Psalm 117 - Christ and the day

Ancient of days icon: see Daniel 7:13-14

 Psalm 117: Sunday Lauds

Vulgate	Douay-Rheims
Alleluja.	Alleluia.
Confitémini Dómino quóniam bonus: * quóniam in sæculum misericórdia ejus.	Give praise to the Lord, for he is good: for his mercy endures for ever.
2  Dicat nunc Israël quóniam bonus: * quóniam in sæculum misericórdia ejus.	2 Let Israel now say, that he is good: that his mercy endures for ever.
3  Dicat nunc domus Aaron: * quóniam in sæculum misericórdia ejus.	3 Let the house of Aaron now say, that his mercy endures for ever.
4  Dicant nunc qui timent Dóminum: * quóniam in sæculum misericórdia ejus.	4 Let them that fear the Lord now say, that his mercy endures for ever.
5  De tribulatióne invocávi Dóminum: * et exaudívit me in latitúdine Dóminus.	5 In my trouble I called upon the Lord: and the Lord heard me, and enlarged me.
6  Dóminus mihi adjútor: * non timébo quid fáciat mihi homo.	6 The Lord is my helper: I will not fear what man can do unto me.
7  Dóminus mihi adjútor: * et ego despíciam inimícos meos.	7 The Lord is my helper: and I will look over my enemies.
8  Bonum est confídere in Dómino: * quam confídere in hómine.	8 It is good to confide in the Lord, rather than to have confidence in man.
9  Bonum est speráre in Dómino: * quam speráre in princípibus.	9 It is good to trust in the Lord, rather than to trust in princes.
10  Omnes Gentes circuiérunt me: * et in nómine Dómini quia ultus sum in eos.	10 All nations compassed me about; and, in the name of the Lord I have been revenged on them.
11  Circumdántes circumdedérunt me: * et in nómine Dómini quia ultus sum in eos.	11 Surrounding me they compassed me about: and in the name of the Lord I have been revenged on them.
12  Circumdedérunt me sicut apes, et exarsérunt sicut ignis in spinis: * et in nómine Dómini quia ultus sum in eos.	12 They surrounded me like bees, and they burned like fire among thorns: and in the name of the Lord I was revenged on them.
13  Impúlsus evérsus sum ut cáderem: * et Dóminus suscépit me.	13 Being pushed I was overturned that I might fall: but the Lord supported me.
14  Fortitúdo mea, et laus mea Dóminus: * et factus est mihi in salútem.	14 The Lord is my strength and my praise: and he has become my salvation.
15  Vox exsultatiónis, et salútis: * in tabernáculis justórum.	15 The voice of rejoicing and of salvation is in the tabernacles of the just.
16  Déxtera Dómini fecit virtútem: déxtera Dómini exaltávit me, * déxtera Dómini fecit virtútem.	16 The right hand of the Lord has wrought strength: the right hand of the Lord has exalted me: the right hand of the Lord has wrought strength.
17  Non móriar, sed vivam: * et narrábo ópera Dómini.	17 I shall not die, but live: and shall declare the works of the Lord.
18  Castígans castigávit me Dóminus: * et morti non trádidit me.	18 The Lord chastising has chastised me: but he has not delivered me over to death.
19  Aperíte mihi portas justítiæ, ingréssus in eas confitébor Dómino: * hæc porta Dómini, justi intrábunt in eam.	19 Open to me the gates of justice: I will go in to them, and give praise to the Lord 20 This is the gate of the Lord, the just shall enter into it.
20  Confitébor tibi quóniam exaudísti me: * et factus es mihi in salútem.	21 I will give glory to you because you have heard me: and have become my salvation.
21  Lápidem, quem reprobavérunt ædificántes: * hic factus est in caput ánguli.	22 The stone which the builders rejected; the same has become the head of the corner.
22  A Dómino factum est istud: * et est mirábile in óculis nostris.	23 This is the Lord's doing, and it is wonderful in our eyes.
23  Hæc est dies, quam fecit Dóminus: * exsultémus et lætémur in ea.	24 This is the day which the Lord has made: let us be glad and rejoice therein.
24  O Dómine, salvum me fac, O Dómine, bene prosperáre: * benedíctus qui venit in nómine Dómini.	25 O Lord, save me: O Lord, give good success. 26 Blessed be he that comes in the name of the Lord.
25  Benedíximus vobis de domo Dómini: * Deus Dóminus, et illúxit nobis.	We have blessed you out of the house of the Lord. 27 The Lord is God, and he has shone upon us.
26  Constitúite diem solémnem in condénsis, * usque ad cornu altáris.	Appoint a solemn day, with shady boughs, even to the horn of the altar.
27  Deus meus es tu, et confitébor tibi: * Deus meus es tu, et exaltábo te.	28 You are my God, and I will praise you: you are my God, and I will exalt you.
28  Confitébor tibi quóniam exaudísti me: * et factus es mihi in salútem.	I will praise you, because you have heard me, and have become my salvation.
29  Confitémini Dómino quóniam bonus: * quóniam in sæculum misericórdia ejus.	29 O praise the Lord, for he is good: for his mercy endures for ever.

Psalm 117 is the last of the 'Hallel' psalms sung on major feasts in the Jewish liturgy, it contains a number of key verses that Our Lord made clear applied to him, above all verse 22.

The reasons for its use on Sunday are fairly clear cut: Fr Pius Pasch's early twentieth century breviary commentary, for example, says:

Festival hymn. In this psalm, a celebrated liturgical hymn of the ancient synagogue (also a thanksgiving hymn on the feast of Tabernacles), we sing our Easter joy occasioned by the Resurrection of our Lord and our own spiritual resurrection in him.

It has some very clear links to the traditional canticle of the day as well (which I'll go into a little more below).

In the earlier version of the Roman Office from which St Benedict may have borrowed, though, Psalm 117 was probably said at Prime rather than Lauds.  If this was the case, why did he shift it to Lauds, particularly given its lack of overt references to dawn and the morning?

Christ the true day

One possibility seems to me to be the reference to Christ as the day (latin: dies, diei) in verse 24.

Christ as the day was a favourite theme of the Fathers.  St Cyprian's instruction on prayer for example, include the following:

But for us, beloved brethren, besides the hours of prayer observed of old, both the times and the sacraments have now increased in number. For we must also pray in the morning, that the Lord's resurrection may be celebrated by morning prayer. 

And this formerly the Holy Spirit pointed out in the Psalms, saying, My King, and my God, because unto You will I cry; O Lord, in the morning shall You hear my voice; in the morning will I stand before You, and will look up to You. And again, the Lord speaks by the mouth of the prophet: Early in the morning shall they watch for me, saying, Let us go, and return unto the Lord our God... 

Moreover, the Holy Spirit in the Psalms manifests that Christ is called the day. The stone, says He, which the builders rejected, has become the head of the corner. This is the Lord's doing; and it is marvellous in our eyes. This is the day which the Lord has made; let us walk and rejoice in it. 

Also the prophet Malachi testifies that He is called the Sun, when he says, But to you that fear the name of the Lord shall the Sun of righteousness arise, and there is healing in His wings. But if in the Holy Scriptures the true sun and the true day is Christ, there is no hour excepted for Christians wherein God ought not frequently and always to be worshipped; so that we who are in Christ— that is, in the true Sun and the true Day— should be instant throughout the entire day in petitions, and should pray; and when, by the law of the world, the revolving night, recurring in its alternate changes, succeeds, there can be no harm arising from the darkness of night to those who pray, because the children of light have the day even in the night. For when is he without light who has light in his heart? Or when has not he the sun and the day, whose Sun and Day is Christ?

The references to dawn and morning light in many of the psalms of Lauds then, were not just selected for their references to morning prayer, but perhaps on the basis that they were seen by the Fathers as containing references to the Resurrection, the true day of the world.

And on this basis, one of the key themes reflected in several of the first variable psalms each day is the reference to entering heaven to praise God in verses 19-20:

Open to me the gates of justice: I will go in to them, and give praise to the Lord This is the gate of the Lord, the just shall enter into it.

As we shall see this week, all of the first variable psalms of Lauds contain similar references - it is most explicit in Psalms 5, 42 and 75.

The key themes of the psalm

Cassiodorus summarises the structure of the psalm as follows:

The faithful people are freed from the bonds of sins, and in the first section they offer a general exhortation that each of us should confess to the Lord, for they have gained a hearing in afflictions, and have proclaimed that no man whatsoever is to be held in fear. 

In the second part they say that we must have confidence in the Lord alone, through whom they know that they have escaped the enmity of the Gentiles, and have attained the remedies of a truly genuine life. 

In the third section they say that the gates of justice are to be opened; they speak there also of the Cornerstone which is Christ the Saviour. 

In the fourth, they persuade the other Christians that they must crowd the Lord's halls in shared joy and sweet delight at the coming of the holy incarnation.

Latin word study: confess and praise the Lord

This psalm has lots of litany-esq repetitions, making it easier to memorise, so let me first point out a few key words in the opening litany section

Confitemini, the opening word of this psalm is actually quite key to the themes of Lauds I think.  The word literally means let us confess, and comes from the same verb used in confession of sins, viz confiteor, fessus sum, eri.  It has both a positive connotation (to praise, give thanks) and a negative one (to confess, acknowledge one's guilt), and both are implied here and throughout this series of psalms I think.

In fact Daniel 3 (from whence the Sunday canticle, the Benedicite cometh, another reason, presumably for the shift of the psalm to Lauds) provides the phrase spelt out in exactly that way:

 [89] Confitemini Domino, quoniam bonus: quoniam in saeculum misericordia ejus. [90] Benedicite, omnes religiosi, Domino Deo deorum: laudate et confitemini ei, quia in omnia saecula misericordia ejus.

 [89] O give thanks to the Lord, because he is good: because his mercy endureth for ever and ever. [90] O all ye religious, bless the Lord the God of gods: praise him and give him thanks, because his mercy endureth for ever and ever.

In the pslams that follow, this theme is, I think expanded in this way: God confronts us with the truth (veritas, veritatis) about ourselves which we must acknowledge and ask for his mercy (misericordia -ae); those who refuse to do that will be subject to his justice (justitia).

It's the same key theme as in Psalm 129 (Tuesday Vespers):

3  Si iniquitátes observáveris, Dómine: * Dómine, quis sustinébit?	3 If you, O Lord, will mark iniquities: Lord, who shall stand it.
4  Quia apud te propitiátio est: * et propter legem tuam sustínui te, Dómine.	4 For with you there is merciful forgiveness: and by reason of your law, I have waited for you, O Lord.
7  Quia apud Dóminum misericórdia: * et copiósa apud eum redémptio.

So make that key refrain your own:

Confitémini Dómino quóniam bonus: Dicat nunc Israël (the Church) quóniam bonus:  Dicat nunc domus Aaron (the priests): Dicant nunc qui timent Dóminum (the faithful):

quóniam in sæculum misericórdia ejus.

Scriptural and liturgical uses

NT references	Rom 8:31, Heb 13:6 (v6); Lk 1:51 (v16); Rev 22:14 (v19); Jn 10:9 (v20); Mt 21:42, Acts 4:11, 1 Cor 3:11, Eph 2:20, 1Pet 2:4-7 (v21); Mt21: 9-14, 23-39 (v24)
RB cursus	Sunday Lauds
Feasts, antiphons etc	AN: 3297 (5); 1745 (5); 1809 (11); 3289, 3290, 5509 (15);3577 (v22-3); 2997 (v24); 4024 (25); 4117 (25-6); 2175(28)
Roman pre 1911	Sunday Prime
Roman post 1911	1911-62: Lauds II . 1970:
Responsories	Epiphanytide Friday v28; 6073, 6799 (v24, Haec dies)
Mass propers (EF)	Nativity Aurora GR (23, 26, 27) Lent 2 TR (v1=105) Lent 3 Tues OF (16-17); Lent 4 Friday GR (8-9); Passion I OF (17, ), Maundy Thurs OF (16-17); Easter Vigil AL (1); Easter Day GR (1, 23), Easter Mon GR (2, 24) Easter Tues IN v(1),GR (24,3) Easter Wed GR (24, 16) Easter Thurs GR (23,21,22); Easter Fri GR (23, 24-5); Easter Sat AL 23, OF 24-25; Eastertide 4 AL (16); PP14 GR (8-9). Finding holy Cross May 3: OF (5,6, 16, 17)

You can find some of my previous notes on this psalm here.

And you can find the next part in this series here.

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