Tenebrae/19 - Psalm 39: The rock that is Christ

Today's psalm in this series on Tenebrae, is Psalm 39, and it brings us back to a meditation on that greatest of sacrifices, our will.  It is also said at Matins on Monday in the Benedictine Office, and as the first psalm of the third nocturn of Matins in the Office of the Dead.

It is worth noting that Psalm 39 is actually one of those two for one psalms: verses 19 onwards are repeated in Psalm 69.

The call to obedience

On Good Friday, we particularly contemplate Christ's perfect obedience, even unto death, and this psalm explains once more the rationale for this:

"No sacrifice, no offering was thy demand; enough that thou hast given me an ear ready to listen. Thou hast not found any pleasure in burnt-sacrifices, in sacrifices for sin. See then, I said, I am coming to fulfil what is written of me, where the book lies unrolled; to do thy will, O my God, is all my desire, to carry out that law of thine which is written in my heart." (Knox Translation)

These verses are given some more exposition in the Letter to the Hebrews:

"Christ, during his earthly life, offered prayer and entreaty to the God who could save him from death, not without a piercing cry, not without tears; yet with such piety as won him a hearing. Son of God though he was, he learned obedience in the school of suffering, and now, his full achievement reached, he wins eternal salvation for all those who render obedience to him." (Knox Translation)

The help of the Church

The psalm also, though, also reminds us that we are not expected to achieve this holy state unaided, for Christ and his Church stand ready to aid us.

The psalm states that 'many shall see and fear', that there will be a great cloud of witnesses sharing the message of salvation.

Nor will they be left unguided, for in a verse particularly poignant, perhaps as we await the election of a new Pope, we are told:

"And he set my feet upon a rock, and directed my steps."

Psalm 39 (40)

Vulgate	Douay-Rheims
In finem. Psalmus ipsi David.	Unto the end, a psalm for David himself.

Beátus qui intélligit super egénum, et páuperem: * in die mala liberábit eum Dóminus.	Blessed is he that understands concerning the needy and the poor: the Lord will deliver him in the evil day.
Dóminus consérvet eum, et vivíficet eum, † et beátum fáciat eum in terra: * et non tradat eum in ánimam inimicórum eius.	The Lord preserve him and give him life, and make him blessed upon the earth: and deliver him not up to the will of his enemies.
Dóminus opem ferat illi super lectum dolóris eius: * univérsum stratum eius versásti in infirmitáte eius.	The Lord help him on his bed of sorrow: you have turned all his couch in his sickness.
Ego dixi: Dómine, miserére mei: * sana ánimam meam, quia peccávi tibi.	I said: O Lord, be merciful to me: heal my soul, for I have sinned against you.
Inimíci mei dixérunt mala mihi: * Quando moriétur, et períbit nomen eius?	My enemies have spoken evils against me: when shall he die and his name perish?
Et si ingrediebátur ut vidéret, vana loquebátur: * cor eius congregávit iniquitátem sibi.	And if he came in to see me, he spoke vain things: his heart gathered together iniquity to itself.
Egrediebátur foras, * et loquebátur in idípsum.	He went out and spoke to the same purpose.
Advérsum me susurrábant omnes inimíci mei: * advérsum me cogitábant mala mihi.	All my enemies whispered together against me: they devised evils to me.
Verbum iníquum constituérunt advérsum me: * Numquid qui dormit non adiíciet ut resúrgat?	They determined against me an unjust word: shall he that sleeps rise again no more?
Etenim homo pacis meæ, in quo sperávi: * qui edébat panes meos, magnificávit super me supplantatiónem.	For even the man of my peace, in whom I trusted, who ate my bread, has greatly supplanted me.
Tu autem, Dómine, miserére mei, et resúscita me: * et retríbuam eis.	But you, O Lord, have mercy on me, and raise my up again: and I will requite them.
In hoc cognóvi quóniam voluísti me: * quóniam non gaudébit inimícus meus super me.	By this I know, that you have had a good will for me: because my enemy shall not rejoice over me.
Me autem propter innocéntiam suscepísti: * et confirmásti me in conspéctu tuo in ætérnum.	But you have upheld me by reason of my innocence: and have established me in your sight for ever.
Benedíctus Dóminus, Deus Israël, a sæculo et usque in sæculum: * fiat, fiat.	Blessed be the Lord the God of Israel from eternity to eternity. So be it. So be it

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.

Tenebrae of Good Friday

Nocturn I: Psalms 2, 21, 26*

Nocturn II: Psalms 37, 39, 53*

Nocturn III: Psalms 58, 87*, 93

Lauds: 50*, 142, 84, [Hab], 147

Other Scriptural and liturgical uses of the psalm

NT references	Rev 14:3 (4); Mt 12:7, Heb 5:7-10 (9-10); Heb 10:9, Eph 5:2 (10-11); 1 Peter 5:7 (23)
RB cursus	Monday Matins
Monastic/(Roman) feasts etc	Good Friday Tenebrae, II, 2; Office of the Dead/All Souls AN 2756 (8) AN 1812 (13) AN 1861 (14)
Responsories	Epiphanytide Tues no 2 – 7698 Palm Sunday - 7219 cf V)
Roman pre 1911	Tuesday Matins
Roman post 1911	1911-62: Tuesday Terce . 1970:
Mass propers (EF)	Lent 2 ?Monday GR (18); Friday, OF (17-18); Lent 4 Tuesday, OF (1-2, 4); PP15, OF (1-2, 4); PP16, OF (17-18).

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

A psalm for Sunday...Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost

Conti (c18th), The parable of the Good Samaritan

Today's (Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost) Introit in the Extraordinary Form is verses from Psalm 69, but the sentiments and phrases are actually ones used in several other psalms as well.  Psalm 69 actually more or less duplicates the second half of Psalm 39, and its sentiments appear in several other places as well:

Deus, in adjutórium meum inténde: Dómine, ad adjuvándum me festína: confundántur et revereántur inimíci mei, qui quærunt ánimam meam. Avertántur retrórsum et erubéscant: qui cógitant mihi mala.

or:

Incline unto my aid, O God: O Lord, make haste to help me: let my enemies be confounded and ashamed, who seek my soul.  Let them be turned backward and blush for shame, who desire evils to me.

Let my enemies be confounded and ashamed!

The first verse of the Introit here is the familiar call for God's aid, a call that expresses our dependence on God in all circumstances.  It is used at the start of each hour of the Office and in the Mass as a constant reminder that we can do nothing without God, and that nothing happens without God willing it or allowing it.

But the next sets of words are equally important to the Christian, for they are restatements of the prophecies of the Incarnation and of God's promises to us included especially in the Benedictus and Magnificat: of God's help to us in times of temptation, and his commitment that we will never be tempted beyond our ability to resist; of the final victory over the devil; and of the ultimate triumph of the poor in spirit over the proud and powerful.

On the one hand they are a restatement of Our Lord's victory over death and ultimate triumph over the devil; on the other hand they are an invitation to us: to be confounded but the realization of our sinful state, and thus to be ashamed; and to be converted.  Only once we have come to this realization can we truly be said to be putting our trust in God's help.

In the Benedictine Office, these sentiments feature heavily in the psalms set for Monday (with Psalm 39), with similar phrases turning up not only at several psalms of Matins, but also closing off Prime (in Psalm 6) and Vespers (in Psalm 128).

But the sentiments are also a good fit to the themes of Wednesday Matins, where this version of the psalm appears, since that day deals with man's betrayal of God, and the election of the gentiles, for in the Gospel for this twelfth Sunday, with the story of the Good Samaritan.   The Jews who would have walked past the man who had been robbed and beaten without helping him; but we are invited to be ashamed, repent, and help.