aka the Psalms Blog. A blog on Scripture in line with the "new exegetical movement" proposed by Pope Benedict XVI, with a particular focus on the psalms.
3 The floods have lifted up,
O Lord: the floods
have lifted up their voice
5 Elevavérunt flúmina fluctus suos, * a vócibus aquárum multárum.
The floods have lifted up their
waves, 4 with the noise of many waters.
6 Mirábiles elatiónes maris: * mirábilis in altis Dóminus.
Wonderful are the surges of the
sea: wonderful is the Lord
on high.
7 Testimónia tua
credibília facta sunt nimis: * domum tuam decet sanctitúdo, Dómine, in
longitúdinem diérum.
5 Your testimonies have
become exceedingly credible: holiness becomes your
house, O Lord, unto
length of days.
The kingship of Christ
The reasons for Psalm 92's use in the festal Office are obvious: this is the first of a group of psalms (to Psalm 99) that proclaim the kingship of God, and looks forward to the establishment of his dominion over the earth.
St Alphonsus Liguori, for example, comments:
The psalmist exalts the power that God manifested in creating heaven and earth; and transporting himself in thought to the first moment of creation, he represents to himself God, who in some way proceeds from the mystery of his eternal existence, in order to reveal himself in the production of creatures.
The reasons for its omission in St Benedict's original version of the Benedictine Office perhaps rather less so.
It is true of course that it contains no clear references to morning prayer or dawn. Still, verses 1-2 and 6 are certainly interpreted by the Fathers as references to the future after the Resurrection, so it fits in well with the general themes we have identified in the psalms of Lauds, thus perhaps explaining its ready acceptance in later versions of the Office.
The days of creation in the Office
One possibility is that St Benedict felt its particular relevance to the day of the week, suggested by the title (reflecting its use in the temple on thatday according to the Talmid), outweighed its relevance to his Lauds themes.
In the past I've mainly talked about a cycle around the life of Christ built into the Benedictine Office, but there are also traces, I think, of a (not unrelated) cycle around the seven days of creation.
St Augustine provides the explanation of how this psalm fits with that:
It is entitled, The Song of praise of David himself, on the day before the Sabbath, when the earth was founded.
Remembering then what God did through all those days, when He made and ordained all things, from the first up to the sixth day (for the seventh He sanctified, because He rested on that day after all the works, which He made very good), we find that He created on the sixth day (which day is here mentioned, in that he says, before the Sabbath) all animals on the earth; lastly, He on that very day created man in His own likeness and image. For these days were not without reason ordained in such order, but for that ages also were to run in a like course, before we rest in God. But then we rest if we do good works....
And because these good works are doomed to pass away, that sixth day also, when those very good works are perfected, has an evening; but in the Sabbath we find no evening, because our rest shall have no end: for evening is put for end. As therefore God made man in His own image on the sixth day: thus we find that our Lord Jesus Christ came into the sixth age, that man might be formed anew after the image of God.
For the first period, as the first day, was from Adam until Noah: the second, as the second day, from Noah unto Abraham: the third, as the third day, from Abraham unto David: the fourth, as the fourth day, from David unto the removal to Babylon: the fifth period, as the fifth day, from the removal to Babylon unto the preaching of John. The sixth day begins from the preaching of John, and lasts unto the end: and after the end of the sixth day, we reach our rest. The sixth day, therefore, is even now passing. And it is now the sixth day, see what the title has; On the day before the Sabbath, when the earth was founded.
In this light, Cassiodorus, for example, sees this psalm as primarily celebrating the Incarnation of Christ rather than the Resurrection. He suggests that:
The first topic describes His beauty, the second His strength, the third His deed, the fourth His power, the fifth praises of the whole creation, the sixth the truth of His words, and the last praise of His house which fittingly basks in eternal joy...
It is worth noting that while some of the Fathers (including St Benedict in my view) seem to place the Incarnation on Sunday or Monday in their schemas, others linked the Incarnation with the creation of man on the sixth day and our redemption through the cross in their commentaries on the Hexameron.
In any case, St Benedict perhaps preferred to focus Lauds on Friday on the major theme of the day, namely the Passion, and on Sunday, to psalms with a more overt focus on the Resurrection, such as Psalm 117.
And you can notes on the last psalm in this series on Lauds, Psalm 99, here.
The Crucifixion and the Harrowing of Hell in a New Testament,
Sicilian, late 1100s.
The J. Paul Getty Museum, Ms. Ludwig I 5, fol. 191v
Psalm 91 (92): Bonum
est confiteri Dominum - Friday Lauds
Vulgate
Douay-Rheims
Psalmus cantici, in die
sabbati.
A psalm of a canticle on the sabbath
day.
1 Bonum est confitéri Dómino: * et psállere nómini tuo, altíssime.
It is good to give praise to
the Lord: and to
sing to your name, O
most High.
2 Ad annuntiándum manemisericórdiam tuam: * et veritátem tuam per noctem
3 To show forth your mercy
in the morning, and your truth
in the night:
3 In decachórdo,
psaltério: * cum cántico, in cíthara.
4 Upon an instrument of ten
strings, upon the psaltery: with a canticle upon the harp.
4. Quia delectásti me, Dómine, in
factúra tua: * et in opéribus mánuum tuárum exsultábo.
5 For you have given me, O Lord, a delight in your
doings: and in the works of your hands I shall rejoice.
5 Quam magnificáta sunt ópera tua, Dómine! * nimis profúndæ factæ sunt cogitatiónes
tuæ
6 O Lord, how great are
your works! your thoughts are exceeding deep.
6 Vir insípiens non
cognóscet: * et stultus non intélliget hæc.
7 The senseless man shall not know: nor will the fool
understand these things.
7 Cum exórti fúerint
peccatóres sicut fœnum: * et apparúerint omnes, qui operántur iniquitátem.
8 When the wicked shall spring up
as grass: and all the workers of iniquity shall appear:
8 Ut intéreant in sæculum
sæculi: * tu autem Altíssimus in ætérnum, Dómine.
That they may perish for ever and
ever: 9 But you, O Lord,
are most high for evermore.
9 Quóniam ecce
inimíci tui, Dómine, quóniam ecce inimíci tui períbunt: * et dispergéntur
omnes, qui operántur iniquitátem.
10 For behold your enemies,
O lord, for behold your enemies shall perish: and all the workers of iniquity shall be
scattered.
10. Et exaltábitur sicut
unicórnis cornu meum: * et senéctus mea in misericórdia úberi.
11 But my horn shall be
exalted like that of the unicorn: and my old age in plentiful mercy.
11 Et despéxit óculus
meus inimícos meos: * et in insurgéntibus in me malignántibus áudiet auris
mea.
12 My eye also has looked
down upon my enemies: and my ear shall hear of the downfall of the malignant
that rise up against me.
12 Justus, ut palma florébit: * sicut
cedrus Líbani multiplicábitur.
13 The just shall flourish
like the palm tree: he shall grow up like the cedar of Libanus.
13 Plantáti in domo Dómini, * in átriis domus Dei nostri
florébunt.
14 They that are planted in
the house of the Lord
shall flourish in the courts
of the house of our God.
14 Adhuc
multiplicabúntur in senécta úberi: * et bene patiéntes erunt, ut
annúntient:
15 They shall still increase
in a fruitful old age: and shall be well treated, 16 that they may show,
15 Quóniam rectus Dóminus,
Deus noster: * et non est iníquitas in eo.
That the Lord our God is
righteous, and there is no iniquity in him.
Christ our high priest
The title of this psalm indicates that it was said on Saturday (the Sabbath) in Jewish tradition: it was sung in the Temple on the Sabbath at the offering of the first lamb in the morning, when the wine was poured out. It has retained that position in the Roman Office through several sets of reforms.
St Benedict, though, moved it to Friday for obvious symbolic reasons, as Patrick Reardon has pointed out:
"That liturgical setting of Psalm 91 in the ancient temple goes far to explain its traditional use in the Church. From times past remembering, the sixth-century Rule of St. Benedict testifies to the primitive Christian custom of chanting this psalm at daybreak on Friday, the true Pascha and Atonement Day, on which the Lamb of God took away the sins of the world. Thus, the "mercy" declared "in the morning" bears a most specific sense, for our Friday is both Yom Kippur and Passover, the day of that "darkness over the whole earth," the three hours of that ninth plague immediately prior to the atoning death of the Firstborn, the sprinkling of that paschal blood without which there is no remission. Prayed on Friday mornings, as the ancient Western monastic rule prescribed, this psalm reminds the Church why it is no longer necessary to make the daily offering of lambs in the temple, for those sacrifices had only "a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very image of the things" (Heb. 10:1)." Christ in the Psalms, pg 181
The psalm reminds us that to secular man, the cross is a scandal, a senseless waste, not an atoning triumph:
Vir insípiens non cognóscet: * et stultus non intélliget hæc. The senseless man shall not know: nor will the fool understand these things.
Towards the Resurrection
One of the interesting features of the Benedictine Office, in my view, is that St Benedict doesn't actually dwell much on Christ's sufferings, but always places them in the context of the Resurrection and life to come: his main focus is Christ's divinity not his humanity.
On Sundays, for example, when we have a weekly celebration of the Resurrection, we also say the psalms Christ said on the cross (Psalms 20 forward); on Friday's, though there are multiple allusions to the Passion, his selection of psalms for this purpose all look forward to the future.
This may in part be something of a response to the heresies of his time: the Arian and monophysite heresies were rife in the early sixth century, and much effort was expended at this time to combat them and their many variants.
In our time, these heresies seem to be thriving once again, so it is useful to consider the messages embedded in the Office that can serve as a correction to these errors. In the case of Psalm 91, for example, St Augustine reminds that:
We are not Christians, except on account of a future life: let no one hope for present blessings, let no one promise himself the happiness of the world, because he is a Christian: but let him use the happiness he has, as he may, in what manner he may, when he may, as far as he may. When it is present, let him give thanks for the consolation of God: when it is wanting, let him give thanks to the Divine justice. Let him always be grateful, never ungrateful: let him be grateful to his Father, who soothes and caresses him: and grateful to his Father when He chastens him with the scourge, and teaches him: for He ever loves, whether He caress or threaten: and let him say what you have heard in the Psalm.
The message then, it seems to me, is that though in this life we are called on to 'share by patience in the sufferings of Christ', this is not an end in itself; rather it is so that 'we may deserve to be partakers also of his kingdom'. (Prologue to the Rule of St Benedict).
How then do we share in the sufferings of Christ? Cassiodorus' commentary on the psalms argues that the true sabbath is about 'rest' from sin:
The sabbath day denotes rest, by which we are schooled to desist from all vicious action, and by the holiness of heavenly deeds to give our minds a holiday from vices.
The psaltery and harp: word study
A little meme that recurs in several places in the psalms are references to the psaltery (psalterium, iin, a stringed instrument) and harp (cithara -ae f):
Psalm 42 (Tuesday):
5
Confitébor tibi in cíthara, Deus, Deus meus:
To you, O
God my God, I will give praise upon the harp:
Arise, O
my glory, arise psaltery and harp: I will arise early.
Psalm 91
3 In decachórdo, psaltério: * cum cántico, in cíthara.
4 Upon an instrument of ten strings, upon the psaltery: with a canticle upon the harp.
And of course there are the references in the Laudate psalms said at Lauds each day:
Psalm 149
3 Laudent nomen ejus in choro: * in tympano, et
psaltério psallant ei.
3 Let
them praise hisnamein choir: let them sing to him with
the timbrel and the psaltery.
Psalm 150
3 Laudáte eum in sono tubæ: * laudáte eum in psaltério, et
cíthara.
3 Praise
him with the sound of trumpet: praise him with psaltery and harp.
(See also Psalms 32, 48, 70, 80,107, 143 and 146).
In each case the verse can be read literally, presenting a contrast between the beautiful music of the just, and the bitter words of evil-doers. But in each case the Fathers and Theologians also saw a spiritual level of meaning to the allusions.
The instruments themselves have particular resonances. Revelation 5:8-10, for example describes those singing the 'new song' referred to in these psalms:
And when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each holding a harp, and with golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints; and they sang a new song, saying, "Worthy art thou to take the scroll and to open its seals,for thou wast slain and by thy blood didst ransom men for God from every tribe and tongue and people and nation, and hast made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on earth."
St Bede gives these verses a particularly Benedictine interpretation:
For by "harps," in which strings are stretched on wood, are represented bodies prepared to die, and by "bowls", hearts expanded in breadth of love.
Similarly, the ten-stringed instrument (decacordus a um or decacordum i n) of today's psalm:
In decachórdo, psaltério: * cum cántico, in cíthara. Upon an instrument of ten strings, upon the psaltery: with a canticle upon the harp. (Ps 91)
and which also occurs in Psalm 143, said at Vespers tonight (Friday)
Deus, cánticum novum cantábo tibi: * in psaltério, decachórdo psallam tibi. To you, O God, I will sing a new canticle: on the psaltery and an instrument of ten strings I will sing praises to you.
can be seen as an allusion to the ten commandments. St Thomas Aquinas, for example, in his commentary on Psalm 2, says:
Mystically speaking, however, by the ten strings of the psalterium is signified the law of God, which consists in ten commandments, and it is appropriate that it be touched with the hand, that is with good performance, and from above, because these commandments are to be satisfied according to the hope of eternal life, otherwise it would be touched from what is below.
St Augustine's commentary on a similar verse in Psalm 32 summarises the message as:
Praise the Lord with harp: praise the Lord, presenting unto Him your bodies a living sacrifice. Sing unto Him with the psaltery for ten strings let your members be servants to the love of God, and of your neighbour, in which are kept both the three and the seven commandments.
Cassiodorus builds on this to argue that:
Clearly the ten-stringed psaltery denotes the ten commandments of the Law, for they are strings which if we strum with the character of goodly deeds will play the tune of salvation and lead to the kingdom of heaven... He added: With canticle and harp; these represent the joy of good works, in other words, the pleasure shown in distributing alms. As Paul says: God loves a cheerful giver? Harp indicates active deeds which though achieved with toil and tension will bear the greatest fruit if fulfilled with the addition of joy. The man who performs good works without harsh melancholy is singing with the harp.
The psalm as a whole, Cassiodorus argued, urges us to good works that we may rest with God eternally:
...we must give thanks to the Godhead in all our actions; for psalm, as has often been stated, denotes spiritual works which rise upwards to the Lord Christ. In them we should sing and ever offer thanks, for by His kindness we are freed, whereas by our own efforts we were bound with the chains of sins. The person who devotes all his life to giving thanks is singing a psalm.
Let us, then, gives thanks each Friday in particular, for Christ's saving sacrifice.
More on this psalm
The table below summarises the liturgical uses of the psalm.
NT references
Rom 11:33 (vs5)
RB cursus
Friday Lauds
Monastic/(Roman) feasts etc
Holy Sat Tenebrae Lauds;
Common of a martyr
An 4433 (6)
AN 3547, IN 1096 (13-14)
AN 4296 (14)
Responsories
Easter4&5 v2 (6256),
6021 (3)
7071 (13-14)
Common of a martyr no 3, 7060 (14)
Roman pre 1911
Sat Lauds
Roman post 1911
1911-62: Sat Lauds .
1970: Lauds on Saturday of the second
week of the year
Mass propers (EF)
Septuagesima Sunday
OF (1, 6, 11-12)
Lent 2 Sat, GR (1-2);
PP14, 15 Grad (1-2);
Birthday of John
Baptist IN (1)
Common of a dr IN (1)
Common of a confessor
not a bishop IN (2. 13, 14),
Psalm 89: Domine
refugium factus es nobis - Thursday Lauds
Vulgate
Douay-Rheims
Oratio Moysi, hominis Dei.
A prayer of Moses the man of God.
1 Dómine, refúgium factus es
nobis: * a generatióne in generatiónem.
Lord, you have been our
refuge from generation
to generation.
2 Priúsquam montes
fíerent, aut formarétur terra et orbis: * a sæculo et usque in sæculum tu es,
Deus.
2 Before
the mountains were made, or the earth and the world was formed; from eternity and to eternity you are God.
3 Ne avértas hóminem
in humilitátem: * et dixísti: Convertímini, fílii hóminum.
3 Turn
not man away to be
brought low: and you have said: Be converted, O you sons
of men.
4 Quóniam mille anni
ante óculos tuos, * tamquam dies hestérna, quæ prætériit.
4 For
a thousand years in your sight are as yesterday, which is past.
5 Et custódia in nocte, * quæ pro níhilo habéntur, eórum anni
erunt.
And as a watch in the night, things that are counted nothing, shall their years
be.
6 Mane sicut herba
tránseat, mane flóreat, et tránseat: * véspere décidat, indúret et aréscat.
6In
the morning man
shall grow up like grass; in the morning he shall flourish and pass away: in
the evening he shall fall, grow dry, and wither.
7 Quia defécimus in ira tua, * et in furóre tuo turbáti sumus.
7 For
in your wrath we
have fainted away: and are troubled in your indignation.
8 Posuísti iniquitátes
nostras in conspéctu tuo: * sæculum nostrum in illuminatióne vultus tui.
8 You
have set our iniquities
before your eyes: our life in the light of your countenance.
9 Quóniam omnes dies
nostri defecérunt: * et in ira tua defécimus.
9 For
all our days are spent; and in your wrath we have fainted
away.
10 Anni nostri sicut aránea meditabúntur: * dies annórum nostrórum
in ipsis, septuagínta anni.
Our years shall be considered as
a spider: The days of our years in them are
threescore and ten years.
11 Si autem in
potentátibus, octogínta anni: * et ámplius eórum, labor et dolor.
But if in the strong they be
fourscore years: and what is more of them is labour and sorrow.
12 Quóniam supervénit
mansuetúdo: * et corripiémur.
For mildness has come upon us:
and we shall be corrected.
13 Quis novit potestátem
iræ tuæ: * et præ timóre tuo iram tuam dinumeráre?
11 Who
knows the power of
your anger, and for
your fear can number your wrath?
14 Déxteram tuam sic notam
fac: * et erudítos corde in sapiéntia.
So make your right hand known: and men learned in heart,
in wisdom.
15 Convértere, Dómine, úsquequo? * et deprecábilis esto super
servos tuos.
13 Return,
O Lord, how long?
And be entreated in favour of your servants.
16 Repléti sumus mane misericórdia tua: * et exsultávimus, et
delectáti sumus ómnibus diébus nostris.
14 We
are filled in the morning with your mercy: and we have rejoiced, and are
delighted all our days.
17 Lætáti sumus pro diébus, quibus nos humiliásti: * annis,
quibus vídimus mala.
15 We
have rejoiced for the days in which you have humbled us: for the
years in which we have seen evils.
18 Réspice in servos
tuos, et in ópera tua: * et dírige fílios eórum.
16 Look
upon your servants and upon their works: and direct their children.
19 Et sit splendor Dómini Dei nostri super nos, et ópera
mánuum nostrárum dírige super nos: * et opus mánuum nostrárum dírige.
17And
let the brightness of the Lord
our God be upon us: and direct the works of our hands over us; yea, the
work of our hands do you direct.
Psalm 89, it seems to me, is the high point of this set of Lauds psalms, and key to understanding the whole set. Attributed to Moses, it not only contains many references to morning and light, it also provides the link between these and the truth and mercy theme.
Truth and mercy
The overarching theme is God's eternity, compared to the ephemeral nature of our life on this earth. And against this background God confronts us with the truth about ourselves:
You have set our iniquities before your eyes: our life in the light of your countenance.
Sinful and doomed to die, mankind lies suffering, awaiting God's mercy; then the Lord indeed arrives on this earth, creating for us a morning that is the dawn of the new creation, where in we can live forever with God:
We are filled in the morning with your mercy: and we have rejoiced, and are delighted all our days.
What is necessary for this to occur: that we cultivate humility, and allow the Lord to direct the works of our hands:
We have rejoiced for the days in which you have humbled us: for the years in which we have seen evils....and direct the works of our hands over us; yea, the work of our hands do you direct.
Cassiodorus and many others saw this is as a key prayer, perhaps used daily by the people in their desert wanderings, and in his introduction to it, he offers a mini-treatise on the effects of prayer:
A prayer, by which the
Lord's anger is deferred, pardon gained, punishment avoided, and generous
rewards obtained when he speaks to the Lord, gossips with the Judge, and
pictures before his eyes Him whom he cannot see.
By his prayer he placates Him
whom he eagerly exalts by his actions.
Prayer in some sense affords cloistered
converse with the Lord, and offers an opportunity for intimations; the sinner
is granted access to the Judge's inner sanctum, and the only person rejected is
he who is found lukewarm in his prayer.
He seeks what he desires, he acquires
more than he deserves. He approaches his prayer with melancholy, but departs
from it in gladness.
Prayer which is holy saves the committed and makes them blessed;
it also welcomes the wicked. There are countless examples of this blessing, but
it must suffice that the Lord Himself in giving us precepts for living deigned
to pray. So it is appropriate that a prayer was placed before this noble and great
man, who often softened the angry Lord with a marvellous mode of entreaty for
us to follow.
Cassiodorus summarises the content of the psalm as follows:
Moses,
a most holy man remarkable for his achievements, and venerable because of his
converse with God, begins in the first section with praise of the Judge,
briefly recounting His kindnesses and His power. Next he asks for support for
our weakness, which he demonstrates with many instances. Thirdly, he begs that
the coming of the Lord Saviour may become known more quickly, for he knew that
it would afford benefits for the human race.
Life expectancy and the number of the psalms
Cassiodorus offers another reason for seeing this psalm as a key to the others, and that goes to the life expectancy of men (70 year or 80 if...) and the number of the psalms (ie 70+80=150).
The Fathers viewed numbers as part of the divine law, inherent in creation, as Cassiodorus explains here:
Let
us ponder, men of the greatest wisdom, how many mysteries of the sacred law are
revealed to us by the various numbers. ..Other mysteries of the divine law are contained in various numbers. We read that the grains of sand of the sea, the drops of rain, the hairs of men's heads are counted. So that we may in brief grasp the praise and power of the discipline of number, Solomon says that God has ordered all things in measure and number and weight. Thus it becomes clear and indubitable to all that the discipline of arithmetic is pervasive everywhere.
In this particular case, he notes:
Moses here by computation of the numbers
seventy and eighty draws the lives of men together. The entire sequence of
psalms is embraced by that number...
Cassiodorus also alludes to the number symbolism here as referring to the combination of Old and New Testaments - the old symbolised by the seven days of creation (and perhaps also the 70 translators of the Septuagint); the new by the eighth day of the new creation.
Light
This psalm includes several references to the illuminating power of God, from lux, lucis (light), including:
8 Posuísti iniquitátes nostras in conspéctu tuo: * sæculum nostrum in illuminatióne vultus tui.
8 You have set our iniquities before your eyes: our life in the light of your countenance.
and
19 Et sit splendor Dómini Dei nostri super nos, et ópera mánuum nostrárum dírige super nos: * et opus mánuum nostrárum dírige.
17And let the brightness of the Lord our God be upon us: and direct the works of our hands over us; yea, the work of our hands do you direct.
It is worth noting that the expression that St Benedict uses in his rule (in the received text) on the time for Lauds is 'qui incipiente luce agendi sunt', or when light begins, starts to take hold. He also uses a word frequently used in these psalms to describe the hour itself: matutinis. In Scripture, first light and dawn are often described by reference to light for example: before the light (ante lucem, Psalm 62); at first light (prima luce, 1 Esdras 9:41); morning light (lux matutinas); lux aurora; light shining in the darkness; and so forth.
The most beautifully poetic of these is surely that of Psalm 18 (Prime on Saturday):
5 In sole pósuit tabernáculum suum: * et ipse tamquam sponsus procédens de thálamo suo.
He has set his tabernacle in the sun: and he as a bridegroom coming out of his bridechamber,
6 Exsultávit ut gigas ad curréndam viam, * a summo cælo egréssio ejus.
Has rejoiced as a giant to run the way: His going out is from the end of heaven,
