Introduction to Psalm 140

The final psalm of Vespers on Thursdays in the Benedictine Office is Psalm 140, an extremely important psalm for the theology of the Office, for the monastic tradition more generally, and as a prophesy of the institution of the Eucharist.

The text of Psalm 140

If you read through the text of the psalm, set out below, it will quickly become apparent that the meaning of many of the verses is not self-evident, perhaps especially verses 7-8.

This should not put us off, however, since although many modern commentaries focus on the more readily understood verses, at least at the literal level, such as verse 2, and skip over the more difficult verses, claiming the text to be corrupt, the Fathers suggest a quite different approach.

Rather than ignoring the difficult parts, they argued we should wrestle with such texts just as Jacob wrestled with the angel overnight, until the meaning becomes clear.

St John Chrysostom for example commented that:

While everybody, you might say, knows the words of this psalm and continues singing it at every age, they are ignorant of the sense of the expressions. What is no slight grounds for accusation, those singing it daily and uttering the words by mouth do not inquire about the force of the ideas underlying the words...You sit beside buried treasure, and carry around a locked wallet, no one stimulated even by curiosity to learn what on earth is the meaning: no question is raised, no inquiry undertaken. 

Rather than simply passing over obscure verses such as 'Their judges were swallowed up near a rock' (vv.5-6),  then, St John suggests we dig deeper, and ponder what the meaning of the sacred text is meant to convey to us.  Accordingly, the verse by verse notes that follow will attempt to deal with some of these difficulties.  

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.

Three interpretations

One of the keys to unlocking the meaning of the psalm though, I think, is to keep in mind three complementary lines of interpretation of it, namely (1) Psalm 140 as a manual on prayer and the necessary preparation for it; (2) Psalm 140 as teaching on how to stay on 'the path that leads to eternal life' (cf Psalm 138); and (3) Psalm 140 as a prophesy of the institution of the Eucharist, and more generally of the New Covenant of grace.

1. On the Office and prayer

Psalm 140 has long been regarded as the quintessential Vespers hymn by virtue of the second verse, which talks about prayer rising in the evening like incense.  

Many of the Patristic commentaries of the psalm provide extensive discussions on the nature of prayer, and the reference to prayer rising like incense has long been interpretted as speaking of the substitution of the Office for the sacrifices of incense made in the temple in the morning and evening.  

Pope John Paul II in a General Audience on the pslam, picked up this theme and summarised it as follows:

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. 

For this reason, it was and is said daily in many forms of the Office, and verse 2 is used as the versicle at Vespers for most of the year in both the Roman and Benedictine forms of the Office.

2. The path to eternal life: on cultivating the good and the value of silence

St John Chrysostom, however, argued that it is not solely for its references to evening prayer that this psalm was said daily.  Rather, he suggests, the whole psalm can be viewed as a penitential offering that helps expunge our venial sins:

....they prescribed its recital as a kind of saving medicine and cleansing of sins so that whatever stain we incur throughout the course of the day- abroad, at home, wherever we pass the time - we might on coming to the evening expunge through this spiritual air. It is, you see, a medicine that removes all these stains. 

In part this interpretation flows from the discussion of the importance of self-discipline aided by grace in the psalm, and the conrast the psalm provides between the practices of the man striving for the good in this psalm, and the unjust man of the previous psalm.

This teaching has particularly strong resonances with St Benedict's teaching on the value of silence and taciturnity, and as a result, verse 3 of the psalm, 'Set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth: and a door round about my lips' was early on used by Benedictines as a final verse to mark the start of the overnight Great Silence, and thus the counterpart to the first words of Matins, 'O Lord open my lips...'.

3. Maundy Thursday

Perhaps its most important dimension of the psalm though, and the reasons for its use in the Office of the Triduum, is the Patristic interpretation of it as a prophesy of the institution of the New Covenant.

St John Cassian in particular commented that:

But concerning the evening sacrifices what is to be said, since even in the Old Testament these are ordered to be offered continually by the law of Moses? For that the morning whole-burnt offerings and evening sacrifices were offered every day continually in the temple, although with figurative offerings, we can show from that which is sung by David: Let my prayer be set forth in Your sight as the incense, and let the lifting up of my hands be an evening sacrifice, in which place we can understand it in a still higher sense of that true evening sacrifice which was given by the Lord our Saviour in the evening to the Apostles at the Supper, when He instituted the holy mysteries of the Church, and of that evening sacrifice which He Himself, on the following day, in the end of the ages, offered up to the Father by the lifting up of His hands for the salvation of the whole world; which spreading forth of His hands on the Cross is quite correctly called a lifting up. For when we were all lying in hades He raised us to heaven, according to the word of His own promise when He says: When I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all men unto Me. (Institues III: 3)

The New Covenant is one based on grace, of circumcision of heart and mind, not flesh, and the various requests for assistance (guard our thoughts; guard our words, and so forth) that follow can be interpreted as the particular graces we should ask for in order that we might manifest the true circumcision, of the spirit.

Scriptural and liturgical uses of the psalm

Finally, a brief summary of selected Scriptural and liturgical uses of the psalm for reference purposes.

 

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 - 2328(1), 2082 (9)
Roman pre 1911	Friday Vespers
Responsories	6489 (1), 6458 (2)
Ambrosian (1957)	Friday Vespers
Brigittine	Wednesday Vespers
Maurist	Tuesday Vespers
Thesauris schemas	A: Thursday Vespers B: Friday Vespers C: Friday Vespers wk II D: Thursday Vespers wk I
Roman post 1911	1911-62: Friday Vespers . 1970: Week 1: Sunday Vespers wk I, omitting final verse
Mass propers (EF)	Lent Ember Saturday, GR; Sept Ember Sat GR; PP19 GR.

 Key: Antiphon and responsory numbers = cantus database code no; (number) indicates number of responsories or antiphons using the psalm; PP = Post Pentecost; GR =Gradual

And for detailed notes on verse 1 of the Psalm, continue on here.