Understanding the psalms: The order of the psalter and Office psalm cursus

FecampBibleFol238rIncipPsalms
Source: Wiki Commons

In my previous post in this Lent series on the psalms I focused on the first of the 'three attentions' suggested by St Thomas Aquinas, namely focusing on the saying the words correctly.

Today, I want to start looking at how we become more conscious of the meanings of what we are saying, starting at the 'macro' level of why psalms are said on particular days and at particular hours of the Office.

Scriptural order vs selective forms of the Office

Early forms of the Office basically take two main forms, canonical order, and selective.

Canonical order

By far the most common form of the Office in late antiquity, in the West at least, was to say all of the psalms in their numerical, or canonical, order.  The Rule of the Master for example, which was probably written in the mid sixth century in the region near Rome, adopted this approach, as did the more or less contemporary rules of Caesarius of Arles (circa 510 - 535) and Columbanus (towards the end of the sixth century).

The number of psalms said at the Night Office typically varied depending on the season - when the nights were longer, more psalms were said - so instead of specifying which psalms were said at each hour, early instructions for the Office often just specified how many psalms were said at each hour.

In most cases for which we have hard evidence, the approach was simply to start at a particular hour with Psalm 1 and then continue the sequence in order at each subsequent hour until the cycle started again.  

The net result was that it took a varying length of time to get through the entire psalter depending on the time of year, rather than it being fixed to a week or some other period as we are used to.

It also meant that, a few special psalms aside, psalms were not attached to particular hours.

Selective

The alternative approach was to assign particular psalms to particular hours and days.

In some early forms of the Office, typically only a small selection of the psalms were used, such as the Office captured in the fifth century Codex (Fol. 532v) that assigned one psalm to each hour of the day and night.

One theory is that that this selection that may then have been consolidated into the Office of twelve psalms of Vespers and Matins used by some Northern Egyptian eremite monks described by Cassian. 

Meaning in the ordering?

The key reason for Offices based on the canonical order of the psalms was the assumption that the order of the psalms in Scripture was divinely inspired, and has a particular rationale and meaning.  

Many of the early commentaries on the psalms comment on this, highlighting, for example, the connections between particular blocks of psalms, as well as how they fit together to tell an overall story.

Selective orderings of the psalms, by contrast, generally choose psalms for their appropriateness to the day and hour, or in order to reflect some other themes that the author of the Office wants to highlight.

Of course, where the selective approach also involves a principle of saying all of the psalms within a  particular time period, as the Benedictine and Roman Offices do, there may be limits to the extent to the thematic approach.

All the same, while much twentieth century liturgical scholarship assumed that the placement of psalms in the Benedictine and Roman Offices was largely driven by purely functional considerations, medieval commentators generally took a rather different view, providing extended explanations of just why particular psalms were used at particular hours, or on particular days. 

Finding meaning in St Benedict's ordering of the psalter

St Benedict's Rule, alas, is more concerned with providing instructions on what to say and when, rather than setting out a rationale for the particular choices made.  The saint presumed, I think, that the person praying the Office would, over time, become aware of these layers of meaning as they meditated on it.

That was a much easier process, I suspect, for a monk in late antiquity, steeped in the Patristic explanations of the psalms, than for us today!

Still, if we pay attention both to the canonical order of the psalms, and the way St Benedict moves away from that in his form of the Office, we can I think, find themes that the internal evidence strongly suggests were deliberately engineered into the Office, or even if that is not the case, and worth meditating on all the same.

The last seven psalms of the psalter, for example, are all hymns of praise, and there is, according Cassiodorus a great significance in this, relating to the 'sacred number' (as St Benedict terms it) seven:

It is not otiose that the Lord's praises are enclosed in this number seven, for the confession of penitents is designated by this number, and the holy Spirit himself has been proclaimed with His sevenfold powers; perhaps it points to that sacred mystery when the Lord ordered Moses to set seven lamps shining with enduring light in His tabernacle. 

St Benedict, however, effectively makes the seven psalms into eight, by dividing Psalm 144 into two parts, a number that symbolises the Resurrection, and on which he makes great play several times in the Rule, requiring his monks, for example, to rise at the eighth hour of the night to say Matins, and to say eight hours each day.

The seven days of creation

I've mentioned previously that I think St Benedict deliberately 'engineered in', inspired perhaps by St Augustine's commentaries on the days of creation, several linked weekly cycles, including the days of creation, the seven ages of salvation history, and the life of Christ.

In the case of Psalm 147, for example, its key focus on Jerusalem (which means peace), and the peace granted by God, and on the restful days of summer fits neatly with the seventh day as the day of rest.

I will say some things on this in the context of the psalms I'm looking at for Friday and Saturday Vespers, but if you would like to read more on this topic, see my previous posts on this here.

'Horizontal' memes

There are also, though, some themes and phrases that run across each of the hours, and help give the hours internal coherence and meaning.

At Vespers, for example, there are verses each day that echo the words of the Magnificat's warning that the proud will be humbled, and the humble will ultimately be exalted. For Saturday, for example, consider these verses:

Psalm 144:4   Allevat Dominus omnes qui corruunt, et erigit omnes elisos.

14   The Lord lifteth up all that fall: and setteth up all that are cast down.

and

Ps 145: 8   Dominus illuminat cæcos. Dominus erigit elisos; Dominus diligit justos.

8   the Lord enlighteneth the blind. The Lord lifteth up them that are cast down: the Lord loveth the just.

9   Dominus custodit advenas, pupillum et viduam suscipiet, et vias peccatorum disperdet.

9   The Lord keepeth the strangers, he will support the fatherless and the widow: and the ways of sinners he will destroy.

First and last psalms

Finally I want to alert you to some theological and spiritual themes that I think run across the first and last psalms each day respectively.

In the case of the first psalms at Vespers, the theme is the attributes of  God: on Thursday his omniscience; on Saturday his omniscience for example.

And the last psalm each day, I think, has a particular relevance to the monastic vocation.  

The most obvious of these is Psalm 132 on Tuesdays, 'Behold how good and pleasant it is for brethren to dwell in unity', which St Augustine depicted as the quintessential monastic psalm.

Psalm 147, also fits this theme neatly, ending the week on that most Benedictine of values, the pursuit and attainment of peace.

Meditating on the psalms

The bottom line on all this is, I think, that although we tend to focus on particular psalms as distinct entities, we need also to keep in mind that they are part of a book which is deliberately ordered, often to bring psalms with common themes and phrases together.

That is even more true in the psalter, where there is at least some degree of selectivity and deliberate design.

So if, when you say the Office, you are suddenly struck by words or phrases that are repeated during a day or hour, do take that as a cue to think more deeply on it; look out for such connections yourself; or consider taking my suggested themes as a starting point for your own consideration!

And in the meantime here is a setting of the opening psalm of Thursday Vespers to enjoy. 

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

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.