Lent series: Notes on the psalms continued!

Vespasian Psalter, London, British Library, Cotton Vespasian A I. f 30v, 31r (wiki commons)

This Lent I plan to offer some more notes on the psalms, primarily filling in a few of the gaps in my verse by verse notes for the psalms of Vespers.

I've previously provided notes for the psalms used at Vespers from Sunday to Thursday in the Benedictine Office, so my plan is to look at Psalms 141 (Friday), and Psalms 147 (Saturday), and perhaps one more if I have enough time.

Both these psalms are particularly appropriate to focus on in the context of Lent, since Psalm 141 has long been interpreted as being specifically about the events of the Passion and Christ's descent into hell, while Psalm 147 takes us to the end of all our efforts, namely the achievement of heaven.

Why not read a modern commentary?

So why bother with these notes?

There are, of course, a large number of excellent commentaries on the psalms around, both ancient and modern.

In general, I personally find most modern commentaries inadequate.  

Some are certainly worth reading, but in general they are not geared at helping those praying the Office in Latin.

More fundamentally, they are typically very focused on the literal, historical meanings of the psalms at the expense of the, generally far more important in my view, spiritual meanings.  

And they are that way because they downplay or outright ignore the tradition of how the Church has interpreted the psalms down the centuries, as revealed in the New Testament, the liturgy, and in the commentaries of the Fathers, Theologians and the other commentators down the ages. 

Patristic and medieval commentaries

The other solution, of course, is to read one of the many commentaries composed by various Church Fathers; the Theologians; or the many excellent medieval commentaries.

No one of these commentaries, though, I'd suggest, is really sufficient on its own: they all provide different and sometimes overlapping perspectives to be sure, and the later ones often draw on the earlier, but ultimately, there is, in view at least, no single definitive psalm commentary that you should read at the expense of all others.

Accordingly, my aim is generally to provide something of an overview and guide to the key commentaries, and to hopefully inspire you go read more yourself!

And because I'm most interested in how St Benedict would have approached the psalms as he laid them out in his Office, that means focusing predominantly on the Patristic commentaries.

The verse notes and my methodology

My aim, as always, is to provide some material to help those praying the Office understand more deeply what it is they are praying.

And since it is quite a while since I've posted verse by verse notes, I thought it would also be timely to provide a few posts on the approach I am taking in the notes, how I think those praying the Office should approach the texts, and some brief explanations of my sources, and key abbreviations.

More on that on Wednesday!