Psalm 140 v5: Treasure in heaven

 Verse 5 of Psalm 140 is a prayer for help against the temptations offered by the world we live in. 

5	V	Cum hominibus operantibus iniquitatem: et non communicabo cum electis eorum.
	OR	cum hominibus operantibus iniquitatem et non conbinabor cum electis eorum
	NV	cum hominibus operantibus iniquitatem; et non comedam ex deliciis eorum.
	JH	cum uiris operantibus iniquitatem comedere in deliciis eorum.
	Sept	ἀνθρώποις ἐργαζομένοις ἀνομίαν καὶ οὐ μὴ συνδυάσωμετὰ τῶν ἐκλεκτῶν αὐτῶν

 [Key: V=Vulgate; OR=Old Roman; NV=Neo-Vulgate; JH=St Jerome's translation from the Hebrew; Sept=Septuagint]

Phrase by phrase 

Cum hominibus operantibus iniquitatem: et non communicabo cum electis eorum.

With men that work iniquity: and I will not communicate with the choicest of them.

Word by word 

Cum (with) hominibus (men) operantibus (having worked) iniquitatem (wickedness): et (and) non (not) communicabo ( will share/participate) cum (with) electis (the delights/pleasures) eorum (of them/their). 

The Douay-Rheims notwithstanding, this verse is a somewhat ambiguous, and can have two meanings at the literal level: 'electis' could be a reference to the 'elect' of the band of evildoers; alternatively it can be read as concerning attending their gatherings and participating in their particular pursuits.

Key vocabulary 

homo, inis, m  man, a human being; mortal man as compared with God; person, individual.
opero are avi atum – form of operor, to work; operantium= participle
iniquitas, atis, f iniquity, injustice, sin.
communico are avi atum to partake, share, participate in
electa orum f; chosen, elect; dainties, choice bits, pleasures 

Selected translations 

DR	With men that work iniquity: and I will not communicate with the choicest of them.
Brenton	with me who work iniquity: and let me not unite with their choice ones.
MD	With men that work iniquity: I will not partake of their delights.
RSV	deeds in company with men who work iniquity; and let me not eat of their dainties!
Cover	let me not be occupied in ungodly works with the men that work wickedness, lest I eat of such things as please them.
Knox	never let me take part with the wrong-doers, and share the banquet with them.
Grail	Never allow me to share in their feasting.

[Key: DR=Douay-Rheims Challoner; MD=Monastic Diurnal; RSV=Revised Standard Version; Cover=Coverdale]

The dangers of peer pressure 

Although often unavoidable, and even sometimes commendable (when done for example, for the purpose of converting them), associating with those committed to doing evil has obvious dangers. 

St Jerome commented that 'just as the Lord has His chosen saints, so does the devil have his elect'. 

It is all too easy to be seduced by pleasures and sins, the Fathers consistently suggest, if we freely associate with those who carry them out without any sign of repentance.

St John Chrysostom points us to the opening words of the first psalm of the book of psalms as the proper model to follow: Blessed is the man who has not lived by the counsel of the godless, or stood in the path of sinners, and has not sat on the seat of pestilent people.

We should therefore, he argues, avoid eating with sinners, avoid parties and gatherings lest we be lead astray:

Here he gives the apostolic advice, that their luxuries and parties are to be shunned, where the practice of sin is especially on the increase, where incaution waxes strong. Now, this is no little sign of virtue, no insignificant path to correction, shunning such parties and gatherings, not being beholden to friendship, not diminishing the strength of the spirit through becoming a slave to the belly and thus weakening the quality of our sound values. That is the way that many people, being beholden to friendship, were cast headlong into the billows of drunkenness, that is the way they fell victim to immorality, and kindled the fire of pleasure, chasing parties and spectacles characterised by extreme iniquity.

 

Treasure in heaven

Who, then, are the workers of iniquity referred to here? 

The Fathers offer a number of possibilities, and it is not hard to come up with a long list!

But the worst group, St Augustine argues, is who believe only in their own righteousness, and despise others, and thus refuse to help the poor.  

Yet our alms, he notes, drawing on Scripture, are translated directly to the treasure house of heaven: 'we cleanse thereby that bread, and transmit it into the treasure-house of the heavens'.  

Vulgate	Douay-Rheims
Psalmus David.	A psalm of David.
1 Dómine, clamávi ad te, exáudi me: * inténde voci meæ, cum clamávero ad te.	I have cried to you, O Lord, hear me: hearken to my voice, when I cry to you.
2  Dirigátur orátio mea sicut incénsum in conspéctu tuo: * elevátio mánuum meárum sacrifícium vespertínum.	2 Let my prayer be directed as incense in your sight; the lifting up of my hands, as evening sacrifice.
3  Pone, Dómine, custódiam ori meo: * et óstium circumstántiæ lábiis meis.	Set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth: and a door round about my lips.
4  Non declínes cor meum in verba malítiæ: * ad excusándas excusatiónes in peccátis.	4 Incline not my heart to evil words; to make excuses in sins.
5  Cum homínibus operántibus iniquitátem: * et non communicábo cum eléctis eórum	With men that work iniquity: and I will not communicate with the choicest of them
6  Corrípiet me justus in misericórdia, et increpábit me: * óleum autem peccatóris non impínguet caput meum.	5 The just man shall correct me in mercy, and shall reprove me: but let not the oil of the sinner fatten my head.
7  Quóniam adhuc et orátio mea in beneplácitis eórum: * absórpti sunt juncti petræ júdices eórum.	For my prayer shall still be against the things with which they are well pleased: 6 Their judges falling upon the rock have been swallowed up.
8  Audient verba mea quóniam potuérunt: * sicut crassitúdo terræ erúpta est super terram.	They shall hear my words, for they have prevailed: 7 As when the thickness of the earth is broken up upon the ground:
9  Dissipáta sunt ossa nostra secus inférnum: * quia ad te, Dómine, Dómine, óculi mei: in te sperávi, non áuferas ánimam meam.	Our bones are scattered by the side of hell. 8 But to you, O Lord, Lord, are my eyes: in you have I put my trust, take not away my soul.
10  Custódi me a láqueo, quem statuérunt mihi: * et a scándalis operántium iniquitátem.	9 Keep me from the snare, which they have laid for me, and from the stumbling blocks of them that work iniquity.
11  Cadent in retiáculo ejus peccatóres: * singuláriter sum ego donec tránseam.	10 The wicked shall fall in his net: I am alone until I pass.

You can find notes on verse 6 of Psalm 140 here.

St Benedict's psalm cursus and the design of Thursday Vespers Part 3b - The Life of Christ in a week

In the last post in this sub-series on the design of the Benedictine Office, I pointed to the development of a connection between key events in the life of Christ and days of the week in the early Church, which was then appropriated into the liturgy in various ways, such as the Roman traditions around fasting practices.

Today I want to draw out a little some particular links between these weekly schemas and the Benedictine Office at Thursday Vespers.

Weekly schemas around the life of Christ

While the various life of Christ in seven days schemas offered by the Fathers differed, Rome was not certainly not alone in viewing seven as a 'sacred number' (see RB 16) and seeing it as an organising principle for viewing the life of Christ, sometimes linking this to the seven seals of the book of Revelation.  

Hilary of Poitiers gave such a list in his commentary on the psalms, for example, while the commentary of St Benedict's contemporary Aspringius may have been influenced by the Mozarabic practice of dividing the consecrated host into seven pieces, each of which piece of which was associated with an event in the life of Christ.

St Benedict then, would have a rich Patristic and liturgical tradition on which to draw if he did use the life of Christ as a thematic principle for his organisation of the psalter.

Exodus 15

I noted earlier in this series that on Thursdays, the Lauds canticle is from Exodus 15, and is the song of victory after safely crossing the Red Sea.

The Carolingian Benedictine commentator Rabanus Maurus provided a brief summary of its relevance to the Office on Thursday, saying:

For on Thursday justly is sung the song of the Israelites, which they sung after the Pasch celebrating being freed from Egypt and conveyed through the Red Sea dry foot.  For on the same day our Saviour figuratively celebrating the Pasch with his disciples, he offered the paschal mystery continuing in the sacrament of his body and blood and in this immolation of the lamb, who takes away the sins of the world.  

There are, I think, some obvious connections between the canticle - and Maurus's summation of it - and the psalms of Thursday Vespers.

First, at the very literal level, the idea that the wicked will not just let the good person alone, but will pursue them and try and drag them back to 'Egypt', or idle and dangerous pursuits, runs through Psalms 139 and 140. 

Secondly, I've noted that Psalm 138 was frequently viewed as the quintessential prayer of the agony in the Garden, and is fundamentally about not just the omnipotence and omniscience of God, but also the two natures of Christ.

Thirdly, I noted that the interpretation of the pure evening prayer of Psalm 140 as speaking of Christ's institution of the Eucharist and Passion, of which the paschal sacrifice offered by the Jews before they fled Egypt is a type.

Circumcision of the heart

Perhaps the key thread connecting all three of the psalms of Benedictine Vespers on Thursday, though, is, I think, the idea of the old circumcision of the flesh being replaced, because those who practiced it did not translate it into a spiritual practice (Psalms 138 and 139), by the new covenant of grace, with some of its key petitions being those asking for various graces in Psalm 140.

In this light, it is intriguing, I think, to read the comments of another of St Benedict's contemporaries, Cassiodorus, on the interpretation of Psalm 138, employing a number symbolism of a kind that St Benedict seems also to have been deeply attached to:

Observe here shining before us the eighth psalm which presents the two natures [of Christ]; these eight beat off the arrogant infidelity of those in error. 

They should at any rate be healed by the precedent of circumcision. 

Just as the Jews surrendered their foreskins on the eighth day, so those in error should be schooled by this eighth psalm and abandon their idle obduracy. 

As has been mentioned earlier, Psalms 2, 8, 20, 71, 81, 107, 109, and here 138 discuss this matter....

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