Psalm 13 (Prime No 2, Thursday) - Overview** updated

BL Harley 1892, British Library

Psalm 13 is almost identical to Psalm 52, so by learning this one, you get two for the price of one.

The text of the psalm

Psalm 13 (14) - Dixit insípiens in corde suo  

Vulgate	Douay-Rheims
In finem. Psalmus David.	Unto the end, a psalm for David.
Dixit insípiens in corde suo: * Non est Deus.	The fool has said in his heart: There is no God.
2  Corrúpti sunt, et abominábiles facti sunt in stúdiis suis: * non est qui fáciat bonum, non est usque ad unum.	They are corrupt, and have become abominable in their ways: there is none that does good, no not one.
3  Dóminus de cælo prospéxit super fílios hóminum, * ut vídeat si est intélligens, aut requírens Deum.	The Lord has looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there be any that understand and seek God.
4  Omnes declinavérunt, simul inútiles facti sunt: * non est qui fáciat bonum, non est usque ad unum.	They are all gone aside, they have become unprofitable together: there is none that does good: no not one.
a  Sepúlcrum patens est guttur eórum: linguis suis dolóse agébant * venénum áspidum sub lábiis eórum.(Ps 5:10)	Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they acted deceitfully: the poison of asps is under their lips.
b Quorum os maledictióne et amaritúdine plenum est: * velóces pedes eórum ad effundéndum sánguinem (Ps 10:7)	Their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness; their feet are swift to shed blood.
c  Contrítio et infelícitas in viis eórum, et viam pacis non cognovérunt: * non est timor Dei ante óculos eórum.](Is 59:7-8; Prov 1:16)	Destruction and unhappiness in their ways; and the way of peace they have not known: there is no fear of God before their eyes.
5  Nonne cognóscent omnes qui operántur iniquitátem, * qui dévorant plebem meam sicut escam panis?	Shall not all they know that work iniquity, who devour my people as they eat bread?
6  Dóminum non invocavérunt, * illic trepidavérunt timóre, ubi non erat timor.	They have not called upon the Lord: there have they trembled for fear, where there was no fear
7  Quóniam Dóminus in generatióne justa est, consílium ínopis confudístis: * quóniam Dóminus spes ejus est.	For the Lord is in the just generation: you have confounded the counsel of the poor man; but the Lord is his hope.
8  Quis dabit ex Sion salutáre Israël? * cum averterit Dóminus captivitátem plebis suæ, exsultábit Jacob, et lætábitur Israël.	Who shall give out of Sion the salvation of Israel? When the Lord shall have turned away the captivity of his people, Jacob shall rejoice, and Israel shall be glad.

You can hear it read aloud here but I'm afraid I haven't been able to locate any useful recordings of it being sung.

Traditional interpretations of the psalm

In Romans 3, St Paul cites this psalm (including a number of verses expunged from 1962 and onwards editions of the psalter, see below) as part of his explanation of the idea that no one can be saved by the (old) law alone, but only through Christ.

The title of this psalm in the Septuagint helps make the link: it is ‘to the end’, which the earliest commentators saw as pointing to its Christological application, for as St Paul says (Romans 10:4) ‘Christ is the end of the law’.  St Augustine, for example, commented:

For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believes; Romans 10:4 as the Apostle says. We believe in Him, when we begin to enter on the good road: we shall see Him, when we shall get to the end. And therefore is He the end. For not even have certain sacrilegious and abominable philosophers, who entertain perverse and false notions of God, dared to say, There is no God.

The overall theme of the psalm is the corrupted state of man that flows from Original Sin, and is manifested in the malice and deceitfulness of those who oppose God – to the point of plotting to kill Our Lord.  St Athanasius, for example, suggested that:

When you hear people blaspheming against the providence of God, intercede with God with this psalm

Similarly St Alphonsus Liguori commented that:

The prophet deplores the blindness and the corruption of the wicked, and especially of infidels....

 Psalm 13 and 'interpolated' verses

I noted above that some verses of the psalm have been omitted in the 1962 and subsequent editions of the Monastic Diurnal  (and breviary).  I’ve included them in the table above, labeled a, b and c in italics.  They are all verses used elsewhere in Scripture, as I have noted), with a note of the original source of the citation).

The verses in question can be found in Romans 3:13-18 (as well as the approved Vulgate and Douay-Rheims translations), but were removed from monastic office in 1962, and subsequently from the neo-Vulgate text on the basis, as far as I can gather, that they aren't in the Hebrew 'original' and were just Christian interpolations of other texts.

Doubt about these verses is not new: St Jerome, for example, long ago advocated that they be removed from the psalter, but was overruled.

So why were they removed in 1962?

It may be it was just a matter of the fashion of the times, which tended to argue for the superiority of the the Hebrew Masoretic Text over the Septuagint-Vulgate tradition, and seek to expunge all the 'hard sayings' of Scripture.

There is however, perhaps one other explanation.

One of the other changes in the 1962 psalter was to move the opening verses of Wednesday Prime (the verses of Psalm 9 starting Exsurge Domine) to the end of Tuesday.  It is a change that doesn't make a lot of sense, first since the antiphon of the hour still reflects the old starting point, and secondly because the divisio point was clearly intended to resonate with several of the psalms of Matins on Wednesday (take a look at Psalms 67 and 68 in particular).

But the words 'Exsurge Domine' (albeit quoting Psalm 73) are the opening words of Pope Leo X's condemnation of the theses of Luther.  Moreover, it went on to cite those now expunged verses of Psalm 13. 

Could it be that these verses were deliberately de-emphasized and/or expunged from the Benedictine psalter because they were seen as offending ecumenical sensibilities?

Here are the opening paragraph's of Pope Leo X's Bull for your consideration:

Arise, O Lord, and judge your own cause. Remember your reproaches to those who are filled with foolishness all through the day. Listen to our prayers, for foxes have arisen seeking to destroy the vineyard whose winepress you alone have trod. When you were about to ascend to your Father, you committed the care, rule, and administration of the vineyard, an image of the triumphant church, to Peter, as the head and your vicar and his successors. The wild boar from the forest seeks to destroy it and every wild beast feeds upon it.

Rise, Peter, and fulfill this pastoral office divinely entrusted to you as mentioned above. Give heed to the cause of the holy Roman Church, mother of all churches and teacher of the faith, whom you by the order of God, have consecrated by your blood. Against the Roman Church, you warned, lying teachers are rising, introducing ruinous sects, and drawing upon themselves speedy doom. Their tongues are fire, a restless evil, full of deadly poison. They have bitter zeal, contention in their hearts, and boast and lie against the truth.

We beseech you also, Paul, to arise. It was you that enlightened and illuminated the Church by your doctrine and by a martyrdom like Peter's. For now a new Porphyry rises who, as the old once wrongfully assailed the holy apostles, now assails the holy pontiffs, our predecessors....

Rebuking them, in violation of your teaching, instead of imploring them, he is not ashamed to assail them, to tear at them, and when he despairs of his cause, to stoop to insults. He is like the heretics "whose last defense," as Jerome says, "is to start spewing out a serpent's venom with their tongue when they see that their causes are about to be condemned, and spring to insults when they see they are vanquished." For although you have said that there must be heresies to test the faithful, still they must be destroyed at their very birth by your intercession and help, so they do not grow or wax strong like your wolves. Finally, let the whole church of the saints and the rest of the universal church arise. Some, putting aside her true interpretation of Sacred Scripture, are blinded in mind by the father of lies. Wise in their own eyes, according to the ancient practice of heretics, they interpret these same Scriptures otherwise than the Holy Spirit demands, inspired only by their own sense of ambition, and for the sake of popular acclaim, as the Apostle declares. In fact, they twist and adulterate the Scriptures. As a result, according to Jerome, "It is no longer the Gospel of Christ, but a man's, or what is worse, the devil's."

Let all this holy Church of God, I say, arise, and with the blessed apostles intercede with almighty God to purge the errors of His sheep, to banish all heresies from the lands of the faithful, and be pleased to maintain the peace and unity of His holy Church.

Scriptural and liturgical uses of the psalm 

NT references	Tit 1:16 (v2); Rom 3:11-18; Rom 11:26 (v8)
RB cursus	Thursday Prime
Monastic/(Roman) feasts etc	-
Roman pre 1911	Sunday Matins
Roman post 1911	1911-62: Monday Matins . 1970:
Mass propers (EF)	Lent 3, Monday, CO (8)

Psalm 10 (Wednesday Prime No 2) - Summary

c12th Passionary of Weissenau, Cod. Bodmer 127, fol. 103r.

Psalm 10: In Domino confido

Vulgate	Douay-Rheims
In finem. Psalmus David.	Unto the end. A psalm to David.
In Dómino confído : quómodo dícitis ánimæ meæ: * Tránsmigra in montem sicut passer?	In the Lord I put my trust: how then do you say to my soul: Get you away from hence to the mountain, like a sparrow.
2  Quóniam ecce peccatóres intendérunt arcum, paravérunt sagíttas suas in pháretra, * ut sagíttent in obscúro rectos corde.	For, lo, the wicked have bent their bow: they have prepared their arrows in the quiver, to shoot in the dark the upright of heart.
3  Quóniam quæ perfecísti, destruxérunt: * justus autem quid fecit?	For they have destroyed the things which you have made: but what has the just man done
4  Dóminus in templo sancto suo, * Dóminus in cælo sedes ejus.	The Lord is in his holy temple, the Lord's throne is in heaven
5  Oculi ejus in páuperem respíciunt: * pálpebræ ejus intérrogant fílios hóminum.	His eyes look on the poor man: his eyelids examine the sons of men
6  Dóminus intérrogat justum et ímpium: * qui autem díligit iniquitátem, odit ánimam suam.	The Lord tries the just and the wicked: but he that loves iniquity, hates his own soul
7  Pluet super peccatóres láqueos: * ignis, et sulphur, et spíritus procellárum pars cálicis eórum.	He shall rain snares upon sinners: fire and brimstone, and storms of winds, shall be the portion of their cup.
8  Quóniam justus Dóminus, et justítias diléxit: * æquitátem vidit vultus ejus.	For the Lord is just, and has loved justice: his countenance has beheld righteousness.

St Benedict makes Wednesday as a fast day in his Rule, consistent with the early Christian practice and association of the day with Judas’ betrayal.  In this context Psalm 10 can be read as a call to spiritual heroism in imitation of Christ as he faced his coming Passion, and a reminder that though evil seems at times to triumph, ultimately justice will prevail (indeed Pope St John Paul II’s catechesis on the psalm pointed to the reference to fire and brimstone as a reminder of the fate of the city of Sodom).

The original historical context for this psalm is probably David’s time at the court of mad King Saul, when he was constantly under suspicion, and was in fact forced to flee and live in the caves in the mountainous regions several times during this period.  On this particular occasion, however, although anxious friends concerned about his safety urge him to flee, he rejects the advice, confident that God wishes him to stay.  The first two verses have an obvious Christological application as we ponder the events of Wednesday in Holy Week in today's Office, for they warn that ‘unless you flee, they will kill you’.  Yet Our Lord, knowing the coming betrayal he faced, chose not to flee, not to shirk the cup.

The psalm is also, though, a commentary on the corrupt state of a society in turmoil.  The Fathers and Theologians accordingly read it as being primarily about the threat posed by heresy.   

St Augustine:

Appears to be sung against the heretics, who, by rehearsing and exaggerating the sins of many in the Church, as if either all or the majority among themselves were righteous, strive to turn and snatch us away from the breasts of the one True Mother Church... let him refer the Psalm to the Lord's passion, and of the Jews say, For they have destroyed what You have perfected; and of the Lord Himself, But what has the Just done? whom they accused as the destroyer of the Law: whose precepts, by their corrupt living, and by despising them, and by setting up their own, they had destroyed, so that the Lord Himself may speak as Man, as He is wont, saying, In the Lord I trust; how say ye to my soul, Remove into the mountains as a sparrow? by reason, that is, of the fear of those who desire to apprehend and crucify Him.

 St Thomas Aquinas:

This psalm can be explained literally of David, or mystically of Christ, or allegorically. Morally it concerns the just man, and heretics. The title (of this psalm is) Unto the end. A psalm for David. Jerome('s version) has Conqueror. In the preceding psalm, the giving of thanks was set forth for (the psalmist's) liberation from (his) enemies. Here, he shows the confidence brought about by having received (this liberation). And he speaks from the stance of one desiring God's kindnesses which follows upon freedom from danger. 

St Alphonse Liguori:

In this psalm the just are exhorted to place confidence in God during the time of persecution.

Fr Pasch:

This song of David forms a logical extension and climax to the previous Psalm.  "In God is my trust" - that is the shield for God's citizen in every crisis.

Pope St John Paul II:

The spiritual key of the entire psalm is well-expressed in the concluding verse:  "For the Lord is just, he loves just deeds". This is the root of all trust and the source of all hope on the day of darkness and trial. God is not indifferent to right and wrong:  he is a good God and not a dark, incomprehensible, mysterious destiny.  The psalm unfolds substantially in two scenes: in the first (cf. vv. 1-3), the wicked man is described in his apparent victory... the turning point comes...in the second scene (cf. vv. 4-7). The Lord, seated on the heavenly throne, takes in the entire human horizon with his penetrating gaze. From that transcendent vantage point, sign of the divine omniscience and omnipotence, God is able to search out and examine every person, distinguishing the righteous from the wicked and forcefully condemning injustice (cf. vv. 4-5). 

Scriptural and liturgical uses of the psalm

NT references	Mt 5:34(v4); Rev 8:5, 14:10, 20:10 (v7); Mt 5:8 (v8)
RB cursus	Prime Wednesday
Monastic/(Roman) feasts etc	Martyrs, Confessors, Dedication of a Church; Ascension, Holy Cross
Roman pre 1911	Sunday Matins
Roman post 1911	1911-62: Sunday Matins . 1970:
Mass propers (EF)	Lent 2 Wednesday (v8)

Psalm 8 - Tuesday at Prime (2) - Short summaries

 Sant’Apollinare Nuovo in Ravenna

Psalm 8: Domine Dominus Noster 

Vulgate	Douay-Rheims
In finem pro torcularibus, Psalmus David.	Unto the end, for the presses: a psalm of David.
1. Dómine, Dóminus noster, * quam admirábile est nomen tuum in univérsa terra!	O Lord, our Lord, how admirable is thy name in the whole earth!
2  Quóniam eleváta est magnificéntia tua, * super cælos.	For thy magnificence is elevated above the heavens.
3  Ex ore infántium et lacténtium perfecísti laudem propter inimícos tuos, * ut déstruas inimícum et ultórem.	Out of the mouth of infants and of sucklings thou hast perfected praise, because of thy enemies, that thou mayst destroy the enemy and the avenger.
4  Quóniam vidébo cælos tuos, ópera digitórum tuórum: * lunam et stellas, quæ tu fundásti.	For I will behold thy heavens, the works of thy fingers: the moon and the stars which thou hast founded.
5  Quid est homo quod memor es ejus? * aut fílius hóminis, quóniam vísitas eum?	What is man, that thou art mindful of him? or the son of man, that thou visitest him?
6  Minuísti eum paulo minus ab Angelis, glória et honóre coronásti eum: * et constituísti eum super ópera mánuum tuárum.	Thou hast made him a little less than the angels, thou hast crowned him with glory and honour: And hast set him over the works of thy hands.
7  Omnia subjecísti sub pédibus ejus, * oves et boves univérsas : ínsuper et pécora campi.	Thou hast subjected all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen: moreover, the beasts also of the fields.
8  Vólucres cæli, et pisces maris, * qui perámbulant sémitas maris.	The birds of the air, and the fishes of the sea, that pass through the paths of the sea.
9  Dómine, Dóminus noster, * quam admirábile est nomen tuum in univérsa terra!	O Lord, our Lord, how admirable is thy name in the whole earth!

Psalm 7 ends with a promise on the part of the psalmist ‘to sing a song to the name of the Lord the most high’.  Psalm 8 provides a lovely hymn for this purpose.

The psalm is relatively short, but it is theologically very rich, with three main, and closely interrelated, levels of meaning.   First, the psalm represents some of the key ideas of the story of the creation from Genesis 1 in poetic form.  Secondly, as hebrews 2 outlines, it tells of the process by which, through Christ’s Incarnation, death and resurrection, the universe is renewed or recreated, and the dignity of man is restored. For this reason, it features at most of the feasts of Our Lord, as well as Our Lady.  Thirdly, it is a call to the praise and worship of God. 

St Alphonsus Liguori:

This psalm is a canticle composed in praise of the power, wisdom, and goodness of God, and especially of his goodness towards man. The multitude of the benefits received from God is therefore the subject of this psalm. Thus it is commonly understood by commentators. Nevertheless there are some who, on the authority of a passage of St. Paul (Heb. ii. 9), apply it not without probability to the person of Jesus Christ.

Fr Pasch:

This majestic hymn is a song of gratitude to God the Creator for having exalted his lowly creature, man.  God's Name shines out in unmistakable splendour on the brow of a child, in the stars of heaven, in man, the king of his creation.

Psalm 2 - Prime on Monday (No 2) - Short summaries

 Les Très Riches Heures du duc de Berry, musée Condé, ms.65, f.45v.

Psalm 2: Quare fremuérunt Gentes

Vulgate	Douay Rheims
Quare fremuérunt Gentes: * et pópuli meditáti sunt inánia?	Why have the Gentiles raged, and the people devised vain things?
2  Astitérunt reges terræ, et príncipes convenérunt in unum * advérsus Dóminum, et advérsus Christum ejus.	The kings of the earth stood up, and the princes met together, against the Lord, and against his Christ.
3  Dirumpámus víncula eórum: * et projiciámus a nobis jugum ipsórum.	Let us break their bonds asunder: and let us cast away their yoke from us.
4. Qui hábitat in cælis, irridébit eos: * et Dóminus subsannábit eos.	He that dwells in heaven shall laugh at them: and the Lord shall deride them.
5  Tunc loquétur ad eos in ira sua, * et in furóre suo conturbábit eos.	Then shall he speak to them in his anger, and trouble them in his rage.
6  Ego autem constitútus sum Rex ab eo super Sion montem sanctum ejus, * prædicans præcéptum ejus.	But I am appointed king by him over Sion, his holy mountain, preaching his commandment.
7  Dóminus dixit ad me: * Fílius meus es tu, ego hódie génui te.	The Lord has said to me: You are my son, this day have I begotten you.
8  Póstula a me, et dábo tibi Gentes hereditátem tuam, * et possessiónem tuam términos terræ.	Ask of me, and I will give you the Gentiles for your inheritance, and the utmost parts of the earth for your possession
9  Reges eos in virga férrea, * et tamquam vas fíguli confrínges eos.	You shall rule them with a rod of iron, and shall break them in pieces like a potter's vessel.
10  Et nunc, reges, intellígite: * erudímini, qui judicátis terram.	And now, O you kings, understand: receive instruction, you that judge the earth.
11  Servíte Dómino in timóre: * et exsultáte ei cum tremóre.	Serve the Lord with fear: and rejoice unto him with trembling.
12  Apprehéndite disciplínam, nequándo irascátur Dóminus, * et pereátis de via justa.	Embrace discipline, lest at any time the Lord be angry, and you perish from the just way.
13  Cum exárserit in brevi ira ejus: * beáti omnes qui confídunt in eo.	When his wrath shall be kindled in a short time, blessed are all they that trust in him.

Psalm 2, the second psalm of Prime on Monday in the Benedictine Office and one of the greatest of the Messianic psalms, has always been closely linked to Psalm 1 by way of serving as an introduction to and summary of the entire psalter.  

Psalm 1 presents us with the choice between the two ways, the truth and life that leads us to happiness, or the way of evil that leads to destruction; Psalm 2 sets out how that choice is manifested in history, through the Incarnation of Our Lord on the one hand, and all those who rage against him on the other.

The Incarnation: Verse 7 is used in the Introit and Alleluia for Midnight Mass of Christmas, and can be interpreted as referring simultaneously to the eternal generation of the Son, his fleshly Incarnation, and the Resurrection of Christ.

The life of Christ: The New Testament (see for example Acts 4) repeatedly makes it clear that Psalm 2’s plotting King’s and raging peoples particularly refers especially to Herod and all those who plotted against and persecuted Our Lord.   But it also has an ongoing application: atheism involves a specific rejection of God, the desire to ‘break the bonds’.

Accept discipline: The final verses of the psalm provide a series of instructions which are cited implicitly or explicitly in the Rule of St Benedict in various places, including to ‘serve the Lord with fear and trembling’, and can be seen as part of the preparation for the weekly renewal of monastic vows in the Suscipe said at Terce.

You can hear it read aloud in Latin here.

This psalm is most famous for the English setting by Handel in the Messiah:



St Alphonse Liguori:

This psalm taken in its literal sense is entirely a prophecy of the reign of Jesus Christ, as the Apostles themselves teach us in the fourth chapter of the Acts :. . . Lord, who by the Holy Ghost, by the mouth of our father David, thy servant, hath said: Why did the Gentiles rage, and the people meditate vain things: The kings of the earth stood up, and the princes assembled together against the Lord, and against His Christ; (Acts, iv. 24).... 

They then continue to speak of the conspiracies that were formed against Jesus Christ by Herod and Pilate in union with the Gentiles and the Jews.  In fact, certain Protestant interpreters, and even some Catholic commentators, wish that this psalm should be understood, in a literal sense, of the reign of David. But D. Xavier Mattei wisely observes that this is a novel opinion, prevailing among Protestants, and worthy of our condemnation, since we should hold to the interpretation given by holy Scripture in the Acts of the Apostles; the more so since to apply this psalm to David we must do too great violence to the text, the expression of which so clearly refers to the reign of Jesus Christ…

 Fr Pasch:

The victory of God's kingdom - This is a well-known and highly dramatic Messianic Psalm.  St. Bernard calls it "the roaring of the Lion of Juda against his enemies."  The song portrays the never-ending battle waged by hell against Christ and the kingdom of God.

For more on this psalm:
Introduction to Psalm 2 in the context of Tenebrae
Psalm 2 in Tenebrae Pt 2: Why do the nations rage

Psalm 118 (Aleph) - Sunday Prime

Don Silvestro dei Gherarducci - Gradual from Santa Maria degli Angeli
 - folio 80 -  (Abegg-Stiftung)

Psalm 118 - Aleph

Vulgate	Douay-Rheims
Alleluia	Alleluia
Beati immaculati in via, qui ambulant in lege Domini.	Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the Lord.
2 Beati qui scrutantur testimonia ejus; in toto corde exquirunt eum.	Blessed are they that search his testimonies: that seek him with their whole heart.
3 Non enim qui operantur iniquitatem in viis ejus ambulaverunt.	For they that work iniquity, have not walked in his ways.
4 Tu mandasti mandata tua custodiri nimis.	You have commanded your commandments to be kept most diligently.
5 Utinam dirigantur viæ meæ ad custodiendas justificationes tuas.	O! That my ways may be directed to keep your justifications.
6 Tunc non confundar, cum perspexero in omnibus mandatis tuis.	Then shall I not be confounded, when I shall look into all your commandments.
7 Confitebor tibi in directione cordis, in eo quod didici judicia justitiæ tuæ.	I will praise you with uprightness of heart, when I shall have learned the judgments of your justice.
8 Justificationes tuas custodiam; non me derelinquas usquequaque.	I will keep your justifications: O! Do not utterly forsake me.

The first 'psalm' of Sunday Prime in the Benedictine Office is the first of the 22 stanzas, one for each letter of the Hebrew alphabet, of Psalm 118, the longest psalm in the Bible.  You can hear it read aloud here.

Christianity is above all, a philosophy of life, aimed at the achievement of happiness both now and for all eternity, and here the psalmist tells us that meditation on God’s law (thought of broadest sense) is the key to that happiness. These verses stress that the path to happiness lies in following God’s law. But it is not enough, they tell us, to simply think that we are doing the right thing; rather we are charged to actively seek out God's testimonies.

The opening verses of Psalm 118 really just recapitulate the ideas of verses 1-2 of Psalm 1, said on Monday at Prime, which point to the importance of meditation on God’s law as the path to happiness.

Psalm 1 says:

Beátus vir, qui non ábiit in consílio impiórum, et in via peccatórum non stetit,et in cáthedra pestiléntiæ non sedit. Sed in lege Dómini volúntas ejus, et in lege ejus meditábitur die ac nocte. 

“Blessed is the man who has not walked in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stood in the way of sinners, nor sat in the chair of pestilence: But his will is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he shall meditate day and night”

Psalm 118 says:

Beati immaculati in via, qui ambulant in lege Domini. Beati qui scrutantur testimonia ejus; in toto corde exquirunt eum. 

“Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the Lord. Blessed are they that search his testimonies: that seek him with their whole heart.”

The main difference between the two is that Psalm 1 talks of one man, Christ, appropriate to a Monday Office which St Benedict has, I think, shaped to focus on the Incarnation.  By contrast on Sunday we celebrate the Resurrection which opens up the way to heaven to the many, hence St Benedict perhaps thought the focus on the happiness of the blessed in the plural, particularly appropriate.

The Knox translation attempts to replicate the acrostic flavour of the original so is worth looking at:

Ah, blessed they, who pass through life’s journey unstained, who follow the law of the Lord!
Ah, blessed they, who cherish his decrees, make him the whole quest of their hearts!
Afar from wrong-doing, thy sure paths they tread.
Above all else it binds us, the charge thou hast given us to keep.
Ah, how shall my steps be surely guided to keep faith with thy covenant?
Attentive to all thy commandments, I go my way undismayed.
A true heart’s worship thou shalt have, thy just awards prompting me.
All shall be done thy laws demand, so thou wilt not forsake me utterly.

Scriptural and liturgical uses of the psalm

NT references	Mt 5:3 (v2)
RB cursus	Sunday Prime
Monastic feasts etc	-
Roman pre 1911	Prime daily
Responsories	-
Roman post 1911	1911-62: Sunday Prime . 1970:
Mass propers (EF)	PP17 IN (1); CO (4-5); PP 20&21 IN (1); Lent 3 Thurs CO (4-5)

And you can find more detailed notes on each verse of the psalm here.

Psalm 17 Pt 2 (SaturdayPrime) - Short summaries

David and Goliath, Paris Psalter

Psalm 17/2: Cum sancto sanctus eris 

Vulgate	Douay-Rheims
1 Cum sancto sanctus eris, * et cum viro innocénte ínnocens eris	With the holy you will be holy; and with the innocent man you will be innocent:
2 Et cum elécto eléctus eris: * et cum pervérso pervertéris.	And with the elect you will be elect: and with the perverse you will be perverted.
3 Quóniam tu pópulum húmilem salvum fácies: * et óculos superbórum humiliábis.	For you will save the humble people; but will bring down the eyes of the proud.
4 Quóniam tu illúminas lucérnam meam, Dómine: * Deus meus, illúmina ténebras meas.	For you light my lamp, O Lord: O my God, enlighten my darkness.
5  Quóniam in te erípiar a tentatióne, * et in Deo meo transgrédiar murum.	For by you I shall be delivered from temptation; and through my God I shall go over a wall.
6  Deus meus, impollúta via ejus: elóquia Dómini igne examináta: * protéctor est ómnium sperántium in se.	As for my God, his way is undefiled: the words of the Lord are fire-tried: he is the protector of all that trust in him.
7  Quóniam quis Deus præter Dóminum? * aut quis Deus præter Deum nostrum?	For who is God but the Lord? Or who is God but our God?
8  Deus, qui præcínxit me virtúte: * et pósuit immaculátam viam meam	God, who has girt me with strength; and made my way blameless.
9  Qui perfécit pedes meos tamquam cervórum, * et super excélsa státuens me	Who has made my feet like the feet of harts: and who sets me upon high places.
10 Qui docet manus meas ad prælium: * et posuísti, ut arcum æreum, bráchia mea.	Who teaches my hands to war: and you have made my arms like a brazen bow.
11  Et dedísti mihi protectiónem salútis tuæ: * et déxtera tua suscépit me:	And you have given me the protection of your salvation: and your right hand has held me up:
12  Et disciplína tua corréxit me in finem: * et disciplína tua ipsa me docébit	And your discipline has corrected me unto the end: and your discipline, the same shall teach me.
13  Dilatásti gressus meos subtus me: * et non sunt infirmáta vestígia mea:	You have enlarged my steps under me; and my feet are not weakened.
14  Pérsequar inimícos meos et comprehéndam illos: * et non convértar, donec defíciant.	I will pursue after my enemies, and overtake them: and I will not turn again till they are consumed.
15  Confríngam illos, nec póterunt stare: * cadent subtus pedes meos.	I will break them, and they shall not be able to stand: they shall fall under my feet.
16  Et præcinxísti me virtúte ad bellum: * supplantásti insurgéntes in me subtus me.	And you have girded me with strength unto battle; and have subdued under me them that rose up against me.
17  Et inimícos meos dedísti mihi dorsum, * et odiéntes me disperdidísti.	And you have made my enemies turn their back upon me, and have destroyed them that hated me.
18  Clamavérunt, nec erat qui salvos fáceret ad Dóminum: * nec exaudívit eos.	They cried, but there was none to save them, to the Lord: but he heard them not.
19  Et commínuam illos, ut púlverem ante fáciem venti: * ut lutum plateárum delébo eos.	And I shall beat them as small as the dust before the wind; I shall bring them to nought, like the dirt in the streets.
20  Eripies me de contradictiónibus pópuli: * constítues me in caput géntium.	You will deliver me from the contradictions of the people; you will make me head of the Gentiles.
21  Pópulus quem non cognóvi servívit mihi: * in audítu auris obedívit mihi.	A people which I knew not, has served me: at the hearing of the ear they have obeyed me.
22  Fílii aliéni mentíti sunt mihi, * fílii aliéni inveteráti sunt, et claudicavérunt a sémitis suis.	The children that are strangers have lied to me, strange children have faded away, and have halted from their paths.
23 Vivit Dóminus, et benedíctus Deus meus: * et exaltétur Deus salútis meæ.	The Lord lives, and blessed by my God, and let the God of my salvation be exalted.
24  Deus, qui das vindíctas mihi, et subdis pópulos sub me: * liberátor meus de inimícis meis iracúndis.	O God, who avenges me, and subdues the people under me, my deliverer from my enraged enemies.
25  Et ab insurgéntibus in me exaltábis me: * a viro iníquo erípies me.	And you will lift me up above them that rise up against me: from the unjust man you will deliver me.
26  Proptérea confitébor tibi in natiónibus, Dómine: * et nómini tuo psalmum dicam	Therefore will I give glory to you, O Lord, among the nations, and I will sing a psalm to your name.
27 Magníficans salútes Regis ejus, et fáciens misericórdiam Christo suo David: * et sémini ejus usque in sæculum.	Giving great deliverance to his king, and showing mercy to David, his anointed: and to his seed for ever.

The first half of Psalm 17 was assigned to Friday by St Benedict as it is very much a psalm of Good Friday, hence its division in the Benedictine Office – it can be read as describing the events from Christ’s trial to the earthquake at his death and descent into hell.  This second section, though, leads us forward to this key verse: The Lord lives! 

Psalm 17 also appears in 2 Samuel 22, with the lead in “And David spoke to the Lord the words of this song on the day when the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies, and from the hand of Saul. He said…”   but as the Navarre bible notes:

“The perspective of this psalm changes in the New Testament in the light of how Christ achieved his glory, as king of nations, by obediently doing his Father’s will, and of how nations come to acknowledge him through the preaching for the Gospel.” (Commentary on the Psalms, pp 79)

This section of the psalm starts with a discussion (verses 1-5) of the way God acts towards us: he is faithful to his word, and protects those who fear him, but to those who oppose him, he seems otherwise.  Much of the psalm chronicles David’s successes, all of which he attributes to God, and can be read as applying to Christ, but also to our own progress: in Psalm 2 on Monday we learnt that Christ teaches discipline; here we have learnt it (v12); grace has made our progress possible, 'enlarged our steps'.  The final verses point to the applicability of all this to Our Lord: as the Navarre commentary points out, Christ achieved his glory as king of nations by obediently doing his Father’s will; now the nations come to acknowledge him through the preaching of the Gospel.

You can hear (all of) Psalm 17 read aloud here.

Short summaries:

St Thomas Aquinas:

In the second part he shows the power of the one who liberates, where he writes, and it was moved. In the third part, he shows the mode of liberation, where he writes, he sent from the high place etc.., the emotion of love and the emotion of hope. fortitude. 

St Alphonsus Liguori:

David gives thanks to God for having delivered him from the hands of his enemies, and especially from the hands of Saul. This psalm is applicable to the Christian soul that sees itself delivered, with God s help, from every grave persecution or every temptation of the devil.

Fr Pasch:

David's hymn of thanks and victory: At the end of his life, David sings this Psalm as a sort of swan song, one of the most beautiful compositions in the Psalter.  He looks back over the battles of his life and his final victory over all his enemies―a note of courage for the coming conflicts of the week. God's Kingdom, too, must battle in Church and soul―but under God's sure guidance, it will be victorious.  Note particularly the magnificent description of God's apparition, in the figure of a thunder storm.

Scriptural and liturgical uses of the psalm

NT references	Rev 2:26-28 (v2-21); Rom 15:9 (v26)
RB cursus	Saturday Prime
Monastic/(Roman) feasts etc	-
Roman pre 1911	Sunday Matins
Roman post 1911	1911-62: Monday Matins . 1970:
Mass propers (EF)	Lent 4 Friday OF (3,7), Passion Wed IN (24-25), Passion Sunday GR (24-25); PP8 OF (3,7)