Psalm 118 (Aleph) - Sunday Prime

Don Silvestro dei Gherarducci - Gradual from Santa Maria degli Angeli
 - folio 80 -  (Abegg-Stiftung)

Psalm 118 - Aleph

Vulgate	Douay-Rheims
Alleluia	Alleluia
Beati immaculati in via, qui ambulant in lege Domini.	Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the Lord.
2 Beati qui scrutantur testimonia ejus; in toto corde exquirunt eum.	Blessed are they that search his testimonies: that seek him with their whole heart.
3 Non enim qui operantur iniquitatem in viis ejus ambulaverunt.	For they that work iniquity, have not walked in his ways.
4 Tu mandasti mandata tua custodiri nimis.	You have commanded your commandments to be kept most diligently.
5 Utinam dirigantur viæ meæ ad custodiendas justificationes tuas.	O! That my ways may be directed to keep your justifications.
6 Tunc non confundar, cum perspexero in omnibus mandatis tuis.	Then shall I not be confounded, when I shall look into all your commandments.
7 Confitebor tibi in directione cordis, in eo quod didici judicia justitiæ tuæ.	I will praise you with uprightness of heart, when I shall have learned the judgments of your justice.
8 Justificationes tuas custodiam; non me derelinquas usquequaque.	I will keep your justifications: O! Do not utterly forsake me.

The first 'psalm' of Sunday Prime in the Benedictine Office is the first of the 22 stanzas, one for each letter of the Hebrew alphabet, of Psalm 118, the longest psalm in the Bible.  You can hear it read aloud here.

Christianity is above all, a philosophy of life, aimed at the achievement of happiness both now and for all eternity, and here the psalmist tells us that meditation on God’s law (thought of broadest sense) is the key to that happiness. These verses stress that the path to happiness lies in following God’s law. But it is not enough, they tell us, to simply think that we are doing the right thing; rather we are charged to actively seek out God's testimonies.

The opening verses of Psalm 118 really just recapitulate the ideas of verses 1-2 of Psalm 1, said on Monday at Prime, which point to the importance of meditation on God’s law as the path to happiness.

Psalm 1 says:

Beátus vir, qui non ábiit in consílio impiórum, et in via peccatórum non stetit,et in cáthedra pestiléntiæ non sedit. Sed in lege Dómini volúntas ejus, et in lege ejus meditábitur die ac nocte. 

“Blessed is the man who has not walked in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stood in the way of sinners, nor sat in the chair of pestilence: But his will is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he shall meditate day and night”

Psalm 118 says:

Beati immaculati in via, qui ambulant in lege Domini. Beati qui scrutantur testimonia ejus; in toto corde exquirunt eum. 

“Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the Lord. Blessed are they that search his testimonies: that seek him with their whole heart.”

The main difference between the two is that Psalm 1 talks of one man, Christ, appropriate to a Monday Office which St Benedict has, I think, shaped to focus on the Incarnation.  By contrast on Sunday we celebrate the Resurrection which opens up the way to heaven to the many, hence St Benedict perhaps thought the focus on the happiness of the blessed in the plural, particularly appropriate.

The Knox translation attempts to replicate the acrostic flavour of the original so is worth looking at:

Ah, blessed they, who pass through life’s journey unstained, who follow the law of the Lord!
Ah, blessed they, who cherish his decrees, make him the whole quest of their hearts!
Afar from wrong-doing, thy sure paths they tread.
Above all else it binds us, the charge thou hast given us to keep.
Ah, how shall my steps be surely guided to keep faith with thy covenant?
Attentive to all thy commandments, I go my way undismayed.
A true heart’s worship thou shalt have, thy just awards prompting me.
All shall be done thy laws demand, so thou wilt not forsake me utterly.

Scriptural and liturgical uses of the psalm

NT references	Mt 5:3 (v2)
RB cursus	Sunday Prime
Monastic feasts etc	-
Roman pre 1911	Prime daily
Responsories	-
Roman post 1911	1911-62: Sunday Prime . 1970:
Mass propers (EF)	PP17 IN (1); CO (4-5); PP 20&21 IN (1); Lent 3 Thurs CO (4-5)

And you can find more detailed notes on each verse of the psalm here.

Psalm 17 Pt 2 (SaturdayPrime) - Short summaries

David and Goliath, Paris Psalter

Psalm 17/2: Cum sancto sanctus eris 

Vulgate	Douay-Rheims
1 Cum sancto sanctus eris, * et cum viro innocénte ínnocens eris	With the holy you will be holy; and with the innocent man you will be innocent:
2 Et cum elécto eléctus eris: * et cum pervérso pervertéris.	And with the elect you will be elect: and with the perverse you will be perverted.
3 Quóniam tu pópulum húmilem salvum fácies: * et óculos superbórum humiliábis.	For you will save the humble people; but will bring down the eyes of the proud.
4 Quóniam tu illúminas lucérnam meam, Dómine: * Deus meus, illúmina ténebras meas.	For you light my lamp, O Lord: O my God, enlighten my darkness.
5  Quóniam in te erípiar a tentatióne, * et in Deo meo transgrédiar murum.	For by you I shall be delivered from temptation; and through my God I shall go over a wall.
6  Deus meus, impollúta via ejus: elóquia Dómini igne examináta: * protéctor est ómnium sperántium in se.	As for my God, his way is undefiled: the words of the Lord are fire-tried: he is the protector of all that trust in him.
7  Quóniam quis Deus præter Dóminum? * aut quis Deus præter Deum nostrum?	For who is God but the Lord? Or who is God but our God?
8  Deus, qui præcínxit me virtúte: * et pósuit immaculátam viam meam	God, who has girt me with strength; and made my way blameless.
9  Qui perfécit pedes meos tamquam cervórum, * et super excélsa státuens me	Who has made my feet like the feet of harts: and who sets me upon high places.
10 Qui docet manus meas ad prælium: * et posuísti, ut arcum æreum, bráchia mea.	Who teaches my hands to war: and you have made my arms like a brazen bow.
11  Et dedísti mihi protectiónem salútis tuæ: * et déxtera tua suscépit me:	And you have given me the protection of your salvation: and your right hand has held me up:
12  Et disciplína tua corréxit me in finem: * et disciplína tua ipsa me docébit	And your discipline has corrected me unto the end: and your discipline, the same shall teach me.
13  Dilatásti gressus meos subtus me: * et non sunt infirmáta vestígia mea:	You have enlarged my steps under me; and my feet are not weakened.
14  Pérsequar inimícos meos et comprehéndam illos: * et non convértar, donec defíciant.	I will pursue after my enemies, and overtake them: and I will not turn again till they are consumed.
15  Confríngam illos, nec póterunt stare: * cadent subtus pedes meos.	I will break them, and they shall not be able to stand: they shall fall under my feet.
16  Et præcinxísti me virtúte ad bellum: * supplantásti insurgéntes in me subtus me.	And you have girded me with strength unto battle; and have subdued under me them that rose up against me.
17  Et inimícos meos dedísti mihi dorsum, * et odiéntes me disperdidísti.	And you have made my enemies turn their back upon me, and have destroyed them that hated me.
18  Clamavérunt, nec erat qui salvos fáceret ad Dóminum: * nec exaudívit eos.	They cried, but there was none to save them, to the Lord: but he heard them not.
19  Et commínuam illos, ut púlverem ante fáciem venti: * ut lutum plateárum delébo eos.	And I shall beat them as small as the dust before the wind; I shall bring them to nought, like the dirt in the streets.
20  Eripies me de contradictiónibus pópuli: * constítues me in caput géntium.	You will deliver me from the contradictions of the people; you will make me head of the Gentiles.
21  Pópulus quem non cognóvi servívit mihi: * in audítu auris obedívit mihi.	A people which I knew not, has served me: at the hearing of the ear they have obeyed me.
22  Fílii aliéni mentíti sunt mihi, * fílii aliéni inveteráti sunt, et claudicavérunt a sémitis suis.	The children that are strangers have lied to me, strange children have faded away, and have halted from their paths.
23 Vivit Dóminus, et benedíctus Deus meus: * et exaltétur Deus salútis meæ.	The Lord lives, and blessed by my God, and let the God of my salvation be exalted.
24  Deus, qui das vindíctas mihi, et subdis pópulos sub me: * liberátor meus de inimícis meis iracúndis.	O God, who avenges me, and subdues the people under me, my deliverer from my enraged enemies.
25  Et ab insurgéntibus in me exaltábis me: * a viro iníquo erípies me.	And you will lift me up above them that rise up against me: from the unjust man you will deliver me.
26  Proptérea confitébor tibi in natiónibus, Dómine: * et nómini tuo psalmum dicam	Therefore will I give glory to you, O Lord, among the nations, and I will sing a psalm to your name.
27 Magníficans salútes Regis ejus, et fáciens misericórdiam Christo suo David: * et sémini ejus usque in sæculum.	Giving great deliverance to his king, and showing mercy to David, his anointed: and to his seed for ever.

The first half of Psalm 17 was assigned to Friday by St Benedict as it is very much a psalm of Good Friday, hence its division in the Benedictine Office – it can be read as describing the events from Christ’s trial to the earthquake at his death and descent into hell.  This second section, though, leads us forward to this key verse: The Lord lives! 

Psalm 17 also appears in 2 Samuel 22, with the lead in “And David spoke to the Lord the words of this song on the day when the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies, and from the hand of Saul. He said…”   but as the Navarre bible notes:

“The perspective of this psalm changes in the New Testament in the light of how Christ achieved his glory, as king of nations, by obediently doing his Father’s will, and of how nations come to acknowledge him through the preaching for the Gospel.” (Commentary on the Psalms, pp 79)

This section of the psalm starts with a discussion (verses 1-5) of the way God acts towards us: he is faithful to his word, and protects those who fear him, but to those who oppose him, he seems otherwise.  Much of the psalm chronicles David’s successes, all of which he attributes to God, and can be read as applying to Christ, but also to our own progress: in Psalm 2 on Monday we learnt that Christ teaches discipline; here we have learnt it (v12); grace has made our progress possible, 'enlarged our steps'.  The final verses point to the applicability of all this to Our Lord: as the Navarre commentary points out, Christ achieved his glory as king of nations by obediently doing his Father’s will; now the nations come to acknowledge him through the preaching of the Gospel.

You can hear (all of) Psalm 17 read aloud here.

Short summaries:

St Thomas Aquinas:

In the second part he shows the power of the one who liberates, where he writes, and it was moved. In the third part, he shows the mode of liberation, where he writes, he sent from the high place etc.., the emotion of love and the emotion of hope. fortitude. 

St Alphonsus Liguori:

David gives thanks to God for having delivered him from the hands of his enemies, and especially from the hands of Saul. This psalm is applicable to the Christian soul that sees itself delivered, with God s help, from every grave persecution or every temptation of the devil.

Fr Pasch:

David's hymn of thanks and victory: At the end of his life, David sings this Psalm as a sort of swan song, one of the most beautiful compositions in the Psalter.  He looks back over the battles of his life and his final victory over all his enemies―a note of courage for the coming conflicts of the week. God's Kingdom, too, must battle in Church and soul―but under God's sure guidance, it will be victorious.  Note particularly the magnificent description of God's apparition, in the figure of a thunder storm.

Scriptural and liturgical uses of the psalm

NT references	Rev 2:26-28 (v2-21); Rom 15:9 (v26)
RB cursus	Saturday Prime
Monastic/(Roman) feasts etc	-
Roman pre 1911	Sunday Matins
Roman post 1911	1911-62: Monday Matins . 1970:
Mass propers (EF)	Lent 4 Friday OF (3,7), Passion Wed IN (24-25), Passion Sunday GR (24-25); PP8 OF (3,7)