Psalm 117 - Christ and the day

Ancient of days icon: see Daniel 7:13-14

 Psalm 117: Sunday Lauds

Vulgate	Douay-Rheims
Alleluja.	Alleluia.
Confitémini Dómino quóniam bonus: * quóniam in sæculum misericórdia ejus.	Give praise to the Lord, for he is good: for his mercy endures for ever.
2  Dicat nunc Israël quóniam bonus: * quóniam in sæculum misericórdia ejus.	2 Let Israel now say, that he is good: that his mercy endures for ever.
3  Dicat nunc domus Aaron: * quóniam in sæculum misericórdia ejus.	3 Let the house of Aaron now say, that his mercy endures for ever.
4  Dicant nunc qui timent Dóminum: * quóniam in sæculum misericórdia ejus.	4 Let them that fear the Lord now say, that his mercy endures for ever.
5  De tribulatióne invocávi Dóminum: * et exaudívit me in latitúdine Dóminus.	5 In my trouble I called upon the Lord: and the Lord heard me, and enlarged me.
6  Dóminus mihi adjútor: * non timébo quid fáciat mihi homo.	6 The Lord is my helper: I will not fear what man can do unto me.
7  Dóminus mihi adjútor: * et ego despíciam inimícos meos.	7 The Lord is my helper: and I will look over my enemies.
8  Bonum est confídere in Dómino: * quam confídere in hómine.	8 It is good to confide in the Lord, rather than to have confidence in man.
9  Bonum est speráre in Dómino: * quam speráre in princípibus.	9 It is good to trust in the Lord, rather than to trust in princes.
10  Omnes Gentes circuiérunt me: * et in nómine Dómini quia ultus sum in eos.	10 All nations compassed me about; and, in the name of the Lord I have been revenged on them.
11  Circumdántes circumdedérunt me: * et in nómine Dómini quia ultus sum in eos.	11 Surrounding me they compassed me about: and in the name of the Lord I have been revenged on them.
12  Circumdedérunt me sicut apes, et exarsérunt sicut ignis in spinis: * et in nómine Dómini quia ultus sum in eos.	12 They surrounded me like bees, and they burned like fire among thorns: and in the name of the Lord I was revenged on them.
13  Impúlsus evérsus sum ut cáderem: * et Dóminus suscépit me.	13 Being pushed I was overturned that I might fall: but the Lord supported me.
14  Fortitúdo mea, et laus mea Dóminus: * et factus est mihi in salútem.	14 The Lord is my strength and my praise: and he has become my salvation.
15  Vox exsultatiónis, et salútis: * in tabernáculis justórum.	15 The voice of rejoicing and of salvation is in the tabernacles of the just.
16  Déxtera Dómini fecit virtútem: déxtera Dómini exaltávit me, * déxtera Dómini fecit virtútem.	16 The right hand of the Lord has wrought strength: the right hand of the Lord has exalted me: the right hand of the Lord has wrought strength.
17  Non móriar, sed vivam: * et narrábo ópera Dómini.	17 I shall not die, but live: and shall declare the works of the Lord.
18  Castígans castigávit me Dóminus: * et morti non trádidit me.	18 The Lord chastising has chastised me: but he has not delivered me over to death.
19  Aperíte mihi portas justítiæ, ingréssus in eas confitébor Dómino: * hæc porta Dómini, justi intrábunt in eam.	19 Open to me the gates of justice: I will go in to them, and give praise to the Lord 20 This is the gate of the Lord, the just shall enter into it.
20  Confitébor tibi quóniam exaudísti me: * et factus es mihi in salútem.	21 I will give glory to you because you have heard me: and have become my salvation.
21  Lápidem, quem reprobavérunt ædificántes: * hic factus est in caput ánguli.	22 The stone which the builders rejected; the same has become the head of the corner.
22  A Dómino factum est istud: * et est mirábile in óculis nostris.	23 This is the Lord's doing, and it is wonderful in our eyes.
23  Hæc est dies, quam fecit Dóminus: * exsultémus et lætémur in ea.	24 This is the day which the Lord has made: let us be glad and rejoice therein.
24  O Dómine, salvum me fac, O Dómine, bene prosperáre: * benedíctus qui venit in nómine Dómini.	25 O Lord, save me: O Lord, give good success. 26 Blessed be he that comes in the name of the Lord.
25  Benedíximus vobis de domo Dómini: * Deus Dóminus, et illúxit nobis.	We have blessed you out of the house of the Lord. 27 The Lord is God, and he has shone upon us.
26  Constitúite diem solémnem in condénsis, * usque ad cornu altáris.	Appoint a solemn day, with shady boughs, even to the horn of the altar.
27  Deus meus es tu, et confitébor tibi: * Deus meus es tu, et exaltábo te.	28 You are my God, and I will praise you: you are my God, and I will exalt you.
28  Confitébor tibi quóniam exaudísti me: * et factus es mihi in salútem.	I will praise you, because you have heard me, and have become my salvation.
29  Confitémini Dómino quóniam bonus: * quóniam in sæculum misericórdia ejus.	29 O praise the Lord, for he is good: for his mercy endures for ever.

Psalm 117 is the last of the 'Hallel' psalms sung on major feasts in the Jewish liturgy, it contains a number of key verses that Our Lord made clear applied to him, above all verse 22.

The reasons for its use on Sunday are fairly clear cut: Fr Pius Pasch's early twentieth century breviary commentary, for example, says:

Festival hymn. In this psalm, a celebrated liturgical hymn of the ancient synagogue (also a thanksgiving hymn on the feast of Tabernacles), we sing our Easter joy occasioned by the Resurrection of our Lord and our own spiritual resurrection in him.

It has some very clear links to the traditional canticle of the day as well (which I'll go into a little more below).

In the earlier version of the Roman Office from which St Benedict may have borrowed, though, Psalm 117 was probably said at Prime rather than Lauds.  If this was the case, why did he shift it to Lauds, particularly given its lack of overt references to dawn and the morning?

Christ the true day

One possibility seems to me to be the reference to Christ as the day (latin: dies, diei) in verse 24.

Christ as the day was a favourite theme of the Fathers.  St Cyprian's instruction on prayer for example, include the following:

But for us, beloved brethren, besides the hours of prayer observed of old, both the times and the sacraments have now increased in number. For we must also pray in the morning, that the Lord's resurrection may be celebrated by morning prayer. 

And this formerly the Holy Spirit pointed out in the Psalms, saying, My King, and my God, because unto You will I cry; O Lord, in the morning shall You hear my voice; in the morning will I stand before You, and will look up to You. And again, the Lord speaks by the mouth of the prophet: Early in the morning shall they watch for me, saying, Let us go, and return unto the Lord our God... 

Moreover, the Holy Spirit in the Psalms manifests that Christ is called the day. The stone, says He, which the builders rejected, has become the head of the corner. This is the Lord's doing; and it is marvellous in our eyes. This is the day which the Lord has made; let us walk and rejoice in it. 

Also the prophet Malachi testifies that He is called the Sun, when he says, But to you that fear the name of the Lord shall the Sun of righteousness arise, and there is healing in His wings. But if in the Holy Scriptures the true sun and the true day is Christ, there is no hour excepted for Christians wherein God ought not frequently and always to be worshipped; so that we who are in Christ— that is, in the true Sun and the true Day— should be instant throughout the entire day in petitions, and should pray; and when, by the law of the world, the revolving night, recurring in its alternate changes, succeeds, there can be no harm arising from the darkness of night to those who pray, because the children of light have the day even in the night. For when is he without light who has light in his heart? Or when has not he the sun and the day, whose Sun and Day is Christ?

The references to dawn and morning light in many of the psalms of Lauds then, were not just selected for their references to morning prayer, but perhaps on the basis that they were seen by the Fathers as containing references to the Resurrection, the true day of the world.

And on this basis, one of the key themes reflected in several of the first variable psalms each day is the reference to entering heaven to praise God in verses 19-20:

Open to me the gates of justice: I will go in to them, and give praise to the Lord This is the gate of the Lord, the just shall enter into it.

As we shall see this week, all of the first variable psalms of Lauds contain similar references - it is most explicit in Psalms 5, 42 and 75.

The key themes of the psalm

Cassiodorus summarises the structure of the psalm as follows:

The faithful people are freed from the bonds of sins, and in the first section they offer a general exhortation that each of us should confess to the Lord, for they have gained a hearing in afflictions, and have proclaimed that no man whatsoever is to be held in fear. 

In the second part they say that we must have confidence in the Lord alone, through whom they know that they have escaped the enmity of the Gentiles, and have attained the remedies of a truly genuine life. 

In the third section they say that the gates of justice are to be opened; they speak there also of the Cornerstone which is Christ the Saviour. 

In the fourth, they persuade the other Christians that they must crowd the Lord's halls in shared joy and sweet delight at the coming of the holy incarnation.

Latin word study: confess and praise the Lord

This psalm has lots of litany-esq repetitions, making it easier to memorise, so let me first point out a few key words in the opening litany section

Confitemini, the opening word of this psalm is actually quite key to the themes of Lauds I think.  The word literally means let us confess, and comes from the same verb used in confession of sins, viz confiteor, fessus sum, eri.  It has both a positive connotation (to praise, give thanks) and a negative one (to confess, acknowledge one's guilt), and both are implied here and throughout this series of psalms I think.

In fact Daniel 3 (from whence the Sunday canticle, the Benedicite cometh, another reason, presumably for the shift of the psalm to Lauds) provides the phrase spelt out in exactly that way:

 [89] Confitemini Domino, quoniam bonus: quoniam in saeculum misericordia ejus. [90] Benedicite, omnes religiosi, Domino Deo deorum: laudate et confitemini ei, quia in omnia saecula misericordia ejus.

 [89] O give thanks to the Lord, because he is good: because his mercy endureth for ever and ever. [90] O all ye religious, bless the Lord the God of gods: praise him and give him thanks, because his mercy endureth for ever and ever.

In the pslams that follow, this theme is, I think expanded in this way: God confronts us with the truth (veritas, veritatis) about ourselves which we must acknowledge and ask for his mercy (misericordia -ae); those who refuse to do that will be subject to his justice (justitia).

It's the same key theme as in Psalm 129 (Tuesday Vespers):

3  Si iniquitátes observáveris, Dómine: * Dómine, quis sustinébit?	3 If you, O Lord, will mark iniquities: Lord, who shall stand it.
4  Quia apud te propitiátio est: * et propter legem tuam sustínui te, Dómine.	4 For with you there is merciful forgiveness: and by reason of your law, I have waited for you, O Lord.
7  Quia apud Dóminum misericórdia: * et copiósa apud eum redémptio.

So make that key refrain your own:

Confitémini Dómino quóniam bonus: Dicat nunc Israël (the Church) quóniam bonus:  Dicat nunc domus Aaron (the priests): Dicant nunc qui timent Dóminum (the faithful):

quóniam in sæculum misericórdia ejus.

Scriptural and liturgical uses

NT references	Rom 8:31, Heb 13:6 (v6); Lk 1:51 (v16); Rev 22:14 (v19); Jn 10:9 (v20); Mt 21:42, Acts 4:11, 1 Cor 3:11, Eph 2:20, 1Pet 2:4-7 (v21); Mt21: 9-14, 23-39 (v24)
RB cursus	Sunday Lauds
Feasts, antiphons etc	AN: 3297 (5); 1745 (5); 1809 (11); 3289, 3290, 5509 (15);3577 (v22-3); 2997 (v24); 4024 (25); 4117 (25-6); 2175(28)
Roman pre 1911	Sunday Prime
Roman post 1911	1911-62: Lauds II . 1970:
Responsories	Epiphanytide Friday v28; 6073, 6799 (v24, Haec dies)
Mass propers (EF)	Nativity Aurora GR (23, 26, 27) Lent 2 TR (v1=105) Lent 3 Tues OF (16-17); Lent 4 Friday GR (8-9); Passion I OF (17, ), Maundy Thurs OF (16-17); Easter Vigil AL (1); Easter Day GR (1, 23), Easter Mon GR (2, 24) Easter Tues IN v(1),GR (24,3) Easter Wed GR (24, 16) Easter Thurs GR (23,21,22); Easter Fri GR (23, 24-5); Easter Sat AL 23, OF 24-25; Eastertide 4 AL (16); PP14 GR (8-9). Finding holy Cross May 3: OF (5,6, 16, 17)

You can find some of my previous notes on this psalm here.

And you can find the next part in this series here.

St Benedict's psalter and the election of the Gentiles**

This is a cross-post from my Saints Will Arise Blog.

There is a very interesting series over at the always excellent Fr Hunwicke's Mutual Enrichment blog, which I strongly recommend reading, on what is known as 'two covenants theory', the idea that Judaism is not superseded by the New Covenant.

The situation of modern Jews when it comes to the Church is sensitive territory these days, for many in the Church, swayed by the desire to promote inter-religious unity, advocate ideas that are at odds with both Scripture and tradition.  Fr Hunwicke does a fairly comprehensive demolition on these erroneous theories in the light of the tradition, what Vatican II's Nostra Aetate actually says, and other evidence.

Fr Hunwicke's posts (as on some many other issues) have been rather helpful for my own understanding of this touchy subject, so I thought it might be timely to share some of my speculations on St Benedict's ordering of his psalm cursus that may reflect his understanding of this topic by way of a minor footnote.

The traditional understanding of the Old and New covenants

Fr Hunwicke provides a very carefully nuanced articulation of the tradition on this topic; let me provide the un-nuanced version for the sake of debate.

I would suggest that the hardline version of the traditionalist position is that modern-day Jews are no longer the chosen people: for God's promise to Abraham is fulfilled in the Church, which was founded by the faithful remnant of the Jewish people that he preserved, consisting of the apostles and disciples and their subsequent converts.  Catholics, in other words, are the new Jews.

In this view, instead of the whole Jewish people being granted a privileged place in ongoing salvation history (or at least are still the inheritors of an eschatological promise of reconciliation), they have been dispossessed just as the Canaanites were in their time, and their inheritance given to the new Israel, the Church, which is open to gentiles and Jews alike; Rabbinic Judaism, in other words, is not the Judaism of Our Lord's time.

Fr Hunwicke demolishes some of the obviously erroneous liberal views on this subject, but many traditionalists still struggle with the suggestion made by modern theologians, including Pope Benedict XVI, to the effect that while the Mosaic Covenant has been closed, modern Jews still have a privileged place in salvation history by virtue of the covenant with Abraham.

Fr Hunwicke suggests that Pope Benedict's rewrite of the (EF) Good Friday prayer, which reflects St Paul's words on the subject, arguably reflects an eschatological explanation for this view of the continuing covenant, while leaving the traditional view, that Jewish worship and practices have no salvific value, intact.

I want to draw your attention to five insights on this issue that can, I think, be gained from St Benedict's version of the Divine Office, which I think helps support the eschatological promise approach advocated by Pope Benedict and others.

1.  The old sacrifices have been superseded: Psalm 91 (92) on Friday

In the traditional version of the Roman Office, Psalm 91 (Bonum est confiteri Domino) is said on Saturday, perhaps because the title given to in Scripture is 'For (or 'on the day of' in the Vulgate) the Sabbath'.

St Benedict, however, places it on Friday at Lauds.  It is a change that contemporary liturgical scholar Paul Bradshaw, for one, finds puzzling (Daily Prayer in the Early Church, p147).

Ex-Trappist turned Orthodox scholar Patrick Reardon, in his book Christ in the Psalms, though offers a very elegant and plausible rationale for this change, for he notes that as well as the Sabbath, Jewish commentaries state that it was sung daily as an accompaniment to the morning sacrifice of a lamb.  Reardon, accordingly, sees the shift of the psalm to Friday Lauds as a testimony to the idea that Friday is "our true the true Pascha and Atonement Day, on which the Lamb of God took away the sins of the world."(p181)

Reardon sees Psalm 91 as a reminder that the Old Covenant, which merely foreshadowed what was to come, has ended, and the New has replaced it:

"Prayed on Friday mornings, as the ancient Western monastic rule prescribed, this psalm reminds the Church why it is no longer necessary to make the daily offering of lambs in the temple, for those sacrifices had only "a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very image of the things" (Heb. 10:1). With respect to those quotidian lambs offered of old, we are told that "every priest stands ministering daily and offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins" (10:11). But, with respect to the Lamb in the midst of the Throne, we are told that "this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God . . . For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified" (10:12-14). This is the true Lamb to whom we chant: "You are worthy to take the scroll, / And to open its seals; / For You were slain, / And have redeemed us to God by Your blood" (Rev. 5:9)." (p181)

2.  Psalm 118: the new testament is superior to the old

In the Roman Office, Psalm 118 is sung over the course of Sunday from Prime to None (and in the older form of the Office, daily at these hours).  St Benedict, by contrast, splits the longest psalm in the psalter between Sunday (Prime to None) and Monday (Terce to None).   And he organises the split so as to end Sunday Nones with a stanza where the psalmist claims to have outshone his teachers and those of old in his understanding:

"Through your commandment, you have made me wiser than my enemies: for it is ever with me. I have understood more than all my teachers: because your testimonies are my meditation. I have had understanding above ancients: because I have sought your commandment." (verses 98-100)

It could of course just be how things fell out.  But St Benedict's contemporary Cassiodorus (author of easily the most popular commentary on the psalms amongst medieval monks) certainly understood these verses as affirming the new covenant over the Old:

“Certainly the new people had better understanding than the older Jewish people, for they happily accepted the Lord Christ who the Jews with mortal damage to themselves believed was to be despised.”

Cassiodorus actually sees the reference in another verse of the stanza, verse 103, which refers to the law being sweeter than honey, as another allusion to this same idea:

“Honey has particular reference to the Old Testament, the comb to the New; for though both are sweet, the taste of the comb is sweeter because it is enhanced by the greater attraction of its newness. Additionally, honey can be understood as the explicit teaching of wisdom, whereas the comb can represent that known to be stored in the depth, so to say, of the cells. Undoubtedly both are found in the divine Scriptures.”

3.  The canticle of Hannah and younger sons

Over at Fr Hunwicke's blog, commenters have noted that the recent tendency to refer to Jews as our 'older brother' is something of a mixed message given the fate of so many older brothers in the Bible!   Indeed, St Paul uses just this typology in one of his discussions on the status of the Jews, in Galatians 4:

"21 Tell me, you who are so eager to have the law for your master, have you never read the law? 22 You will find it written there, that Abraham had two sons; one had a slave for his mother, and one a free woman. 23 The child of the slave was born in the course of nature; the free woman’s, by the power of God’s promise. 24 All that is an allegory; the two women stand for the two dispensations. Agar stands for the old dispensation, which brings up its children to bondage, the dispensation which comes to us from mount Sinai.25 Mount Sinai, in Arabia, has the same meaning in the allegory as Jerusalem, the Jerusalem which exists here and now; an enslaved city, whose children are slaves. 26 Whereas our mother is the heavenly Jerusalem, a city of freedom. 27 So it is that we read, Rejoice, thou barren woman that hast never borne child, break out into song and cry aloud, thou that hast never known travail; the deserted one has more children than she whose husband is with her. 28 It is we, brethren, that are children of the promise, as Isaac was. 29 Now, as then, the son who was born in the course of nature persecutes the son whose birth is a spiritual birth. 30 But what does our passage in scripture say? Rid thyself of the slave and her son; it cannot be that the son of a slave should divide the inheritance with the son of a free woman."

Wednesday, in the Christian week, is traditionally associated with the betrayal of Judas.  That's the reason that Wednesday was a fast day in the early Church as it is in the Benedictine Rule, and in the Office, this is reflected, inter alia, in the choice of Psalm 63 at Lauds.  The variable (ferial) canticle of the day, though, is the Canticle of Hannah (I Kings [1 Sam] 2:1-10), a song of rejoicing at her pregnancy (with the prophet Samuel) that put paid to the taunts of her husband's fecund other wife.  We today tend to interpret this canticle as foreshadowing the Magnificat, which it certainly does.  But one of the earliest Benedictine monastic commentaries on the Office Canticles, by Rabanus Maurus (780-856), also interprets that typology in the light of St Paul's Galatians typology, saying by way of summary:

"But on Wednesday the Canticle of Anna the prophetess is sung, in which the expulsion of the perfidious Jews is set out, and the election of the Church of the gentiles is demonstrated."

And indeed St Benedict's psalm selections for this day come back to the theme of God's choice of peoples several times, most notably in Psalms 134 and 135.

4.  The redemption triptych (Psalms 113, 129 and 134/5) - redemption comes only through Christ

In the Benedictine Office, Psalm 113 (In exitu Israel) is said at Vespers on Monday rather than Sunday as it is in the Roman Office.  In part I think that is because it provides a type of baptism, in the parting of the Red Sea and the Jordan (especially in verse 3: Mare vidit, et fugit: Jordánis convérsus est retrórsum), one of the themes Maurus identifies in the Monday Lauds canticle (along with the Incarnation).  But it also, I think, sets up a nice triptych of opening psalms at Vespers on the first three days of the week around our redemption through Christ.

The two outer panels are provided by Psalms 113 on Monday and 134 and 135 (known as the Great Hallel in Jewish liturgy) on Wednesday.  These three psalms share both common themes and several verses between them, and take us through God's power compared to empty idols, manifested through the creation of the universe, and intervention in history to lead his people out of Egypt,and into the Promised Land.

If he were being consistent, St Benedict would have placed Psalm 128 as the first Psalm at Vespers on Tuesday, for on that day all of the other Gradual psalms are said from Terce through Vespers.  But St Benedict actually places Psalm 128 (where it arguably fits well for other reasons) on Monday, and instead, in the middle of the triptych sits Psalm 129 (De Profundis), with its promise of Christ's redeeming action ('For with the Lord there is mercy, and with him is plenteous redemption: he shall redeem Israel from all his iniquity').  Dom Gueranger, in his Liturgical Year, notes that this psalm above all, was often interpreted by medieval commentators, as a prophecy of that final reconciliation of the Jews.

5. The Hallel psalms reversed: The first shall be last?

St Benedict’s arrangement of the Sunday Office at both Lauds and Vespers is significantly different to the old Roman he is assumed to have started from.  Two key changes he makes are to start the variable psalmody  at Lauds with Psalm 117 (it was in Prime in the old Roman Office), and to end it with Psalm 112, at Vespers (moving Psalm 113 to Monday in order to do so).  These are, of course, the last and first respectively of the ‘Hallel’ psalms, the psalms sung at the three major Jewish festivals each year.

The more prominent St Benedict accords to Psalm 117 is easily explained: it is one of the most quoted psalms in the New Testament, important in particular for the verses directly prophesying the Resurrection, and pointing to Christ as the stone the builders rejected.

Is it possible, though, that the ending of Vespers on Psalm 112 was also meant to provide a subtle reference to the idea that the first shall come last in relation to St Paul's prophesy in Romans that  'all Israel shall come in'?

St Benedict (485-547) may very well have been familiar with the Bishop of Ravenna, St Peter Chrysologus' (380-450) teaching to just this effect (now used in the readings of the Liturgy of Hours as Fr Hunwicke notes).  And it is certainly nicely consistent with Pope Benedict's rewrite of the Good Friday prayer:

"Let us also pray for the Jews: That our God and Lord may illuminate their hearts, that they acknowledge Jesus Christ is the Savior of all men. (Let us pray. Kneel. Rise.) Almighty and eternal God, who want that all men be saved and come to the recognition of the truth, propitiously grant that even as the fullness of the peoples enters Thy Church, all Israel be saved. Through Christ Our Lord. Amen"

So, is this all too much of a stretch?  Do let me know what you think.

The eighth day: Psalm 117

For obvious reasons we tend to think of Sunday as the start of the liturgical week rather than its end: a new collect for the week is given each Sunday; Monday is labelled as 'feria secunda' or second day in the breviary/Diurnal, reflecting the fact that Saturday is the sabbath, or seventh day in the Jewish week; and the Sunday Mass propers are used throughout the week in the Extraordinary Form when other feasts do not intervene.

For Christians, however, Sunday has become our sabbath or day of rest, and it is also celebrated in the liturgy as the day of the Resurrection, the 'eighth day'.

The end of the weekly cycle?

Pope John Paul II drew attention to the traditional view of Sunday in his letter Dies Dominici, citing several patristic sources:

"We celebrate Sunday because of the venerable Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, and we do so not only at Easter but also at each turning of the week": so wrote Pope Innocent I at the beginning of the fifth century, testifying to an already well established practice which had evolved from the early years after the Lord's Resurrection. Saint Basil speaks of "holy Sunday, honoured by the Lord's Resurrection, the first fruits of all the other days"; and Saint Augustine calls Sunday "a sacrament of Easter".

In the context of Orthodox liturgy, Patrick Reardon argues that Sunday is the end of a weekly cycle that starts with Wednesday:

"...Sunday evening is the quiet closing of a small weekly cycle commemorating the redemption that God "sent" unto  His people in the death and Resurrection of Christ.  That cycle began on Wednesday, when we observed a regular fast day to recall that dreadful Wednesday on which Judas sold the Lord for thirty pieces of silver.  Then, on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, we again bore in mind the events of the Lord's suffering, death, and burial..." (Christ in the Psalms, 2011 ed, p219)

I've suggested in this series that the psalm cycle in St Benedict's Office actually goes further than this, taking in the whole week in its story of Redemption: to the Wednesday to Sunday cycle can be the Incarnation and Christ's hidden life on earth up to his baptism on Monday; and Christ's earthly ministry on Tuesday.

Today, however, I want to look briefly at how St Benedict reflects that Sunday Resurrection focus in his Office.

Sunday in the Benedictine Office

St Benedict’s Sunday Office is radically different from the old Roman he started from, and in ways that I think serve to reinforce the idea that this is the end of the week as much as its beginning.

The old Roman Office, for example started Sunday Matins at Psalm 1 and worked through in numerical order from there; St Benedict instead starts at Psalm 20, one of the Royal psalms which speaks of the crowning of the King.  Instead of reciting the entirety of Psalm 118 over the course of the day, he spreads it over Sunday and Monday.

In fact the only hours that are more or less the same are Vespers and Compline, and even there he shaves a psalm off in each case.

At Lauds, St Benedict shifted Psalms 92 & 99 (still said in Sundays in the 1962 version of the Roman Office) out of the day altogether (though due to later changes, these psalms are now said as ‘festal’ psalms on Sundays at certain periods of the year), and moved Psalm 117 from Prime to Lauds instead.

These are the days...

The more prominent position given to Psalm 117 in the Benedictine Office by placing it into one of the more elaborate ‘hinge hours’ is, I think, easily explained.

Probably originally composed as a liturgical hymn suitable for use in a procession, this is a joyous hymn of praise and thanksgiving for the harvest. For Christians though, it takes on an additional level of meaning as a prophesy of Our Lord’s Resurrection, and its verses are used extensively in the Easter liturgy, as well, I would suggest, as a remembrance of the Resurrection each Sunday in the Benedictine Office.

Psalm 117 is one of the most quoted psalms in the New Testament, important in particular for the verses directly prophesying the Resurrection, such as verse 17, Non móriar, sed vivam, or, I shall not die but will live, and the reopening of the gates of heaven to the just (v19).

The verse starting Hæc est dies, this is the day the Lord has made (v23), is used throughout the Easter Octave.

Similarly verse 24 is quoted in the Sanctus (benedíctus qui venit in nómine Dómini).

The most important verse of all though, is arguably the reference to the stone that the builders rejected, verse 21, Lápidem, quem reprobavérunt ædificántes: hic factus est in caput ánguli.

Psalm 117

Alleluia.
Give praise to the Lord, for he is good: for his mercy endures for ever.
2 Let Israel now say, that he is good: that his mercy endures for ever.
3 Let the house of Aaron now say, that his mercy endures for ever.
4 Let them that fear the Lord now say, that his mercy endures for ever.
5 In my trouble I called upon the Lord: and the Lord heard me, and enlarged me.
6 The Lord is my helper: I will not fear what man can do unto me.
7 The Lord is my helper: and I will look over my enemies.
8 It is good to confide in the Lord, rather than to have confidence in man.
9 It is good to trust in the Lord, rather than to trust in princes.
10 All nations compassed me about; and, in the name of the Lord I have been revenged on them.
11 Surrounding me they compassed me about: and in the name of the Lord I have been revenged on them. 12 They surrounded me like bees, and they burned like fire among thorns: and in the name of the Lord I was revenged on them.
13 Being pushed I was overturned that I might fall: but the Lord supported me.
14 The Lord is my strength and my praise: and he has become my salvation.
15 The voice of rejoicing and of salvation is in the tabernacles of the just.
16 The right hand of the Lord has wrought strength: the right hand of the Lord has exalted me: the right hand of the Lord has wrought strength.
17 I shall not die, but live: and shall declare the works of the Lord.
18 The Lord chastising has chastised me: but he has not delivered me over to death.
19 Open to me the gates of justice: I will go in to them, and give praise to the Lord.
20 This is the gate of the Lord, the just shall enter into it.
21 I will give glory to you because you have heard me: and have become my salvation.
22 The stone which the builders rejected; the same has become the head of the corner.
23 This is the Lord's doing, and it is wonderful in our eyes.
24 This is the day which the Lord has made: let us be glad and rejoice therein.
25 O Lord, save me: O Lord, give good success.
26 Blessed be he that comes in the name of the Lord. We have blessed you out of the house of the Lord. 27 The Lord is God, and he has shone upon us. Appoint a solemn day, with shady boughs, even to the horn of the altar.
28 You are my God, and I will praise you: you are my God, and I will exalt you. I will praise you, because you have heard me, and have become my salvation.
29 O praise the Lord, for he is good: for his mercy endures for ever.



Alleluja
Confitemini Domino, quoniam bonus, quoniam in sæculum misericordia ejus.
2 Dicat nunc Israël : Quoniam bonus, quoniam in sæculum misericordia ejus.
3 Dicat nunc domus Aaron : Quoniam in sæculum misericordia ejus.
4 Dicant nunc qui timent Dominum : Quoniam in sæculum misericordia ejus.
5 De tribulatione invocavi Dominum, et exaudivit me in latitudine Dominus.
6 Dominus mihi adjutor; non timebo quid faciat mihi homo.
7 Dominus mihi adjutor, et ego despiciam inimicos meos.
8 Bonum est confidere in Domino, quam confidere in homine.
9 Bonum est sperare in Domino, quam sperare in principibus.
10 Omnes gentes circuierunt me, et in nomine Domini, quia ultus sum in eos.
11 Circumdantes circumdederunt me, et in nomine Domini, quia ultus sum in eos.
12 Circumdederunt me sicut apes, et exarserunt sicut ignis in spinis : et in nomine Domini, quia ultus sum in eos.
13 Impulsus eversus sum, ut caderem, et Dominus suscepit me.
14 Fortitudo mea et laus mea Dominus, et factus est mihi in salutem.
15 Vox exsultationis et salutis in tabernaculis justorum.
16 Dextera Domini fecit virtutem; dextera Domini exaltavit me : dextera Domini fecit virtutem.
17 Non moriar, sed vivam, et narrabo opera Domini.
18 Castigans castigavit me Dominus, et morti non tradidit me.
19 Aperite mihi portas justitiæ: ingressus in eas confitebor Domino.
20 Hæc porta Domini : justi intrabunt in eam.
21 Confitebor tibi quoniam exaudisti me, et factus es mihi in salutem.
22 Lapidem quem reprobaverunt ædificantes, hic factus est in caput anguli.
23 A Domino factum est istud, et est mirabile in oculis nostris.
24 Hæc est dies quam fecit Dominus; exsultemus, et lætemur in ea.
25 O Domine, salvum me fac; o Domine, bene prosperare.
26 Benedictus qui venit in nomine Domini : benediximus vobis de domo Domini.
27 Deus Dominus, et illuxit nobis. Constituite diem solemnem in condensis, usque ad cornu altaris.
28 Deus meus es tu, et confitebor tibi; Deus meus es tu, et exaltabo te. Confitebor tibi quoniam exaudisti me, et factus es mihi in salutem.
29 Confitemini Domino, quoniam bonus, quoniam in sæculum misericordia ejus.