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In my previous post in this Lent series on the psalms I focused on the first of the 'three attentions' suggested by St Thomas Aquinas, namely focusing on the saying the words correctly.
Today, I want to start looking at how we become more conscious of the meanings of what we are saying, starting at the 'macro' level of why psalms are said on particular days and at particular hours of the Office.
Scriptural order vs selective forms of the Office
Early forms of the Office basically take two main forms, canonical order, and selective.
Canonical order
By far the most common form of the Office in late antiquity, in the West at least, was to say all of the psalms in their numerical, or canonical, order. The Rule of the Master for example, which was probably written in the mid sixth century in the region near Rome, adopted this approach, as did the more or less contemporary rules of Caesarius of Arles (circa 510 - 535) and Columbanus (towards the end of the sixth century).
The number of psalms said at the Night Office typically varied depending on the season - when the nights were longer, more psalms were said - so instead of specifying which psalms were said at each hour, early instructions for the Office often just specified how many psalms were said at each hour.
In most cases for which we have hard evidence, the approach was simply to start at a particular hour with Psalm 1 and then continue the sequence in order at each subsequent hour until the cycle started again.
The net result was that it took a varying length of time to get through the entire psalter depending on the time of year, rather than it being fixed to a week or some other period as we are used to.
It also meant that, a few special psalms aside, psalms were not attached to particular hours.
Selective
The alternative approach was to assign particular psalms to particular hours and days.
In some early forms of the Office, typically only a small selection of the psalms were used, such as the Office captured in the fifth century Codex (Fol. 532v) that assigned one psalm to each hour of the day and night.
One theory is that that this selection that may then have been consolidated into the Office of twelve psalms of Vespers and Matins used by some Northern Egyptian eremite monks described by Cassian.
Meaning in the ordering?
The key reason for Offices based on the canonical order of the psalms was the assumption that the order of the psalms in Scripture was divinely inspired, and has a particular rationale and meaning.
Many of the early commentaries on the psalms comment on this, highlighting, for example, the connections between particular blocks of psalms, as well as how they fit together to tell an overall story.
Selective orderings of the psalms, by contrast, generally choose psalms for their appropriateness to the day and hour, or in order to reflect some other themes that the author of the Office wants to highlight.
Of course, where the selective approach also involves a principle of saying all of the psalms within a particular time period, as the Benedictine and Roman Offices do, there may be limits to the extent to the thematic approach.
All the same, while much twentieth century liturgical scholarship assumed that the placement of psalms in the Benedictine and Roman Offices was largely driven by purely functional considerations, medieval commentators generally took a rather different view, providing extended explanations of just why particular psalms were used at particular hours, or on particular days.
Finding meaning in St Benedict's ordering of the psalter
St Benedict's Rule, alas, is more concerned with providing instructions on what to say and when, rather than setting out a rationale for the particular choices made. The saint presumed, I think, that the person praying the Office would, over time, become aware of these layers of meaning as they meditated on it.
That was a much easier process, I suspect, for a monk in late antiquity, steeped in the Patristic explanations of the psalms, than for us today!
Still, if we pay attention both to the canonical order of the psalms, and the way St Benedict moves away from that in his form of the Office, we can I think, find themes that the internal evidence strongly suggests were deliberately engineered into the Office, or even if that is not the case, and worth meditating on all the same.
The last seven psalms of the psalter, for example, are all hymns of praise, and there is, according Cassiodorus a great significance in this, relating to the 'sacred number' (as St Benedict terms it) seven:
It is not otiose that the Lord's praises are enclosed in this number seven, for the confession of penitents is designated by this number, and the holy Spirit himself has been proclaimed with His sevenfold powers; perhaps it points to that sacred mystery when the Lord ordered Moses to set seven lamps shining with enduring light in His tabernacle.
St Benedict, however, effectively makes the seven psalms into eight, by dividing Psalm 144 into two parts, a number that symbolises the Resurrection, and on which he makes great play several times in the Rule, requiring his monks, for example, to rise at the eighth hour of the night to say Matins, and to say eight hours each day.
The seven days of creation
I've mentioned previously that I think St Benedict deliberately 'engineered in', inspired perhaps by St Augustine's commentaries on the days of creation, several linked weekly cycles, including the days of creation, the seven ages of salvation history, and the life of Christ.
In the case of Psalm 147, for example, its key focus on Jerusalem (which means peace), and the peace granted by God, and on the restful days of summer fits neatly with the seventh day as the day of rest.
I will say some things on this in the context of the psalms I'm looking at for Friday and Saturday Vespers, but if you would like to read more on this topic, see my previous posts on this here.
'Horizontal' memes
There are also, though, some themes and phrases that run across each of the hours, and help give the hours internal coherence and meaning.
At Vespers, for example, there are verses each day that echo the words of the Magnificat's warning that the proud will be humbled, and the humble will ultimately be exalted. For Saturday, for example, consider these verses:
Psalm 144:4 Allevat Dominus omnes qui corruunt, et erigit omnes elisos. | 14 The Lord lifteth up all that fall: and setteth up all that are cast down. |
and
Ps 145: 8 Dominus illuminat cæcos. Dominus erigit elisos; Dominus diligit justos. | 8 the Lord enlighteneth the blind. The Lord lifteth up them that are cast down: the Lord loveth the just. |
9 Dominus custodit advenas, pupillum et viduam suscipiet, et vias peccatorum disperdet. | 9 The Lord keepeth the strangers, he will support the fatherless and the widow: and the ways of sinners he will destroy. |
First and last psalms
Finally I want to alert you to some theological and spiritual themes that I think run across the first and last psalms each day respectively.
In the case of the first psalms at Vespers, the theme is the attributes of God: on Thursday his omniscience; on Saturday his omniscience for example.
And the last psalm each day, I think, has a particular relevance to the monastic vocation.
The most obvious of these is Psalm 132 on Tuesdays, 'Behold how good and pleasant it is for brethren to dwell in unity', which St Augustine depicted as the quintessential monastic psalm.
Psalm 147, also fits this theme neatly, ending the week on that most Benedictine of values, the pursuit and attainment of peace.
Meditating on the psalms
The bottom line on all this is, I think, that although we tend to focus on particular psalms as distinct entities, we need also to keep in mind that they are part of a book which is deliberately ordered, often to bring psalms with common themes and phrases together.
That is even more true in the psalter, where there is at least some degree of selectivity and deliberate design.
So if, when you say the Office, you are suddenly struck by words or phrases that are repeated during a day or hour, do take that as a cue to think more deeply on it; look out for such connections yourself; or consider taking my suggested themes as a starting point for your own consideration!
And in the meantime here is a setting of the opening psalm of Thursday Vespers to enjoy.
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