth centuries and spent the last part of his life in Southern Gaul, re-read these words in a Christological vein: "Indeed, in them, one perceives an allusion made to the evening sacrifice in a more spiritual way, brought to fulfilment by the Lord and Saviour during his Last Supper and consigned to the Apostles when he sanctioned the beginning of the Church's holy mysteries. Or (might one perceive an allusion) to that same sacrifice that he offered of himself the following day in the evening, with the raising of his own hands:  a sacrifice prolonged until the end of time for the salvation of the whole world" (cf. Le Istituzioni Cenobitiche [The Cenobitic Institutions], Abbey of Praglia, Padua 1989, p. 92). 5 November 2003

The text of Psalm 140

Vulgate	Douay-Rheims
Psalmus David.	A psalm of David.
1 Dómine, clamávi ad te, exáudi me: * inténde voci meæ, cum clamávero ad te.	I have cried to you, O Lord, hear me: hearken to my voice, when I cry to you.
2  Dirigátur orátio mea sicut incénsum in conspéctu tuo: * elevátio mánuum meárum sacrifícium vespertínum.	2 Let my prayer be directed as incense in your sight; the lifting up of my hands, as evening sacrifice.
3  Pone, Dómine, custódiam ori meo: * et óstium circumstántiæ lábiis meis.	Set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth: and a door round about my lips.
4  Non declínes cor meum in verba malítiæ: * ad excusándas excusatiónes in peccátis.	4 Incline not my heart to evil words; to make excuses in sins.
5  Cum homínibus operántibus iniquitátem: * et non communicábo cum eléctis eórum	With men that work iniquity: and I will not communicate with the choicest of them
6  Corrípiet me justus in misericórdia, et increpábit me: * óleum autem peccatóris non impínguet caput meum.	5 The just man shall correct me in mercy, and shall reprove me: but let not the oil of the sinner fatten my head.
7  Quóniam adhuc et orátio mea in beneplácitis eórum: * absórpti sunt juncti petræ júdices eórum.	For my prayer shall still be against the things with which they are well pleased: 6 Their judges falling upon the rock have been swallowed up.
8  Audient verba mea quóniam potuérunt: * sicut crassitúdo terræ erúpta est super terram.	They shall hear my words, for they have prevailed: 7 As when the thickness of the earth is broken up upon the ground:
9  Dissipáta sunt ossa nostra secus inférnum: * quia ad te, Dómine, Dómine, óculi mei: in te sperávi, non áuferas ánimam meam.	Our bones are scattered by the side of hell. 8 But to you, O Lord, Lord, are my eyes: in you have I put my trust, take not away my soul.
10  Custódi me a láqueo, quem statuérunt mihi: * et a scándalis operántium iniquitátem.	9 Keep me from the snare, which they have laid for me, and from the stumbling blocks of them that work iniquity.
11  Cadent in retiáculo ejus peccatóres: * singuláriter sum ego donec tránseam.	10 The wicked shall fall in his net: I am alone until I pass.

Scriptural and liturgical uses of the psalm

NT references	Lk 1:10, 1 Tim 2:8, Rev 5:8, Rev 8:3-4 (2) Gal 6:1 (6)
RB cursus	Thursday Vespers
Monastic feasts etc	Triduum Vespers AN 2328(1), 2082 (9)
Roman pre 1911	Friday Vespers
Responsories	6489 (1), 6458 (2)
Roman post 1911	1911-62: Friday Vespers . 1970: Week 1: Sunday EP-I omitting final verse
Mass propers (EF)	Lent Ember Saturday, GR (2); Sept Ember Sat GR (2); PP19 GR (2).