Psalm 138 verses 1-4

Psalm 138 opens with an acknowledgment of God's omnipotence.

 

1	V	Dómine, probásti me, et cognovísti me: * tu cognovísti sessiónem meam, et resurrectiónem meam.
	NV	Domine, scrutatus es et cognovisti me, tu cognovisti sessionem meam et resurrectionem meam.
	JH	Domine, inuestigasti me, et cognouisti. Tu cognouisti sessionem meam et resurrectionem meam,
	Sept	κύριε ἐδοκίμασάς με καὶ ἔγνως με σὺ ἔγνως τὴν καθέδραν μου καὶ τὴν ἔγερσίν μου

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

Domine (O Lord) probasti (you have examined)  me (me) et (and) cognovisti (you have known) me (me) tu (you) cognovisti (you have known) sessionem (the sitting) meam (my) et (and) resurrectionem meam.

Britt suggests that sessiónem meam, et resurrectiónem meam can be interpreted as 'my every act, my whole life'.

probo, avi, atum, are to try, to test, prove, examine; to search, prove

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

sessio  onis f a sitting, the act of sitting

resurrectio onis f  resurrection, rising again from the dead

 

DR	Lord, thou hast proved me, and known me:  Thou hast know my sitting down, and my rising up
Brenton	O Lord, thou hast proved me, and known me. Thou knowest my down-sitting and mine up-rising
MD	O Lord thou searchest me through and through and knowest me, Thou knowest my sitting down and my rising up
Cover	Lord, thou hast searched me out, and known me. Thou knowest my down-sitting, and mine up-rising
Knox	Lord, I lie open to thy scrutiny; thou knowest me, knowest when sit down and when I rise up again,
Grail	O Lord, you search me and you know me, you know my resting and my rising,

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

This verse can be interpreted both as Christ's words, and in our own voice.  As a reference to Christ, the second half of the verse plainly refers to the Passion and Resurrection, and is used as such in the Introit for the Mass of Easter Sunday.  Cassiodorus explains the first half of the verse as follows:

With the invocation Lord, Christ Jesus cries to the Father in His role as servant. The Father proved Him in the sense that He made manifest His humility, when He consented to be baptized by John though He was without sin. He was not a sinner; rather He undertook the healing of sinners. As the prophet says: He has borne our sins and carried our infirmities. The Father has known Him, in other words, made Him plain when He said: This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased: hear ye him.  He means "Hear Him saying I and the Father are one".

As for us, Hebrews 4:12-13 tells us:

For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And before him no creature is hidden, but all are open and laid bare to the eyes of him with whom we have to do.

 

2	V	Intellexísti cogitatiónes meas de longe: * sémitam meam, et funículum meum investigásti.
	NV	Intellexisti cogitationes meas de longe, semitam meam et accubitum meum investigasti.
	Old Roman	intellexisti cogitationes meas a longe semitam meam et directionem meam investigasti
	JH	intellexisti malum meum de longe.  Semitam meam et accubitionem meam euentilasti,
		σὺ συνῆκας τοὺς διαλογισμούς μου ἀπὸ μακρόθεν τὴν τρίβον μου καὶ τὴν σχοῖνόν μου σὺ ἐξιχνίασας

Intellexisti (you have understood) cogitationes (the thoughts) meas (my) de (from) longe  (far off) semitam (the path) meam (my) et (and) funiculum (the cord) meum (my) investigasti (you have searced out)

Funiculus is obscure. Lewis and Short give its meaning as 'a slender rope, a cord', and as well as classical sources, cite Exodus 35: 18.  Britt suggests that by meton the word is sometimes used to refer to what is measured out by the cord, and consistent with this, the New English Translation from the Septuagint renders the Greek as 'my path and my miles you tracked', ie 'the miles I travelled'.  However, a number of Latin alternatives to funiculum exist in various translations: St Augustine uses limitem (limit), to render the phrase ' You have tracked out my path and my limit'; while the old Roman text uses directionem.  Other translations (even those purporting to translate the Vulgate) simply follow the Hebrew (reflected in the neo-Vulgate accubitum) here.

intelligo, lexi, lectum, ere 3  understand, give heed to something, to consider

cogitatio, onis, f. thoughts, plans, designs; evil plans or devices; the deep plans or thoughts of God.

longe, adv. far off, at a distance; as a substantive with a and de, afar off, from afar.

semita, ae, f, a path, way; course of life, action, conduct, or procedure.

funiculus i m 1.  measuring line or cord; by meton, estate, inheritance; 2. [following the Hebrew] bed, resting place

investigo are avi atum go, search out

DR	Thou hast understood my thoughts afar off: my path and my line thou hast searched out.
Brenton	thou understandest my thoughts long before. Thou hast traced my path and my bed,
MD	Thou understandest my thoughts from afar Thou observest my going and my resting
RSV	thou discernest my thoughts from afar. Thou searchest out my path and my lying down,
Cover	thou understandest my thoughts long before. Thou art about my path, and about my bed,
Knox	canst read my thoughts from far away. Walk I or sleep I, thou canst tell;
Grail	you discern my purpose from afar. You mark when I walk or lie down, all my ways lie open to you.

St Benedict uses this verse to explain the first degree of humility:

The first degree of humility, then, is that a person keep the fear of God before his eyes and beware of ever forgetting it...This is what the Prophet shows us when he represents God as ever present within our thoughts, in the words "Searcher of minds and hearts is God" and again in the words "The Lord knows the thoughts of men". Again he says, "You have read my thoughts from afar" and "The thoughts of people will confess to You".

3	V	Et omnes vias meas prævidísti: * quia non est sermo in lingua mea.
	NV	Et omnes vias meas perspexisti, quia nondum est sermo in lingua mea,.
	JH	et omnes uias meas intellexisti :  quia non est eloquium in lingua mea.
		καὶ πάσας τὰς ὁδούς μου προεῖδες ὅτι οὐκ ἔστιν λόγος ἐν γλώσσῃ μου

et (and) omnes (all) vias (the ways) meas (my) prævidisti (you have foreseen) quia (for/because) non (not) est (he is) sermo (the word/speech)  in (on) lingua (the tongue) mea (my).

via, ae, a way, road, path, street. God's way, God's policy, way of life

praevideo ere vidi visum, to foresee, foreknow

sermo, onis, m. words; a command, edict word, speech, saying, discourse;  scheme, plan, proposal

lingua, ae, f., the tongue; language, speech, tongue; plan, council

DR	And thou hast foreseen all my ways: for there is no speech in my tongue.
Brenton	and hast foreseen all my ways. For there is no unrighteous word in my tongue:
MD	And thou forseest all my ways, not even a word is upon my tongue
Cover	and spiest out all my ways. For lo, there is not a word in my tongue,
Grail	Before ever a word is on my tongue you know it, O Lord, through and through.

4	V	Ecce, Dómine, tu cognovísti ómnia novíssima, et antíqua: * tu formásti me, et posuísti super me manum tuam.
	NV	et ecce, Domine, tu novisti omnia A tergo et a fronte coartasti me et posuisti super me manum tuam.
	JH	Ecce, Domine, nosti omnia : retrorsum et ante formasti me,  et posuisti super me manum tuam.
		ἰδού κύριε σὺ ἔγνως πάντα τὰ ἔσχατα καὶ τὰ ἀρχαῖα σὺ ἔπλασάς με καὶ ἔθηκας ἐπ' ἐμὲ τὴν χεῖρά σου

 Ecce (behold), Domine (O Lord) tu (you) cognovisti (you have known) omnia (all) novissima (the newest/the end) et (and) antiqua (old) Tu (you) formasti (you have formed) me (me) et (and) posuisti (you have placed/laid) super (over) me manum (the hand) tuam (your)

The Greek here arguably describes the things God knows as 'the first and the last'; 'novissima' (on the face of it the superlative of novus, or new) works as this meaning, and has to be strained to translate it as 'the last' as the Douay-Rheims does.  The received Hebrew, however, reflected in the neo-Vulgate, is a little different, suggesting 'before and after'.

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

novus, a, um,  new; novissimus a um (substantive) the end, final lot

antiquus, a, um old, ancient

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

pono, posui, itum, ere 3,  to put, place, lay, set.

manus, us, f, the hand

DR	Behold, O Lord, thou hast known all things, the last and those of old: thou hast formed me, and hast laid thy hand upon me.
Brenton	behold, O Lord, thou hast known all things, the last and the first: thou hast fashioned me, and laid thine hand upon me.
MD	Behold, O Lord, Thou knowest all, both new and old, thou hast fashioned me and laid Thy hand upon me
RSV	lo, O LORD, thou knowest it altogether. Thou dost beset me behind and before, and layest thy hand upon me.
Cover	but thou, O Lord, knowest it altogether. Thou hast fashioned me behind and before, and laid thine hand upon me.
Knox	all my thought is known to thee; rearguard and vanguard, thou dost compass me about, thy hand still laid upon me.
Grail	Behind and before you besiege me, your hand ever laid upon me.

Psalm 138/1 – Domine probasti me

Vulgate (Numbering follows psalmody)	Douay-Rheims (numbering follows DR)
In finem, psalmus David.	Unto the end, a psalm of David.
Dómine, probásti me, et cognovísti me: * tu cognovísti sessiónem meam, et resurrectiónem meam.	1 Lord, you have proved me, and known me: 2 You have known my sitting down, and my rising up.
2  Intellexísti cogitatiónes meas de longe: * sémitam meam, et funículum meum investigásti.	You have understood my thoughts afar off: my path and my line you have searched out.
3  Et omnes vias meas prævidísti: * quia non est sermo in lingua mea.	4 And you have foreseen all my ways: for there is no speech in my tongue.
4  Ecce, Dómine, tu cognovísti ómnia novíssima, et antíqua: * tu formásti me, et posuísti super me manum tuam.	5 Behold, O Lord, you have known all things, the last and those of old: you have formed me, and have laid your hand upon me.
5  Mirábilis facta est sciéntia tua ex me: * confortáta est, et non pótero ad eam.	6 Your knowledge has become wonderful to me: it is high, and I cannot reach to it
6  Quo ibo a spíritu tuo? * et quo a fácie tua fúgiam?	7 Whither shall I go from your spirit? Or whither shall I flee from your face?
7  Si ascéndero in cælum, tu illic es: * si descéndero in inférnum, ades.	8 If I ascend into heaven, you are there: if I descend into hell, you are present.
8  Si súmpsero pennas meas dilúculo, * et habitávero in extrémis maris.	9 If I take my wings early in the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea:
9  Etenim illuc manus tua dedúcet me: * et tenébit me déxtera tua.	10 Even there also shall your hand lead me: and your right hand shall hold me.

You can find the next set of notes on this psalm here.

Introduction to Psalm 138/1

Psalm 138 is surely one of the most beautiful of the poems of the psalter, and it is relatively unusual in that, rather than condensing in references to many events and ideas, it lingers very much on one theme, namely God's omniscience and omnipotence.

St Benedict's psalter splits Psalm 138 into two sections, both said at Thursday Vespers.

The use of Psalm 138 (137) in the Benedictine Office

It is not actually that long a psalm, consisting of 23 verses in total, and so the divisio results in Thursday being one of the shorter days of the week at Vespers.  So why does the saint split the psalm in two?

The answer seems to be, in part at least, that this is the prayer of the Garden, and as such it takes us deep into the contemplation of God's love of us, the intimacy of the Trinity, and the fate Our Lord was contemplating.

Its use on the fifth day of the week may also reflect its allusion to the things created on that day in the Genesis account, viz things that fly and those that inhabit the sea (verse 9).

The text of the psalm

Psalm 138/1 – Domine probasti me

Vulgate (Numbering follows psalmody)	Douay-Rheims (numbering follows DR)
In finem, psalmus David.	Unto the end, a psalm of David.
Dómine, probásti me, et cognovísti me: * tu cognovísti sessiónem meam, et resurrectiónem meam.	1 Lord, you have proved me, and known me: 2 You have known my sitting down, and my rising up.
2  Intellexísti cogitatiónes meas de longe: * sémitam meam, et funículum meum investigásti.	You have understood my thoughts afar off: my path and my line you have searched out.
3  Et omnes vias meas prævidísti: * quia non est sermo in lingua mea.	4 And you have foreseen all my ways: for there is no speech in my tongue.
4  Ecce, Dómine, tu cognovísti ómnia novíssima, et antíqua: * tu formásti me, et posuísti super me manum tuam.	5 Behold, O Lord, you have known all things, the last and those of old: you have formed me, and have laid your hand upon me.
5  Mirábilis facta est sciéntia tua ex me: * confortáta est, et non pótero ad eam.	6 Your knowledge has become wonderful to me: it is high, and I cannot reach to it
6  Quo ibo a spíritu tuo? * et quo a fácie tua fúgiam?	7 Whither shall I go from your spirit? Or whither shall I flee from your face?
7  Si ascéndero in cælum, tu illic es: * si descéndero in inférnum, ades.	8 If I ascend into heaven, you are there: if I descend into hell, you are present.
8  Si súmpsero pennas meas dilúculo, * et habitávero in extrémis maris.	9 If I take my wings early in the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea:
9  Etenim illuc manus tua dedúcet me: * et tenébit me déxtera tua.	10 Even there also shall your hand lead me: and your right hand shall hold me.

Literal meaning of the psalm 

St Benedict's split of the psalm should further encourage us to take this psalm slowly, and ponder the depths of its meaning.

At the literal level, there is a gentle progression of ideas in this half of the psalm.  The opening verses point to God's omniscience: he knows everything about us (verses 1-4); we on the other hand, can never really comprehend the mystery that is God (verse 5).  The second half of this part of the psalm points to God's presence everywhere and in everything (verses 7-9): on the one hand the sinner can never hope to evade him; but on the positive side, he is always there to help an protect us, enabling us to withstand even the most dire disasters in our lives (verse 10).

Christological interpretation

The Fathers, though, also gave this psalm a Christological interpretation, putting those questions about where he should go - to heaven, hades or the foremost ends of the earth - rhetorically on Christ's lips as he pondered the coming events of the Sacred Triduum.  Cassiodorus summarises it thus:

So this entire psalm — and this is also the view of the most learned father Hilary — is to be recited by the mouth of the Lord Christ. His lowliness must not however trouble or disturb anyone; to avoid this, each must have recourse to the canon of Catholic teaching, to remember that there are two natures united and perfected in the Lord Christ. The first is that by which He is God, coeternal with the Father; the second that by which He was born of the virgin Mary, and as one and the same Person deigned in time to become Man for our salvation. So the fact that He speaks in humble tones must not be a reflection on His divinity, but is to be understood in accordance with the mystery of the holy incarnation. Once we have considered this reasoning, we can acknowledge the divine mysteries without stumbling.

In this light, in this first section of the psalm, according to Cassiodorus, "He recounts to the Father His death and resurrection, observing that all His thoughts are well known to the Father."

The answer to the question the psalm asks, of course, is that even when he descends into hades, his divine nature guides him, so that the Resurrection can occur.

Liturgical and scriptural uses of the psalm

NT references	Heb 4:13 (1)
RB cursus	Thurs Vespers+AN 2367 (1)
Monastic feasts etc	2 Vespers of Apostles (+John the Baptist, St Benedict, St Joseph)
Roman pre 1911	Friday Vespers
Responsories	7629 Job not 1962 (8);
Roman post 1911	1911-62: Friday Vespers  . 1970:
Mass propers (EF)	Easter day (Resurrexi) IN (1) SS Peter and Paul (Nunc scio), IN (1) Andrew (Mihi autem), IN (1), OF V (1) Conversion of St Paul IN (Scio cui)

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

Next up...

We have now completed the repeated psalms of Matins and Lauds, so at this point I'm going to take a short break from the repeated psalms of the Benedictine Office.

Next week I'll provide a general introduction to the Office of Thursday, then some notes on Psalm 138, said at Vespers (which is split into two parts in the Office).  Then I plan on starting on the Gradual Psalms - possibly with breaks between the psalms set for Terce and Sext for the remaining two psalms of Thursday Vespers (subject to my getting the notes on these finished in time!).

Do hope you are finding these notes of use.

Thursday in the Benedictine Office

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

Thursday is, in my view, the start of a mini-Triduum in the Benedictine Office each week, a chance to meditate on the events of Maundy Thursday, when Christ celebrated the Passover with the apostles, ordained them and instituted the Eucharist; prayed in agony in the Garden; was betrayed and arrested; and was deserted and denied by his disciples.

The psalms of the day move back and forwards between these themes.

Passover and the ferial canticle

As always in the Benedictine Office, Lauds, and particularly the Lauds (ferial) canticle) offers the key to the themes of the day, for as Rabanus Maurus points out in the quote above, the day's associatins with Maundy Thursday are firmly linked to the Canticle of Moses, Exodus 15:1-19, sung at that hour. 

In Scripture, the text of this canticle sits between two key events that foreshadow the Last Supper, namely the escape of the people, lead by Moses, from Egypt; and the miracle of the manna in the desert.  In Exodus Chapter 12-13, the people of Israel celebrate that first Pasch, marking the doors of their houses with the blood of the lamb to protect them against the avenging angels who slew the first-born of Israel.  Moses then leads the people out of Egypt, but the Egyptians pursue.  The people are terrified, wishing that they had not followed Moses (Exodus 14) – until he miraculously parts the Red Sea to let them cross, and then lets the waters flow back drowning the pursuing Egyptians.  The people rejoice, and then Thursday's canticle is sung (Chapter 15). Yet no sooner is this song sung than Exodus records that the people are once more murmuring against Moses, this time complaining at the lack of food and water.  Thus in Chapter 16, the miracle of the manna in the desert, that type of the Eucharist, is recorded.

The canticle itself is a song of the victory over Pharaoh, and the Fathers interpreted it typologically, as foreshadowing the events of Maundy Thursday.   The storyline goes like this: at the time of the coming of Our Lord, the Jewish people have once again become enslaved, this time by the law.  But Christ has come to lead them out of Egypt and into the new promised land of the Church of grace.  The lords of the Old Law, the Scribes and Pharisees, however, have hardened their hearts just as Pharaoh did, refusing to see the miracles and wonders Jesus worked.  Instead they are determined to stop Our Lord, to pursue and overtake him as Pharaoh’s horses and chariots tried to (vs 9).  We can look forward though, to the Resurrection, and know that nothing can stand against the omnipotence of God.

Several of the psalms of the day explicitly refer to the events of Exodus, above all Psalm 77, a long historical poem that is divided in two at Matins.  But there are many other references to these events.  The most explicit can be found in Psalms 76, 79, 80, and 82.  Many more of these psalms though, were seen by the Fathers as containing allusions to these events.  The second half of Psalm 73 (verses 13-20), the opening psalm of Matins, for example, gives us a set of verses that at the literal level recall God's work of creating the earth, with the references to sea monsters and more taking us up to day 5 of creation (ie Thursday).  But those same sea monsters and dragons were also interpreted metaphorically  as a reference to the drowning of Pharaoh's troops in the Red Sea.

The agony in the Garden

Yet if the day focuses on our salvation, symbolised by the escape from Egypt, those same events also serve as a reminder that we too are suffering from the enslavement of sin;  that we too hang on the edge of destruction, dependent on Christ's willingness to suffer death on the cross to redeem us, for which we must plead.  The opening psalm of the day, Psalm 73, for example, demands that God remember his covenant: the people are enslaved, suffering the effects of God's anger at their sins.

In fact the agony of the garden is never very far away from the front of these psalms.  Psalm 87, at Lauds, is the ultimate prayer of the Garden: easily the darkest psalm in the psalter.  The psalm is the lamentation of a man close to death, and it offers no note of hope whatsoever.  Instead, it is a song of abandonment, a song, perhaps, of the agony in the garden.  Similarly, Psalm 138, which takes up the entire first half of Vespers, is often interpreted as Christ's words in that night of agonised prayer.

Several of the psalms, such as Psalm 13 at Prime, and Psalm 140 at Vespers, dwell on the need to do God’s will, not our own, and to resist the temptation to compromise.  Yet through it all, as Psalm 138 at Vespers draws out, it is made clear that no matter how absent God may seem to be from us, no matter how hard the path may seem, God is always with us.

Betrayal, arrest and abandonment

Nonetheless, it is the theme of abandonment, betrayal, unfair persecution and destruction that stands at the forefront of the day. 

The very first psalm of the day, Psalm 73, opens with a lament for the destruction of the Temple, and the attempt to suppress the worship of God in the land the destruction of the Temple by invaders.  It can be interpreted Christologically, as Christ's prophesy that the temple will be destroyed, then rebuilt in three days.  Indeed, Cassiodorus' commentary does just that saying that:

"In this psalm there is lamentation for the destruction of the city, so that the Jews' extreme hardness of heart should at least feel fear at the disasters to their city. The good Physician has done all he could, if the sick man wished to recover his health. Let us remember, however, that the authority of the Church relates that Jerusalem was ravaged in the days when the most cruel people of the Jews crucified Christ the Lord, so that there can be no doubt what temporal evil that obstinate transgression sustained."

Psalm 74, the second psalm of Matins, takes us to the events of Jesus' arrest.  The psalm starts its narrative with a reminder that we are God's people, members of his flock, and pleads for God to convert us, to rise up and save us:  above all, for the Messiah to come and 'visit' the 'vineyard' he brought out of Egypt:

9  Víneam de Ægypto transtulísti: * ejecísti Gentes, et plantásti eam.	9 You have brought a vineyard out of Egypt: you have cast out the Gentiles and planted it.
10  Dux itíneris fuísti in conspéctu ejus: * plantásti radíces ejus, et implévit terram.	10 You were the guide of its journey in its sight: you planted the roots thereof, and it filled the land...
15  Deus virtútum, convértere: * réspice de cælo, et vide, et vísita víneam istam.	15 Turn again, O God of hosts, look down from heaven, and see, and visit this vineyard:

The parable of the wicked servants of the owner of the vineyard, who murder first the servants, and then the son of the vineyard owner, points to these verses.  And the allusion is reinforced by the psalm's ending, which takes us to the saving role of the Son, whose name we know, and whose face we have seen:

16  Et pérfice eam, quam plantávit déxtera tua: * et super fílium hóminis, quem confirmásti tibi.	16 And perfect the same which your right hand has planted: and upon the son of man whom you have confirmed for yourself.
18  Fiat manus tua super virum déxteræ tuæ: * et super fílium hóminis quem confirmásti tibi.	18 Let your hand be upon the man of your right hand: and upon the son of man whom you have confirmed for yourself
19  Et non discédimus a te, vivificábis nos: * et nomen tuum invocábimus.	19 And we depart not from you, you shall quicken us: and we will call upon your name.
20  Dómine, Deus virtútum, convérte nos: * et osténde fáciem tuam, et salvi érimus.	20 O Lord God of hosts, convert us and show your face, and we shall be saved

These themes are then picked up and amplified throughout the day's psalmody, not least at Matins.

The sheep of his pasture

The day's variable psalmody starts, in Psalm 73, with a recapitulation of the question that opened Wednesday's psalmody: why have you cast us off, why are you angry with us, O God? A key difference between Psalm 59's opening verse though, and that of Psalm 73 is the addition of a reference to the 'sheep of his pasture': we are his people and he is both shepherd and the lamb who will be sacrificed for us:

Psalm 59:1 Deus, repulísti nos, et destruxísti nos: * irátus es, et misértus es nobis.	3 O God, you have cast us off, and have destroyed us; you have been angry, and have had mercy on us.
Ps 73:1 Ut quid, Deus, repulísti in finem: * irátus est furor tuus super oves páscuæ tuæ?	God, why have you cast us off unto the end: why is your wrath enkindled against the sheep of your pasture?

Psalm 77 points us to the importance of this addition, for it reminds us of the reassuring image of God leading his people like a shepherd leading his flock:

Ps 77: 57  Et ábstulit sicut oves pópulum suum: * et perdúxit eos tamquam gregem in desérto.

52 And he took away his own people as sheep: and guided them in the wilderness like a flock.

It is the last psalm of Matins on Thursday, though, Psalm 84, that finally provides the reply to Wednesday and Thursday's opening question, with a series of verses reassuring us that Christ's will indeed redeem us:

1  Benedixísti, Dómine, terram tuam: * avertísti captivitátem Jacob.	2 Lord, you have blessed your land: you have turned away the captivity of Jacob.
2  Remisísti iniquitátem plebis tuæ: * operuísti ómnia peccáta eórum.	3 You have forgiven the iniquity of your people: you have covered all their sins.

All of the themes of the day are finally brought together in the closing psalm of Vespers, Psalm 140, with its injunctions to prayer, and reference to the Eucharist in the evening sacrifice of the Last Supper, anticipating for the apostles the sacrifice of the Cross.

Matins

(Psalm 3 &Psalm 94 said daily)

Psalm 73 (in the context of Tenebrae)
Psalm 74 (in context of Tenebrae)
Psalm 76 (in context of Tenebrae)
Psalm 77 (divided)
Psalm 78

Psalm 79
Psalm 80
Psalm 81
Psalm 82
Psalm 83
Psalm 84 (Mass propers, Advent 3; in context of Tenebrae)

Lauds

(Psalms 66, 50 and 148-150 are said daily)

Psalm 87: Domine Deus salutis meae (and, in context of Tenebrae)

Psalm 89: Domine refugium factus es nobis (and, in context of Tenebrae)

Canticle of Moses (Exodus 15:1-19) (in context of Tenebrae)
or 
Festal Canticle: Canticle of Jeremiah 31: 10-14

Prime

Psalm 12

Psalm 13

Psalm 14 (in context of Tenebrae)

Vespers

Psalm 138/1
Psalm 138 pt 2

Psalm 139

Psalm 140 

Compline (same psalms said daily)

Psalm 4 (in the context of Tenebrae)
Psalm 90
Psalm 133