Psalm 140 v2 - The offerings of Christ and the saints

 Verse 2 of Psalm 140 is used in many different contexts in the liturgy, and has been given several different layers of interpretation by the Fathers.  It is this verse in particular that makes it the quintessential Vespers psalm.

 Looking at the Latin 

2		V/NV/JH/OR	Dirigátur orátio mea sicut incénsum in conspéctu tuo: * elevátio mánuum meárum sacrifícium vespertínum.
		Sept	κατευθυνθήτω ἡ προσευχή μου ὡς θυμίαμα ἐνώπιόν σου ἔπαρσις τῶν χειρῶν μου θυσία ἑσπερινή

[Key: V=Vulgate; OR=Old Roman; NV=Neo-Vulgate; JH=St Jerome's translation from the Hebrew; Sept=Septuagint]

 Phrase by phrase 

Dirigátur orátio mea sicut incénsum in conspéctu tuo: elevátio mánuum meárum sacrifícium vespertínum.

Let my prayer be directed  as incense in your sight; the lifting up of my hands, as evening sacrifice.

 Word by word 

Dirigátur (let it be directed) orátio (prayer) mea (my) sicut (like) incénsum (incense) in conspéctu (in the presence) tuo (your): * elevátio (the lifting up) mánuum (of the hands) meárum (of my) sacrifícium (sacrifice) vespertínum (of the evening). 

cf Exodus 30:7; Lev 24:7-8 for the incense offered morning and evening on the altar of incense.  

dirigo, rexi, rectum, ere 3 to direct, guide, set aright. (a) to prosper, to be established
oratio, onis, f. prayer, supplication
incensum i n incense; the smoke of sacrifice, smell of the sacrificial offerings
conspectus, us, m. sight, presence
evelatio onis f a raising up, a lifting up
manus, us, f, the hand
sacrificium, ii, n., an offering, oblation, sacrifice
vespertinus a um of or belonging to the evening or eventide

Selected English translations:

DR	Let my prayer be directed as incense in your sight; the lifting up of my hands, as evening sacrifice.
Brenton	Let my prayer be set forth before thee as incense; the lifting up of my hands [as] an evening sacrifice.
MD	Let my prayer be directed as incense in Thy sight the uplifting of my hands as an evening sacrifice.
RSV	Let my prayer be counted as incense before thee, and the lifting up of my hands as an evening sacrifice
Cover	Let my prayer be set forth in thy sight as the incense; and let the lifting up of my hands be an evening sacrifice.
Knox	Welcome as incense-smoke let my prayer rise up before thee; when I lift up my hands, be it acceptable as the evening sacrifice
Grail	Let my prayer arise before you like incense, the raising of my hands like an evening oblation.

 [Key: DR=Douay-Rheims Challoner; MD=Monastic Diurnal; RSV=Revised Standard Version; Cover=Coverdale

The offering of pure prayer

In verse 1 of Psalm 140, the focus was on the importance of continuous prayer; in verse 2 it is on the pure intentions behind it. 

At the literal level, this verse seems on the face of it, quite straightforward: it asks for the speaker's prayers to be as if they were the sacrifice of incense in the temple.  As St Robert Bellarmine put it:

My first request is, that my prayer, through your grace, may ascend like incense. 

The Temple offerings 

Several of the commentaries on the verse, though, take the key elements of the temple offering as the basis for a spiritual interpretation of them, so it is worth listing out some of the elements they considered important to the verses interpretation.

First, incense was offered in the temple, and on the altar.  Secondly, it was an offering of incense made up of four different elements. Thirdly, although there was also a daily offering of incense, the most solemn form of this offering was done by the high priest when he entered the holy of holies once each year, at an altar specifically designated for this purpose and using a censor used only for incense, and finally, it was put on the fire.  

Such offerings were always acceptable in that they complied with a requirement of the law, but its acceptability as an offering for sins, according to St John Chrysostom "...was sometimes acceptable, sometimes unacceptable, depending on the disposition of the offerers of each in terms of virtue or vice..."

The temple and altar of our bodies

St Robert Bellarmine saw the fact that the original offering of incense happened in the Temple as a reminder that the old temple has been destroyed, and rebuilt as Christ, and in us:

Man is the temple of God, for the Apostle says, “Your members are the temple of the Holy Ghost,” the inmost part of which is the soul, in which is the law, written there by the finger of God; there, also, is the will, representing the altar of gold, namely, a pure heart, adorned by the grace of God.

Incense as the pure prayers of the saints

 The meaning of the reference to incense can simply mean worthy prayer.  St Jerome, for example, argues that, in the light of the book of Revelation's reference to incense as the pure prayer of the saints, incense means just that: 

May my prayer rise up to You directly; there is nothing in it that is mean, nothing malicious, nothing that is the work of the devil. Incense, moreover, represents the prayers of the saints. We know this from the Apocalypse [cf Rev 5:8, 8: 3-4] where the twenty-four elders were holding vessels of incense and saying: 'These are the prayers of the saints.'

Similarly, St John Chrysostom suggested that the reference to the temple offerings of incense are intended to convey that the pure intensions and fervour of the person praying: 

 The psalmist therefore asks for his prayer to become like that sacrifice defiled by no blemish of the offerer, like that pure and holy incense. Now, by his asking he also teaches us to offer prayers that are pure and fragrant... 

St Robert Bellarmine developed this idea further, suggesting the the four elements used to make the incense represent the virtues that we must bring to prayer:

The four aromatic substances represent the four virtues, Faith, Hope, Love, Humility, and the most grateful prayer that can be put up to God is composed of them. 

An evening offering

The temple sacrifice of incense was offered both morning and evening, so one question to ponder in relation to this verse is, why is the reference to evening prayer only?  

Some commentaries suggest that morning can readily be substituted in for evening here, since the daily sacrifices of the Temple occurred both in the morning and in the evening.  Indeed, St Augustine provides an elaborate explanation, which I'll come to in the next post, on how evening prayer generates morning prayer. 

One possible explanation provided by St Cassiodorus, is that it is a reference to us in the evening of our lives, as we approach death:

Evening sacrifice perhaps denotes that offering which scrupulous devotion is wont to offer up at life's end, when we show repentance and cleanse ourselves with humble entreaty; in the words of Psalm 50: A sacrifice to God is an afflicted spirit. Our evening is when we leave the light of day at the onset of death. Notice the point which we have often emphasised, that no-one should despair provided that he cleanses his final deeds with the fount of his tears.

The lifting up of hands

Although the lifting up of hands as a gesture in prayer can be taken literally, most of the Fathers interpret it spiritually, to refer to good works, or our actions more generally.

St Cassiodorus summarised this line of commentary as follows:

The lifting up of hands denotes works of devotion performed either in almsgiving or achieved in some praise­worthy relationship. 

The fire of love

St John Chrysostom took the placing of the incense on fire as an injunction to spiritual fervour when praying:

As, then, the incense even of itself is fine and sweet-smelling, but gives particular evidence of its fragrance at the time when it is mixed with the fire, so too is prayer fine of itself but becomes finer and more sweet-smelling when offered with ardor and a glowing spirit, when the soul becomes a censer and lights a burning fire. I mean, the incense would not be added unless the brazier had previously been lit, or the coals set alight. Do likewise in the case of your own mind: first light it with enthusiasm, and then offer your prayer.

St Robert Bellarmine similarly suggested that:

...the fire that produced the fragrant smoke, that rose up and ascended so directly, is fervor of desire, but in order that it should ascend in a straight and direct line, there must be a pure intention and constant attention; for they who pray with a view to attract notice have their incense aside by the draught of the world, and it will not ascend in a direct line; while they who allow the cares of this world, and its distractions, to interfere with them when they pray, they do not give proper direction to their prayer, and such distractions, like so many currents, blow away, and dissipate the incense of their prayer, and will not suffer it to soar aloft, as it ought; and it was a consciousness of this that makes the prophet pray, “Let my prayer be directed as incense in thy sight.” 

 

The evening sacrifice is the Passion

Perhaps the most interpretation of this verse though, is as it speaking of the replacement of the sacrifices of the Old Covenant by the New: St Jerome, for example, argued that the evening sacrifice,' of the eleventh hour, means that 'I lift up my hands in the New Testament'. 

St Augustine in particular built on this idea, to make clear that  the evening sacrifice is that of the Last Supper, the Passion and the Resurrection, for as the latter said:

For when the day was now sinking towards evening, the Lord upon the Cross laid down His life to take it again, did not lose it against His will...That then is the evening sacrifice, the Passion of the Lord, the Cross of the Lord, the offering of a salutary Victim, the whole burnt offering acceptable to God. That evening sacrifice produced, in His Resurrection, a morning offering. Prayer then, purely directed from a faithful heart, rises like incense from a hallowed altar. Nought is more delightful than the odour of the Lord: such odour let all have who believe. 

Vulgate	Douay-Rheims
Psalmus David.	A psalm of David.
1 Dómine, clamávi ad te, exáudi me: * inténde voci meæ, cum clamávero ad te.	I have cried to you, O Lord, hear me: hearken to my voice, when I cry to you.
2  Dirigátur orátio mea sicut incénsum in conspéctu tuo: * elevátio mánuum meárum sacrifícium vespertínum.	2 Let my prayer be directed as incense in your sight; the lifting up of my hands, as evening sacrifice.
3  Pone, Dómine, custódiam ori meo: * et óstium circumstántiæ lábiis meis.	Set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth: and a door round about my lips.
4  Non declínes cor meum in verba malítiæ: * ad excusándas excusatiónes in peccátis.	4 Incline not my heart to evil words; to make excuses in sins.
5  Cum homínibus operántibus iniquitátem: * et non communicábo cum eléctis eórum	With men that work iniquity: and I will not communicate with the choicest of them
6  Corrípiet me justus in misericórdia, et increpábit me: * óleum autem peccatóris non impínguet caput meum.	5 The just man shall correct me in mercy, and shall reprove me: but let not the oil of the sinner fatten my head.
7  Quóniam adhuc et orátio mea in beneplácitis eórum: * absórpti sunt juncti petræ júdices eórum.	For my prayer shall still be against the things with which they are well pleased: 6 Their judges falling upon the rock have been swallowed up.
8  Audient verba mea quóniam potuérunt: * sicut crassitúdo terræ erúpta est super terram.	They shall hear my words, for they have prevailed: 7 As when the thickness of the earth is broken up upon the ground:
9  Dissipáta sunt ossa nostra secus inférnum: * quia ad te, Dómine, Dómine, óculi mei: in te sperávi, non áuferas ánimam meam.	Our bones are scattered by the side of hell. 8 But to you, O Lord, Lord, are my eyes: in you have I put my trust, take not away my soul.
10  Custódi me a láqueo, quem statuérunt mihi: * et a scándalis operántium iniquitátem.	9 Keep me from the snare, which they have laid for me, and from the stumbling blocks of them that work iniquity.
11  Cadent in retiáculo ejus peccatóres: * singuláriter sum ego donec tránseam.	10 The wicked shall fall in his net: I am alone until I pass.

  

For notes on verse 3 of the psalm, continue on here.

Psalm 140: v1 - The agony of Christ in the garden

 Psalm 140, I noted in the overview, is something of a manual on prayer, and this first verse is an important start on this.

 Looking at the Latin

First, a selection of Latin translations, and the Septuagint version, which provide several different ways to make the same basic plea! 

1	V	Domine, clamavi ad te, exaudi me: * intende voci meæ, cum clamavero ad te.
	OR	Domine clamavi ad te exaudi me  intende voci orationis meae dum clamavero ad te
	NV	Domine, clamavi ad te, ad me festina; intende voci meae, cum clamo ad te.
	JH	Domine, clamaui ad te; festina mihi : exaudi vocem meam clamantis ad te.
	Sept	κύριε ἐκέκραξα πρὸς σέ εἰσάκουσόνμου πρόσχες τῇ φωνῇ τῆς δεήσεώς μου ἐν τῷ κεκραγέναι με πρὸς σέ

[Key: V=Vulgate; OR=Old Roman; NV=Neo-Vulgate; JH=St Jerome's translation from the Hebrew; Sept=Septuagint]

Phrase by phrase (Vulgate and Douay Rheims)

Breaking down the Vulgate on a phrase by phrase basis using the Douay Rheims translation gives us:

Domine, clamavi ad te, exaudi me:  intende voci meæ, cum clamavero ad te.

O Lord, I have cried to you hear me: hearken to my voice, when I cry to you.

 Word by word

The key vocabulary for the verse is:

clamo, avi, atum, are to call, cry out; to call to or upon for aid..
exaudio, ivi, itum, ire, to hear, hearken to, listen to, give heed to; to regard, answer.
intendo, tendi, tentum, ere 3 to give heed to, pay attention to; to regard, look upon
vox, vocis, f., the voice of a person, or, the sound of an instrument, thunder. 
cum conj when, as soon as, as often as.

And word by word:

Dómine (O Lord), clamávi (I have cried) ad (to) te (you), exáudi (hear) me (me): inténde (give heed) voci (of the voice) meæ (of my), cum (when) clamávero (I cry) ad (to) te (you)

Verb tenses

If is worth noting the several different verb tenses utilised in this verse, as more than one commentary draws on this to tease out the meaning of the verse.  The first, clamavi is the past (perfect) tense, for completed actions.  Exaudi and intende are present imperatives.  Note that although most modern grammars will suggest that 'cum clamvero' is properly translated as 'when I cry', the temporal clause using cum and the future indicative tense has a subtlely different character that the English translation cannot readily convey, as several of the commentaries noted below draw out: it is referring to a future event, not our current prayer.

A selection of English translations:

DR	I have cried to you, O Lord, hear me: hearken to my voice, when I cry to you.
Brenton	O Lord, I have cried to thee; hear me: attend to the voice of my supplication, when I cry to thee.
MD	I cry unto Thee O Lord hear me.  Hearken unto my voice, when I call upon thee.
RSV	I call upon thee, O LORD; make haste to me! Give ear to my voice, when I call to thee!
Cover	Lord, I call upon thee; haste thee unto me, and consider my voice when I cry unto thee.
Knox	Come quickly, Lord, at my cry for succour; do not let my appeal to thee go unheard.
Grail	I have called to you, Lord; hasten to help me! Hear my voice when I cry to you.

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

Fervent prayer is our best weapon

Many of the psalms contain verses pleading for God to hear us in times of trouble, or in aid of a just cause, and we should take these as our model, and not be ashamed to do likewise!   

St Jerome, for example, commented that:

Moses was standing his ground in the midst of his people, and Pharaoh, marching in pursuit, was almost upon him; on all sides he was straitened. It was then that he cried out to God and instantly God said to him: 'Why are you crying out to me?' All the while that Moses was praying in silence, God was hearing him. Scripture, however, does not record what he said, only that he cried. 

The blood of martyrs, too, constantly cries out to the Lord and He listens graciously. 

The Lord declared to Cain: 'The voice of your brother's blood cries to me'; and in the Apocalypse of John, the souls of the just that were under the altar were crying to the Lord: 'How long, O Lord, dost thou refrain from avenging our blood?'' 

Let us not fail in passing to consider that the souls of the just are an altar to the Lord. 'Hearken to my voice when I call upon you.' Take note, 0 Lord, of what I am asking of You. 

I am not begging for carnal pleasure, nor for gold, nor for the things of this world, but I am pleading for mercy; wherefore the prophet says: Hearken, do not let my plea go unheard; I am not asking anything amiss.

St John Chrysostom similarly urges us to use prayer as a weapon against the devil, when undertaken with zeal and properly directed, taking the Apostles as our model:

In my crying to you: do you see how he wishes us also to call with zeal, with enthusiasm? Then it is in particular, remember, that the devil lies in wait: since he knows that prayer is the greatest weapon, and even if we are sinful and disgraced we nevertheless achieve great favors by praying assiduously and in keeping with God's laws, then is the time he is anxious to drive us into indifference and incline our thinking so as to make us give up prayer without result. 

Aware of this, then, we should throw up against him our zeal, and never pray against our enemies, but rather imitate the apostles. They suffered countless calamities, remember, then were thrown into prison, and after risking the ultimate fate they had recourse to prayer in the words, "Have regard to their threats." And then what? Surely they did not say, "Smash them," or "Kill them," as many people frequently say in calling down curses? By no means. Instead, what? "Allow your servants to speak your word with confidence." 

If we pray in this way, he says, our prayers will be answered:

If your prayer is like that, and you call on God with zeal, even before your prayer is finished you will be heard. This is what the psalmist also asks for in saying, Heed the sound of my appeal in my crying to you. God's own promise says, after all, "While you are still speaking I shall say, Lo, here I am."

Past, present and future prayer for forgiveness of sins

Prayer, the Fathers argued, must be constant.  If you look back at the Latin text above, you can see that the verse contains several different verb tenses.  St Cassiodorus interpreted this as a call to continuous prayer, both for our past and future sins and faults: 

The prophet in his desire to inject into the human race a mood of uninterrupted prayer, seems to have combined two different times. He says of the past: I have cried, denoting a prayer completed. Then he says again: As I shall cry to thee, clearly denoting the future. So just as no time is free of faults, so there is no time unoccupied by pious prayers, for the saving remedy against unceasing sins is continual entreaty to the devoted Lord. 

What point will there be in forgiveness of past sins, if future ones are seen to bind us? So a goodly end is being sought for the Christian, so that when in his final hours the pardon granted him is past, the last stage of his life may not be one of guilt. 

Our key prayer he argues here, must be for forgiveness of our sins: 

Observe that here and in the following verse he renewed his prayers fourfold, for the holy man could not be sated with so great a request; for the prayer which frees us from faults wins the heart of the Judge and wipes away sins, and mercy cannot be withheld from one who makes entreaty, for humility fires us to pray unceasingly for forgiveness. All this is achieved by the devoted Lord, for He does not wish to condemn those whom He forewarns. The Creator of the world cries out: I desire not the death of the sinner, but that he be converted, and live.'

The prayer of Christ in the Garden

Above all though, the perfect model for fervent prayer is of course Christ, and St Augustine interpreted this verse as being the prayer of Christ on the night before his crucifixion, a prayer so ardent that not only sweat, but also blood ran down from his body:

This not I alone say: whole Christ says it. But it is said rather in the name of the Body: for He too, when He was here and bore our flesh, prayed; and when He prayed, drops of blood streamed down from His whole Body. So is it written in the Gospel: Jesus prayed earnestly, and His sweat was as it were great drops of blood. (Luke 22:44).

 And Christ's prayer, past, present and future, is above all for us:

What is this flowing of sweat from his whole body, but the suffering of martyrs from the whole Church? Listen unto the voice of my prayer, while I cry unto you. You thought the business of crying already finished, when you said, I have cried unto You. You have cried; yet think not yourself safe. If tribulation be finished, crying is finished: but if tribulation remain for the Church, for the Body of Christ, even to the end of the world, let it not only say, I have cried unto you, but also, Listen unto the voice of my prayer. 

Vulgate	Douay-Rheims
Psalmus David.	A psalm of David.
1 Dómine, clamávi ad te, exáudi me: * inténde voci meæ, cum clamávero ad te.	I have cried to you, O Lord, hear me: hearken to my voice, when I cry to you.
2  Dirigátur orátio mea sicut incénsum in conspéctu tuo: * elevátio mánuum meárum sacrifícium vespertínum.	2 Let my prayer be directed as incense in your sight; the lifting up of my hands, as evening sacrifice.
3  Pone, Dómine, custódiam ori meo: * et óstium circumstántiæ lábiis meis.	Set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth: and a door round about my lips.
4  Non declínes cor meum in verba malítiæ: * ad excusándas excusatiónes in peccátis.	4 Incline not my heart to evil words; to make excuses in sins.
5  Cum homínibus operántibus iniquitátem: * et non communicábo cum eléctis eórum	With men that work iniquity: and I will not communicate with the choicest of them
6  Corrípiet me justus in misericórdia, et increpábit me: * óleum autem peccatóris non impínguet caput meum.	5 The just man shall correct me in mercy, and shall reprove me: but let not the oil of the sinner fatten my head.
7  Quóniam adhuc et orátio mea in beneplácitis eórum: * absórpti sunt juncti petræ júdices eórum.	For my prayer shall still be against the things with which they are well pleased: 6 Their judges falling upon the rock have been swallowed up.
8  Audient verba mea quóniam potuérunt: * sicut crassitúdo terræ erúpta est super terram.	They shall hear my words, for they have prevailed: 7 As when the thickness of the earth is broken up upon the ground:
9  Dissipáta sunt ossa nostra secus inférnum: * quia ad te, Dómine, Dómine, óculi mei: in te sperávi, non áuferas ánimam meam.	Our bones are scattered by the side of hell. 8 But to you, O Lord, Lord, are my eyes: in you have I put my trust, take not away my soul.
10  Custódi me a láqueo, quem statuérunt mihi: * et a scándalis operántium iniquitátem.	9 Keep me from the snare, which they have laid for me, and from the stumbling blocks of them that work iniquity.
11  Cadent in retiáculo ejus peccatóres: * singuláriter sum ego donec tránseam.	10 The wicked shall fall in his net: I am alone until I pass.

For notes on the next verse of the psalm, continue on here.

Introduction to Psalm 140

The final psalm of Vespers on Thursdays in the Benedictine Office is Psalm 140, an extremely important psalm for the theology of the Office, for the monastic tradition more generally, and as a prophesy of the institution of the Eucharist.

The text of Psalm 140

If you read through the text of the psalm, set out below, it will quickly become apparent that the meaning of many of the verses is not self-evident, perhaps especially verses 7-8.

This should not put us off, however, since although many modern commentaries focus on the more readily understood verses, at least at the literal level, such as verse 2, and skip over the more difficult verses, claiming the text to be corrupt, the Fathers suggest a quite different approach.

Rather than ignoring the difficult parts, they argued we should wrestle with such texts just as Jacob wrestled with the angel overnight, until the meaning becomes clear.

St John Chrysostom for example commented that:

While everybody, you might say, knows the words of this psalm and continues singing it at every age, they are ignorant of the sense of the expressions. What is no slight grounds for accusation, those singing it daily and uttering the words by mouth do not inquire about the force of the ideas underlying the words...You sit beside buried treasure, and carry around a locked wallet, no one stimulated even by curiosity to learn what on earth is the meaning: no question is raised, no inquiry undertaken. 

Rather than simply passing over obscure verses such as 'Their judges were swallowed up near a rock' (vv.5-6),  then, St John suggests we dig deeper, and ponder what the meaning of the sacred text is meant to convey to us.  Accordingly, the verse by verse notes that follow will attempt to deal with some of these difficulties.  

Vulgate	Douay-Rheims
Psalmus David.	A psalm of David.
1 Dómine, clamávi ad te, exáudi me: * inténde voci meæ, cum clamávero ad te.	I have cried to you, O Lord, hear me: hearken to my voice, when I cry to you.
2  Dirigátur orátio mea sicut incénsum in conspéctu tuo: * elevátio mánuum meárum sacrifícium vespertínum.	2 Let my prayer be directed as incense in your sight; the lifting up of my hands, as evening sacrifice.
3  Pone, Dómine, custódiam ori meo: * et óstium circumstántiæ lábiis meis.	Set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth: and a door round about my lips.
4  Non declínes cor meum in verba malítiæ: * ad excusándas excusatiónes in peccátis.	4 Incline not my heart to evil words; to make excuses in sins.
5  Cum homínibus operántibus iniquitátem: * et non communicábo cum eléctis eórum	With men that work iniquity: and I will not communicate with the choicest of them
6  Corrípiet me justus in misericórdia, et increpábit me: * óleum autem peccatóris non impínguet caput meum.	5 The just man shall correct me in mercy, and shall reprove me: but let not the oil of the sinner fatten my head.
7  Quóniam adhuc et orátio mea in beneplácitis eórum: * absórpti sunt juncti petræ júdices eórum.	For my prayer shall still be against the things with which they are well pleased: 6 Their judges falling upon the rock have been swallowed up.
8  Audient verba mea quóniam potuérunt: * sicut crassitúdo terræ erúpta est super terram.	They shall hear my words, for they have prevailed: 7 As when the thickness of the earth is broken up upon the ground:
9  Dissipáta sunt ossa nostra secus inférnum: * quia ad te, Dómine, Dómine, óculi mei: in te sperávi, non áuferas ánimam meam.	Our bones are scattered by the side of hell. 8 But to you, O Lord, Lord, are my eyes: in you have I put my trust, take not away my soul.
10  Custódi me a láqueo, quem statuérunt mihi: * et a scándalis operántium iniquitátem.	9 Keep me from the snare, which they have laid for me, and from the stumbling blocks of them that work iniquity.
11  Cadent in retiáculo ejus peccatóres: * singuláriter sum ego donec tránseam.	10 The wicked shall fall in his net: I am alone until I pass.

Three interpretations

One of the keys to unlocking the meaning of the psalm though, I think, is to keep in mind three complementary lines of interpretation of it, namely (1) Psalm 140 as a manual on prayer and the necessary preparation for it; (2) Psalm 140 as teaching on how to stay on 'the path that leads to eternal life' (cf Psalm 138); and (3) Psalm 140 as a prophesy of the institution of the Eucharist, and more generally of the New Covenant of grace.

1. On the Office and prayer

Psalm 140 has long been regarded as the quintessential Vespers hymn by virtue of the second verse, which talks about prayer rising in the evening like incense.  

Many of the Patristic commentaries of the psalm provide extensive discussions on the nature of prayer, and the reference to prayer rising like incense has long been interpretted as speaking of the substitution of the Office for the sacrifices of incense made in the temple in the morning and evening.  

Pope John Paul II in a General Audience on the pslam, picked up this theme and summarised it as follows:

The idea expressed reflects the spirit of prophetic theology that intimately unites worship with life, prayer with existence. The same prayer made with a pure and sincere heart becomes a sacrifice offered to God. The entire being of the person who prays becomes a sacrificial act, a prelude to what St Paul would suggest when he invited Christians to offer their bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God:  this is the spiritual sacrifice acceptable to him (cf. Rom 12: 1). Hands raised in prayer are a bridge to communication with God, as is the smoke that rises as sweet odour from the victim during the sacrificial rite of the evening. 

For this reason, it was and is said daily in many forms of the Office, and verse 2 is used as the versicle at Vespers for most of the year in both the Roman and Benedictine forms of the Office.

2. The path to eternal life: on cultivating the good and the value of silence

St John Chrysostom, however, argued that it is not solely for its references to evening prayer that this psalm was said daily.  Rather, he suggests, the whole psalm can be viewed as a penitential offering that helps expunge our venial sins:

....they prescribed its recital as a kind of saving medicine and cleansing of sins so that whatever stain we incur throughout the course of the day- abroad, at home, wherever we pass the time - we might on coming to the evening expunge through this spiritual air. It is, you see, a medicine that removes all these stains. 

In part this interpretation flows from the discussion of the importance of self-discipline aided by grace in the psalm, and the conrast the psalm provides between the practices of the man striving for the good in this psalm, and the unjust man of the previous psalm.

This teaching has particularly strong resonances with St Benedict's teaching on the value of silence and taciturnity, and as a result, verse 3 of the psalm, 'Set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth: and a door round about my lips' was early on used by Benedictines as a final verse to mark the start of the overnight Great Silence, and thus the counterpart to the first words of Matins, 'O Lord open my lips...'.

3. Maundy Thursday

Perhaps its most important dimension of the psalm though, and the reasons for its use in the Office of the Triduum, is the Patristic interpretation of it as a prophesy of the institution of the New Covenant.

St John Cassian in particular commented that:

But concerning the evening sacrifices what is to be said, since even in the Old Testament these are ordered to be offered continually by the law of Moses? For that the morning whole-burnt offerings and evening sacrifices were offered every day continually in the temple, although with figurative offerings, we can show from that which is sung by David: Let my prayer be set forth in Your sight as the incense, and let the lifting up of my hands be an evening sacrifice, in which place we can understand it in a still higher sense of that true evening sacrifice which was given by the Lord our Saviour in the evening to the Apostles at the Supper, when He instituted the holy mysteries of the Church, and of that evening sacrifice which He Himself, on the following day, in the end of the ages, offered up to the Father by the lifting up of His hands for the salvation of the whole world; which spreading forth of His hands on the Cross is quite correctly called a lifting up. For when we were all lying in hades He raised us to heaven, according to the word of His own promise when He says: When I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all men unto Me. (Institues III: 3)

The New Covenant is one based on grace, of circumcision of heart and mind, not flesh, and the various requests for assistance (guard our thoughts; guard our words, and so forth) that follow can be interpreted as the particular graces we should ask for in order that we might manifest the true circumcision, of the spirit.

Scriptural and liturgical uses of the psalm

Finally, a brief summary of selected Scriptural and liturgical uses of the psalm for reference purposes.

 

NT references	Lk 1:10, 1 Tim 2:8, Rev 5:8, Rev 8:3-4 (2) Gal 6:1 (6)
RB cursus	Thursday Vespers
Monastic feasts etc	Triduum Vespers - 2328(1), 2082 (9)
Roman pre 1911	Friday Vespers
Responsories	6489 (1), 6458 (2)
Ambrosian (1957)	Friday Vespers
Brigittine	Wednesday Vespers
Maurist	Tuesday Vespers
Thesauris schemas	A: Thursday Vespers B: Friday Vespers C: Friday Vespers wk II D: Thursday Vespers wk I
Roman post 1911	1911-62: Friday Vespers . 1970: Week 1: Sunday Vespers wk I, omitting final verse
Mass propers (EF)	Lent Ember Saturday, GR; Sept Ember Sat GR; PP19 GR.

 Key: Antiphon and responsory numbers = cantus database code no; (number) indicates number of responsories or antiphons using the psalm; PP = Post Pentecost; GR =Gradual

And for detailed notes on verse 1 of the Psalm, continue on here.