Psalm 3: Voce mea ad Dominum (v4)

Continuing the verse a day approach to looking at Psalm 3, we have reached the half-way mark with verse 4.

The Fathers and Theologians generally treat this verse as something of a mini-treatise on prayer, encouraging us to engage in prayer that engages the whole body in intense, internal and vocal prayer of the heart. No doubt this is part of the reason Pope Benedict XVI chose this psalm for his own series on the psalms and prayer!

Psalm 3

The psalm so far, with today's verse highlighted:

Dómine quid multiplicáti sunt qui tríbulant me? multi insúrgunt advérsum me.
Multi dicunt ánimæ meæ: Non est salus ipsi in Deo ejus.
Tu autem, Dómine, suscéptor meus es, glória mea, et exáltans caput meum
Voce mea ad Dóminum clamávi: et exaudívit me de monte sancto suo.

The Douay-Rheims translates verse 4 as: "I have cried to the Lord with my voice: and he hath heard me from his holy hill."

Phrase by phrase

Voce mea=with my voice

The word voce perhaps implies that vocal prayer is meant here, but the verb clamavi (I have cried out) below suggests something intense, engaging the whole body.

ad Dóminum clamávi= to the Lord I have cried out

We must cry out with our voice: here it means inner voice, the true voice of our heart, coming from that inner room of our body. Secondly it must be devout, intent.

et exaudívit me=and he heard me

We need also to remember that prayer is a dialogue, and leave room for God to reply to us. The Pope adds that:

"Man is no longer alone, his foes are not invincible as they had seemed, for the Lord hears the cry of the oppressed and answers from the place of his presence, from his holy hill. The human being cries out in anguish, in danger, in pain; the human being calls for help and God answers. In this interweaving of the human cry and the divine response we find the dialectic of prayer and the key to reading the entire history of salvation. The cry expresses the need for help and appeals to the other’s faithfulness; crying out means making an act of faith in God’s closeness and in his willingness to listen."

de monte sancto suo = from his holy mountain(ie Mt Sion, Jerusalem, or heaven).

The Pope comments that:

"Thus the Psalmist, who feels besieged by death, professes his faith in the God of life who, as a shield, surrounds him with an invulnerable protection; the one who believed he was as good as lost can raise his head because the Lord saves him; the praying person, threatened and mocked, is in glory, because God is his glory."

Vocab list

vox, vocis, /., the voice of a person, or, the sound of an instrument, thunder.
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.
mons, montis, m., a mountain (mons sanctus = Zion)
sanctus, a, um, holy.

This series continues here.

Psalm 3: Tu autem Domine (v3)

Continuing on with this series on Psalm 3, we are now up to verse 3:

Dómine quid multiplicáti sunt qui tríbulant me? multi insúrgunt advérsum me.
Multi dicunt ánimæ meæ: Non est salus ipsi in Deo ejus.
Tu autem, Dómine, suscéptor meus es, glória mea, et exáltans caput meum.

The Douay-Rheims translates the verse as: "But thou, O Lord art my protector, my glory, and the lifter up of my head.

The one God repels many enemies...

This verse is an emphatic contradiction of the previous verse (many say to me, God will not help him), as Pope Benedict XVI's commentary makes clear

"Thus in our Psalm the person praying is called to respond with faith to the attacks of the wicked: his foes — as I said — deny that God can help him; yet he invokes God, he calls him by name, “Lord”, and then turns to him with an emphatic “thou/you” that expresses a solid, sturdy relationship and implies the certainty of the divine response: “But you, O Lord are a shield about me, my glory, and the lifter of my head. I cry aloud to the Lord, and he answers me from his holy hill” (vv. 4-5). The vision of the enemies then disappears, they have not triumphed because the one who believes in God is sure that God is his friend. Only the “thou/you” of God is left. Now only One opposes the “many”, but this One is far greater, far more powerful, than many adversaries. The Lord is help, defence and salvation; as a shield he protects the person who entrusts himself to him and enables him to lift his head in the gesture of triumph and victory."

Phrase by phrase

Now let's take a look at the Latin phrase by phrase:

Tu (you) autem (but) Domine (O Lord) = But you O Lord

suscéptor (protector/defender/helper) meus (my) es (you are) = you are my protector

It is worth noting that the Masoretic Hebrew Text here, which the Neo-Vulgate uses as its basis (and the English version of Pope Benedict's talk quotes using the RSV translation), is rather more vivid and anthropomorphic than the Vulgate, suggesting that 'God is a shield about me'.

glória (the glory) mea (my)= my glory

This could perhaps be expanded out as ‘the one I glory in’.

et (and) exáltans (lifting up) =and lifting up

caput (head) meum (my) =my head

‘exaltare caput’, while literally meaning lifting up my head really means to give confidence.

Reflection on the verse

St Augustine comments on this verse in the City of God (Bk I, ch 28), putting it in the context of the choice we must all make for or against God:

"Accordingly, two cities have been formed by two loves: the earthly by the love of self, even to the contempt of God; the heavenly by the love of God, even to the contempt of self. The former, in a word, glories in itself, the latter in the Lord. For the one seeks glory from men; but the greatest glory of the other is God, the witness of conscience. The one lifts up its head in its own glory; the other says to its God, “Thou art my glory, and the lifter up of mine head.” In the one, the princes and the nations it subdues are ruled by the love of ruling; in the other, the princes and the subjects serve one another in love, the latter obeying, while the former take thought for all. The one delights in its own strength, represented in the persons of its rulers; the other says to its God, “I will love Thee, O Lord, my strength.”

Vocabulary list

Here's the word list for the verse:

tu- you
autem – but
dominus i m – Lord
susceptor, oris, m. a protector, helper, defender, guardian; a stay, support
meus mea meum – my, mine
gloria, ae, glory, honor, majesty
et - and
exsulto, avi, atum, are to spring, leap, or jump up; to exult, to rejoice exceedingly
caput, itis, n. the head, caput exaltare, to lift up the head of another is to honor or exalt him

For the next part in this series, go here.

Psalm 3 - Multi dicunt (v2)

Yesterday I looked briefly at verse 1 of Psalm 3:

Dómine quid multiplicáti sunt qui tríbulant me? * multi insúrgunt advérsum me.

I want to continue today the examination of Psalm 3, with a look at verse 2:

Multi dicunt ánimæ meæ: * Non est salus ipsi in Deo ejus.

Psalm 3: David as a type of Christ

First a reminder of the overall focus of the psalm, from St Alphonsus Liguori:

"This psalm has for its title: David flying before his son Absalom. It was therefore to David fleeing from the persecutions of the unfortunate Absalom that is commonly applied the literal sense of this psalm. But in the mystical sense, according to St. Jerome, St. Augustine, Bede, Theodoret, and others, David here represents Jesus Christ considered in his Passion and in his resurrection. We would here once more remark on the subject of the enemies from whom the royal prophet endured persecution, that all the psalms when they speak literally are to be understood mystically of all the internal and external enemies, especially of our most powerful and most dangerous enemies, I mean the devils who are plotting against our eternal salvation."

Verse 2

The Vulgate is: “Multi dicunt ánimæ meæ: non est salus ipsi in Deo ejus."

The Douay-Rheims translates this as ‘Many say (multi dicunt) to/in reference to my soul (animae meae): There is no (non est) salvation (salus) for him (ipsi) in his God (in Deo ejus)’.  

The Coverdale translation (from the Hebrew Masoretic Text) makes it: "Many one there be that say of my soul, There is no help for him in his God."

In sum, the psalmist’s friends and enemies are all saying that God has abandoned him. 

Perseverance in faith

Pope Benedict comments on the verse:

"The Psalm opens with an invocation to the Lord: A multitude threatens him and rises against him, generating fear that magnifies the threat, making it appear greater and even more terrifying; but the praying person does not let this vision of death prevail, he keeps intact his relationship with the God of life and turns to him first in search of help.  However his enemies attempt to break this bond with God and to injure their victim's faith. They insinuate that the Lord cannot intervene, they say that not even God can save him. Hence the attack is not only physical but involves the spiritual dimension too: “there is no help for him in God”, they say, targeting the central principle of the Psalmist's mind.  This is the extreme temptation to which the believer is subjected, the temptation to lose faith, to lose trust in God’s closeness. The righteous pass the final test, remain steadfast in faith, in the certainty of the truth and in full trust in God; in this way they find life and truth. It seems to me that here the Psalm touches us very personally: beset by many problems we are tempted to think that perhaps God does not save me, that he does not know me, perhaps he is not able to; the temptation to lose faith is our enemy's ultimate attack and if we are to find God, if we are to find life, we must resist it."

Vocab list

multus, a, um, much; many, numerous; much, great.
dico, dixi, dictum, ere 3, to say, speak; to sing; in the sense of to think, plan, desire; to praise.
anima, ae,  Equivalent to a personal pronoun: Untranslated:. Life, soul, and heart
meus a um – my mine
non – not
est – he/she/it/there is
salus, utis, /. help, deliverance, safety, salvation.
ipse ipsa ipsum – him, her -self,
in+abl=in, on,by means of, with
deus god
ejus – from is ea id, he, she ,it, that

And now, on to the next verse...

Psalm 3: Domine quid multiplicati sunt (verse 1)

King David in prayer
Pieter Fransz. de Grebber (1600–1652)

I am looking in this series, at how to gain a greater understanding of Psalm 3, including the Latin of it, following the Holy Father's catechesis on the psalms as the prayerbook of the Church  For a general introduction to Psalm 3, see the previous post.

Psalm 3 overview

Here is the whole text and translation of Psalm 3 again, with the verse we will look at in more detail in this post highlighted:

1.  Psalmus David, cum fugeret a facie Absalom filii sui.
The psalm of David when he fled from the face of his son Absalom.
2. Dómine quid multiplicáti sunt qui tríbulant me? * multi insúrgunt advérsum me.
Why, O Lord, are they multiplied that afflict me? many are they who rise up against me.
3. Multi dicunt ánimæ meæ: * Non est salus ipsi in Deo ejus.
Many say to my soul: There is no salvation for him in his God.
4. Tu autem, Dómine, suscéptor meus es, * glória mea, et exáltans caput meum.
But thou, O Lord art my protector, my glory, and the lifter up of my head.
5. Voce mea ad Dóminum clamávi: * et exaudívit me de monte sancto suo.
I have cried to the Lord with my voice: and he hath heard me from his holy hill.
6. Ego dormívi, et soporátus sum: * et exsurréxi, quia Dóminus suscépit me.
I have slept and taken my rest: and I have risen up, because the Lord hath protected me
7. Non timébo míllia pópuli circumdántis me: * exsúrge, Dómine, salvum me fac, Deus meus.
I will not fear thousands of the people, surrounding me: arise, O Lord; save me, O my God.
8. Quóniam tu percussísti omnes adversántes mihi sine causa: * dentes peccatórum contrivísti.
For thou hast struck all them who are my adversaries without cause: thou hast broken the teeth of sinners.
9. Dómini est salus: * et super pópulum tuum benedíctio tua.
Salvation is of the Lord: and thy blessing is upon thy people.

By way of a refresher on the general thrust of the psalm, St Athanasius says of this psalm:

"If you are persecuted by your own family and opposed by many, say Psalm 3… hearing how God helps those who hope and trust in Him, the listener too rejoices and begins to render thanks, as though that gracious help already were his own. Psalm 3, to take another instance, a man will sing, bearing his own afflictions in his mind (Letter on psalms)"

Verse 1

The first verse of the psalm as it is said in the Office (ie skipping the title) is:

Dómine quid multiplicáti sunt qui tríbulant me? multi insúrgunt advérsum me.

If you are using this series to learn to say the Office in Latin, the first thing to do is listen to the recording of this verse several times (see the links in the previous post), or use the crib notes on how to pronounce ecclesiastical Latin, until you can say it reasonably fluently.  Then trying singing it (as slowly as you like) on one note.

The translation that appears in many breviaries, from Coverdale, of this verse is: "Lord how are they increased that trouble me! Many are they that rise against me."  The rather more literal version of the Latin from the Douay-Rheims is: "Why, O Lord, are they multiplied that afflict me? many are they who rise up against me."

Phrase by phrase

Let's take a look at it phrase by phrase:

Dómine= O Lord

quid (why) multiplicáti sunt (they are multiplied/they have been multiplied) = why are they multiplied. 

This is an attempt to render a Hebrew idiom.  The sense, then, is of someone hard pressed by an ever increasing number of enemies, reflected in the Revised Standard Version translation as: ‘O LORD, how many are my foes! Many are rising against me’.  An even more idiomatic modern translation might be something like, Lord, why do I do so many enemies keep appearing? 

multi (many) insúrgunt (they rise) advérsum me (against me) =many rise up against/attack me

Pope Benedict comments on this verse and the next that:

"The idea of “multitude” is conveyed with the triple use of “many” — three words that in the original text are different terms with the same Hebrew root so as to give further emphasis to the enormity of the danger — in a repetitive manner, as it were, hammering it in. This insistence on the large number of his enemies serves to express the Psalmist’s perception of the absolute disproportion between him and his persecutors, which justifies and establishes the urgency of his plea for help; his oppressors are numerous, they get the upper hand, whereas the man praying is alone and defenceless, at the mercy of his assailants. Yet the first word the Psalmist says is “Lord”; his cry opens with a call to God."

For reflection

St Robert Bellarmine comments...

"David, addressing himself in prayer to God, complains of and wonders at the number of his enemies…Such was the case with Christ, especially in his passion, for then his son, that is his people, rebelled against him, crying out: “we have no king but Caesar,” and he, like a sick man and a fugitive, was obliged to fly from them through his death; but speedily returned through his Resurrection…"

Word by word

For those wanting to get down and learn some or all of the Latin vocabulary used in this psalm, here is a word list for the verse:

dominus, i, m. a master, lord, ruler
quis, quid, interrog, pron., who? which? what? why? wherefore?
multiplico, avi, atum, are to multiply, increase.
qui, quae, quod, pron. rel., who, which, what, that,
tribulo, avi, atum, are to press, oppress, afflict, harass.
multus, a, um, much; many, numerous; much, great.
insurgo, surrexi, surrectum, ere 3 (in and surgo), to rise up against, revolt against;
adversus prep, with acc against, in the presence of, over against, before.
me me (personal pronoun)

You can find the notes on verse 2 here.

Strategies for learning the Latin of the Office...

Continuing on from my previous post on saying the Office in Latin, today I want to suggest some learning strategies for those who wish to say the Office in Latin. 

1.  Immersion is best: say or sing as much as possible in Latin

You pick up patterns and seeing and hearing them over and over again, so its best to start from the beginning trying to say or sing however much of the Office you say in Latin.   As you along, you will understand more and more, gradually penetrating into the meaning of the text.

So in order to get started, take a look at a pronunciation guide (and there are many others around the net).  And listen to a few recordings of key prayers or Scripture selections - for example from this useful collection.

2.  Say or sing out the psalms out loud

It is much easier to memorize things if you say them and hear them said out loud. 

There are a couple of sites with useful audio files of the Vulgate psalms read in Latin, the ones I know about being:

• Voce alta; and
• Boston Catholic

Once you've got a sense of how they should sound though, hear them sung at pace (and join in), for example through the recordings of the Benedictine hours of Lauds and Vespers (and occasionally Compline) made available by the monks of Norcia.

Similarly, when you are trying to learn individual words, say them out loud.

3.  Start with the general sense, then dig down

The best way to learn the psalms is to start with a general sense of what they are about, then look at the verse by verse translation, then the phrase by phrase, then the word by word.  Start, in other words, at the general level, and gradually dig deeper.

To help on this, I'll generally provide a short summary of what each psalm is about, then some general introductory material on it, and then more detailed notes.

4.  Repetition is crucial

I've seen some material on learning languages that suggests you need to see a word in a context that gives it a meaning (ie accompanied by a definition or other cue) around 72 times in order to lodge it permanently in the memory.

Some suggested tactics to help achieve that:

• try to learn the psalm verses, together with a sense of what they mean, by heart - at least so you can keep it in mind for a day, repeating it over to yourself;
• write it out verse by verse, phrase by phrase, or word by word on flashcards, one side Latin the other English;
• keep referring the verse or phrase back to the whole, and back to the summary of what the psalm is about;
• go back and refresh your memory on the verse the next day and at regular intervals until you are sure it is firmly lodged in your brain!

5.  Get an overview of how Latin grammar works

You don't need to start by learning Latin properly. 

The notes I plan to provide will give you a phrase by phrase literal translation which you can use to compare to the official translations and pick it up that way.

But you will pick up the language a lot faster if you have a general sense of how Latin works.  The key here is to know that while in English word order does a lot of the work of conveying different meanings, in Latin word order is mostly about emphasis: what changes the meaning is the endings of the words.

A very useful, basic introduction to Ecclesiastical Latin is the excellent Simplicissimus course, targeted specifically at the Latin of the Office and Mass.  Read through it first, and then go and back and work through it more carefully at your leisure! 

If you have a good grasp of traditional grammar, you might find one of the online parsing tools available to help work your way through the text.

Another excellent tool to decipher individual words is the Perseus Latin Word Tool.

Resources

I've put up a number of link to Latin resources and psalm commentaries in the right sidebar, so do take a look at them.  Study of the commentaries by the Fathers and Theologians is particularly important, in my view, in order to gain a proper understanding the text of the psalms.

I want to acknowledge though that my own notes also draw heavily on Dom Matthew Britt's Dictionary of the Psalter which can be downloaded for free - it is rather weighted towards the Masoretic Text version of the psalter, but is still a very comprehensive and helpful resource. 

Another older commentary I've used extensively is the two volume commentary by Msgr Patrick Boylan. 

Other more recent useful aids include David Ladouceur's The Latin Psalter, Introduction, Selected Text and Commentary (only does a few psalms, and similarly biased against the validity of the Septuagint text, but useful grammar notes) and Hugh Ballantyne's the Psalms and Canticles of the Divine Office Latin Text Edited with Vocabulary and Notes (but you have to start at Psalm 1 and work through in order, learning the vocab off by heart, as he doesn't include repetitions or a complete alphabetical listing of words). 

More soon...

Learning the Latin psalms of the Office; penetrating the meaning of the psalms

I want to start an intermittent series aimed firstly at those wishing to pray the Office in Latin, but whose Latin is non-existent or very rusty, but also providing some more general material on individual psalms to increase our understanding of them. 

The main focus of the series is understanding the Latin of the psalms in the context of the interpretations of them by the Fathers and Theologians.

And in doing so, I want to take as my starting point some of the General Audiences on prayer being given by Pope Benedict XVI at the moment.  So I do hope it will offer something for those whose Latin is fairly good, but want to dig a little deeper into the texts of the psalms.

First some explanation.

Why pray the Office in Latin?

Latin is the official liturgical language of the Church, and praying the Office in Latin offers a number of advantages: the ability to join in solidarity with those who have used this same language down the centuries; to use the traditional chants of the Office as well as the rich patrimony of polyphonic settings; and to share in the beauty of the Church's tradition.

More importantly perhaps, it is essential for those who wish to pray the older forms (ie 1962 rubrics) of the Office liturgically, since the Pope has only given permission for it to be said in that language (though that does not of course prevent the older form of the Office being said devotionally in English or another language by those who are not bound to say it).

Unfortunately Latin is little taught today, so saying the Office in that language presents some challenges to most people!

Do we need to understand the Latin to be able to pray in Latin?

Some people will object that it inappropriate to pray in a language such as Latin unless we actually understand what we are saying. 

I beg to differ!

In fact, St Thomas Aquinas addressed the important question of what is necessary in order to pray 'in spirit and in truth' and gain the merits that come from prayer in his Summa.  He argued (ST II-II 183 art 13) that there are three kinds of attention in prayer:

"It must be observed, however, that there are three kinds of attention that can be brought to vocal prayer: one which attends to the words, lest we say them wrong, another which attends to the sense of the words, and a third, which attends to the end of prayer, namely, God, and to the thing we are praying for. That last kind of attention is most necessary, and even idiots are capable of it. Moreover this attention, whereby the mind is fixed on God, is sometimes so strong that the mind forgets all other things, as Hugh of St. Victor states [De Modo Orandi ii]."

Immersion is the best approach...

So the problem is not really a new one!  While some religious and laypeople down the ages have enjoyed formal teaching in Latin from their childhood, many more have picked it up by immersion, from hearing and saying it themselves over and over.

People down the ages have gradually acquired some Latin by saying it and hearing it.  So I would encourage you to try and say the Office in Latin even if you don't actually understand Latin, because after a while, I think you will find you are understanding it, and in the meantime, you can still gain the benefits of prayer (and liturgical prayer its highest form) through proper attention on God. 

And of course that process of gaining understanding can be accelerated by some carefully targeted supplementary study.

I've previously provided some suggestions for tackling the Latin of the Office over at my Saints Will Arise blog.  I want to go somewhat further here, and provide some psalm by psalm/verse by verse notes to help those wanting to say the Office in Latin, and to gradually build a better understanding of just what it is they are saying.

There are two main groups of people I'm aiming my notes at - those who have no Latin at all, but want to gradually acquire an understanding of what they are saying, and those with some Latin, but which is mostly forgotten or at an early stage of being learnt, or who may have learnt classical Latin, and so aren't familiar with the vocabulary of the psalter.

Let me start with a disclaimer - I'm not a qualified teacher nor to I claim to be a great Latinist.  I'm just a student of languages who is still learning.  But I'm keen to share what I have learnt, and to learn from others' struggles with the same issues.  I do hope those more expert will jump in and correct anything I've got wrong, and others will jump in to seek clarification on anything unclear.

The notes

The notes I plan to provide (and their continuation will depend on the level of interest and reactions!) will basically consist of some generally introductory material for each psalm, and then look at a verse each day or so in more detail.

I'm proposing that the verse by verse notes include a phrase by phrase fairly literal translation of the Latin vulgate; vocabularly lists; brief notes on the text (differences between the Greek Septuagint/Vulgate and Hebrew Masoretic Text, imagery used, cultural context etc); and for comparative purposes, some standard translations (such as the updated Douay-Rheims, etc).  I'll also include a short extract from a patristic commentary or other material to aid the interpretation of the verse.  But please do let me know if there is something else or something different you would like included.

And since Pope Benedict XVI is currently giving a series of General Audiences on the psalms and their teaching on prayer, I thought I might start with the two of the psalms he has given Audiences on.

The first psalm the Pope has looked at in this current series is Psalm 3, so I propose to start there.  But before I do that, I'll put up a few notes over the next few days on strategies for learning the Latin of the psalms to help get you going.

Comments and suggestions welcome...