Understanding the psalms: The three attentions of St Thomas Aquinas

Catacomb of the Via Latina. Jacob's Ladder,
Source: Wiki Commons

This Lent, as I've previously flagged, I plan to provide some verse by verse notes on some of the Vespers psalms for Friday and Saturday.  

Before I turn to the individual psalms themselves next week though, I want to provide first some notes on a few key topics around their interpretation, focusing on the importance of the words themselves aside from their meaning; the significance of the order of the psalter; the psalm titles; and dealing with what might be described as 'textual fluidity', or variant translations and text traditions for the psalms.

Vespers on Friday and Saturdays

The Vespers psalms of Friday and Saturday are particularly appropriate to Lent, I think, because the Benedictine Office effectively contains a mini-Triduum each week in its the psalms, with several of them traditionally understood as referring to the events of Maundy Thursday and Good Friday. 

I want to start backwards as it were, though, with the very last psalm of the week, Psalm 147, since it both sets out what it is that we are seeking to achieve, namely the enduring summer that represents true peace of heaven, but also reminds us of the need to endure the seasons of hardship that come before it.

And that strikes me as a metaphor very apt for Lent!

While some of the psalms at the earlier hours on Saturdays can certainly be interpreted as referring to the descent into hell and freeing of the souls there, or the resting in the tomb, by the time we reach Saturday Vespers, we are effectively at First Vespers of the Resurrection, as the ancient first antiphon for the hour, Thy kingdom O Lord is a kingdom for all ages' makes clear.

But as the Roman Office is used during the Triduum rather than the Benedictine, we don't sing Psalm 147 at Vespers in Holy Week (though in the post-Pius X version it is sung at Lauds), so it seems appropriate to consider it in the weeks when it is said rather than later.

Focusing on the words

Before I start the verse by verse notes, though, I thought it would be timely to make some comments on the key sources for my notes, some of the thinking behind the various components of the notes I provide, as well as suggestions on how to approach the task of learning the psalms.

So today, I want to suggest that when you are thinking about digging into a particular psalm, or learning a new hour of the Office, the first thing to do is not to worry about its meaning at all, but to focus solely on the words themselves.

And by words, I mean the Latin of the psalm, even if you have little or no Latin, and even if you plan to pray the Office in English.

Why bother to learn to pray the Office in Latin, or look at the Latin of the psalms?

I generally start my notes by focusing on the Latin translation of the psalms rather than English.

There are three main reasons I take this approach.

First, purely legalistic: for those who wish to pray the older forms (ie 1960 or earlier rubrics) of the Office liturgically, the permissions for it to be said required it to be in that language.  

That doesn't, 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, and starting in English and gradually learning is a good tactic.

There is a reason for this legal requirement though, namely, to preserve, and join in solidarity with, the patrimony of the Benedictine order and the Church in praying the Office as it has been prayed for centuries, going back to St Benedict's own time.

Most importantly though, the specific words of the Latin enable us to connect with the theological, spiritual and musical traditions of the Church.  

Saying the Office in Latin also allows us to use the traditional chants of the Office, as well as the rich patrimony of polyphonic settings; and to connect with a theological and spiritual vocabulary that forms part of the Church's tradition, and has gained meaning and developed through time in the works of the Fathers and Theologians.

If you would like to dig a bit deeper into reasons for starting from the Latin, I strongly recommend reading David Birch's book Latin Prayer Aspects of Language and Catholic Spirituality

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

I want to advocate here for studying the psalm in Latin, even if you plan to pray it in English.

But I'd also like to suggest at least trying to pray it 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]."

In St Benedict's time, Latin was (more or less) still the vernacular for most monks and nuns, but for most of the Church's history down the centuries monks, nuns and the laity encountered Latin as a second language, the language of the Church.

And they typically learnt to pronounce the words first, and only learnt their meanings later.

Learning how to pronounce the psalms

In the light of all this, the first step in learning a psalm is learning how to pronounce it using Ecclesiastical Latin pronunciation (warning: if you learnt Latin at school or University, you were probably taught 'classical' pronunciation', a reconstruction of an earlier stage of Latin than that used in the Vulgate or by the Fathers, and which is significantly different).

There are a number of excellent summary guides to Ecclesiastical Latin pronunciation available online, and you can find a good selection of them here.

You can also find youtube videos of the psalms read aloud.

In the context of the Office though, I think the best approach is to hear them sung in the context of the Office.  A number of monasteries do livestreams and/or make recordings available of some or most of their Offices,

I recommend listening to each psalm over and over, ideally repeating line by line, until you can clearly hear, and then reproduce the Latin.

An excellent tool for this purpose is the Neumz ap, as it actually shows you which part of the chant is being sung, the only problem being that it is currently keyed to the Novus Ordo calendar rather than the 1960 one so won't always align. An alternative is to use the archives of the chants of Le Barroux website or their podcasts.

Memorize?

It is also worth considering trying to memorize the psalms.

Today both books and electronic versions of the Office are readily available.

And some people are much better at this than others (I will admit that I, personally, am absolutely hopeless at memorization).

Even so, for centuries the Office was sung entirely from memory, and this has numerous advantages.  

It means you can say the Office anywhere, anytime, without needing to be obvious about it.  

You can sing Compline and Tenebrae during the Triduum without straining your eyes in the darkness!

It helps you more easily make connections between different psalms and Scripture more generally.  

And it provides rich fodder for meditation.

Indeed, one of the most common monastic practices in the early church was the constant recitation of the psalter outside of the Office in its numerical order each day while undertaking other tasks.

So this Lent, consider setting out to memorize a few psalms!

Psalm 147

Just in case you want to get started immediately, here is the text of Psalm 147 (with a translation alongside), by way of a teaser.

Psalm 147 – Lauda Jerusalem 

Vulgate	Douay-Rheims
Lauda, Jerúsalem, Dóminum: * lauda Deum tuum, Sion.	Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem: praise your God, O Sion.
2  Quóniam confortávit seras portárum tuárum: * benedíxit fíliis tuis in te.	Because he has strengthened the bolts of your gates, he has blessed your children within you
3  Qui pósuit fines tuos pacem: * et ádipe fruménti sátiat te.	Who has placed peace in your borders: and fills you with the fat of corn.
4  Qui emíttit elóquium suum terræ: * velóciter currit sermo ejus.	Who sends forth his speech to the earth: his word runs swiftly.
5  Qui dat nivem sicut lanam: * nébulam sicut cínerem spargit.	Who gives snow like wool: scatters mists like ashes.
6  Mittit crystállum suam sicut buccéllas: * ante fáciem frígoris ejus quis sustinébit?	He sends his crystal like morsels: who shall stand before the face of his cold?
7  Emíttet verbum suum, et liquefáciet ea: * flabit spíritus ejus, et fluent aquæ.	He shall send out his word, and shall melt them: his wind shall blow, and the waters shall run.
8  Qui annúntiat verbum suum Jacob: * justítias, et judícia sua Israël.	Who declares his word to Jacob: his justices and his judgments to Israel
9  Non fecit táliter omni natióni: * et judícia sua non manifestávit eis.	He has not done in like manner to every nation: and his judgments he has not made manifest to them. Alleluia.

You can hear it read aloud here.

You can find the next part in this series here.