Psalm 13 (Prime No 2, Thursday) - Overview** updated

BL Harley 1892, British Library

Psalm 13 is almost identical to Psalm 52, so by learning this one, you get two for the price of one.

The text of the psalm

Psalm 13 (14) - Dixit insípiens in corde suo  

Vulgate	Douay-Rheims
In finem. Psalmus David.	Unto the end, a psalm for David.
Dixit insípiens in corde suo: * Non est Deus.	The fool has said in his heart: There is no God.
2  Corrúpti sunt, et abominábiles facti sunt in stúdiis suis: * non est qui fáciat bonum, non est usque ad unum.	They are corrupt, and have become abominable in their ways: there is none that does good, no not one.
3  Dóminus de cælo prospéxit super fílios hóminum, * ut vídeat si est intélligens, aut requírens Deum.	The Lord has looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there be any that understand and seek God.
4  Omnes declinavérunt, simul inútiles facti sunt: * non est qui fáciat bonum, non est usque ad unum.	They are all gone aside, they have become unprofitable together: there is none that does good: no not one.
a  Sepúlcrum patens est guttur eórum: linguis suis dolóse agébant * venénum áspidum sub lábiis eórum.(Ps 5:10)	Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they acted deceitfully: the poison of asps is under their lips.
b Quorum os maledictióne et amaritúdine plenum est: * velóces pedes eórum ad effundéndum sánguinem (Ps 10:7)	Their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness; their feet are swift to shed blood.
c  Contrítio et infelícitas in viis eórum, et viam pacis non cognovérunt: * non est timor Dei ante óculos eórum.](Is 59:7-8; Prov 1:16)	Destruction and unhappiness in their ways; and the way of peace they have not known: there is no fear of God before their eyes.
5  Nonne cognóscent omnes qui operántur iniquitátem, * qui dévorant plebem meam sicut escam panis?	Shall not all they know that work iniquity, who devour my people as they eat bread?
6  Dóminum non invocavérunt, * illic trepidavérunt timóre, ubi non erat timor.	They have not called upon the Lord: there have they trembled for fear, where there was no fear
7  Quóniam Dóminus in generatióne justa est, consílium ínopis confudístis: * quóniam Dóminus spes ejus est.	For the Lord is in the just generation: you have confounded the counsel of the poor man; but the Lord is his hope.
8  Quis dabit ex Sion salutáre Israël? * cum averterit Dóminus captivitátem plebis suæ, exsultábit Jacob, et lætábitur Israël.	Who shall give out of Sion the salvation of Israel? When the Lord shall have turned away the captivity of his people, Jacob shall rejoice, and Israel shall be glad.

You can hear it read aloud here but I'm afraid I haven't been able to locate any useful recordings of it being sung.

Traditional interpretations of the psalm

In Romans 3, St Paul cites this psalm (including a number of verses expunged from 1962 and onwards editions of the psalter, see below) as part of his explanation of the idea that no one can be saved by the (old) law alone, but only through Christ.

The title of this psalm in the Septuagint helps make the link: it is ‘to the end’, which the earliest commentators saw as pointing to its Christological application, for as St Paul says (Romans 10:4) ‘Christ is the end of the law’.  St Augustine, for example, commented:

For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believes; Romans 10:4 as the Apostle says. We believe in Him, when we begin to enter on the good road: we shall see Him, when we shall get to the end. And therefore is He the end. For not even have certain sacrilegious and abominable philosophers, who entertain perverse and false notions of God, dared to say, There is no God.

The overall theme of the psalm is the corrupted state of man that flows from Original Sin, and is manifested in the malice and deceitfulness of those who oppose God – to the point of plotting to kill Our Lord.  St Athanasius, for example, suggested that:

When you hear people blaspheming against the providence of God, intercede with God with this psalm

Similarly St Alphonsus Liguori commented that:

The prophet deplores the blindness and the corruption of the wicked, and especially of infidels....

 Psalm 13 and 'interpolated' verses

I noted above that some verses of the psalm have been omitted in the 1962 and subsequent editions of the Monastic Diurnal  (and breviary).  I’ve included them in the table above, labeled a, b and c in italics.  They are all verses used elsewhere in Scripture, as I have noted), with a note of the original source of the citation).

The verses in question can be found in Romans 3:13-18 (as well as the approved Vulgate and Douay-Rheims translations), but were removed from monastic office in 1962, and subsequently from the neo-Vulgate text on the basis, as far as I can gather, that they aren't in the Hebrew 'original' and were just Christian interpolations of other texts.

Doubt about these verses is not new: St Jerome, for example, long ago advocated that they be removed from the psalter, but was overruled.

So why were they removed in 1962?

It may be it was just a matter of the fashion of the times, which tended to argue for the superiority of the the Hebrew Masoretic Text over the Septuagint-Vulgate tradition, and seek to expunge all the 'hard sayings' of Scripture.

There is however, perhaps one other explanation.

One of the other changes in the 1962 psalter was to move the opening verses of Wednesday Prime (the verses of Psalm 9 starting Exsurge Domine) to the end of Tuesday.  It is a change that doesn't make a lot of sense, first since the antiphon of the hour still reflects the old starting point, and secondly because the divisio point was clearly intended to resonate with several of the psalms of Matins on Wednesday (take a look at Psalms 67 and 68 in particular).

But the words 'Exsurge Domine' (albeit quoting Psalm 73) are the opening words of Pope Leo X's condemnation of the theses of Luther.  Moreover, it went on to cite those now expunged verses of Psalm 13. 

Could it be that these verses were deliberately de-emphasized and/or expunged from the Benedictine psalter because they were seen as offending ecumenical sensibilities?

Here are the opening paragraph's of Pope Leo X's Bull for your consideration:

Arise, O Lord, and judge your own cause. Remember your reproaches to those who are filled with foolishness all through the day. Listen to our prayers, for foxes have arisen seeking to destroy the vineyard whose winepress you alone have trod. When you were about to ascend to your Father, you committed the care, rule, and administration of the vineyard, an image of the triumphant church, to Peter, as the head and your vicar and his successors. The wild boar from the forest seeks to destroy it and every wild beast feeds upon it.

Rise, Peter, and fulfill this pastoral office divinely entrusted to you as mentioned above. Give heed to the cause of the holy Roman Church, mother of all churches and teacher of the faith, whom you by the order of God, have consecrated by your blood. Against the Roman Church, you warned, lying teachers are rising, introducing ruinous sects, and drawing upon themselves speedy doom. Their tongues are fire, a restless evil, full of deadly poison. They have bitter zeal, contention in their hearts, and boast and lie against the truth.

We beseech you also, Paul, to arise. It was you that enlightened and illuminated the Church by your doctrine and by a martyrdom like Peter's. For now a new Porphyry rises who, as the old once wrongfully assailed the holy apostles, now assails the holy pontiffs, our predecessors....

Rebuking them, in violation of your teaching, instead of imploring them, he is not ashamed to assail them, to tear at them, and when he despairs of his cause, to stoop to insults. He is like the heretics "whose last defense," as Jerome says, "is to start spewing out a serpent's venom with their tongue when they see that their causes are about to be condemned, and spring to insults when they see they are vanquished." For although you have said that there must be heresies to test the faithful, still they must be destroyed at their very birth by your intercession and help, so they do not grow or wax strong like your wolves. Finally, let the whole church of the saints and the rest of the universal church arise. Some, putting aside her true interpretation of Sacred Scripture, are blinded in mind by the father of lies. Wise in their own eyes, according to the ancient practice of heretics, they interpret these same Scriptures otherwise than the Holy Spirit demands, inspired only by their own sense of ambition, and for the sake of popular acclaim, as the Apostle declares. In fact, they twist and adulterate the Scriptures. As a result, according to Jerome, "It is no longer the Gospel of Christ, but a man's, or what is worse, the devil's."

Let all this holy Church of God, I say, arise, and with the blessed apostles intercede with almighty God to purge the errors of His sheep, to banish all heresies from the lands of the faithful, and be pleased to maintain the peace and unity of His holy Church.

Scriptural and liturgical uses of the psalm 

NT references	Tit 1:16 (v2); Rom 3:11-18; Rom 11:26 (v8)
RB cursus	Thursday Prime
Monastic/(Roman) feasts etc	-
Roman pre 1911	Sunday Matins
Roman post 1911	1911-62: Monday Matins . 1970:
Mass propers (EF)	Lent 3, Monday, CO (8)

Psalm 10 (Wednesday Prime No 2) - Summary

c12th Passionary of Weissenau, Cod. Bodmer 127, fol. 103r.

Psalm 10: In Domino confido

Vulgate	Douay-Rheims
In finem. Psalmus David.	Unto the end. A psalm to David.
In Dómino confído : quómodo dícitis ánimæ meæ: * Tránsmigra in montem sicut passer?	In the Lord I put my trust: how then do you say to my soul: Get you away from hence to the mountain, like a sparrow.
2  Quóniam ecce peccatóres intendérunt arcum, paravérunt sagíttas suas in pháretra, * ut sagíttent in obscúro rectos corde.	For, lo, the wicked have bent their bow: they have prepared their arrows in the quiver, to shoot in the dark the upright of heart.
3  Quóniam quæ perfecísti, destruxérunt: * justus autem quid fecit?	For they have destroyed the things which you have made: but what has the just man done
4  Dóminus in templo sancto suo, * Dóminus in cælo sedes ejus.	The Lord is in his holy temple, the Lord's throne is in heaven
5  Oculi ejus in páuperem respíciunt: * pálpebræ ejus intérrogant fílios hóminum.	His eyes look on the poor man: his eyelids examine the sons of men
6  Dóminus intérrogat justum et ímpium: * qui autem díligit iniquitátem, odit ánimam suam.	The Lord tries the just and the wicked: but he that loves iniquity, hates his own soul
7  Pluet super peccatóres láqueos: * ignis, et sulphur, et spíritus procellárum pars cálicis eórum.	He shall rain snares upon sinners: fire and brimstone, and storms of winds, shall be the portion of their cup.
8  Quóniam justus Dóminus, et justítias diléxit: * æquitátem vidit vultus ejus.	For the Lord is just, and has loved justice: his countenance has beheld righteousness.

St Benedict makes Wednesday as a fast day in his Rule, consistent with the early Christian practice and association of the day with Judas’ betrayal.  In this context Psalm 10 can be read as a call to spiritual heroism in imitation of Christ as he faced his coming Passion, and a reminder that though evil seems at times to triumph, ultimately justice will prevail (indeed Pope St John Paul II’s catechesis on the psalm pointed to the reference to fire and brimstone as a reminder of the fate of the city of Sodom).

The original historical context for this psalm is probably David’s time at the court of mad King Saul, when he was constantly under suspicion, and was in fact forced to flee and live in the caves in the mountainous regions several times during this period.  On this particular occasion, however, although anxious friends concerned about his safety urge him to flee, he rejects the advice, confident that God wishes him to stay.  The first two verses have an obvious Christological application as we ponder the events of Wednesday in Holy Week in today's Office, for they warn that ‘unless you flee, they will kill you’.  Yet Our Lord, knowing the coming betrayal he faced, chose not to flee, not to shirk the cup.

The psalm is also, though, a commentary on the corrupt state of a society in turmoil.  The Fathers and Theologians accordingly read it as being primarily about the threat posed by heresy.   

St Augustine:

Appears to be sung against the heretics, who, by rehearsing and exaggerating the sins of many in the Church, as if either all or the majority among themselves were righteous, strive to turn and snatch us away from the breasts of the one True Mother Church... let him refer the Psalm to the Lord's passion, and of the Jews say, For they have destroyed what You have perfected; and of the Lord Himself, But what has the Just done? whom they accused as the destroyer of the Law: whose precepts, by their corrupt living, and by despising them, and by setting up their own, they had destroyed, so that the Lord Himself may speak as Man, as He is wont, saying, In the Lord I trust; how say ye to my soul, Remove into the mountains as a sparrow? by reason, that is, of the fear of those who desire to apprehend and crucify Him.

 St Thomas Aquinas:

This psalm can be explained literally of David, or mystically of Christ, or allegorically. Morally it concerns the just man, and heretics. The title (of this psalm is) Unto the end. A psalm for David. Jerome('s version) has Conqueror. In the preceding psalm, the giving of thanks was set forth for (the psalmist's) liberation from (his) enemies. Here, he shows the confidence brought about by having received (this liberation). And he speaks from the stance of one desiring God's kindnesses which follows upon freedom from danger. 

St Alphonse Liguori:

In this psalm the just are exhorted to place confidence in God during the time of persecution.

Fr Pasch:

This song of David forms a logical extension and climax to the previous Psalm.  "In God is my trust" - that is the shield for God's citizen in every crisis.

Pope St John Paul II:

The spiritual key of the entire psalm is well-expressed in the concluding verse:  "For the Lord is just, he loves just deeds". This is the root of all trust and the source of all hope on the day of darkness and trial. God is not indifferent to right and wrong:  he is a good God and not a dark, incomprehensible, mysterious destiny.  The psalm unfolds substantially in two scenes: in the first (cf. vv. 1-3), the wicked man is described in his apparent victory... the turning point comes...in the second scene (cf. vv. 4-7). The Lord, seated on the heavenly throne, takes in the entire human horizon with his penetrating gaze. From that transcendent vantage point, sign of the divine omniscience and omnipotence, God is able to search out and examine every person, distinguishing the righteous from the wicked and forcefully condemning injustice (cf. vv. 4-5). 

Scriptural and liturgical uses of the psalm

NT references	Mt 5:34(v4); Rev 8:5, 14:10, 20:10 (v7); Mt 5:8 (v8)
RB cursus	Prime Wednesday
Monastic/(Roman) feasts etc	Martyrs, Confessors, Dedication of a Church; Ascension, Holy Cross
Roman pre 1911	Sunday Matins
Roman post 1911	1911-62: Sunday Matins . 1970:
Mass propers (EF)	Lent 2 Wednesday (v8)