Introduction to Psalm 147: Seek after peace

In this series I want to take a look at the last psalm of Saturday Vespers in the Benedictine Office, Psalm 147, so today something of an overview.

It is, I think, one of the more difficult psalms to interpret just by reading the words (in whatever language), but one, I think, that repays a bit of work aimed at penetrating its mysteries as it particularly apt for our times, promising that after we have endured the hard days of winter, God will ensure that there is a thaw, for God has chosen his church.

May that thaw come soon!

The psalm title and text of the psalm

The psalm title is that word excluded, in the Western tradition, from use during Lent so that we can savour it all the more when it returns at Easter, namely, the word Alleluia.

The psalm itself is also fairly short, coming in at only nine verses in the Septuagint/Vulgate version.  

In the Hebrew Masoretic Text version, though, it is actually joined together with Psalm 146.

Vulgate	Douay-Rheims
Lauda, Jerúsalem, Dóminum: * lauda Deum tuum, Sion.	Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem: praise your God, O Sion.
2  Quóniam confortávit seras portárum tuárum: * benedíxit fíliis tuis in te.	Because he has strengthened the bolts of your gates, he has blessed your children within you
3  Qui pósuit fines tuos pacem: * et ádipe fruménti sátiat te.	Who has placed peace in your borders: and fills you with the fat of corn.
4  Qui emíttit elóquium suum terræ: * velóciter currit sermo ejus.	Who sends forth his speech to the earth: his word runs swiftly.
5  Qui dat nivem sicut lanam: * nébulam sicut cínerem spargit.	Who gives snow like wool: scatters mists like ashes.
6  Mittit crystállum suam sicut buccéllas: * ante fáciem frígoris ejus quis sustinébit?	He sends his crystal like morsels: who shall stand before the face of his cold?
7  Emíttet verbum suum, et liquefáciet ea: * flabit spíritus ejus, et fluent aquæ.	He shall send out his word, and shall melt them: his wind shall blow, and the waters shall run.
8  Qui annúntiat verbum suum Jacob: * justítias, et judícia sua Israël.	Who declares his word to Jacob: his justices and his judgments to Israel
9  Non fecit táliter omni natióni: * et judícia sua non manifestávit eis.	He has not done in like manner to every nation: and his judgments he has not made manifest to them. Alleluia.

The praise psalms

Saturday Vespers in the Benedictine Office is essentially 1 Vespers of the Resurrection: indeed, it's design is almost certainly influenced by the ancient Jerusalem weekly Resurrection Vigil, which also seems to have used the same starting point at Vespers.

The first verse puts it clearly within the group of seven psalms that conclude the psalter, all of which open with an injunction to praise God; St Benedict effectively makes it into eight psalms, the number symbolising the Resurrection, by virtue of dividing Psalm 144.

At Benedictine Vespers, the first lines of each psalm at Saturday Vespers between the individual and the collective in the injunctions to praise God:

144/2:  Confiteántur tibi, Dómine, ómnia ópera tua: * et sancti tui benedícant tibi.

Let all your works, O lord, praise you: and let your saints bless you.

145:  Lauda, ánima mea, Dóminum, laudábo Dóminum in vita mea: * psallam Deo meo quámdiu fúero.

Praise the Lord, O my soul, in my life I will praise the Lord: I will sing to my God as long as I shall be.

146: Laudáte Dóminum quóniam bonus est psalmus: * Deo nostro sit jucúnda, decóraque laudátio.

Praise the Lord, because psalm is good: to our God be joyful and comely praise.

147: Lauda, Jerúsalem, Dóminum: * lauda Deum tuum, Sion.

Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem: praise your God, O Sion.

 

There is also something of a logical sequence in these psalms, as Cassiodorus explained:

So far in the conclusions to the four preceding psalms which have sung the Lord's praises, we have stated the purpose with which they have been framed: all of them seem set up to prepare us for those that follow. The very order of the psalms is seen to denote a marvellous arrangement of topics.

 

It was fitting to begin with the commands of the divine proclamation, to turn next to the world's recalcitrance which we must avoid, and thirdly to speak of the assembly of the Church; fourthly, the psalm now ended has bidden the gathered Jerusalem to hymn the Lord's praises, for it has been delivered from the various dangers of this world, and as we know is established in eternal rest...

The new Jerusalem

Allegorically, of course, the psalm refers both to the Church as the new Jerusalem on earth, and to the ultimate end of our earthly exile, and enjoyment of the peace of heaven.

And it is that focus on the pursuit and attainment of peace that gives it important Benedictine resonances, fitting nicely with the entire set of the last psalms of Vespers, all of which seem to me to have particularly important associations with the monastic vocation often highlighted in the various Patristic commentaries.

The return of the exiles

At the literal, historical level, Psalm 147 can be interpreted as referring to the return of the exiles from Babylon.  The cause of Jerusalem's destruction, as Pope John Paul II explained, was the sins of Israel: 

When Jerusalem had fallen under the assault of King Nebuchadnezzar's army in 586 B.C., the Book of Lamentations presents the Lord himself as the judge of Israel's sin, as he "determined to lay in ruins the wall of the daughter of Zion.... Her gates have sunk into the ground; he has ruined and broken her bars" (Lam 2: 8, 9).

But God had not forgotten his chosen people, and through humility and repentance, as Psalm 50 makes clear, with God's help, the walls can be rebuilt:

Ps 50: 18  Sacrifícium Deo spíritus contribulátus: * cor contrítum, et humiliátum, Deus non despícies.	A sacrifice to God is an afflicted spirit: a contrite and humbled heart, O God, you will not despise.
19  Benígne fac, Dómine, in bona voluntáte tua Sion: * ut ædificéntur muri Jerúsalem.	Deal favourably, O Lord, in your good will with Sion; that the walls of Jerusalem may be built up.

 Psalm 147 is about the fulfillment of that work, shadowed in history by the return of the exiles to Jerusalem, and the rebuilding of its walls and gates, as described in the books of Esra and Nehemiah, as Pope John Paul II continued to describe: 

Now, instead, the Lord returns as the builder of the Holy City; in the restored temple He blesses his sons and daughters once again. Thus mention is made of the work carried out by Nehemiah (cf. 3: 1-38), who restored the walls of Jerusalem, so that it would become again an oasis of serenity and peace. 

God's promises

The key verses of the psalm set out a series of promises, which Pseudo-Athanasius summarizes nicely as follows:

In this psalm also the apostolic company directs its teaching to the whole church, (v. l) and says that it is right to praise and confess God. (v.2) Firstly, because he strengthened the bars of the gates of Sion, which are the guardians of its doctrines that give entrance, so that there be no entrance through them for enemies. Then because he gave blessing to its sons - clearly a spiritual one. (v.3) Thirdly, because he prepared to set all its borders at peace. Fourthly, because the fat of wheat satisfied it - heavenly bread. (v.4) Fifthly, because he sent his Word to earth - the preaching of the gospel which progressed everywhere. And also because of the magnitude of his deeds and solicitude for us, since those who are stubborn (v.7) he tempers with kindness in order to bring them to the habitation of our pilgrimage by the virtue of their lives. (v.8) And the one who granted all these things to his church is he who also formerly gave laws to Israel, (v.9) in that him (Israel) alone he made worthy of this because of the fathers. 

The four seasons

Perhaps the most important structural feature of this psalm though, is its metaphor of the four seasons in shaping and foretelling our destiny.

The depiction of the seasons reminds us both that God is the creator of all, the God that governs nature, and that from his design of nature we can deduce how we should respond and behave.  But it also highlights the other more direct form of divine revelation, that of God to his people, culminating in Christ's Incarnation, earthy mission, Crucifixion and Resurrection. 

The psalm starts by depicting the contentment of late summer: the harvest is in, and all is peaceful and quiet.  But to get to this happy point, the word of God has gone out, spreading like leaves blown forth in the wind; when the message was rejected, we were exposed to the hardships of winter, even the hard pellets of hail; but God had mercy, and sent his thaw, melting our resistance, and bringing forth the spring once again.

And the reason he has done this is that despite all, we are his chosen people, thus guided us, aided us, and blessed us.

This Lent, let us pray as St Jerome suggests, that if we have grown cold, God will send His Word and melt us: 'May the Lord grant that our frigidity, too, may thaw, that this crystal of ice be dissolved and melt'. 

Scriptural and liturgical uses of the psalm

NT references	2 Thess 3:1 (4); Acts 14:16 (9)
RB cursus	Saturday Vespers+AN 3582 (1)
Monastic feasts etc	Corpus Christi 2nd Vespers; Good Friday Tenebrae Lauds; Vespers for dedication of a church AN 1734 (2); 2884 (7);1882, 4566 (13)
Responsories	6735: Several martyrs TP no 7 (Filiae) v (13) 7390 (Easter 3 no:11; alt v, 13)
Roman pre 1911	Saturday Vespers
Roman post 1911	1911-62: Friday Lauds .
Mass propers (EF)	Palm Sunday procession Votive Mass for peace AL (1), Paschaltide AL (3)