The psalms verse by verse: Psalm 3 (v7) - now for a bit of smiting!

We’ve reached verse 7, the second last verse, in this verse by verse study of Psalm 3 drawing on the catechesis of Pope Benedict XVI, and its one of those good old-fashioned smiting verses that give modern readers so much trouble. Accordingly, it is worth looking at how to interpret it properly.

Psalm 3 so far...

Here is the psalm so far, with today’s verse highlighted:

Dómine quid multiplicáti sunt qui tríbulant me? * multi insúrgunt advérsum me.
Multi dicunt ánimæ meæ: * Non est salus ipsi in Deo ejus.
Tu autem, Dómine, suscéptor meus es, * glória mea, et exáltans caput meum.
Voce mea ad Dóminum clamávi: * et exaudívit me de monte sancto suo.
Ego dormívi, et soporátus sum: * et exsurréxi, quia Dóminus suscépit me.
Non timébo míllia pópuli circumdántis me: * exsúrge, Dómine, salvum me fac, Deus meus.

Quóniam tu percussísti omnes adversántes mihi sine causa: * dentes peccatórum contrivísti.
For thou hast struck all them who are my adversaries without cause: thou hast broken the teeth of sinners.

The first point to note is that Pope Benedict XVI, in his catechesis on the psalm, does not back away from the strong message this verse sends to those who oppose Christ and those who stand for him and do his work:

“The enemy’s visible, massive, impressive attack is countered by the invisible presence of God with all his invincible power. And it is to him that the Psalmist, after his trusting words, once again addresses the prayer: “Arise, O Lord! Deliver me, O my God!”. His assailants “are rising” (cf. v. 2) against their victim; instead the One who will “arise” is the Lord and it will be to defeat them. God will deliver him, answering his cry. Thus the Psalm ends with the vision of liberation from the peril that kills, and from the temptation that can cause us to perish. After addressing his plea to the Lord to arise and deliver him, the praying person describes the divine victory: the enemies — who with their unjust and cruel oppression are the symbol of all that opposes God and his plan of salvation — are defeated. Struck on the mouth, they will no longer attack with their destructive violence and will be unable to instil evil and doubt in God’s presence and action. Their senseless and blasphemous talk is denied once and for all and is reduced to silence by the Lord's saving intervention.”

Let’s look at the text in more detail, then come back to its message.

Verse 7 phrase by phrase

Quóniam tu percussísti =for you have smitten/struck/slayed

omnes adversántes mihi = all opposing/resisting to me without cause = all who were resisting me/my enemies/adversaries

sine causa = without cause/reason (relates back to the adversantes)

dentes peccatórum = the teeth of sinners  Note that the neo-Vulgate changes the teeth to the jaw (maxilla), following the Hebrew Masoretic Text.

contrivísti = you have broken

God smites the enemy

Psalm 3 is one of those psalms that anthropomorphizes and uses vivid imagery that the modern ear may find uncomfortable. But there is a real message for us here that the stark language is meant to make us notice.   We can take it as read that this is poetry – it isn’t meant to be taken too literally. We can interpret images like ‘break the teeth’ as meaning ‘render harmless’, or as St Thomas Aquinas puts it, ‘you have rendered their lying words ineffectual’ for example.  And in fact, the Vulgate actually softens the Hebrew to some degree.

Still, in this verse God engages in a bit of smiting, striking down the psalmist’s enemies, and breaking their teeth, giving us a vivid imagery of a bar brawl or similar. This isn’t exactly how we tend to think of God acting these days, or encouraging us to act on his behalf! Yet the Fathers and Theologians consistently read this verse as a reminder that error – whether in the form of heresy, paganism or atheism – should not be tolerated, but taken head on. Yes, it will cause enemies to rise up against us and attack.  But just as Our Lord wasn’t backward about using strong words to correct the errors prevalent in his day, and those who propagated them, neither should we, for God will protect and sustain us.

Vocabulary

quoniam, conj., for, because, since, seeing that, whereas.
percuto, cussi, cussum, ere 3 to smite, strike; to kill, slay
omnis, e, all, each, every; subst., all men, all things, everything
adversor, atus sum, ari to oppose, resist, withstand, to be ill-disposed towards any one.
causa, ae,  cause, reason; sine causa, without cause, without good reason, unjustly; in vain, to no purpose.
dens, dentis, m. a tooth
peccator, oris, m. a sinner, transgressor; the wicked, the godless.
contero, trivi, Itum, ere 3, to break, crush, destroy

And now for the last part of this series on Psalm 3.

Psalm 3: Non timebo (v6)

David defeats the Philistines,
Morgan Bible c1240-50

Continuing on with Psalm 3, here are the verses we have looked at so far, together with today’s verse highlighted:

Dómine quid multiplicáti sunt qui tríbulant me? * multi insúrgunt advérsum me.
Multi dicunt ánimæ meæ: * Non est salus ipsi in Deo ejus.
Tu autem, Dómine, suscéptor meus es, * glória mea, et exáltans caput meum.
Voce mea ad Dóminum clamávi: * et exaudívit me de monte sancto suo.
Ego dormívi, et soporátus sum: * et exsurréxi, quia Dóminus suscépit me.
Non timébo míllia pópuli circumdántis me: * exsúrge, Dómine, salvum me fac, Deus meus.

Verse 6: Non timebo

The Douay-Rheims translates this verse as “I will not fear thousands of the people, surrounding me: arise, O Lord; save me, O my God.”

The previous verse told us that the psalmist was able to lie and down and sleep, confident of the Lord’s protection.  Here he has woken, refreshed and ready to do battle, even against seemingly hopeless odds. Pope Benedict XVI comments:

“And, on reawakening he finds God still beside him, as a custodian who does not fall asleep (cf. Ps 121[120]:3-4), who sustains him, who holds his hand, who never abandons him. The fear of death is vanquished by the presence of One who never dies. And even the night that is peopled by atavistic fears, the sorrowful night of solitude and anguished waiting is now transformed: what evoked death became the presence of the Eternal One.”

Phrase by phrase

Here’s a phrase by phrase literal translation:

Non timébo = I will not fear

míllia pópuli = thousands of people

Millia here is being used as a substantive, meaning a host or multitude.

circumdántis me = surrounding me

The verb circumdare has an implication of hostile intent; in short, the lynch mob is gathering.

exsúrge, Dómine = arise O Lord

Exsurge Domine is a frequently used phrase in the psalms – the Lord of course does not literally arise, as if he had been idle. Rather, this was the ancient battle cry of Israel, which we too can adopt as expressing our hope of the resurrection.

salvum me fac =save me

Salvum facere means to save, keep safe, preserve from harm

Deus meus = my God

Psalm 3 as an invitatory

I mentioned earlier in this series that Psalm 3 is said daily as a second invitatory at Matins in the traditional form of the Benedictine Office, and this verse I suspect particularly encapsulates some of the reasons St Benedict accorded it this privileged position. 

St Benedict in his own life was forced to flee friends and enemies on more than a few occasions: he fled to a religious community in the small town of Affile from the dissipation of the Rome of his time when he was a student; from the suffocating attention he received there after performing a miracle to the wilds of Subiaco; from the monks of the first abbey he led, who tried to poison him; and from the malice of a priest at Subiaco to Monte Cassino, to name but a few instances in his life.

Yet on each occasion, he rose again, strengthened to do God's will and thus bring good out of the bad, whether in the form of necessary solitude and meditation; learning from hard experience; or spreading the message of his spirituality from the mountaintop.

St Benedict's is a very resurrection-oriented, heaven focused spirituality, and this psalm is the quintessential resurrection psalm, as his contemporary Cassiodorus points out:

"Psalm 1 contains the Lord Christ's moral aspect; Psalm 2, His natural aspect, that is, His human and divine being; and Psalm 3, by speaking of His resurrection, His reflective aspect; the rationale of these runs through the whole of the divine Scriptures."

Key vocabulary

timeo, ere 2, to fear, be afraid of.
millia, n., thousands; used generally in the sense of an indefinitely large number, a host, multitude.
populus, i, ., people; the chosen people; a heathen nation
circumdo, dedi, datum, are, to surround, beset, encompass with a hostile intent; to gather round
exsurgo, surrexi, surrectum, ere 3, to rise up, arise, i.e., to come to the aid of
salvus, a, um, safe, saved, salvum facere, to save, keep safe, preserve from harm.

The next of this series can be found here.

Psalm 3: Ego dormivi (v5)

Gustave Dore: Death of Absalom

This post continues my verse a day look at Psalm 3, drawing on the catechesis on prayer around this psalm given by Pope Benedict XVI, as well as the commentaries of the Fathers and Theologians.

Psalm 3: Domine quid multiplicati sunt

First a short reminder of what the psalm is about from St Benedict’s contemporary Cassiodorus, who puts it in a Christological perspective:

"When Absalom was cruelly attacking his father David, the speed of his mule caused him to collide with a thick oak-tree, and the branches wound round his neck so that he was suspended high in the air. This was a prefiguration of the Lord's betrayer...The deliver­ance of David fittingly signifies the Lord's resurrection, so that the minds of Christians may be strengthened and encouraged in con­stancy at times of adversity. The whole of this psalm is aptly attributed to the person of Christ the Lord. His person is the strength of the almighty Godhead and the humility of the humanity which he embraced; but the two do not mix through intermingling, but exist in indivisible unity. To begin with, He addresses the Father with chiding of His persecutors who were uttering impious words against Him. Secondly, the faithful people were instructed not to fear death, when He consoles them with the hope of most certain resurrection following the precedent of their Maker.”

And here is the whole of the psalm (with the translation of the verses we’ve already looked at by way of a reminder), with today’s verse highlighted:

Dómine quid multiplicáti sunt qui tríbulant me? * multi insúrgunt advérsum me.
Why, O Lord, are they multiplied that afflict me? many are they who rise up against me.

Multi dicunt ánimæ meæ: * Non est salus ipsi in Deo ejus.
Many say to my soul: There is no salvation for him in his God.

Tu autem, Dómine, suscéptor meus es, * glória mea, et exáltans caput meum.
But thou, O Lord art my protector, my glory, and the lifter up of my head.

Voce mea ad Dóminum clamávi: * et exaudívit me de monte sancto suo.
I have cried to the Lord with my voice: and he hath heard me from his holy hill.

Ego dormívi, et soporátus sum: * et exsurréxi, quia Dóminus suscépit me.
I have slept and taken my rest: and I have risen up, because the Lord hath protected me

Non timébo míllia pópuli circumdántis me: * exsúrge, Dómine, salvum me fac, Deus meus.
Quóniam tu percussísti omnes adversántes mihi sine causa: * dentes peccatórum contrivísti.
Dómini est salus: * et super pópulum tuum benedíctio tua.

Verse : Ego dormivi

Here is a phrase by phrase literal translation:

Ego dormívi  =I, I have slept/laid down to rest

Note that the neo-Vulgate changes the verb here to 'obdormivi' (I have fallen asleep).

et soporátus sum = and gone to sleep/slept

et exsurréxi = and I have risen

quia Dóminus suscépit me = because the Lord protected me

‘I laid me down to rest, and slept’ – something hard to do when being hunted as David was, or when we are worrying about things! Pope Benedict XVI comments that:

“The divine response that hears his prayer totally reassures the Psalmist; even his fear is no more and his cry is soothed in peace, in deep inner tranquility. “I lie down and sleep; I wake again, for the Lord sustains me. I am not afraid of ten thousands of people who have set themselves against me round about” (vv. 6-7). The praying person, even in peril, in the midst of battle, can sleep serenely in an unequivocal attitude of trusting abandonment. His foes have pitched camp around him, they are numerous, they besiege him, they rise up against him, taunting and trying to make him fall; instead he lies down and sleeps, calm and serene, sure of God's presence.”

It is worth noting though that sleep is also frequently used in the psalms as a figure for death, and thus the Fathers frequently also interpret this verse (as suggested by the quote from Cassiodorus above) as a reference to Our Lord’s death, descent into hell, and resurrection.

Key words

dormio, ivi or li, Itum, ire, to sleep, to lie down to rest.
soporor, atus sum, ari to go to sleep.
exsurgo, surrexi, surrectum, ere 3, to rise up, arise, i.e., to come to the aid of
quia, conj. for, because, truly, surely, indeed.
suscipio, cepi, ceptum, ere 3 to guard, protect, uphold, support; receive, accept; to seize.

And on to the next part in this series.

Mass propers: Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost (Ps 121)

This Sunday's propers in the Extraordinary Form are somewhat unusual in featuring not just one but two verses not from the psalter - the Introit is from Ecclesiasticus and the Offertory from Exodus. 

But the verse to the Introit, the first verse of Psalm 121, was considered so important to the overall theme of the Mass, namely that if we but ask, God will forgive our sins and grant us the privilege of heaven (the Gospel is the healing of the paralytic, and accusations of blasphemy against Our Lord for forgiving his sins), that it is repeated as the Gradual with the addition of verse 7, and so it is worth a quick look.

Psalm 121 (122 in the Hebrew Masoretic Text version) is of course the third of the Gradual psalms, or 'Songs of Ascent’ the pilgrim songs sung on the way to Jerusalem for the major Jewish feasts, sung as the people climbed the steps to the Temple, and early taken into the Christian repertoire as symbolically representing our progress towards heaven.

The text

Here is the text of the Gradual for the eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost with a translation from the Douay-Rheims:

Lætátus sum in his, quæ dicta sunt mihi: in domum Dómini íbimus. Fiat pax in virtúte tua: et abundántia in túrribus tuis.

I rejoiced at the things that were said to me: We shall go into the house of the Lord.
Let peace be in your strength: and abundance in your towers.

And here is an ‘interlinear’, fairly literal translation:

Lætátus sum (I rejoice) in his (in this), quæ (that) dicta sunt (they said) mihi (to me): in domum (into the house) Dómini (of the Lord) íbimus (we will go). Fiat (let there be made) pax (peace) in virtúte (in strength) tua (yours): et (and) abundántia (abundance) in túrribus (in the towers) tuis (yours).

A pilgrim Church

The first verse is a formulaic way of announcing that one is going on a pilgrimage; symbolically it refers to the pilgrimage towards heaven that all Christians are on throughout their lives. The towers and abundance refer to the promise of safe haven and happiness in heaven. Dom Gueranger’s commentary from, the Liturgical year for the day comments:

"In the Gradual, the Church repeats the Introit-verse, to celebrate once more the joy felt by the Christian people at hearing the glad tidings, that they are soon to go into the house of the Lord. That house is heaven, into which we are to enter on the last day, our Lord Jesus Christ leading the way. But the house is also the temple in which we are now assembled, and into which we are introduced by the representatives of that same Lord of ours, that is, by His priests."

You can listen to it here:

Commentaries on the Psalms: St Thomas Aquinas

By way of a brief interlude from Psalm 3, I wanted to continue today with my series of notes on key commentaries on the psalms by the Fathers, Saints and Theologians, looking at the commentaries by St Thomas Aquinas.

St Thomas Aquinas is a saint who either needs no introduction or a lot - and indeed Pope Benedict XVI has devoted no less than three General Audiences to the Doctor Angelicus, including:

• an introduction to his life, given on 2 June 2010;
• a talk on the importance of his teaching for current day theological formation, given on 16 June 2010; and
• an introduction to the Summa Theologica and other key works of the saint, given on 23 June 2010.

St Thomas' Commentaries on the Psalms

But his psalm commentaries, which include a general introduction to the psalms and commentaries on Psalms 1-54, are amongst the less well-known of his works.  Indeed, no complete translation of them in English is yet available (there is one in French), though work on a complete set of translations is in progress through the De Salles University Aquinas Translation Project.  Some additional psalms are also available in translation through the Dominican Priory website.

St Thomas' writing style in these commentaries just begs for the modern invention of dots and dashes, paragraphs and sub-paragraphs - he constantly enumerates points and sub-points in a way that can be rather laborious to read through.  But it is well worth the effort, for as with so much of the saints work, the commentaries are theologically and spiritually dense.

Given the reproduction restrictions the Translation Project puts on its material, I don't think I can reproduce a suitable extract here, but I do highly recommend, as a useful starting point a read of St Thomas' Introduction to the book of Psalms.  And if you are working on or interested in a particular psalm, do take the time to read what  St Thomas has to say on it.

Psalm 3 - Latin Study Hints Part B - Present indicative verbs

Now that we are half way through Psalm 3, I thought I would pause for a moment to allow you to take stock, and as promised provide some links between the psalm and the grammar covered in the excellent Simplicissimus course (see the sidebar) either by way of a refresher or for those actually sittng down and learning Latin for the first time.  Others should skip on quickly past this post...

Unit One of this quick introduction to reading Latin course focuses primarily on verbs in the four conjugation in the present indicative active tense, and the present tense of the verb to be.  So let me point out examples of these in the psalm...

Present tense verbs...

Here is the first part of the psalm with the present tense verbs in the four basic paradigms (conjugations) highlighted:

Dómine quid multiplicáti sunt qui tríbulant (tribulare = first conjugation, third person plural = they harass) me? * multi insúrgunt (insurgere = third conjugation, third person plural = they rise up)advérsum me.
Multi dicunt (dicere = third conjugation, third person plural = they say) ánimæ meæ: * Non est salus ipsi in Deo ejus.

Present of 'to be'

And here is the whole psalm with the uses of the present tense of the verb to be (sum, esse) highlighted.
But note that there is a bit of a trick here - there are two uses in this psalm of words that look like the present tense of to be, but in fact sum and sunt are being used to form the passive tense of another verb, viz multiplicati sunt and soporatus sum.

Dómine quid multiplicáti sunt qui tríbulant me? * multi insúrgunt advérsum me.
Multi dicunt ánimæ meæ: * Non est (there/he/she/it is no) salus ipsi in Deo ejus.
Tu autem, Dómine, suscéptor meus es (you s. are), * glória mea, et exáltans caput meum.
Voce mea ad Dóminum clamávi: * et exaudívit me de monte sancto suo.
Ego dormívi, et soporátus sum: * et exsurréxi, quia Dóminus suscépit me.
Non timébo míllia pópuli circumdántis me: * exsúrge, Dómine, salvum me fac, Deus meus.
Quóniam tu percussísti omnes adversántes mihi sine causa: * dentes peccatórum contrivísti.
Dómini est (he is) salus: * et super pópulum tuum benedíctio tua.

Psalm 3: Voce mea ad Dominum (v4)

Continuing the verse a day approach to looking at Psalm 3, we have reached the half-way mark with verse 4.

The Fathers and Theologians generally treat this verse as something of a mini-treatise on prayer, encouraging us to engage in prayer that engages the whole body in intense, internal and vocal prayer of the heart. No doubt this is part of the reason Pope Benedict XVI chose this psalm for his own series on the psalms and prayer!

Psalm 3

The psalm so far, with today's verse highlighted:

Dómine quid multiplicáti sunt qui tríbulant me? multi insúrgunt advérsum me.
Multi dicunt ánimæ meæ: Non est salus ipsi in Deo ejus.
Tu autem, Dómine, suscéptor meus es, glória mea, et exáltans caput meum
Voce mea ad Dóminum clamávi: et exaudívit me de monte sancto suo.

The Douay-Rheims translates verse 4 as: "I have cried to the Lord with my voice: and he hath heard me from his holy hill."

Phrase by phrase

Voce mea=with my voice

The word voce perhaps implies that vocal prayer is meant here, but the verb clamavi (I have cried out) below suggests something intense, engaging the whole body.

ad Dóminum clamávi= to the Lord I have cried out

We must cry out with our voice: here it means inner voice, the true voice of our heart, coming from that inner room of our body. Secondly it must be devout, intent.

et exaudívit me=and he heard me

We need also to remember that prayer is a dialogue, and leave room for God to reply to us. The Pope adds that:

"Man is no longer alone, his foes are not invincible as they had seemed, for the Lord hears the cry of the oppressed and answers from the place of his presence, from his holy hill. The human being cries out in anguish, in danger, in pain; the human being calls for help and God answers. In this interweaving of the human cry and the divine response we find the dialectic of prayer and the key to reading the entire history of salvation. The cry expresses the need for help and appeals to the other’s faithfulness; crying out means making an act of faith in God’s closeness and in his willingness to listen."

de monte sancto suo = from his holy mountain(ie Mt Sion, Jerusalem, or heaven).

The Pope comments that:

"Thus the Psalmist, who feels besieged by death, professes his faith in the God of life who, as a shield, surrounds him with an invulnerable protection; the one who believed he was as good as lost can raise his head because the Lord saves him; the praying person, threatened and mocked, is in glory, because God is his glory."

Vocab list

vox, vocis, /., the voice of a person, or, the sound of an instrument, thunder.
clamo, avi, atum, are to call, cry out; to call to or upon for aid.
exaudio, ivi, Itum, ire, to hear, hearken to, listen to, give heed to; to regard, answer.
mons, montis, m., a mountain (mons sanctus = Zion)
sanctus, a, um, holy.

This series continues here.