Psalm 99 - Serve the Lord with gladness

Psalm 99 - Jubiláte Deo, omnis terra - Festal Lauds/Matins Friday II, 5 

Vulgate	Douay-Rheims
Psalmus in confessione.	A psalm of praise.
1 Jubiláte Deo, omnis terra: * servíte Dómino in lætítia.	Sing joyfully to God, all the earth: serve the Lord with gladness.
2  Introíte in conspéctu ejus, * in exsultatióne.	Come in before his presence with exceeding great joy.
3  Scitóte quóniam Dóminus ipse est Deus: * ipse fecit nos, et non ipsi nos.	3 Know that the Lord he is God: he made us, and not we ourselves
4  Pópulus ejus, et oves páscuæ ejus: * introíte portas ejus in confessióne, átria ejus in hymnis: confitémini illi.	We are his people and the sheep of his pasture. 4 Go into his gates with praise, into his courts with hymns: and give glory to him.
5  Laudáte nomen ejus: quóniam suávis est Dóminus, in ætérnum misericórdia ejus, * et usque in generatiónem et generatiónem véritas ejus.	Praise his name: 5 For the Lord is sweet, his mercy endures for ever, and his truth to generation and generation.

The second of the festal psalms of Lauds is Psalm 99, which is the last of the set of psalms focusing on Christ's kingship that started with Psalm 92, the first of the festal psalms of Lauds.

As St Augustine points out, the psalm is reasonably straightforward in its meaning:

...it is short, and not obscure: as if I had given you an assurance, that you should not fear fatigue....The title of this Psalm is, A Psalm of confession. The verses are few, but big with great subjects; may the seed bring forth within your hearts, the barn be prepared for the Lord's harvest.

Similarly, St Liguori summarises it as:

The royal prophet exhorts the faithful to praise God and to thank him first for having created us; then for having given us for our mother this holy Church which nourishes her children as young and tender sheep.

The whole psalm is very upbeat, urging us to joy, and Cassiodorus therefore alludes to the use of the imagery of the sheep of his pasture in Psalm 94 (the Matins invitatory) and the instruction to serve the Lord with gladness in verse 2:

Though service to the Lord is seen to be discharged by the various functions of ecclesiastical orders, monasteries of the faithful, solitary hermits, and devoted laity, all are appropriately associated with these five words, serve the Lord with gladness, and not with murmuring or mental bitterness, as happened in the desert when the Jewish people murmured against the Lord.  This gladness is none other than charity...So those who server the Lord with gladness are those who love Him above all else and show brotherly charity to each other.

Cassiodorus' interpretation of the gates reflects the theme of charity reflected in works:

The Lord's gates are humble repentance, sacred baptism, holy charity, almsgiving, mercy and the other commands by which we can attain his presence.  So the prophet urges us first to enter the gate's of the Lord's mercy by means of this humble confession...

Place in Lauds

Once again it doesn't contain any overt references to morning or light, but it does have a strong connection to the key themes of Lauds they we have noted in this series.

In particular it fits perfectly with the 'entering into heaven' and 'truth and mercy' memes of the Lauds group, in which position it has been placed in the festal office.  And this in turn perhaps suggests that as in a number of other cases, St Benedict was not, in his Lauds selections, starting from nothing, but rather taking an existing theme and amplifying it, making it more explicit.

It also suggests that St Benedict's decision not to use this psalm at Lauds may perhaps have been dictated by factors such as the design of the Matins cursus as much as the content of this particular psalm.  Still, the focus of the psalm is primarily on the kingship of Christ rather than his priesthood, so that too may have been a factor.

Liturgical and Scriptural uses of the psalm

NT references	Eph 2:10 (3); Lk 1:50 (5)
RB cursus	Friday II, 5
Monastic feasts	Festal Lauds
Roman pre 1911	Sunday Lauds
Roman post 1911	1911-62: Sunday Lauds . 1970:
Mass propers (EF)	Lent 4 Monday OF 1-3;

And that ends this series on the variable psalms of Lauds.

Psalm 92 and the sixth day of creation

Rudolf von Ems: Weltchronik. Böhmen (Prag), 3.
Viertel 14. Jahrhundert. Hochschul- und Landesbibliothek Fulda, Aa 88.
c14th

Psalm 92 - Dóminus regnávit, decórem indútus est - Festal Lauds/Matins Friday I, 5

Vulgate	Douay-Rheims
Laus cantici ipsi David, in die ante sabbatum, quando fundata est terra.	Praise in the way of a canticle, for David himself, on the day before the sabbath, when the earth was founded.
1 Dóminus regnávit, decórem indútus est: * indútus est Dóminus fortitúdinem, et præcínxit se.	The Lord has reigned, he is clothed with beauty: the Lord is clothed with strength, and has girded himself.
2  Etenim firmávit orbem terræ, * qui non commovébitur.	For he has established the world which shall not be moved.
3  Paráta sedes tua ex tunc: * a sæculo tu es.	2 My throne is prepared from of old: you are from everlasting.
4  Elevavérunt flúmina, Dómine: * elevavérunt flúmina vocem suam.	3 The floods have lifted up, O Lord: the floods have lifted up their voice
5  Elevavérunt flúmina fluctus suos, * a vócibus aquárum multárum.	The floods have lifted up their waves, 4 with the noise of many waters.
6  Mirábiles elatiónes maris: * mirábilis in altis Dóminus.	Wonderful are the surges of the sea: wonderful is the Lord on high.
7  Testimónia tua credibília facta sunt nimis: * domum tuam decet sanctitúdo, Dómine, in longitúdinem diérum.	5 Your testimonies have become exceedingly credible: holiness becomes your house, O Lord, unto length of days.

The kingship of Christ

The reasons for Psalm 92's use in the festal Office are obvious: this is the first of a group of psalms (to Psalm 99) that proclaim the kingship of God, and looks forward to the establishment of his dominion over the earth.

St Alphonsus Liguori, for example, comments:

The psalmist exalts the power that God manifested in creating heaven and earth; and transporting himself in thought to the first moment of creation, he represents to himself God, who in some way proceeds from the mystery of his eternal existence, in order to reveal himself in the production of creatures.

The reasons for its omission in St Benedict's original version of the Benedictine Office perhaps rather less so.

It is true of course that it contains no clear references to morning prayer or dawn.  Still, verses 1-2 and 6 are certainly interpreted by the Fathers as references to the future after the Resurrection, so it fits in well with the general themes we have identified in the psalms of Lauds, thus perhaps explaining its ready acceptance in later versions of the Office.

The days of creation in the Office

One possibility is that St Benedict felt its particular relevance to the day of the week, suggested by the title (reflecting its use in the temple on thatday according to the Talmid), outweighed its relevance to his Lauds themes.  

In the past I've mainly talked about a cycle around the life of Christ built into the Benedictine Office, but there are also traces, I think, of a (not unrelated) cycle around the seven days of creation.

St Augustine provides the explanation of how this psalm fits with that:

It is entitled, The Song of praise of David himself, on the day before the Sabbath, when the earth was founded. 

Remembering then what God did through all those days, when He made and ordained all things, from the first up to the sixth day (for the seventh He sanctified, because He rested on that day after all the works, which He made very good), we find that He created on the sixth day (which day is here mentioned, in that he says, before the Sabbath) all animals on the earth; lastly, He on that very day created man in His own likeness and image. For these days were not without reason ordained in such order, but for that ages also were to run in a like course, before we rest in God. But then we rest if we do good works....

And because these good works are doomed to pass away, that sixth day also, when those very good works are perfected, has an evening; but in the Sabbath we find no evening, because our rest shall have no end: for evening is put for end. As therefore God made man in His own image on the sixth day: thus we find that our Lord Jesus Christ came into the sixth age, that man might be formed anew after the image of God. 

For the first period, as the first day, was from Adam until Noah: the second, as the second day, from Noah unto Abraham: the third, as the third day, from Abraham unto David: the fourth, as the fourth day, from David unto the removal to Babylon: the fifth period, as the fifth day, from the removal to Babylon unto the preaching of John. The sixth day begins from the preaching of John, and lasts unto the end: and after the end of the sixth day, we reach our rest. The sixth day, therefore, is even now passing. And it is now the sixth day, see what the title has; On the day before the Sabbath, when the earth was founded.

In this light, Cassiodorus, for example, sees this psalm as primarily celebrating the Incarnation of Christ rather than the Resurrection.  He suggests that:

The first topic describes His beauty, the second His strength, the third His deed, the fourth His power, the fifth praises of the whole creation, the sixth the truth of His words, and the last praise of His house which fittingly basks in eternal joy...

It is worth noting that while some of the Fathers (including St Benedict in my view) seem to place the Incarnation on Sunday or Monday in their schemas, others linked the Incarnation with the creation of man on the sixth day and our redemption through the cross in their commentaries on the Hexameron.

In any case, St Benedict perhaps preferred to focus Lauds on Friday on the major theme of the day, namely the Passion, and on Sunday, to psalms with a more overt focus on the Resurrection, such as Psalm 117.

And you can notes on the last psalm in this series on Lauds, Psalm 99, here.


Scriptural and liturgical uses of the psalm

NT references	Rev 19:6 (v1)
RB cursus	Friday Matins 1.5
Monastic feasts	Festal Lauds
Roman pre 1911	Sunday Lauds
Thesauris schemas	A: ; B: ; C: ; D:
Roman post 1911	1911-62: Sunday Lauds. 1970:
Mass propers (EF)	-