Psalm 138 pt 2 verses 3-6

The next set of verses deal with the creation of man, but can also be interpreted as speaking of the new man, the new Adam that is Christ.

	V	Quia tu possedísti renes meos: * suscepísti me de útero matris meæ.
	NV	Quia tu formasti renes meos, contexuisti me in utero matris meae.
	JH	Quoniam tu possedisti renes meos, orsusque es me in utero matris meae.
	Sept	ὅτι σὺ ἐκτήσω τοὺς νεφρούς μου κύριε ἀντελάβου μου ἐκ γαστρὸς μητρός μου

[Key: V=Vulgate; NV=Neo-vulgate; JH=St Jerome from the Hebrew; Sept=Septuagint]

Quia (but) tu (you) possedisti (you have possessed) renes (the reins/mind) meos (my); suscepisti (you have supported/guarded) me (me) de (from) utero (the womb) matris (mother) meæ (my). 

Bird suggests that the proper sense of the Hebrew underlying possideo here is to create, form, as reflected in the translations offered by the MD, Knox, RSV and Grail.  'Reins' means innermost being - heart and mind.  The use of suscipio, to sustain or uphold, rather than contexo (to weave or entwine) possibly reflects a difference in the underlying text traditions, but also perhaps the underlying theology of the Septuagint (see notes on Ps 3, 45, 118:116). The Hebrew of the MT can be translated as to weave together, but Bird points out an alternative possible Hebrew origin word would be to overshadow, recalling  Lk 1:35.

possideo sedi sessum ere 2 to possess, get possession of, acquire; save, preserve; to inherit

ren, renis, m., pi. renes, renum lit:  the kidneys, reins. Mind, seat of perception, conscience

suscipio, cepi, ceptum, ere 3  to guard, protect, uphold, support;  receive, accept; to seize.

venter, tris, m. lit., the belly, the body, the bowels, the breast, heart. Womb

DR	For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast protected me from my mother' s womb.
Brenton	For thou, O Lord, hast possessed my reins; thou hast helped me from my mother’s womb.
RSV	For thou didst form my inward parts, thou didst knit me together in my mother's womb.
Cover	For my reins are thine; thou hast covered me in my mother’s womb.
Knox	Author, thou, of my inmost being, didst thou not form me in my mother’s womb?
Grail	For it was you who created my being, knit me together in my mother's womb.

[Key: DR=Douay-Rheims Challonner; RSV=Revised Standard Version; Cover=Coverdale]

Cassiodorus provides us with the Christological interpretation of this verse:

Reins denotes physical strength...So he rightly says that His reins are possessed by the Father, who resides in the strength of heavenly justice and knows nothing of the sin lying in a frail body.  From my mother's womb means from the bounds of the synagogue, because through the flesh which he assumed he was begotten of the synagogue, for we know that he was circumcised on the eighth day according to the Jewish rite.  He relates that He was taken by the Father's divinity or by His own for the two are one.  If you were to interpret the phrase as meaning merely from the Virgin's womb, He is known to have been taken up by the Lord not only when he came forth, but also when he was conceived by the Holy Spirit...All this is understood as emanating from his human nature, and is recounted in honour of his holy Father.  As the words of the gospel show, it was his planned purpose to proclaim the Father, to fulfill His will, to drink the cup which he received from him, and in no sense to distance himself from the Father's dispensation.

But the verse can also be taken more literally, to also apply to the creation of each one of us, as Pope Benedict XVI explains:

After pondering on the gaze and presence of the Creator that sweeps across the whole cosmic horizon, in the second part of the Psalm on which we are meditating today God turns his loving gaze upon the human being, whose full and complete beginning is reflected upon. He is still an "unformed substance" in his mother's womb:  the Hebrew term used has been understood by several biblical experts as referring to an "embryo", described in that term as a small, oval, curled-up reality, but on which God has already turned his benevolent and loving eyes (cf. v. 16). To describe the divine action within the maternal womb, the Psalmist has recourse to classical biblical images, comparing the productive cavity of the mother to the "depths of the earth", that is, the constant vitality of great mother earth (cf. v. 15). First of all, there is the symbol of the potter and of the sculptor who "fashions" and moulds his artistic creation, his masterpiece, just as it is said about the creation of man in the Book of Genesis:  "the Lord God formed man out of the clay of the ground" (Gn 2: 7). Then there is a "textile" symbol that evokes the delicacy of the skin, the flesh, the nerves, "threaded" onto the bony skeleton. Job also recalled forcefully these and other images to exalt that masterpiece which the human being is, despite being battered and bruised by suffering:  "Your hands have formed me and fashioned me.... Remember that you fashioned me from clay...! Did you not pour me out as milk and thicken me like cheese? With skin and flesh you clothed me, with bones and sinews knit me together" (Jb 10: 8-11). The idea in our Psalm that God already sees the entire future of that embryo, still an "unformed substance", is extremely powerful. The days which that creature will live and fill with deeds throughout his earthly existence are already written in the Lord's book of life.  Thus, once again the transcendent greatness of divine knowledge emerges, embracing not only humanity's past and present but also the span, still hidden, of the future. However, the greatness of this little unborn human creature, formed by God's hands and surrounded by his love, also appears:  a biblical tribute to the human being from the first moment of his existence. 28 December 2005.

   

4/ 13	V	Confitébor tibi quia terribíliter magnificátus es: * mirabília ópera tua, et ánima mea cognóscit nimis.
	NV	Confitebor tibi, quia mirabiliter plasmatus sum; mirabilia opera tua, et anima mea cognoscit nimis.
	JH	Confitebor tibi quoniam terribiliter magnificasti me : mirabilia opera tua, et anima mea nouit nimis.
		ἐξομολογήσομαί σοι ὅτι φοβερῶς ἐθαυμαστώθην θαυμάσια τὰ ἔργα σου καὶ ἡ ψυχή μου γινώσκει σφόδρα

Confitebor (I will confess/give praise) tibi (to you), quia (for) terribiliter (fearfully) magnificatus es (you are magnified); mirabilia (marvellous) opera (the works) tua (your), et (and) anima (the soul) mea (my) cognoscit (it knows) nimis (exceedingly). 

terribiliter fearfully

magnifico, avi, atum, are to praise, glorify, extol, magnify

mirabilis, e wonderful, marvelous;  wonders, wonderful works, marvellous things.

cognosco, gnovi, gnitum, ere 3, to know, see, learn, perceive, be come acquainted with.

nimis, , exceedingly, greatly, beyond measure.

DR	I will praise thee, for thou art fearfully magnified: wonderful are thy works, and my soul knoweth right well.
Brenton	I will give thee thanks; for thou art fearfully wondrous; wondrous are thy works; and my soul knows it well.
MD	I praise Thee for awful is Thy greatness, marvelous are Thy works, my soul knoweth it full well
Cover	I will give thanks unto thee, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; marvellous are thy works, and that my soul knoweth right well.
Knox	I praise thee for my wondrous fashioning, for all the wonders of thy creation. Of my soul thou hast full knowledge,
Grail	I thank you for the wonder of my being, for the wonders of all your creation. Already you knew my soul

Cassiodorus continues:

He passes to the third section, in which He praises the Father who has revealed such wonders to Him.  The Father became fearfully wonderful when following the Lord Christ's passion, darkness ensued, the earth shook, rocks split, tombs gaped open, the dead rejoiced in resurrection; and Christ Himself was again seen at the holy resurrection in the same body, when he passed into His disciples through closed doors, and mounted to the heavens before men's eyes.  Though he achieved these things by his own divinity, he attributed them after his fashion to the powers of the Father, to make clear the unity of their sacred cooperation...It was inevitable that he should recognise His Father as wonderful, for his human nature, filled with the brightness of divine light, beheld him as the most devoted distributor of great blessings.  As he says in the gospel: No one knows the Father except the Son, and he to whom it shall please the Son to reveal to him....I am in the Father, and the Father is in me.  One who is externally distinct cannot have such knowledge.  This knowledge is beyond reckoning, unique, beyond understanding, for they are known to abide in each other. 

 

	V	Non est occultátum os meum a te, quod fecísti in occúlto: * et substántia mea in inferióribus terræ.
	NV	Non sunt abscondita ossa mea a te, cum factus sum in occulto, contextus in inferioribus terrae.
	JH	Non sunt operta ossa mea a te,  quibus factus sum in abscondito, imaginatus sum in nouissimis terrae.
		οὐκ ἐκρύβη τὸ ὀστοῦν μου ἀπὸ σοῦ ὃ ἐποίησας ἐν κρυφῇ καὶ ἡ ὑπόστασίς μου ἐν τοῖς κατωτάτοις τῆς γῆς

 Non (not) est occultátum (it is hidden) os (bone/frame) meum (my) a te (from you), quod (that/which) fecísti (you have made) in occúlto (in secret): * et (and) substántia (substance) mea (my) in inferióribus (the lower parts/depths) terræ (of the earth).

Britt suggests that inferioribus terrae refers to the womb of verse 3.

occulto are avi atum to hide, conceal

os, ossis, n., a bone,  a member of the body, or, the members, one’s whole being, one's spirit, strength

occultus, a. um  hidden, secret

subtantia ae f substance, being, existence

inferior, oris,  the nether world, the grave; depths, lower parts

DR	My bone is not hidden from thee, which thou hast made in secret: and my substance in the lower parts of the earth.
Brenton	My bones, which thou madest in secret were not hidden from thee, nor my substance, in the lowest parts of the earth.
MD	My frame was not hid from Thee, which thou hast formed in darkness, or in the depths of the earth, my substance
Cover	My bones are not hid from thee, though I be made secretly, and fashioned beneath in the earth.
Knox	and this mortal frame had no mysteries for thee, who didst contrive it in secret, devise its pattern, there in the dark recesses of the earth.
Grail	my body held no secret from you when I was being fashioned in secret and molded in the depths of the earth.

St Augustine focusing on the meaning of 'bone' here, suggesting it means spiritual backbone:

But because as Christians we are speaking in the Name of the Lord to Christians, now we find what bone is of this kind. It is a sort of inward strength; for strength and fortitude are understood to be in the bones. There is then a sort of inward strength of the soul, wherein it is not broken. Whatever tortures, whatever tribulations, whatever adversities rage around, that which God has made strong in secret in us, cannot be broken, yields not. For by God is made a certain strength of patience, of which is said in another Psalm, But my soul shall be subjected to God, for of Him is my patience.. ..Wherein do you glory? In tribulations, knowing that tribulation works patience. Romans 4:5 See how that strength is fashioned within in his heart: because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us. So is fashioned and made strong that hidden bone, that it makes us even to glory in tribulations. But to men we seem wretched, because that which we have within is hidden from them. And my substance is in the lower parts of the earth. Behold, in flesh is my substance, yet have I a bone within, which You have fashioned, such as to cause me never to yield to any persecutions of this lower region, where still my substance is. For what great matter is it, if an Angel be brave? This is a great matter, if flesh is brave. And whence is flesh brave, whence is an earthen vessel brave, save because in it is made a bone in secret?

Cassiodorus interprets it spiritually as a reference to the Church:

Who can see a man's bones when the flesh clothes them, and the skin is drawn over them?  spiritually:  When at the world's creation Eve was fashioned from Adam's rib, her husband said: This is bone of my bone, and flesh of my flesh.  When Paul speaks to married people, he explains the point of this mystery with the words: This is a great sacrament, but I speak in Christ and in the Church.  So it is clear that here bone must be understood as the Lord's Church.  So that we can associate these words more fully to the illustration quoted, before the Lord's coming some of the sacraments of the Church were not visible, such as baptism, Christ's body and blood, and the others which became clear in the fullness of time.  He added: And my substance in the lower parts of the earth.  The lower parts of the earth were the foul religious practices of the Gentiles, which at that time differed greatly from the Jewish religion.  But the substance of the Lord saviour became known to them when they grasped the presence of the divine Word in Him, and with devoted minds accepted this through the apostles' teaching.  Though the different nations were the lower parts of the earth because of their superstitions, they were set higher than the Jews when they took to heart the salvific rules of the Christian religion. 

 

6/ 15	V	Imperféctum meum vidérunt óculi tui, et in libro tuo omnes scribéntur: * dies formabúntur, et nemo in eis.
	NV	Imperfectum adhuc me viderunt oculi tui, et in libro tuo scripti erant omnes dies: ficti erant, et nondum erat unus ex eis.
	JH	Informem adhuc me uiderunt oculi tui, et in libro tuo omnes scribentur; dies formatae sunt, et non est una in eis.
		τὸ ἀκατέργαστόν μου εἴδοσαν οἱ ὀφθαλμοί σου καὶ ἐπὶ τὸ βιβλίον σου πάντες γραφήσονται ἡμέρας πλασθήσονται καὶ οὐθεὶς ἐν αὐτοῖς

Imperfectum (imperfect/incomplete/embryonic) meum (my) viderunt (they saw) oculi (the eyes) tui (your), et (and) in libro (the book) tuo (your) omnes (all) scribentur (it will be written). Dies (the days) formabuntur (they will be fashioned/formed/shaped), et (and) nemo (nobody) in eis (in them).  

imperfectum i n something imperfect, incomplete, unfinished

video, vidi, visum, ere 2,  to see, behold; consider; experience, undergo, suffer, realize; keep watch, look for, meditate on

oculus, i, the eye..

liber libri m a book, the book of life in which God inscribes the names of men

scribo ere scripsi scriptum to write, to write down, record; to enroll

dies, ei, m. and f fem.  a day, the natural day

formo are avi atum to give shape to something, to form or fashion

nemo neminis m no man, no one, nobody

DR	Thy eyes did see my imperfect being, and in thy book all shall be written: days shall be formed, and no one in them.
Brenton	Thine eyes saw my unwrought substance, and all men shall be written in thy book; they shall be formed by day, though there should for a time be no one among them.
Cover	Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being imperfect; and in thy book were all my members written, which day by day were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them.
Knox	All my acts thy eyes have seen, all are set down already in thy record; my days were numbered before ever they came to be.
Grail	Your eyes saw all my actions, they were all of them written in your book; every one of my days was decreed before one of them came into being.

Cassiodorus comments: 

The human nature which in the gospel stated that He did not know this world's end, and which said: My soul is sorrowful even unto death and such things, attests that the Father has gazed on His imperfect being.  His being is indeed imperfect, because the Church continues to gather till the end of the world; not until that resurrection will He give the promised rewards to the blessed, and then He will be all in all.  But the godhead has already seen these events which are still reserved for the distant future; the next words make it clear that this is said with reference to the blessed, for he added: and in my book all will be enrolled, precisely those who will rejoice in eternal blessedness.  Just as what is written in a book is preserved because contained in writing, so what is kept in the Lord's memory remains fixed much more firmly.  Next follows...that is, the blessed ones mentioned earlier will be strengthened by daylight, filled with perfect radiance of light from the true Sun, so the words of Scripture are fulfilled: As star differs from star in glory, so also will be the resurrection of the dead.  Note that He did not say They shall be brightened by daylight but they shall be strengthened by daylight; if he had said brightened this could perhaps have been interpreted as merely for a short time, whereas by saying...he attests that the blessing will abide fore ever.  He adds further, And none among them - we must supply 'shall be weakened', for at that stage all our flesh's frailty will be expelled and will depart, and all our mortality will be consumed and disappear.

Psalm 138/2 (139) – Et dixi: forsitan 

Vulgate	Douay-Rheims
1  Et dixi: Fórsitan ténebræ conculcábunt me: * et nox illuminátio mea in delíciis meis.	11 And I said: Perhaps darkness shall cover me: and night shall be my light in my pleasures.
2  Quia ténebræ non obscurabúntur a te, et nox sicut dies illuminábitur: * sicut ténebræ ejus, ita et lumen ejus.	12 But darkness shall not be dark to you, and night shall be light all the day: the darkness thereof, and the light thereof are alike to you.
3  Quia tu possedísti renes meos: * suscepísti me de útero matris meæ.	13 For you have possessed my reins: you have protected me from my mother's womb.
4  Confitébor tibi quia terribíliter magnificátus es: * mirabília ópera tua, et ánima mea cognóscit nimis.	14 I will praise you, for you are fearfully magnified: wonderful are your works, and my soul knows right well.
5  Non est occultátum os meum a te, quod fecísti in occúlto: * et substántia mea in inferióribus terræ.	15 My bone is not hidden from you, which you have made in secret: and my substance in the lower parts of the earth.
6  Imperféctum meum vidérunt óculi tui, et in libro tuo omnes scribéntur: * dies formabúntur, et nemo in eis.	16 Your eyes did see my imperfect being, and in your book all shall be written: days shall be formed, and no one in them.
7  Mihi autem nimis honorificáti sunt amíci tui, Deus: * nimis confortátus est principátus eórum.	17 But to me your friends, O God, are made exceedingly honourable: their principality is exceedingly strengthened.
8  Dinumerábo eos, et super arénam multiplicabúntur: * exsurréxi, et adhuc sum tecum.	18 I will number them, and they shall be multiplied above the sand, I rose up and am still with you.
9  Si occíderis, Deus, peccatóres: * viri sánguinum, declináte a me.	19 If you will kill the wicked, O God: you men of blood, depart from me:
10  Quia dícitis in cogitatióne: * Accípient in vanitáte civitátes tuas.	20 Because you say in thought: They shall receive your cities in vain.
11  Nonne qui odérunt te, Dómine, óderam? * et super inimícos tuos tabescébam?	21 Have I not hated them, O Lord, that hated you: and pined away because of your enemies?
12  Perfécto ódio óderam illos: * et inimíci facti sunt mihi.	22 I have hated them with a perfect hatred: and they have become enemies to me.
13  Proba me, Deus, et scito cor meum: * intérroga me, et cognósce sémitas meas.	23 Prove me, O God, and know my heart: examine me, and know my paths.
14  Et vide, si via iniquitátis in me est: * et deduc me in via æterna.	24 And see if there be in me the way of iniquity: and lead me in the eternal way

You can find the next part in this series here.

Psalm 138/2 verses 1-2

The opening verses of the second half of Psalm 138 focus on the image of night and day, perhaps echoing the reminder of God's creation of it in Psalm 73 at Matins today, and the darkness of hades depicted in Psalm 87 at Lauds.

	V	Et dixi: fórsitan ténebræ conculcábunt me: * et nox illuminátio mea in delíciis meis.
	NV	Si dixero: “ Forsitan tenebrae compriment me, et nox illuminatio erit circa me ”,
	JH	Si dixero, Forte tenebrae operient me ; nox quoque lux erit circa me ;
	Sept	καὶ εἶπα ἄρα σκότος καταπατήσει με καὶ νὺξ φωτισμὸς ἐν τῇ τρυφῇ μου

[Key: V=Vulgate; NV=Neo-vulgate; JH=St Jerome from the Hebrew; Sept=Septuagint]

Et (and) dixi (I said): Forsitan (perhaps/surely) tenebræ (the darkness) conculcabunt (they will trample on/conceal/hide) me; et (and) nox (night) illuminatio (the light) mea (my) [it will be] in deliciis (in the pleasures) meis (my). 

The meaning of this verse is obscure and disputed. In the first phrase, conculcabunt is used to translate a Hebrew verb that appears only in Genesis 3:15 and Job 9:17, to mean crush or bruise.  But in this context it is often suggested that it is a text corruption.  St Jerome translated the Hebrew as operient, or they cover/conceal, but the neo-Vulgate goes with compriment, they check or restrain.  In the second phrase, the Neo-Vulgate changes this verse to say 'the light of the night will be around me' reflecting the Hebrew.

forsitan, adv. (fors sit an, it may happen that), (1) perhaps, perchance, peradventure. (2) surely

tenebrae, arum, f.  darkness; ignorance; Sheol; misfortune. danger; horror, shuddering.

conculco, avi, atum, are to trample upon, tread under foot; fig., to despise, treat with contempt; to cover, conceal.

nox, noctis, f.  night

illuminatio onis f light

deliciae arum f delight, pleasure

DR	And I said: Perhaps darkness shall cover me: and night shall be my light in my pleasures.
Brenton	When I said, Surely the darkness will cover me; even the night was light in my luxury.
RSV	If I say, "Let only darkness cover me, and the light about me be night,"
Cover	If I say, Peradventure the darkness shall cover me, then shall my night be turned to day.
Knox	Or perhaps I would think to bury myself in darkness; night should surround me, friendlier than day;
Grail	If I say: "Let the darkness hide me and the light around me be night,"

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

Cassiodorus provides the explanation of this verse read as from the mouth of Christ: 

The first part of this verse is to be spoken ironically.  We often make certain statements ambivalently, though we can be in no doubt about them.  Take for example the words of another psalm, Perhaps they had swallowed us alive. and the rest.  How could darkness oppress Him, when it had no dominion over such great glory?  As He himself says: I am the light of the world.  Rather, He oppressed the darkness when by the light of His mercy He overcame the first man's blindness which was passed on to his descendents.  So in this sentence...those who had the temerity to suspect dark clouds of fear around him are being mocked; an explanation of this meaning follows when he says...How could He be oppressed by darkness when night was His light in His pleasures?  Night denotes the prison of hell, which He indeed illuminated when he shattered the devil's power and freed by His pity mankind whom he deigned to form to His image and likeness.  In my pleasures refers to Paradise, from which sins expelled the first man; but by the Lord's gift the souls of the saints through the resource of confession have returned to its pleasant haunts.  The thief who believed was told: Amen I say to you, this day thou wilt be with me in paradise.  Paradise means a most lovely place, and the eternal tranquility of the most blessed sweetness.

  

2/ 11	V	Quia ténebræ non obscurabúntur a te, et nox sicut dies illuminábitur: * sicut ténebræ ejus, ita et lumen ejus.
	NV	etiam tenebrae non obscurabuntur a te, et nox sicut dies illuminabitur sicut tenebrae eius ita et lumen eius -.
	JH	nec tenebrae habent tenebras apud te, et nox quasi dies lucet : similes sunt tenebrae et lux.
		ὅτι σκότος οὐ σκοτισθήσεται ἀπὸ σοῦ καὶ νὺξ ὡς ἡμέρα φωτισθήσεται ὡς τὸ σκότος αὐτῆς οὕτως καὶ τὸ φῶς αὐτῆς

 Quia (but) tenebræ (darkness) non obscurabuntur (it will not be darkened) a te (with you), et (and) nox (night) sicut (like) dies (day) illuminabitur (it will shine forth) : sicut (like/as/alike) tenebræ (the darkness) ejus (of him/it), ita  (so/thus) et (and) lumen (the light) ejus (of him/it).

quia, conj. for, because, that. truly, surely, indeed;  nisi quia, unless, if not

tenebrae, arum, f.  darkness; ignorance; Sheol; misfortune. danger; horror, shuddering.

obscuro are avi atum to make dark, darken, obscure

nox, noctis, f.  night.

dies, ei, m. and f fem.   a day, the natural day

illumino, avi, atum, are , to make or cause to shine, to enlighten, illuminate. to shine forth, to shine.

ita – so, thus, even, in this manner

DR	But darkness shall not be dark to thee, and night shall be light as day: the darkness thereof, and the light thereof are alike to thee.
Cover	Yea, the darkness is no darkness with thee, but the night is as clear as the day; the darkness and light to thee are both alike.
Knox	but no, darkness is no hiding-place from thee, with thee the night shines clear as day itself; light and dark are one.
Grail	even darkness is not dark for you and the night is as clear as the day.

This verse has attracted a wide range of interpretations.  Cassiodorus gives this verse a mystical interpretation, on the nature of infused knowledge:

Darkness denotes the mystical and deep content of the divine Scriptures; as we read in Proverbs: He understands also a parable and a dark saying, and in another psalm: Dark waters in the clouds of the air.  So this darkness shall not be darkened, but rather illuminated by the Lord, for the prophets' proclamation was fulfilled at His coming.  It is his custom to ascribe His own action to the Father, so that the joint work of the holy Trinity can be grasped.  Next comes: And night shall be light as the day.  The statements which had been like a dark night in their mystical complexity became bright as day when the words of the prophets were made clear...for the truth is in both, whether in apparent obscurities or in bright clarity.

St John Chrysostom's take is on the same lines, but focused less on the mystical, and more on the hidden, and often contradictory seeming nature of God's workings in his history, most especially the Cross:

Here darkness implies tribulation.  Now what he means is this: I was hemmed in with troubles, and I said to myself, Troubles will prevail over me...but all of a sudden trouble was turned into good - or, rather, it was not that trouble was turned into good, but that though trouble persisted I enjoyed great well-being.  He did not say, note, Night vanished, but Night was shining - that is while night remained night, it was obvious the troubles and disasters (he refers to these by the term night you see) did not succeed in trampling me underfoot; instead, light shone in the night, that is, support enveloping me.  Things turn into their opposites and appear so, after all, when God wishes..."Most of his works, in fact, are veiled in secrecy."  Did you not note that though it was day the Egyptians groped about as if in darkness, and though darkness covered everything the Israelites could see, and in the beginning when likewise it was dark the light shone in the midst?  The creator, you see, is lord of the nature of things everywhere, not for producing non-existent things but for causing existing things to give evidence of behaviour different from the natural...

St Augustine draws from this a moral for our own reaction to both prosperity and adversity:

Day to us is worldly prosperity, night adversity in this world: but, if we learn that it is by the desert of our sins that we suffer adversities, and our Father's scourges are sweet to us, that the Judge's sentence may not be bitter to us, so shall we find the darkness of this night to be, as it were, the light of this night....But when Christ our Lord has come, and has dwelt in the soul by faith, and promised other light, and inspired and given patience, and warned a man not to delight in prosperity or to be crushed by adversity, the man, being faithful, begins to treat this world with indifference; not to be lifted up when prosperity befalls him, nor crushed when adversity, but in all things to praise God, not only when he abounds, but also when he loses; not only when he is in health, but also when he is sick.. ..As is His darkness, so is also His light. His darkness overwhelms me not, because His light lifts me not up.

Pope Benedict XVI builds on this to remind us of the importance of God's presence to us:

The gaze and the manifestation of the Lord of being and time even penetrates the darkness, in which it is difficult to move about and see. His hand is always ready to grasp ours, to lead us on our earthly journey (cf. v. 10). This is not, therefore, a judgmental closeness that inspires terror, but a closeness of support and liberation. And so we can understand what the ultimate, essential content of this Psalm is:  it is a song of trust. God is always with us. Even in the darkest nights of our lives, he does not abandon us. Even in the most difficult moments, he remains present. And even in the last night, in the last loneliness in which no one can accompany us, the night of death, the Lord does not abandon us. He is with us even in this final solitude of the night of death. And we Christians can therefore be confident: we are never left on our own. God's goodness is always with us. 

Psalm 138/2 (139) – Et dixi: forsitan 

Vulgate	Douay-Rheims
1  Et dixi: Fórsitan ténebræ conculcábunt me: * et nox illuminátio mea in delíciis meis.	11 And I said: Perhaps darkness shall cover me: and night shall be my light in my pleasures.
2  Quia ténebræ non obscurabúntur a te, et nox sicut dies illuminábitur: * sicut ténebræ ejus, ita et lumen ejus.	12 But darkness shall not be dark to you, and night shall be light all the day: the darkness thereof, and the light thereof are alike to you.
3  Quia tu possedísti renes meos: * suscepísti me de útero matris meæ.	13 For you have possessed my reins: you have protected me from my mother's womb.
4  Confitébor tibi quia terribíliter magnificátus es: * mirabília ópera tua, et ánima mea cognóscit nimis.	14 I will praise you, for you are fearfully magnified: wonderful are your works, and my soul knows right well.
5  Non est occultátum os meum a te, quod fecísti in occúlto: * et substántia mea in inferióribus terræ.	15 My bone is not hidden from you, which you have made in secret: and my substance in the lower parts of the earth.
6  Imperféctum meum vidérunt óculi tui, et in libro tuo omnes scribéntur: * dies formabúntur, et nemo in eis.	16 Your eyes did see my imperfect being, and in your book all shall be written: days shall be formed, and no one in them.
7  Mihi autem nimis honorificáti sunt amíci tui, Deus: * nimis confortátus est principátus eórum.	17 But to me your friends, O God, are made exceedingly honourable: their principality is exceedingly strengthened.
8  Dinumerábo eos, et super arénam multiplicabúntur: * exsurréxi, et adhuc sum tecum.	18 I will number them, and they shall be multiplied above the sand, I rose up and am still with you.
9  Si occíderis, Deus, peccatóres: * viri sánguinum, declináte a me.	19 If you will kill the wicked, O God: you men of blood, depart from me:
10  Quia dícitis in cogitatióne: * Accípient in vanitáte civitátes tuas.	20 Because you say in thought: They shall receive your cities in vain.
11  Nonne qui odérunt te, Dómine, óderam? * et super inimícos tuos tabescébam?	21 Have I not hated them, O Lord, that hated you: and pined away because of your enemies?
12  Perfécto ódio óderam illos: * et inimíci facti sunt mihi.	22 I have hated them with a perfect hatred: and they have become enemies to me.
13  Proba me, Deus, et scito cor meum: * intérroga me, et cognósce sémitas meas.	23 Prove me, O God, and know my heart: examine me, and know my paths.
14  Et vide, si via iniquitátis in me est: * et deduc me in via æterna.	24 And see if there be in me the way of iniquity: and lead me in the eternal way

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

Introduction to Psalm 138 Pt 2

I noted in a previous post that St Benedict divides Psalm 138 into two in his Office, and so here is a brief introduction to the second half of the psalm.

Whereas the first half of the psalm focuses primarily on God's omniscience, this section takes up the theme of God's presence everywhere and in all things, as Benedict XVI pointed out in his commentary on it:

On the other hand, the second part of our Psalm (cf. vv. 7-12) is dedicated to the divine omnipresence. The illusory desire of human beings to flee from that presence is vividly described in it. The whole of space is steeped in it:  there is first of all the vertical axis "heaven-hell" (cf. v. 8), which gives way to the horizontal dimension which extends from dawn, that is, from the East, and reaches as far as the Mediterranean "sea's furthest end", that is, the West (cf. v. 9). Every sphere of space, even the most secret, contains God's active presence. 

This leads naturally to his works as creator, and especially as saviour, Pope Benedict explained:

…After contemplating in the first part (cf. vv. 1-12) the omniscient and omnipotent God, the Lord of being and history, this sapiential hymn of intense beauty and deep feeling now focuses on the loftiest, most marvellous reality of the entire universe:  man, whose being is described as a "wonder" of God (cf. v. 14).  Indeed, this topic is deeply in tune with the Christmas atmosphere we are living in these days in which we celebrate the great mystery of the Son of God who became man, indeed, became a Child, for our salvation.  After pondering on the gaze and presence of the Creator that sweeps across the whole cosmic horizon, in the second part of the Psalm on which we are meditating today God turns his loving gaze upon the human being, whose full and complete beginning is reflected upon. 

In fact, as for the first half of the psalm, St Benedict's contemporary Cassiodorus places the text on the lips of Christ during his prayer in the Garden, viewing it as in effect a meditation on the divine and human natures of Christ, particularly as he gets ready to confront those enemies who would cause his death.

Connections through the day?

It is worth noting, I think, that this psalm contains more than a few resonances with the opening psalm of Thursday at Matins, Psalm 73, setting the scene for many of the recurring ideas in the psalmody of the day.  Psalm 73, for example, says:

17  Tuus est dies, et tua est nox: * tu fabricátus es auróram et solem.

16 Yours is the day, and yours is the night: you have made the morning light and the sun.

Psalm 138 ponders on whether it is possible to hide from God in the darkness, but realises of course that day and night are alike to God:

1  Et dixi: Fórsitan ténebræ conculcábunt me: * et nox illuminátio mea in delíciis meis.	11 And I said: Perhaps darkness shall cover me: and night shall be my light in my pleasures.
2  Quia ténebræ non obscurabúntur a te, et nox sicut dies illuminábitur: * sicut ténebræ ejus, ita et lumen ejus.	12 But darkness shall not be dark to you, and night shall be light all the day: the darkness thereof, and the light thereof are alike to you.

Similarly, Psalm 138 raises the difficult challenges posed by God's enemies for us:

11  Nonne qui odérunt te, Dómine, óderam? * et super inimícos tuos tabescébam?	21 Have I not hated them, O Lord, that hated you: and pined away because of your enemies?
12  Perfécto ódio óderam illos: * et inimíci facti sunt mihi.	22 I have hated them with a perfect hatred: and they have become enemies to me.

On the face of it, these verses seem to run counter to the Gospel injunction to love our enemies.  The Fathers provide a number of solutions for this, the most compelling being to interpret it as meaning hate the sin even while loving the sinner.  Psalm 73, though, perhaps helps explains the context for these lines, for it is a lament for the destruction of Jerusalem, and above all, of the desecration of the Temple and attempts to suppress true religion.  Both psalms can be read as referring to those who plotted the death of Christ the true Temple, and remained unrepentant, and so condemned themselves.

Psalm 138, though, ends in a confident affirmation of salvation, and can be read as taking us back to Psalm 73's central verse:

13  Deus autem Rex noster ante sæcula: * operátus est salútem in médio terræ.

12 But God is our king before ages: he has wrought salvation in the midst of the earth.

Psalm 138/2 (139) – Et dixi: forsitan 

Vulgate	Douay-Rheims
1  Et dixi: Fórsitan ténebræ conculcábunt me: * et nox illuminátio mea in delíciis meis.	11 And I said: Perhaps darkness shall cover me: and night shall be my light in my pleasures.
2  Quia ténebræ non obscurabúntur a te, et nox sicut dies illuminábitur: * sicut ténebræ ejus, ita et lumen ejus.	12 But darkness shall not be dark to you, and night shall be light all the day: the darkness thereof, and the light thereof are alike to you.
3  Quia tu possedísti renes meos: * suscepísti me de útero matris meæ.	13 For you have possessed my reins: you have protected me from my mother's womb.
4  Confitébor tibi quia terribíliter magnificátus es: * mirabília ópera tua, et ánima mea cognóscit nimis.	14 I will praise you, for you are fearfully magnified: wonderful are your works, and my soul knows right well.
5  Non est occultátum os meum a te, quod fecísti in occúlto: * et substántia mea in inferióribus terræ.	15 My bone is not hidden from you, which you have made in secret: and my substance in the lower parts of the earth.
6  Imperféctum meum vidérunt óculi tui, et in libro tuo omnes scribéntur: * dies formabúntur, et nemo in eis.	16 Your eyes did see my imperfect being, and in your book all shall be written: days shall be formed, and no one in them.
7  Mihi autem nimis honorificáti sunt amíci tui, Deus: * nimis confortátus est principátus eórum.	17 But to me your friends, O God, are made exceedingly honourable: their principality is exceedingly strengthened.
8  Dinumerábo eos, et super arénam multiplicabúntur: * exsurréxi, et adhuc sum tecum.	18 I will number them, and they shall be multiplied above the sand, I rose up and am still with you.
9  Si occíderis, Deus, peccatóres: * viri sánguinum, declináte a me.	19 If you will kill the wicked, O God: you men of blood, depart from me:
10  Quia dícitis in cogitatióne: * Accípient in vanitáte civitátes tuas.	20 Because you say in thought: They shall receive your cities in vain.
11  Nonne qui odérunt te, Dómine, óderam? * et super inimícos tuos tabescébam?	21 Have I not hated them, O Lord, that hated you: and pined away because of your enemies?
12  Perfécto ódio óderam illos: * et inimíci facti sunt mihi.	22 I have hated them with a perfect hatred: and they have become enemies to me.
13  Proba me, Deus, et scito cor meum: * intérroga me, et cognósce sémitas meas.	23 Prove me, O God, and know my heart: examine me, and know my paths.
14  Et vide, si via iniquitátis in me est: * et deduc me in via æterna.	24 And see if there be in me the way of iniquity: and lead me in the eternal way

Liturgical uses of the Psalm

NT references	Rom11:33 (16-17)
RB cursus	Thurs Vespers+AN 2367 (1)
Monastic feasts etc	2 Vespers of Apostles (+John the Baptist, St Benedict, St Joseph) AN 1881 (17)
Roman pre 1911	Friday Vespers
Responsories	7457 (alt verse) Aug Wisdom (10), 7215 (17);
Roman post 1911	1911-62: Friday Vespers  . 1970:
Mass propers (EF)	Vigil of SS Peter and Paul, OF (16); St Thomas GR (17-18)

You can find the first set of verse by verse notes on this part of the psalm here.