Psalm 140 v2 - The offerings of Christ and the saints

 Verse 2 of Psalm 140 is used in many different contexts in the liturgy, and has been given several different layers of interpretation by the Fathers.  It is this verse in particular that makes it the quintessential Vespers psalm.

 Looking at the Latin 

2		V/NV/JH/OR	Dirigátur orátio mea sicut incénsum in conspéctu tuo: * elevátio mánuum meárum sacrifícium vespertínum.
		Sept	κατευθυνθήτω ἡ προσευχή μου ὡς θυμίαμα ἐνώπιόν σου ἔπαρσις τῶν χειρῶν μου θυσία ἑσπερινή

[Key: V=Vulgate; OR=Old Roman; NV=Neo-Vulgate; JH=St Jerome's translation from the Hebrew; Sept=Septuagint]

 Phrase by phrase 

Dirigátur orátio mea sicut incénsum in conspéctu tuo: elevátio mánuum meárum sacrifícium vespertínum.

Let my prayer be directed  as incense in your sight; the lifting up of my hands, as evening sacrifice.

 Word by word 

Dirigátur (let it be directed) orátio (prayer) mea (my) sicut (like) incénsum (incense) in conspéctu (in the presence) tuo (your): * elevátio (the lifting up) mánuum (of the hands) meárum (of my) sacrifícium (sacrifice) vespertínum (of the evening). 

cf Exodus 30:7; Lev 24:7-8 for the incense offered morning and evening on the altar of incense.  

dirigo, rexi, rectum, ere 3 to direct, guide, set aright. (a) to prosper, to be established
oratio, onis, f. prayer, supplication
incensum i n incense; the smoke of sacrifice, smell of the sacrificial offerings
conspectus, us, m. sight, presence
evelatio onis f a raising up, a lifting up
manus, us, f, the hand
sacrificium, ii, n., an offering, oblation, sacrifice
vespertinus a um of or belonging to the evening or eventide

Selected English translations:

DR	Let my prayer be directed as incense in your sight; the lifting up of my hands, as evening sacrifice.
Brenton	Let my prayer be set forth before thee as incense; the lifting up of my hands [as] an evening sacrifice.
MD	Let my prayer be directed as incense in Thy sight the uplifting of my hands as an evening sacrifice.
RSV	Let my prayer be counted as incense before thee, and the lifting up of my hands as an evening sacrifice
Cover	Let my prayer be set forth in thy sight as the incense; and let the lifting up of my hands be an evening sacrifice.
Knox	Welcome as incense-smoke let my prayer rise up before thee; when I lift up my hands, be it acceptable as the evening sacrifice
Grail	Let my prayer arise before you like incense, the raising of my hands like an evening oblation.

 [Key: DR=Douay-Rheims Challoner; MD=Monastic Diurnal; RSV=Revised Standard Version; Cover=Coverdale

The offering of pure prayer

In verse 1 of Psalm 140, the focus was on the importance of continuous prayer; in verse 2 it is on the pure intentions behind it. 

At the literal level, this verse seems on the face of it, quite straightforward: it asks for the speaker's prayers to be as if they were the sacrifice of incense in the temple.  As St Robert Bellarmine put it:

My first request is, that my prayer, through your grace, may ascend like incense. 

The Temple offerings 

Several of the commentaries on the verse, though, take the key elements of the temple offering as the basis for a spiritual interpretation of them, so it is worth listing out some of the elements they considered important to the verses interpretation.

First, incense was offered in the temple, and on the altar.  Secondly, it was an offering of incense made up of four different elements. Thirdly, although there was also a daily offering of incense, the most solemn form of this offering was done by the high priest when he entered the holy of holies once each year, at an altar specifically designated for this purpose and using a censor used only for incense, and finally, it was put on the fire.  

Such offerings were always acceptable in that they complied with a requirement of the law, but its acceptability as an offering for sins, according to St John Chrysostom "...was sometimes acceptable, sometimes unacceptable, depending on the disposition of the offerers of each in terms of virtue or vice..."

The temple and altar of our bodies

St Robert Bellarmine saw the fact that the original offering of incense happened in the Temple as a reminder that the old temple has been destroyed, and rebuilt as Christ, and in us:

Man is the temple of God, for the Apostle says, “Your members are the temple of the Holy Ghost,” the inmost part of which is the soul, in which is the law, written there by the finger of God; there, also, is the will, representing the altar of gold, namely, a pure heart, adorned by the grace of God.

Incense as the pure prayers of the saints

 The meaning of the reference to incense can simply mean worthy prayer.  St Jerome, for example, argues that, in the light of the book of Revelation's reference to incense as the pure prayer of the saints, incense means just that: 

May my prayer rise up to You directly; there is nothing in it that is mean, nothing malicious, nothing that is the work of the devil. Incense, moreover, represents the prayers of the saints. We know this from the Apocalypse [cf Rev 5:8, 8: 3-4] where the twenty-four elders were holding vessels of incense and saying: 'These are the prayers of the saints.'

Similarly, St John Chrysostom suggested that the reference to the temple offerings of incense are intended to convey that the pure intensions and fervour of the person praying: 

 The psalmist therefore asks for his prayer to become like that sacrifice defiled by no blemish of the offerer, like that pure and holy incense. Now, by his asking he also teaches us to offer prayers that are pure and fragrant... 

St Robert Bellarmine developed this idea further, suggesting the the four elements used to make the incense represent the virtues that we must bring to prayer:

The four aromatic substances represent the four virtues, Faith, Hope, Love, Humility, and the most grateful prayer that can be put up to God is composed of them. 

An evening offering

The temple sacrifice of incense was offered both morning and evening, so one question to ponder in relation to this verse is, why is the reference to evening prayer only?  

Some commentaries suggest that morning can readily be substituted in for evening here, since the daily sacrifices of the Temple occurred both in the morning and in the evening.  Indeed, St Augustine provides an elaborate explanation, which I'll come to in the next post, on how evening prayer generates morning prayer. 

One possible explanation provided by St Cassiodorus, is that it is a reference to us in the evening of our lives, as we approach death:

Evening sacrifice perhaps denotes that offering which scrupulous devotion is wont to offer up at life's end, when we show repentance and cleanse ourselves with humble entreaty; in the words of Psalm 50: A sacrifice to God is an afflicted spirit. Our evening is when we leave the light of day at the onset of death. Notice the point which we have often emphasised, that no-one should despair provided that he cleanses his final deeds with the fount of his tears.

The lifting up of hands

Although the lifting up of hands as a gesture in prayer can be taken literally, most of the Fathers interpret it spiritually, to refer to good works, or our actions more generally.

St Cassiodorus summarised this line of commentary as follows:

The lifting up of hands denotes works of devotion performed either in almsgiving or achieved in some praise­worthy relationship. 

The fire of love

St John Chrysostom took the placing of the incense on fire as an injunction to spiritual fervour when praying:

As, then, the incense even of itself is fine and sweet-smelling, but gives particular evidence of its fragrance at the time when it is mixed with the fire, so too is prayer fine of itself but becomes finer and more sweet-smelling when offered with ardor and a glowing spirit, when the soul becomes a censer and lights a burning fire. I mean, the incense would not be added unless the brazier had previously been lit, or the coals set alight. Do likewise in the case of your own mind: first light it with enthusiasm, and then offer your prayer.

St Robert Bellarmine similarly suggested that:

...the fire that produced the fragrant smoke, that rose up and ascended so directly, is fervor of desire, but in order that it should ascend in a straight and direct line, there must be a pure intention and constant attention; for they who pray with a view to attract notice have their incense aside by the draught of the world, and it will not ascend in a direct line; while they who allow the cares of this world, and its distractions, to interfere with them when they pray, they do not give proper direction to their prayer, and such distractions, like so many currents, blow away, and dissipate the incense of their prayer, and will not suffer it to soar aloft, as it ought; and it was a consciousness of this that makes the prophet pray, “Let my prayer be directed as incense in thy sight.” 

 

The evening sacrifice is the Passion

Perhaps the most interpretation of this verse though, is as it speaking of the replacement of the sacrifices of the Old Covenant by the New: St Jerome, for example, argued that the evening sacrifice,' of the eleventh hour, means that 'I lift up my hands in the New Testament'. 

St Augustine in particular built on this idea, to make clear that  the evening sacrifice is that of the Last Supper, the Passion and the Resurrection, for as the latter said:

For when the day was now sinking towards evening, the Lord upon the Cross laid down His life to take it again, did not lose it against His will...That then is the evening sacrifice, the Passion of the Lord, the Cross of the Lord, the offering of a salutary Victim, the whole burnt offering acceptable to God. That evening sacrifice produced, in His Resurrection, a morning offering. Prayer then, purely directed from a faithful heart, rises like incense from a hallowed altar. Nought is more delightful than the odour of the Lord: such odour let all have who believe. 

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.

  

For notes on verse 3 of the psalm, continue on here.