Psalm 44: Overview

Psalm 44 is generally interpreted by the Fathers as proclaiming the Incarnation, the queenship of Mary, and speaking of the wedding of Christ and the Church.


The text of the psalm

Vulgate	Douay-Rheims
In finem, pro iis qui commutabuntur. Filiis Core, ad intellectum. Canticum pro dilecto.	Unto the end, for them that shall be changed, for the sons of Core, for understanding. A canticle for the Beloved.

Psalm 44

Eructávit cor meum verbum bonum: * dico ego ópera mea Regi.	My heart has uttered a good word: I speak my works to the king:
Lingua mea cálamus scribæ: * velóciter scribéntis.	My tongue is the pen of a scrivener that writes swiftly.
Speciósus forma præ fíliis hóminum, † diffúsa est grátia in lábiis tuis: * proptérea benedíxit te Deus in ætérnum.	You are beautiful above the sons of men: grace is poured abroad in your lips; therefore has God blessed you forever.
Accíngere gládio tuo super femur tuum, * potentíssime.	Gird your sword upon your thigh, O you most mighty.
Spécie tua et pulchritúdine tua: * inténde, próspere procéde, et regna.	With your comeliness and your beauty set out, proceed prosperously, and reign.
Propter veritátem, et mansuetúdinem, et iustítiam: * et dedúcet te mirabíliter déxtera tua.	Because of truth and meekness and justice: and your right hand shall conduct you wonderfully.
Sagíttæ tuæ acútæ, pópuli sub te cadent: * in corda inimicórum Regis.	Your arrows are sharp: under you shall people fall, into the hearts of the king's enemies.
Sedes tua, Deus, in sæculum sæculi: * virga directiónis virga regni tui.	Your throne, O God, is forever and ever: the sceptre of your kingdom is a sceptre of uprightness
Dilexísti iustítiam, et odísti iniquitátem: * proptérea unxit te, Deus, Deus tuus, óleo lætítiæ præ consórtibus tuis.	You have loved justice, and hated iniquity: therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness above your fellows.
Myrrha, et gutta, et cásia a vestiméntis tuis, a dómibus ebúrneis: * ex quibus delectavérunt te fíliæ regum in honóre tuo.	Myrrh and stacte and cassia perfume your garments, from the ivory houses: out of which the daughters of kings have delighted you in your glory.
Astitit regína a dextris tuis in vestítu deauráto: * circúmdata varietáte	The queen stood on your right hand, in gilded clothing; surrounded with variety.
Audi, fília, et vide, et inclína aurem tuam: * et oblivíscere pópulum tuum, et domum patris tui.	Hearken, O daughter, and see, and incline your ear: and forget your people and your father's house.
Et concupíscet Rex decórem tuum: * quóniam ipse est Dóminus Deus tuus, et adorábunt eum.	And the king shall greatly desire your beauty; for he is the Lord your God, and him they shall adore.
Et fíliæ Tyri in munéribus * vultum tuum deprecabúntur: omnes dívites plebis.	And the daughters of Tyre with gifts, yea, all the rich among the people, shall entreat your countenance.
Omnis glória eius fíliæ Regis ab intus, * in fímbriis áureis circumamícta varietátibus.	All the glory of the king's daughter is within in golden borders, clothed round about with varieties.
Adducéntur Regi vírgines post eam: * próximæ eius afferéntur tibi.	After her shall virgins be brought to the king: her neighbours shall be brought to you.
Afferéntur in lætítia et exsultatióne: * adducéntur in templum Regis.	They shall be brought with gladness and rejoicing: they shall be brought into the temple of the king.
Pro pátribus tuis nati sunt tibi fílii: * constítues eos príncipes super omnem terram.	Instead of your fathers, sons are born to you: you shall make them princes over all the earth.
Mémores erunt nóminis tui: * in omni generatióne et generatiónem.	They shall remember your name throughout all generations.
Proptérea pópuli confitebúntur tibi in ætérnum: * et in sæculum sæculi.	Therefore shall people praise you forever; yea, for ever and ever.
Glória Patri, et Fílio, * et Spirítui Sancto.	Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost.
Sicut erat in princípio, et nunc, et semper, * et in sǽcula sæculórum. Amen.	As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

Liturgical and Scriptural uses

 

NT references	Heb 4:12; Rev 1:16 (4); Heb 1:8-9 ( 8-9); Mt 2:11 (14); Rev 19:7 (16);
RB cursus	Monday Matins=AN 2673 (Sept-Lent)
Monastic/(Roman) feasts etc	Nativity, Transfiguration, Christ the King, Common of BVM and female saints Common of Apostles\ AN 2967 (3); 3204 (18) Numerous versicles in commons etc
Responsories	7312 (2, 15-16); 6445 (3); 7683 (3); 6308 (5, 12) Common of V no 3 7680 (3, 5); no 9 6808 (3) Holy woman no 2 6446 (3, 5), no4 7452; St Agnes no 9 6992; Assumption alt v 5 6994, no 5 (10) 7340 7452, 7883, 7634 (7-8) 6142 (11-12) Virgin martyr no 1 7828 (12) 6029 (15-16) 6229 (17-18)
Roman pre 1911	Tuesday Matins
Roman post 1911	1911-62:Wednesday Matins  . 1970:
Mass propers (EF)	Sunday in Octave of Christmas GR (2-3) Common of virgin not a martyr – Dilexisti  IN (2,8); Vultum tuum (2, 13-16); OF (2, 7-8, 10) Virgin Martyr TR (5, 8); AL (15-16) Holy Rosary GR (5, 11-12) Holy Woman GR (3, 5) Assorted female saints/BVM feasts (Gaudeamus) – IN V (2) BVM (Salve sancta parents) V – 2,11-12 SS Peter and Paul GR (17-18); OF (2-4;17-18)

 

Commentaries of the Fathers

St Athanasius drew out the prophetic nature of Psalm 44 in proclaiming the Incarnation:

...far from being ignorant of the coming of Messiah, he makes mention of it first and foremost in Psalm 44, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever, a scepter of justice is the sceptre of Thy kingdom. Thou has loved righteousness and hated lawlessness: wherefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows.... 

Neither is the Psalmist silent about the fact that He should be born of a virgin - no, he underlines it straight away in 44, which we were quoting, but a moment since. Harken, O daughter, he says, and see and incline thine ear, and forget thine own people and thy fathers's house. For the King has desired thy beauty, and He is thy Lord. Is not this like what Gabriel said, Hail, thou that art full of grace, the Lord is with thee? [Lk 1:28] For the Psalmist, having called Him the Anointed One, that is Messiah or Christ, forthwith declares His human birth by saying, Harken, O daughter, and see; the only difference being that Gabriel addresses Mary by an epithet, because he is of another race from her, while David fitly calls her his own daughter, because it was from him that she should spring.

St Augustine, in the City of God (17: Chapter 16) provided an extended exposition of the psalm as speaking of Christ and his Church, and its particular application to Our Lady:

For whatever direct and manifest prophetic utterances there may be about anything, it is necessary that those which are tropical should be mingled with them; which, chiefly on account of those of slower understanding, thrust upon the more learned the laborious task of clearing up and expounding them. Some of them, indeed, on the very first blush, as soon as they are spoken, exhibit Christ and the Church, although some things in them that are less intelligible remain to be expounded at leisure. We have an example of this in that same Book of Psalms: My heart bubbled up a good matter: I utter my words to the king. My tongue is the pen of a scribe, writing swiftly. Your form is beautiful beyond the sons of men; grace is poured out in Your lips: therefore God has blessed You for evermore. Gird Your sword about Your thigh, O Most Mighty. With Your goodliness and Your beauty go forward, proceed prosperously, and reign, because of Your truth, and meekness, and righteousness; and Your right hand shall lead You forth wonderfully. Your sharp arrows are most powerful: in the heart of the king's enemies. The people shall fall under You. Your throne, O God, is for ever and ever: a rod of direction is the rod of Your kingdom. You have loved righteousness, and have hated iniquity: therefore God, Your God, has anointed You with the oil of exultation above Your fellows. Myrrh and drops, and cassia from Your vestments, from the houses of ivory: out of which the daughters of kings have delighted You in Your honor. 

Who is there, no matter how slow, but must here recognize Christ whom we preach, and in whom we believe, if he hears that He is God, whose throne is for ever and ever, and that He is anointed by God, as God indeed anoints, not with a visible, but with a spiritual and intelligible chrism? For who is so untaught in this religion, or so deaf to its far and wide spread fame, as not to know that Christ is named from this chrism, that is, from this anointing? But when it is acknowledged that this King is Christ, let each one who is already subject to Him who reigns because of truth, meekness, and righteousness, inquire at his leisure into these other things that are here said tropically: how His form is beautiful beyond the sons of men, with a certain beauty that is the more to be loved and admired the less it is corporeal; and what His sword, arrows, and other things of that kind may be, which are set down, not properly, but tropically.

Then let him look upon His Church, joined to her so great Husband in spiritual marriage and divine love, of which it is said in these words which follow, The queen stood upon Your right hand in gold-embroidered vestments, girded about with variety. Hearken, O daughter, and look, and incline your ear; forget also your people, and your father's house. Because the King has greatly desired your beauty; for He is the Lord your God. And the daughters of Tyre shall worship Him with gifts; the rich among the people shall entreat Your face. The daughter of the King has all her glory within, in golden fringes, girded about with variety. The virgins shall be brought after her to the King: her neighbors shall be brought to You. They shall be brought with gladness and exultation: they shall be led into the temple of the King. Instead of your fathers, sons shall be born to you: you shall establish them as princes over all the earth. They shall be mindful of your name in every generation and descent. Therefore shall the people acknowledge you for evermore, even for ever and ever. I do not think any one is so stupid as to believe that some poor woman is here praised and described, as the spouse, to wit, of Him to whom it is said, Your throne, O God, is for ever and ever: a rod of direction is the rod of Your kingdom. You have loved righteousness and hated iniquity: therefore God, Your God, has anointed You with the oil of exultation above Your fellows; that is, plainly, Christ above Christians. For these are His fellows, out of the unity and concord of whom in all nations that queen is formed, as it is said of her in another psalm, The city of the great King. The same is Sion spiritually, which name in Latin is interpreted speculatio (discovery); for she descries the great good of the world to come, because her attention is directed there. In the same way she is also Jerusalem spiritually, of which we have already said many things. Her enemy is the city of the devil, Babylon, which is interpreted confusion. Yet out of this Babylon this queen is in all nations set free by regeneration, and passes from the worst to the best King,— that is, from the devil to Christ. Wherefore it is said to her, Forget your people and your father's house. Of this impious city those also are a portion who are Israelites only in the flesh and not by faith, enemies also of this great King Himself, and of His queen. For Christ, having come to them, and been slain by them, has the more become the King of others, whom He did not see in the flesh. Whence our King Himself says through the prophecy of a certain psalm, You will deliver me from the contradictions of the people; You will make me head of the nations. A people whom I have not known has served me: in the hearing of the ear it has obeyed me. Therefore this people of the nations, which Christ did not know in His bodily presence, yet has believed in that Christ as announced to it; so that it might be said of it with good reason, In the hearing of the ear it has obeyed me, for faith is by hearing. Romans 10:5 This people, I say, added to those who are the true Israelites both by the flesh and by faith, is the city of God, which has brought forth Christ Himself according to the flesh, since He was in these Israelites only. For thence came the Virgin Mary, in whom Christ assumed flesh that He might be man. Of which city another psalm says, Mother Sion, shall a man say, and the man is made in her, and the Highest Himself has founded her. Who is this Highest, save God? And thus Christ, who is God, before He became man through Mary in that city, Himself founded it by the patriarchs and prophets. As therefore was said by prophecy so long before to this queen, the city of God, what we already can see fulfilled, Instead of your fathers, sons are born to you; you shall make them princes over all the earth; so out of her sons truly are set up even her fathers [princes] through all the earth, when the people, coming together to her, confess to her with the confession of eternal praise for ever and ever. Beyond doubt, whatever interpretation is put on what is here expressed somewhat darkly in figurative language, ought to be in agreement with these most manifest things.

Office canticles: Isaiah 62:4-7

The third canticle used for female saints, including Our Lady, is set out below.

Canticum Isaiae (62: 4-7)

Non vocáberis ultra Derelícta, * et terra tua non vocábitur ámplius Desoláta:	Thou shalt no more be called Forsaken: and thy land shall no more be called Desolate:
Sed vocáberis, Volúntas mea in ea, * et terra tua inhabitáta:	But thou shalt be called My pleasure in her, and thy land inhabited.
Quia complácuit Dómino in te: * et terra tua inhabitábitur.	Because the Lord hath been well pleased with thee: and thy land shall be inhabited.
Habitábit enim iúvenis cum vírgine, *et habitábunt in te fílii tui:	For the young man shall dwell with the virgin, and thy children shall dwell in thee.
Et gaudébit sponsus super sponsam, * et gaudébit super te Deus tuus.	And the bridegroom shall rejoice over the bride, and thy God shall rejoice over thee.
Super muros tuos, Ierúsalem, constítui custódes; * tota die et tota nocte in perpétuum non tacébunt.	Upon thy walls, O Jerusalem, I have appointed watchmen all the day, and all the night, they shall never hold their peace.
Qui reminiscímini Dómini, ne taceátis, † et ne detis siléntium ei, * donec stabíliat et donec ponat Ierúsalem laudem in terra.	You that are mindful of the Lord, hold not your peace, and give him no silence till he establish, and till he make Jerusalem a praise in the earth.
Glória Patri, et Fílio, * et Spirítui Sancto.	Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, * and to the Holy Ghost.
Sicut erat in princípio, et nunc, et semper, * et in sǽcula sæculórum. Amen.	As it was in the beginning, is now, * and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

Office canticles: Isaiah 61-2

The second canticle used for feasts of Our Lady and other female saints is from Isaiah.

Canticum Isaiae (61:10-11; 62:1-3)

Gaudens gaudébo in Dómino, * et exsultábit ánima mea in Deo meo:	I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, and my soul shall be joyful in my God:
Quia índuit me vestiméntis salútis, *et induménto iustítiæ circúmdedit me,	For he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation: and with the robe of justice he hath covered me,
Quasi sponsum decorátum coróna, * et quasi sponsam ornátam monílibus suis.	As a bridegroom decked with a crown, and as a bride adorned with her jewels.
Sicut enim terra profert germen suum, † et sicut hortus semen suum gérminat, * sic Dóminus Deus germinábit iustítiam et laudem coram univérsis géntibus.	For as the earth bringeth forth her bud, and as the garden causeth her seed to shoot forth: so shall the Lord God make justice to spring forth, and praise before all the nations.
Propter Sion non tacébo, et propter Ierúsalem non quiéscam, † donec egrediátur ut splendor iustus eius, * et salvátor eius ut lampas accendátur.	For Sion’s sake I will not hold my peace, and for the sake of Jerusalem, I will not rest till her just one come forth as brightness, and her saviour be lighted as a lamp.
Et vidébunt gentes iustum tuum, * et cuncti reges ínclitum tuum;	And the Gentiles shall see thy just one, and all kings thy glorious one:
Et vocábitur tibi nomen novum, * quod os Dómini nominábit.	And thou shalt be called by a new name, which the mouth of the Lord shall name.
Et eris coróna glóriæ in manu Dómini, et diadéma regni in manu Dei tui.	And thou shalt be a crown of glory in the hand of the Lord, and a royal diadem in the hand of thy God.
Glória Patri, et Fílio, * et Spirítui Sancto.	Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, * and to the Holy Ghost.
Sicut erat in princípio, et nunc, et semper, * et in sǽcula sæculórum. Amen.	As it was in the beginning, is now, * and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

Canticle for Our Lady: Sirach 39:17-21

la Vierge au buisson de roses Schongauer,
Gardner Museum

Over the last few Sundays I've been looking at the canticle used at Matins in the Benedictine Office.

Today being the feast of the Purification, the 1962 Monastic Breviary specifies the use of the Common of Our Lady.

Accordingly, the three canticles of the day are Sirach (Ecclesiasticus) 39:17-21; Isaiah 61:1011, 62:1-3; and Isaiah 62:4-7.

Here is the text of the first one, from Sirach, with versification as used in the liturgy.

Common of Our Lady Canticle 1: Sirach (Ecclesiasticus) 39:17-21

Canticum Ecclesiastici (39:17-21)

Obaudíte me, divíni fructus, * et quasi rosa plantáta super rivos aquárum fructificáte.	Hear me, ye divine offspring, and bud forth as the rose planted by the brooks of waters.
Quasi Líbanus * odórem suavitátis habéte.	Give ye a sweet odour as frankincense.
Floréte flores, quasi lílium, et date odórem, † et frondéte in grátiam; et collaudáte cánticum, * et benedícite Dóminum in opéribus suis.	Send forth flowers, as the lily, and yield a smell, and bring forth leaves in grace, and praise with canticles, and bless the Lord in his works.
Date nómini eius magnificéntiam, † et confitémini illi in voce labiórum vestrórum, * et in cánticis labiórum, et cítharis;	Magnify his name, and give glory to him with the voice of your lips, and with the canticles of your mouths, and with harps;
Et sic dicétis in confessióne: * Opera Dómini univérsa bona valde.	And in praising him, you shall say in this manner: All the works of the Lord are exceeding good.
Glória Patri, et Fílio, * et Spirítui Sancto.	Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, * and to the Holy Ghost.
Sicut erat in princípio, et nunc, et semper, * et in sǽcula sæculórum. Amen.	As it was in the beginning, is now, * and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

The imagery of roses and lilies (verses 1-3) have long been associated with Our Lady in iconography, presenting Our Lady as the fulfillment of this injunction.  Verses 4-5 clearly presage the Magnificat.

More generally, these verses can perhaps be seen as a call to imitate Our Lady in holiness and thanksgiving to God for his works of creation and salvation, hence its use for female saints more generally. Challoner for example comments that: "He speaks to the children of Israel, the people of God: whom he exhorts to bud forth and flourish with virtue."