The liturgical genius of St Benedict's Lauds Pt 4 - the variable psalmody

The New Jerusalem and the River of Life (Apocalypse XII),
Beatus de Facundus, 1047

So far in this series I've talked about the overall structure and context of Lauds; today I want to start on the main focus of this series, the variable psalms of the hour.

The variable psalms St Benedict uses for the hour are Psalms 5, 35, 42, 56, 62, 63, 64, 75, 87, 89, 91, 117 and 142.

Relationship to the Roman Office?

Some, but not all of these psalms also feature in the later Roman Office - that Office though, only had one variable psalm each day, and St Benedict doesn't use all of those; nor does he use them on the same days as the Roman Office.

This presents something of a puzzle, since although St Benedict lists out all of the psalms to be said each day (in contrast to the variable canticles where he just says use the Roman ones), he also describes them as the customary psalms:

Post quem alii duo psalmi dicantur secundum consuetudinem, id est...

 After these, two other psalms are to follow, according to established usage; thus...

Established use, or customary where?  In his monastery? In some Roman monastery whose Office has subsequently vanished? We will perhaps never know.

Purely mechanistic?

At least some of these psalms do have a history in association with Lauds though.

Two of the thirteen psalms St Benedict uses - viz Psalms 5 and 62 - have a long tradition of association with the hour behind them, attested to as early as Origen in the second century, and so their use is readily explicable.

Five more - Psalms 42, 64, 89, 91 and 142 - feature in the later Roman Office and most commentators now assume he borrowed them from a primitive version of the Roman Office.

If that was the case though, the Roman practice at this hour (assuming it really was settled at this time, a proposition for which there is no hard evidence) cannot have been the definitive criterion for their use for several reasons

First, St Benedict doesn't use two of the Lauds psalms of the Roman Office viz Psalms 92 and 99,in his Office (the current 'festal' version of Lauds is a later addition which I will look at briefly at the end of this series).

Secondly, St Benedict frequently displays a willingness to move psalms between hours (such as shifting Psalms 1-2 and 6-19 out of Matins and 119-125 out of Vespers), and between days (Psalm 91 is said on Saturday in the Roman Office, on Fridays in the Benedictine, and vice-versa for Psalm 142). In the case of Lauds, for example, he doesn't just take psalm from the Matins sequence but also Psalm 117 which in the later Roman Office was said at Prime (though probably was originally located at Vespers). Similarly, Psalm 53 may have formed part of Roman Prime at this time, but St Benedict places it in Matins.

Still, if we accept their use in the Roman Office as the rationale for their inclusion for the moment, we still have to explain the choice of six additional psalms, Psalms 35, 56, 63, 75, 87 and 117 (and the reasons for the initial rejection and later acceptance of Psalms 92 and 99 in the Benedictine cursus).

Morning prayer?

One possible explanation is that St Benedict selected the variable psalms for Lauds on the basis of their references to morning prayer and/or the light of dawn.

Certainly the two Roman Office psalms that St Benedict excludes from his version of the hour don't contain any explicit references to these themes, while the ones he selects do.  The table below summarises the key references in question sometimes cited (for example in Hildemar's c850 commentary on the Rule).

Table: Allusions to morning and light in the variable psalms of Lauds

Monday	O Lord, in the morning you shall hear my voice In the morning I will stand before you (Ps 5: 3-4)
	and in your light we shall see light (Ps 35:10)
Tuesday	Send forth your light and your truth (Ps 42:3)
	Arise, O my glory, arise psaltery and harp: I will arise early (Ps 56:11)
Wednesday	you shall make the outgoings of the morning and of the evening to be joyful (Ps 64:8) Shall your wonders be known in the dark (Ps 64:13)
Thursday	But I, O Lord, have cried to you: and in the morning my prayer shall prevent you. (87:14)
	In the morning man shall grow up like grass; in the morning he shall flourish and pass away (89:6) our life in the light of your countenance (89:8)  We are filled in the morning with your mercy: and we have rejoiced, and are delighted all our days (89:16) And let the brightness of the Lord our God be upon us (89:17)
Friday	You enlighten wonderfully from the everlasting hills (75:4)
	To show forth your mercy in the morning (91:2)
Saturday	Cause me to hear your mercy in the morning; for in you have I hoped (142: 9)
Sunday	O my God, to you do I watch at break of day (62:1) I will meditate on you in the morning (62:7) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Lord is God, and he has shone upon us (117:27)

Does this listing fully explain his choices however?

Well no, not in my opinion.

First, Psalm 63 on Wednesday has no obvious references to light or morning at all.

Secondly, while Psalm 117 does contain a reference to light, it is not obviously to dawn or morning prayer.  And several of the other references seem somewhat tenuous on the face of it.

Thirdly, and most importantly perhaps, there are actually quite a few other psalms that St Benedict could have selected for this purpose.

If we ignore the psalms of the Vespers cycle (though in reality, there is no good reason to, since St Benedict shifted several of them to Terce to None!), and just look at the (Roman) Matins sequence in particular that meet this criteria of strong references to morning and light and could have been allocated to Lauds - many of them (including Psalms 17, 18, 26, 29, 45, 73, 77, 106 and 107) with rather stronger claims than those St Benedict actually uses.

Psalms 17&18 have key places in Prime, so we can eliminate them from consideration, and Psalms 73, 77 and 106 might perhaps have been deemed too long for the hour.

But consider these possibilities, all of which fit with the prayer while awaiting the Resurrection/Christ as light theme:

• The Lord is my light and my deliverance; whom have I to fear? (Ps 26)
• sorrow is but the guest of a night, and joy comes in the morning (Ps 29) 
• But the city of God, enriched with flowing waters, is the chosen sanctuary of the most High, God dwells within her, and she stands unmoved; with break of dawn he will grant her deliverance (ps 45); and
• Wake, my heart, wake, echoes of harp and viol; dawn shall find me watching (Ps 107).

On the face of it, St Benedict's selection criteria involved more than just a reference to dawn/early morning.

Allocation to the day of the week

Another curious feature of the Lauds psalms is how St Benedict allocates them to the particular day of the week and place in the hour.  The table below shows which psalm is said on each day.

Table: Variable psalms and canticles of Lauds as set out in RB 13

Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday
Matins:20-31	Matins: 32-44	Matins: 45-58	Matins: 59-72	Matins: 73-84	Matins: 85-100	Matins: 101-108
Ps 117	Ps 5	Ps 42	Ps 63	Ps 87	Ps 75	Ps 142
Ps 62	Ps 35	Ps 56	Ps 64	Ps 89	Ps 91	Deut
Benedicite (Dan 3)	Is 12:1-6	Is 38:10-20	1 Kings 2:1-10	Ex 15:1-10	Hab 3:2-19	32:1-43

Note that some psalms (viz Psalms 62, 75 and 117) are used out of their numerical sequences, the only hour of the Benedictine Office at which this occurs (fixed psalms aside).

In addition, unlike the Roman version of this hour, the psalms used at Lauds each day often - viz on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday don't all sit within the Matins (or other) sequence(s) for the day of the week.

In some cases there is perhaps an explanation for this.  Psalm 5, for example, is presumably on Monday because it is the only one missing from the Psalm 1-6 group on that day (Ps 1,2 and 6 being said at Prime, Ps 3&4 at Matins and Compline each day).

In other cases, the reasons for the allocations are less obvious.  Why place not place Psalm 142 on Friday, for example, as it was in the later Roman Office,  the day it would otherwise have been said at Vespers?

The shaping of Benedictine Lauds

The explanation for the psalm selections for Lauds, I think, reflects several different factors:

• some psalms are left in Matins or removed from the sequence in order to ensure that Matins each day has a thematic coherence - Psalm 45 presumably opens Tuesday Matins, for example, rather than being moved to Lauds because it so clearly states the themes of that day and is important to that particular sequence of psalms;
• there is rather more to the dawn theme than just references to the morning than the simple references might suggest;
• there was a need to ensure that the psalms used each day have a link to the themes of the day suggested by the Old Testament canticles said at Lauds; and 
• St Benedict's desire to use psalms that include some common memes - including but not limited to the morning prayer/light theme - that help give the hour and the psalm group a horizontal unity.

Perhaps the most important of the unifying memes in this psalms is that if one looks at the variable psalms placed first each day as a group, one can find repeated allusions to the theme of entering heaven; if you look at the set of second variables psalms each day at Lauds one can find brief descriptions of heaven itself (with the high point being Psalm 64 on Wednesday).

The linking theme between them is that in this life God offers us his protection in weathering the attacks of evildoers so that we can endure, best summarised in this line from Psalm 56:

And in the shadow of your wings will I hope, until iniquity pass away.

As we look more closely at this group of psalms over the next few weeks I will try and draw out these linkages and themes out more closely.

Latin word study

As we go along in this series, I'm also going to provide some key word prompts for those wanting to become more familiar with the Latin, focusing on key concepts, images and phrases that tend to recur in the psalms and elsewhere in Scripture, particularly those relevant to the key themes of Lauds.

The psalms use a huge vocabulary (4,000 words plus, compared to most people's normal everyday vocabulary of around 1500 words) so are quite challenging to learn (and remember!).  So focusing on a few key words each day can help push the learning process on a little!

Next part in the series

In the meantime, continue on to Psalm 117.

The liturgical genius of St Benedict's Lauds - Pt 3: The fixed psalms, structure and symbolism of the hour

c6th mosaic map of Jerusalem

In the previous part of this series I talked about some of the theological context for the hour of Lauds, and today I want to take that theme a little bit further, and look very briefly at the fixed psalms of the hour.

The table below summarises the structure of the psalmody section of Lauds.  The weekday and Sunday prescriptions are from St Benedict's Rule; the festal version is a later development.

The psalmody at Lauds	Sunday	Festal	Weekday
Opening prayers	Fixed
Psalm 66	Fixed
Antiphon:	Variable (normally alleluia)
Psalm 50+ Gloria	Fixed	Psalm 92+variable antiphon	Fixed +variable antiphon
Psalm+Gloria	Psalm 117	Psalm 99+variable antiphon	Of the day +variable antiphon
Psalm+Gloria	Psalm 62	Psalm 62+variable antiphon	Of the day +variable antiphon
Antiphon	Variable
Antiphon for the canticle	Variable	Variable	Variable
OT Canticle	Benedicite Domino (no Gloria)	Festal canticle of the day of the week with Gloria	Ferial or festal canticle of the day of the week  with Gloria
Antiphon	Variable
Ps 148+149+150+Gloria	Fixed (Laudate psalms)
Antiphon	Variable

The symbolism of seven?

The first issue worth noting is how many psalms are said at the hour - should we count it as five (ie the Laudate psalms count as one not three since they are said under the same Gloria); seven (counting Psalms 148-150 separately); or eight (including the Old Testament canticle as a pseudo-psalm)?

This is not just of arithmetic interest, but goes to the symbolism of the hour.

A later commentary on the Roman Office Office, for example, by Amalarius of Metz, pointed to the five psalms of Lauds and Vespers as symbolising the five wounds of Christ.

St Benedict, of course, has only four psalms at Vespers.  But his Office, too, has a certain parallelism in the psalms - provided you count Lauds as having seven, and the two evening Offices, Vespers and Compline has having seven between them. This then provides to a parallel psalm number for the rest of the night and day - twelve (plus two) at Matins, and twelve from Prime to None.

There is another reason to think St Benedict had the number seven in mind as well that goes to number symbolism, and that is a mathematical connection between seven and twelve.  St Augustine, for example, makes a great deal of play upon in several different places on the symbolic meanings and mathematical relationships between these numbers and their constituents, viz three (Prime, Terce, Sext, None, Compline) plus four (Vespers) makes seven (Lauds, Vespers/Compline); three times four makes twelve (Matins).

So what is the significance of seven?  One obvious meaning is that it goes to the idea of praying without ceasing - seven in Scripture often standards for universality or continuousness due to the association with the days of creation.  It also stands for this life (as opposed to the 'eighth' eternal day ushered in by the Resurrection, perhaps also relevant to this hour's meaning courtesy of that Canticle!), and the cultivation of'the sevenfold graces of the Holy Ghost.

One particularly important association of seven, though, is the idea of venturing out into the wide world, or the expansion of the faith: Abraham set out from his fathers land with 70 in his group; when Jesus appeared to the apostles after the Resurrection and they hauled in 153 fish, seven of the apostles were present; and seven deacons were appointed to help the Twelve as the number of faithful grew for example.  It is this particular association that I think is worth considering in relation to Lauds.

Mission in Psalms 66 

Lauds begins and ends with a call to praise God.  In Psalm 66, the call is to all the peoples of the earth; in the Laudate psalms at the end, the call is to the whole universe, to all of creation.

After the opening prayers, Lauds always starts with Psalm 66, a joyful and uplifting psalm that starts and ends by requesting God’s blessing on us.  

Its placement at Lauds each day is no doubt due in large part to its images of light, and the commitment to praise God in all places, as well as foreshadowing the Benedictus Canticle also said at Lauds.  It is also the quintessential psalm of the Church’s mission though: it asks for and points to God’s guidance for Governments, and for the spread of God’s word and praise across the whole world.

You can find my previous notes on this psalm in the following posts:

Introduction to Psalm 66

Notes on verses 1-2: God the farmer of our souls

Notes on verses 3-4: let the nations rejoice

Notes on verses 5-6: the spiritual harvest

Psalm 50: Penitence and mission

Psalm 50 has been described as the penitential psalm par excellence, and I think that’s a fair description: it is a powerful expression of deep humility and contrition, and every verse has great spiritual and theological riches waiting to be uncovered.  

But it also reflects the whole path of the soul, from penitence to joy.  St Benedict, I think, actually puts more emphasis on the second half of the psalm, due to his use of verse 16 (O Lord open my lips that I may announce your praise) to open Matins each day, and through both with his insistence that it be said even on Sundays, with an alleluia as antiphon.  St Benedict is, I think, directing us to the last two verses, which pray for the rebuilding of the city of Jerusalem, a meaning explained by his biographer St Gregory the Great as follows:  

Holy Church has two lives: one that she lives in time, the other that she receives eternally; one with which she struggles on earth, the other that is rewarded in heaven; one with which she accumulates merits, the other that henceforth enjoys the merits earned. And in both these lives she offers a sacrifice: here below, the sacrifice of compunction, and in heaven above, the sacrifice of praise. Of the former sacrifice it is said: "The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit'; of the latter it is written: "Then will you delight in right sacrifices, in burnt offerings and in whole burnt offerings'.... In both, flesh is offered, since the sacrifice of the flesh is the mortification of the body, up above; the sacrifice of the flesh is the glory of the resurrection in praise to God. In heaven, flesh will be offered as a burnt holocaust when it is transformed into eternal incorruptibility, and there will be no more conflict for us and nothing that is mortal, for our flesh will endure in everlasting praise, all on fire with love for him.

The monk or nun arguably bridges St Gregory's 'two lives', living the angelic life as far as this is possible in this life through the total holocaust of self and offering the sacrifice of praise on behalf of the Church.

You can find my previous posts on Psalm 50 through the links below:

Psalm 50 at Lauds

Psalm 50 as a penitential psalm:

Introduction to Psalm 50
Psalm 50: verses 1-4
Psalm 50: verses 5-6
Psalm 50: verses 7-9
Psalm 50: verses 10-12
Psalm 50: verses 13-15
Psalm 50: verse 16
Psalm 50: verses 17-18
Psalm 50: verses 19-20

The Laudate psalms

The psalms that give Lauds its (current) name though, are the three Laudate, or 'praise' psalms, Psalm 148, 149 and 150 that end the Book of Psalms and praise God for his creation of the world, and its recreation through Christ.

Psalm 148 has been described as Genesis 1 in poetic form, because it invites all creation to give God in an order that mirrors the days of creation.  It's content and structure is echoed in a number of other Old Testament canticles, including the Benedicite (Daniel 3) said at Lauds on Sunday, Job 28, and Sirach 43.  Read in the light of the New Testament however, the call to praise is not just for creation, but more particularly for our redemption through the Resurrection of Christ.  St Augustine explains the context:

This is the Halleluia which we sing, which, as you know, means (in Latin), Praise ye the Lord...this, after His Resurrection: by which time is signified the future hope which as yet we have not: for what we represent after the Lord's Resurrection, we shall have after our own. For in our Head both are figured, both are set forth. The Baptism of the Lord sets forth to us this present life of trial, for in it we must toil, be harassed, and, at last, die; but the Resurrection and Glorification of the Lord sets forth to us the life which we are to have hereafter, when He shall come to recompense due rewards, evil to the evil, good to the good.

Psalm 149 very much picks up where Psalm 148 leaves off, for the last verse of Psalm 148 shifts from the universal praise of God to the role of the faithful (the 'saints') in particular, and this is the main focus of Psalm 149.  The psalm opens with a call to sing a 'new song', a phrase that the Fathers always interpret as a reference to the Messianic era inaugurated by Christ's Incarnation and Resurrection, and especially the conversion of the nations to Christianity (cf Rev 5:9).

The last psalm of the psalter, and the final psalm of Lauds each day, serves as a doxology to the whole book, conjuring up an image of the celestial liturgy played out with voices and orchestra, as the universe reverberates with praise for the greatness of God.  It consists of ten separate calls to praise God - a number that the Fathers associated both with then 'ten words' of creation, and the ten commandments.

For more on these, follow the links below...

Psalm 148

Introduction to Psalm 148
Psalm 148 v1-4
Psalm 148 v5-6
Psalm 148 v7-10
Psalm 148 v11-12
Psalm 148 v13-14

Psalm 149

Introduction to Psalm 149
Psalm 149 v1-3
Psalm 149 v4-6
Psalm 149 v7-9

Psalm 150

Introduction to Psalm 150
Psalm 150 v1-2
Psalm 150 v3-5a
Psalm 150 v5b

The variable psalms and canticle

Sitting in between these fixed psalms of the hour then, and the progression they map in our lives and the history of salvation, come the variable psalms and canticles, and it is at these I want to turn in the next part of this series

St Benedict's liturgical genius and the design of Lauds - Part I

Frescos in St. Michael the Archangel Church in Lesnovo, Macedonia, c14th

Over the next few weeks I plan to take a look at the psalms and canticles of Lauds, and today I want to provide a brief overview of where I am coming from on this topic.

On the ordering of St Benedict's psalm cursus

One of the staples of current orthodoxy about the Benedictine Office, courtesy largely of the work of Dom Adalbert de Vogue, is that the allocation of psalms to particular hours by St Benedict has no particular rationale other than keeping the hours relatively short.

The prevailing consensus is that St Benedict largely took the Roman Office of his time (and/or perhaps that of  'the Master'), and tweaked it a bit to make the day hours a bit shorter and more varied: the reasoning for his redistribution of psalms is essentially 'mechanistic'.

This view continues to be propagated through the work of Paul Bradshaw and others, who argued, for example, that St Benedict's Prime was simply as place to dump the unneeded psalms of Matins freed up by the alleged reduction in the length of the Night Office compared to that of the Master's (Daily Prayer in the Church, 1981, pg 148).

There are several problems with this position, which I won't go into here.  Suffice it to say for the moment that our knowledge of the details of Roman Church's Office at this time is pretty much entirely speculation: the first full description of it dates from around 850 AD.  In my view the numerous tables of reconstructed Roman Offices so popular in twentieth century and current liturgical studies reflect the same mentality as attempts to construct the mythological 'Q' source text for the synoptic Gospels.  And just as the consensus around that theory is now happily collapsing, sooner or later the current orthodoxy around the Office will surely follow.

But what should replace it?

The content of the psalms

The biggest problem with virtually all of the modern commentaries on the Office seems to me to be that they pay only superficial attention to comments by the Fathers and monastic writers on the content and meaning of the psalms, and largely ignore the symbolism embedded in some of the features of the Office.

This isn't terribly surprising.  Given that the modern Office has entirely abandoned the traditional eight hour structure, one wouldn't expect a lot of emphasis on the symbolism that underlies that number for example.  And when it comes to the psalms themselves, the Christological meaning of the psalms that was so central to the Fathers has largely been lost in recent centuries, replaced by historico-critical preoccupation with the development of the texts and their literal sense that renders them largely devoid of modern relevance.

My view is that by learning to walk 'in the steps of the Fathers', and understand the way they approached the psalms (and the symbolism of the Office more generally), I think we can arrive at a much richer understanding of the Divine Office.

St Benedict's liturgical genius

Fr Cassian Folsom, in his series of conferences on monastic prayer a few years back, for example argued that when St Benedict, in the Rule, says put nothing before the Office, he is implicitly saying put nothing before Christ (who we can find in the Office).  He noted that understanding the Christological content of the psalms is essential to this end.

One way in which St Benedict uses these Christological means, in my view is through a certain 'vertical' unity in the Office, with the psalms chosen for each day effectively providing a meditation on key events in the life of Christ.  Lauds is key to this program, since my theory is that St Benedict started from the ferial canticles he took from Roman practice, and developed his Office around the program they set up.  My recent series on the first psalms of Matins each day suggested that these psalms were specifically chosen to give effect to this program, and I've previously looked at the variable psalms of Lauds in this context.

I've also suggested that St Benedict gives the individual hours of his Office a certain 'horizontal unity'.

Prime, for example, far from being a mere dumping ground for some psalms surplus to requirements as some have suggested, I would argue is very carefully designed indeed, focusing on the kingship (including the judicial power) of Christ.

And I'm not alone in thinking that the themes of Prime are very closely connected to the Benedictine Rule: the Rule's very opening lines invite us to renounce our own will and take up arms under Christ our true King; and mindfulness of God's scrutiny of our actions and the coming judgement is a key theme of both the Prologue and the spiritual teaching of the Rule.

Where Lauds fits

In this series I want to focus primarily on another key theme of the Prologue to the Rule, namely that Christ is calling us into his kingdom, inviting us to be dwellers in heaven, and pointing to the way to enter.  It is this theme, centred on the priesthood of Christ, that I think is the key focus for Lauds.

The key Scriptural text for the priesthood of Christ is the book of Hebrews, which draws out the idea of Christ's sacrifice on the cross as playing out the role of the High Priest, who on the feast of the Atonement each year offered a sacrifice and then brought the blood into the holy of holies, the innermost sanctum of the temple and the microcosm of heaven.  Through his death he offers the perfect sacrifice for our sins; through his Resurrection he enters with his blood into the holy of holies, allowing us 'to follow him to glory' (RB Prologue).

The second Matins invitatory, Psalm 94, which is given an extensive exposition in Hebrews, perhaps invites us to reflect on the twelve tribes of Israel wondering in the desert for forty years, unable to enter the Promised Land.

Lauds in St Benedict's conception, I think, moves us to the happy resolution of this piece of salvation history, with Christ reopening the way to the true promised land for those who respond to his call.

Above all, Lauds is a celebration of the Resurrection, an hour at which Christ continuously calls us into the kingdom, and invites us to enter the gates of heaven, to become dwellers in his tabernacle through faith and good works.

Click here for the next part in this series.

Gradual Psalms - Introduction to Psalm 122

In the previous Gradual Psalm, the last psalm of Terce, the speaker focuses his attention on the holy city.

Now, with the first psalm of Sext, Psalm 122, we are invited to look even higher, lifting our eyes towards God himself.  There may be something programmatic about this, for Sext of course, was traditionally said at (solar) midday when the Sun is at its highest point, and also the hour when Christ ascended the cross.

Psalm 122 - Ad te levavi

Vulgate	Douay-Rheims
Canticum graduum
1  Ad te levávi óculos meos, * qui hábitas in cælis.	To you have I lifted up my eyes, who dwell in heaven.
2  Ecce sicut óculi servórum, * in mánibus dominórum suórum.	2 Behold as the eyes of servants are on the hands of their masters,
3  Sicut óculi ancíllæ in mánibus dóminæ suæ: * ita óculi nostri ad Dóminum, Deum nostrum, donec misereátur nostri.	As the eyes of the handmaid are on the hands of her mistress: so are our eyes unto the Lord our God, until he have mercy on us.
4  Miserére nostri, Dómine, miserére nostri: * quia multum repléti sumus despectióne:	3 Have mercy on us, O Lord, have mercy on us: for we are greatly filled with contempt.
5  Quia multum repléta est ánima nostra: * oppróbrium abundántibus, et despéctio supérbis.	4 For our soul is greatly filled: we are a reproach to the rich, and contempt to the proud

Attempts to assign this psalm to a particular time period in Israel’s history are entirely speculative, and probably unhelpful in my view.  

A more important question is why it fits in with the psalms of Ascent.  But perhaps the answer is that it speaks of the normal state of the earthly pilgrim: beset by the effects of our own sins and the attacks of enemies, we wait anxiously and pray for God to show us the signs of his forgiveness.  Some commentators also suggest that the psalm alludes to the hope of the second coming.

The opening verses set before us the idea of our total dependence of God for his gifts - and punishments - just as a slave is on his or her master/mistress.  The analogy of the slave or servant’s relationship to their master or mistress is not one that has many resonances to a modern Western reader, perhaps.  Accordingly, we might better think of the psalm as being firstly about self-abandonment: the slave is totally dependent on his master for food, clothing, instructions on what to do, punishments and rewards; so too should we think of our relationship to God, acknowledging that nothing truly comes from our own efforts, but all requires his grace.  St Ambrose writes, Christ is everything for us.

The second dimension of the slave/servant analogy that is worth considering is the implication of the reverent awe with which we should raise our eyes to God.  It is true of course, that we are invited to progress from fear of God based on the threat of punishment and dread of hell, to a filial fear based on love.  But as the Rule of St Benedict makes clear in Chapter 7, on humility, we do need to ground ourselves in the fear of punishment first, and remind ourselves of it from time to time even when we have progressed.  And no matter how far we progress, we should never forget that our salvation is God’s free gift, not a right, or something we can ever merit through our own efforts.

The sense of verses 4 and 5 is that we are fed up with being looked down on by the rich and proud - noting that rich and proud doesn't just mean material wealth, but rather evildoers in general who pursue their own pleasure at everyone else's expense (though the two conditions often coincide). The psalm serves as reminder that adherence to the good is somehow affronting to many, and brings forth attempts to humiliate those who pursue truth.  The moral truth pointed to here is that we must bear our sufferings with patience, knowing that God will fill us up with good things.

Introduction to Psalm 120

1283 Descriptio Terrae Sanctae

The second of the Gradual Psalms, Psalm 120, is also the second psalm of Terce during the week in the Benedictine Office.

Cassiodorus summarises it as explaining the strength of divine protection, and demonstrating that nothing can withstand it. 

Psalm 120: Levávi óculos meos in montes

Vulgate	Douay-Rheims
Canticum graduum.
1  Levávi óculos meos in montes, * unde véniet auxílium mihi.	I have lifted up my eyes to the mountains, from whence help shall come to me.
2  Auxílium meum a Dómino, * qui fecit cælum et terram.	2 My help is from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.
3  Non det in commotiónem pedem tuum: * neque dormítet qui custódit te.	3 May he not suffer your foot to be moved: neither let him slumber that keeps you.
4  Ecce, non dormitábit neque dórmiet, * qui custódit Israël.	4 Behold he shall neither slumber nor sleep, that keeps Israel.
5  Dóminus custódit te, Dóminus protéctio tua, * super manum déxteram tuam.	5 The Lord is your keeper, the Lord is your protection upon your right hand.
6  Per diem sol non uret te: * neque luna per noctem.	6 The sun shall not burn you by day: nor the moon by night.
7  Dóminus custódit te ab omni malo: * custódiat ánimam tuam Dóminus.	7 The Lord keeps you from all evil: may the Lord keep your soul.
8  Dóminus custódiat intróitum tuum, et éxitum tuum: * ex hoc nunc, et usque in sæculum.	8 May the Lord keep your coming in and your going out; from henceforth now and for ever.

Ask for grace

In the previous psalm, the speaker had become restless with the realization that he is living in exile, far from God.

In this psalm, the speaker has decided to set out on the journey to Sion, and therefore asks for grace to accompany him on his journey, for as St Benedict instructs in the Prologue to his Rule, whatever good work you undertake, first pray to God asking him to perfect your efforts.

Cassiodorus comments on the pilgrim's progress so far:

Initially the prophet is afflicted, like the tax-collector who beat his breast and did not raise his eyes to heaven. He begs to be delivered from wicked lips and a deceitful tongue. But now he has recovered his breath and advanced to the second step. He has raised his eyes to the mountains, that is, to the holy intercessors by whose support he sought to win heavenly blessings. 

Cultivate a longing for heaven

Verse 1 of Psalm 120 remind us that just as the traveller looks frequently in the direction he is travelling in, straining to catch a glimpse of his destination, so we should turn frequently, in our meditations, to the subject of heaven and the protection God affords those committed to him.

Verse 2 is a reminder that God will help us along the way, and help us to avoid the temptations that might tempt us to stop short of our true goal, and substitute other false gods, such as money, power and pleasure: the only true God is the creator of everything.

Strength of God's protection

The key theme of this psalm, though, is the protection God offers the pilgrim – the verb custodire, meaning to guard or protect, is used six times in the course of eight verses, and combines with other several other synonyms for God’s help.

The psalm emphasizes that this protection is always with us: day and night; in our our comings and our goings.

And it echoes in many ways, the petitions of the Lord’s prayer, asking that we not fall into temptation (our foot not be moved, v3), that we protected from all evil (v7), and that we not be led astray (v5&8).

Like the previous psalm, this one also features in the Office of the Dead, and as a prayer offered for the souls in purgatory the last verse is I think the key one: our coming in (to this world) and goings out from it all occur under God’s loving watch, and he will help us not to stumble at the end.

Psalm 138 verses 1-4

Psalm 138 opens with an acknowledgment of God's omnipotence.

 

1	V	Dómine, probásti me, et cognovísti me: * tu cognovísti sessiónem meam, et resurrectiónem meam.
	NV	Domine, scrutatus es et cognovisti me, tu cognovisti sessionem meam et resurrectionem meam.
	JH	Domine, inuestigasti me, et cognouisti. Tu cognouisti sessionem meam et resurrectionem meam,
	Sept	κύριε ἐδοκίμασάς με καὶ ἔγνως με σὺ ἔγνως τὴν καθέδραν μου καὶ τὴν ἔγερσίν μου

 [Key: V=Vulgate; NV=Neo-vulgate; JH=St Jerome from the Hebrew; Sept=Septuagint].

Domine (O Lord) probasti (you have examined)  me (me) et (and) cognovisti (you have known) me (me) tu (you) cognovisti (you have known) sessionem (the sitting) meam (my) et (and) resurrectionem meam.

Britt suggests that sessiónem meam, et resurrectiónem meam can be interpreted as 'my every act, my whole life'.

probo, avi, atum, are to try, to test, prove, examine; to search, prove

cognosco, gnovi, gnitum, ere 3, to know, see, learn, perceive, be come acquainted with

sessio  onis f a sitting, the act of sitting

resurrectio onis f  resurrection, rising again from the dead

 

DR	Lord, thou hast proved me, and known me:  Thou hast know my sitting down, and my rising up
Brenton	O Lord, thou hast proved me, and known me. Thou knowest my down-sitting and mine up-rising
MD	O Lord thou searchest me through and through and knowest me, Thou knowest my sitting down and my rising up
Cover	Lord, thou hast searched me out, and known me. Thou knowest my down-sitting, and mine up-rising
Knox	Lord, I lie open to thy scrutiny; thou knowest me, knowest when sit down and when I rise up again,
Grail	O Lord, you search me and you know me, you know my resting and my rising,

[Key: DR=Douay-Rheims Challoner; MD=Monastic Diurnal; Cover=Coverdale]

This verse can be interpreted both as Christ's words, and in our own voice.  As a reference to Christ, the second half of the verse plainly refers to the Passion and Resurrection, and is used as such in the Introit for the Mass of Easter Sunday.  Cassiodorus explains the first half of the verse as follows:

With the invocation Lord, Christ Jesus cries to the Father in His role as servant. The Father proved Him in the sense that He made manifest His humility, when He consented to be baptized by John though He was without sin. He was not a sinner; rather He undertook the healing of sinners. As the prophet says: He has borne our sins and carried our infirmities. The Father has known Him, in other words, made Him plain when He said: This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased: hear ye him.  He means "Hear Him saying I and the Father are one".

As for us, Hebrews 4:12-13 tells us:

For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And before him no creature is hidden, but all are open and laid bare to the eyes of him with whom we have to do.

 

2	V	Intellexísti cogitatiónes meas de longe: * sémitam meam, et funículum meum investigásti.
	NV	Intellexisti cogitationes meas de longe, semitam meam et accubitum meum investigasti.
	Old Roman	intellexisti cogitationes meas a longe semitam meam et directionem meam investigasti
	JH	intellexisti malum meum de longe.  Semitam meam et accubitionem meam euentilasti,
		σὺ συνῆκας τοὺς διαλογισμούς μου ἀπὸ μακρόθεν τὴν τρίβον μου καὶ τὴν σχοῖνόν μου σὺ ἐξιχνίασας

Intellexisti (you have understood) cogitationes (the thoughts) meas (my) de (from) longe  (far off) semitam (the path) meam (my) et (and) funiculum (the cord) meum (my) investigasti (you have searced out)

Funiculus is obscure. Lewis and Short give its meaning as 'a slender rope, a cord', and as well as classical sources, cite Exodus 35: 18.  Britt suggests that by meton the word is sometimes used to refer to what is measured out by the cord, and consistent with this, the New English Translation from the Septuagint renders the Greek as 'my path and my miles you tracked', ie 'the miles I travelled'.  However, a number of Latin alternatives to funiculum exist in various translations: St Augustine uses limitem (limit), to render the phrase ' You have tracked out my path and my limit'; while the old Roman text uses directionem.  Other translations (even those purporting to translate the Vulgate) simply follow the Hebrew (reflected in the neo-Vulgate accubitum) here.

intelligo, lexi, lectum, ere 3  understand, give heed to something, to consider

cogitatio, onis, f. thoughts, plans, designs; evil plans or devices; the deep plans or thoughts of God.

longe, adv. far off, at a distance; as a substantive with a and de, afar off, from afar.

semita, ae, f, a path, way; course of life, action, conduct, or procedure.

funiculus i m 1.  measuring line or cord; by meton, estate, inheritance; 2. [following the Hebrew] bed, resting place

investigo are avi atum go, search out

DR	Thou hast understood my thoughts afar off: my path and my line thou hast searched out.
Brenton	thou understandest my thoughts long before. Thou hast traced my path and my bed,
MD	Thou understandest my thoughts from afar Thou observest my going and my resting
RSV	thou discernest my thoughts from afar. Thou searchest out my path and my lying down,
Cover	thou understandest my thoughts long before. Thou art about my path, and about my bed,
Knox	canst read my thoughts from far away. Walk I or sleep I, thou canst tell;
Grail	you discern my purpose from afar. You mark when I walk or lie down, all my ways lie open to you.

St Benedict uses this verse to explain the first degree of humility:

The first degree of humility, then, is that a person keep the fear of God before his eyes and beware of ever forgetting it...This is what the Prophet shows us when he represents God as ever present within our thoughts, in the words "Searcher of minds and hearts is God" and again in the words "The Lord knows the thoughts of men". Again he says, "You have read my thoughts from afar" and "The thoughts of people will confess to You".

3	V	Et omnes vias meas prævidísti: * quia non est sermo in lingua mea.
	NV	Et omnes vias meas perspexisti, quia nondum est sermo in lingua mea,.
	JH	et omnes uias meas intellexisti :  quia non est eloquium in lingua mea.
		καὶ πάσας τὰς ὁδούς μου προεῖδες ὅτι οὐκ ἔστιν λόγος ἐν γλώσσῃ μου

et (and) omnes (all) vias (the ways) meas (my) prævidisti (you have foreseen) quia (for/because) non (not) est (he is) sermo (the word/speech)  in (on) lingua (the tongue) mea (my).

via, ae, a way, road, path, street. God's way, God's policy, way of life

praevideo ere vidi visum, to foresee, foreknow

sermo, onis, m. words; a command, edict word, speech, saying, discourse;  scheme, plan, proposal

lingua, ae, f., the tongue; language, speech, tongue; plan, council

DR	And thou hast foreseen all my ways: for there is no speech in my tongue.
Brenton	and hast foreseen all my ways. For there is no unrighteous word in my tongue:
MD	And thou forseest all my ways, not even a word is upon my tongue
Cover	and spiest out all my ways. For lo, there is not a word in my tongue,
Grail	Before ever a word is on my tongue you know it, O Lord, through and through.

4	V	Ecce, Dómine, tu cognovísti ómnia novíssima, et antíqua: * tu formásti me, et posuísti super me manum tuam.
	NV	et ecce, Domine, tu novisti omnia A tergo et a fronte coartasti me et posuisti super me manum tuam.
	JH	Ecce, Domine, nosti omnia : retrorsum et ante formasti me,  et posuisti super me manum tuam.
		ἰδού κύριε σὺ ἔγνως πάντα τὰ ἔσχατα καὶ τὰ ἀρχαῖα σὺ ἔπλασάς με καὶ ἔθηκας ἐπ' ἐμὲ τὴν χεῖρά σου

 Ecce (behold), Domine (O Lord) tu (you) cognovisti (you have known) omnia (all) novissima (the newest/the end) et (and) antiqua (old) Tu (you) formasti (you have formed) me (me) et (and) posuisti (you have placed/laid) super (over) me manum (the hand) tuam (your)

The Greek here arguably describes the things God knows as 'the first and the last'; 'novissima' (on the face of it the superlative of novus, or new) works as this meaning, and has to be strained to translate it as 'the last' as the Douay-Rheims does.  The received Hebrew, however, reflected in the neo-Vulgate, is a little different, suggesting 'before and after'.

cognosco, gnovi, gnitum, ere 3, to know, see, learn, perceive, be come acquainted with.

novus, a, um,  new; novissimus a um (substantive) the end, final lot

antiquus, a, um old, ancient

formo are avi atum to give shape to something, to form or fashion

pono, posui, itum, ere 3,  to put, place, lay, set.

manus, us, f, the hand

DR	Behold, O Lord, thou hast known all things, the last and those of old: thou hast formed me, and hast laid thy hand upon me.
Brenton	behold, O Lord, thou hast known all things, the last and the first: thou hast fashioned me, and laid thine hand upon me.
MD	Behold, O Lord, Thou knowest all, both new and old, thou hast fashioned me and laid Thy hand upon me
RSV	lo, O LORD, thou knowest it altogether. Thou dost beset me behind and before, and layest thy hand upon me.
Cover	but thou, O Lord, knowest it altogether. Thou hast fashioned me behind and before, and laid thine hand upon me.
Knox	all my thought is known to thee; rearguard and vanguard, thou dost compass me about, thy hand still laid upon me.
Grail	Behind and before you besiege me, your hand ever laid upon me.

Psalm 138/1 – Domine probasti me

Vulgate (Numbering follows psalmody)	Douay-Rheims (numbering follows DR)
In finem, psalmus David.	Unto the end, a psalm of David.
Dómine, probásti me, et cognovísti me: * tu cognovísti sessiónem meam, et resurrectiónem meam.	1 Lord, you have proved me, and known me: 2 You have known my sitting down, and my rising up.
2  Intellexísti cogitatiónes meas de longe: * sémitam meam, et funículum meum investigásti.	You have understood my thoughts afar off: my path and my line you have searched out.
3  Et omnes vias meas prævidísti: * quia non est sermo in lingua mea.	4 And you have foreseen all my ways: for there is no speech in my tongue.
4  Ecce, Dómine, tu cognovísti ómnia novíssima, et antíqua: * tu formásti me, et posuísti super me manum tuam.	5 Behold, O Lord, you have known all things, the last and those of old: you have formed me, and have laid your hand upon me.
5  Mirábilis facta est sciéntia tua ex me: * confortáta est, et non pótero ad eam.	6 Your knowledge has become wonderful to me: it is high, and I cannot reach to it
6  Quo ibo a spíritu tuo? * et quo a fácie tua fúgiam?	7 Whither shall I go from your spirit? Or whither shall I flee from your face?
7  Si ascéndero in cælum, tu illic es: * si descéndero in inférnum, ades.	8 If I ascend into heaven, you are there: if I descend into hell, you are present.
8  Si súmpsero pennas meas dilúculo, * et habitávero in extrémis maris.	9 If I take my wings early in the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea:
9  Etenim illuc manus tua dedúcet me: * et tenébit me déxtera tua.	10 Even there also shall your hand lead me: and your right hand shall hold me.

You can find the next set of notes on this psalm here.