Psalm 117 - Christ and the day

Ancient of days icon: see Daniel 7:13-14

 Psalm 117: Sunday Lauds

Vulgate	Douay-Rheims
Alleluja.	Alleluia.
Confitémini Dómino quóniam bonus: * quóniam in sæculum misericórdia ejus.	Give praise to the Lord, for he is good: for his mercy endures for ever.
2  Dicat nunc Israël quóniam bonus: * quóniam in sæculum misericórdia ejus.	2 Let Israel now say, that he is good: that his mercy endures for ever.
3  Dicat nunc domus Aaron: * quóniam in sæculum misericórdia ejus.	3 Let the house of Aaron now say, that his mercy endures for ever.
4  Dicant nunc qui timent Dóminum: * quóniam in sæculum misericórdia ejus.	4 Let them that fear the Lord now say, that his mercy endures for ever.
5  De tribulatióne invocávi Dóminum: * et exaudívit me in latitúdine Dóminus.	5 In my trouble I called upon the Lord: and the Lord heard me, and enlarged me.
6  Dóminus mihi adjútor: * non timébo quid fáciat mihi homo.	6 The Lord is my helper: I will not fear what man can do unto me.
7  Dóminus mihi adjútor: * et ego despíciam inimícos meos.	7 The Lord is my helper: and I will look over my enemies.
8  Bonum est confídere in Dómino: * quam confídere in hómine.	8 It is good to confide in the Lord, rather than to have confidence in man.
9  Bonum est speráre in Dómino: * quam speráre in princípibus.	9 It is good to trust in the Lord, rather than to trust in princes.
10  Omnes Gentes circuiérunt me: * et in nómine Dómini quia ultus sum in eos.	10 All nations compassed me about; and, in the name of the Lord I have been revenged on them.
11  Circumdántes circumdedérunt me: * et in nómine Dómini quia ultus sum in eos.	11 Surrounding me they compassed me about: and in the name of the Lord I have been revenged on them.
12  Circumdedérunt me sicut apes, et exarsérunt sicut ignis in spinis: * et in nómine Dómini quia ultus sum in eos.	12 They surrounded me like bees, and they burned like fire among thorns: and in the name of the Lord I was revenged on them.
13  Impúlsus evérsus sum ut cáderem: * et Dóminus suscépit me.	13 Being pushed I was overturned that I might fall: but the Lord supported me.
14  Fortitúdo mea, et laus mea Dóminus: * et factus est mihi in salútem.	14 The Lord is my strength and my praise: and he has become my salvation.
15  Vox exsultatiónis, et salútis: * in tabernáculis justórum.	15 The voice of rejoicing and of salvation is in the tabernacles of the just.
16  Déxtera Dómini fecit virtútem: déxtera Dómini exaltávit me, * déxtera Dómini fecit virtútem.	16 The right hand of the Lord has wrought strength: the right hand of the Lord has exalted me: the right hand of the Lord has wrought strength.
17  Non móriar, sed vivam: * et narrábo ópera Dómini.	17 I shall not die, but live: and shall declare the works of the Lord.
18  Castígans castigávit me Dóminus: * et morti non trádidit me.	18 The Lord chastising has chastised me: but he has not delivered me over to death.
19  Aperíte mihi portas justítiæ, ingréssus in eas confitébor Dómino: * hæc porta Dómini, justi intrábunt in eam.	19 Open to me the gates of justice: I will go in to them, and give praise to the Lord 20 This is the gate of the Lord, the just shall enter into it.
20  Confitébor tibi quóniam exaudísti me: * et factus es mihi in salútem.	21 I will give glory to you because you have heard me: and have become my salvation.
21  Lápidem, quem reprobavérunt ædificántes: * hic factus est in caput ánguli.	22 The stone which the builders rejected; the same has become the head of the corner.
22  A Dómino factum est istud: * et est mirábile in óculis nostris.	23 This is the Lord's doing, and it is wonderful in our eyes.
23  Hæc est dies, quam fecit Dóminus: * exsultémus et lætémur in ea.	24 This is the day which the Lord has made: let us be glad and rejoice therein.
24  O Dómine, salvum me fac, O Dómine, bene prosperáre: * benedíctus qui venit in nómine Dómini.	25 O Lord, save me: O Lord, give good success. 26 Blessed be he that comes in the name of the Lord.
25  Benedíximus vobis de domo Dómini: * Deus Dóminus, et illúxit nobis.	We have blessed you out of the house of the Lord. 27 The Lord is God, and he has shone upon us.
26  Constitúite diem solémnem in condénsis, * usque ad cornu altáris.	Appoint a solemn day, with shady boughs, even to the horn of the altar.
27  Deus meus es tu, et confitébor tibi: * Deus meus es tu, et exaltábo te.	28 You are my God, and I will praise you: you are my God, and I will exalt you.
28  Confitébor tibi quóniam exaudísti me: * et factus es mihi in salútem.	I will praise you, because you have heard me, and have become my salvation.
29  Confitémini Dómino quóniam bonus: * quóniam in sæculum misericórdia ejus.	29 O praise the Lord, for he is good: for his mercy endures for ever.

Psalm 117 is the last of the 'Hallel' psalms sung on major feasts in the Jewish liturgy, it contains a number of key verses that Our Lord made clear applied to him, above all verse 22.

The reasons for its use on Sunday are fairly clear cut: Fr Pius Pasch's early twentieth century breviary commentary, for example, says:

Festival hymn. In this psalm, a celebrated liturgical hymn of the ancient synagogue (also a thanksgiving hymn on the feast of Tabernacles), we sing our Easter joy occasioned by the Resurrection of our Lord and our own spiritual resurrection in him.

It has some very clear links to the traditional canticle of the day as well (which I'll go into a little more below).

In the earlier version of the Roman Office from which St Benedict may have borrowed, though, Psalm 117 was probably said at Prime rather than Lauds.  If this was the case, why did he shift it to Lauds, particularly given its lack of overt references to dawn and the morning?

Christ the true day

One possibility seems to me to be the reference to Christ as the day (latin: dies, diei) in verse 24.

Christ as the day was a favourite theme of the Fathers.  St Cyprian's instruction on prayer for example, include the following:

But for us, beloved brethren, besides the hours of prayer observed of old, both the times and the sacraments have now increased in number. For we must also pray in the morning, that the Lord's resurrection may be celebrated by morning prayer. 

And this formerly the Holy Spirit pointed out in the Psalms, saying, My King, and my God, because unto You will I cry; O Lord, in the morning shall You hear my voice; in the morning will I stand before You, and will look up to You. And again, the Lord speaks by the mouth of the prophet: Early in the morning shall they watch for me, saying, Let us go, and return unto the Lord our God... 

Moreover, the Holy Spirit in the Psalms manifests that Christ is called the day. The stone, says He, which the builders rejected, has become the head of the corner. This is the Lord's doing; and it is marvellous in our eyes. This is the day which the Lord has made; let us walk and rejoice in it. 

Also the prophet Malachi testifies that He is called the Sun, when he says, But to you that fear the name of the Lord shall the Sun of righteousness arise, and there is healing in His wings. But if in the Holy Scriptures the true sun and the true day is Christ, there is no hour excepted for Christians wherein God ought not frequently and always to be worshipped; so that we who are in Christ— that is, in the true Sun and the true Day— should be instant throughout the entire day in petitions, and should pray; and when, by the law of the world, the revolving night, recurring in its alternate changes, succeeds, there can be no harm arising from the darkness of night to those who pray, because the children of light have the day even in the night. For when is he without light who has light in his heart? Or when has not he the sun and the day, whose Sun and Day is Christ?

The references to dawn and morning light in many of the psalms of Lauds then, were not just selected for their references to morning prayer, but perhaps on the basis that they were seen by the Fathers as containing references to the Resurrection, the true day of the world.

And on this basis, one of the key themes reflected in several of the first variable psalms each day is the reference to entering heaven to praise God in verses 19-20:

Open to me the gates of justice: I will go in to them, and give praise to the Lord This is the gate of the Lord, the just shall enter into it.

As we shall see this week, all of the first variable psalms of Lauds contain similar references - it is most explicit in Psalms 5, 42 and 75.

The key themes of the psalm

Cassiodorus summarises the structure of the psalm as follows:

The faithful people are freed from the bonds of sins, and in the first section they offer a general exhortation that each of us should confess to the Lord, for they have gained a hearing in afflictions, and have proclaimed that no man whatsoever is to be held in fear. 

In the second part they say that we must have confidence in the Lord alone, through whom they know that they have escaped the enmity of the Gentiles, and have attained the remedies of a truly genuine life. 

In the third section they say that the gates of justice are to be opened; they speak there also of the Cornerstone which is Christ the Saviour. 

In the fourth, they persuade the other Christians that they must crowd the Lord's halls in shared joy and sweet delight at the coming of the holy incarnation.

Latin word study: confess and praise the Lord

This psalm has lots of litany-esq repetitions, making it easier to memorise, so let me first point out a few key words in the opening litany section

Confitemini, the opening word of this psalm is actually quite key to the themes of Lauds I think.  The word literally means let us confess, and comes from the same verb used in confession of sins, viz confiteor, fessus sum, eri.  It has both a positive connotation (to praise, give thanks) and a negative one (to confess, acknowledge one's guilt), and both are implied here and throughout this series of psalms I think.

In fact Daniel 3 (from whence the Sunday canticle, the Benedicite cometh, another reason, presumably for the shift of the psalm to Lauds) provides the phrase spelt out in exactly that way:

 [89] Confitemini Domino, quoniam bonus: quoniam in saeculum misericordia ejus. [90] Benedicite, omnes religiosi, Domino Deo deorum: laudate et confitemini ei, quia in omnia saecula misericordia ejus.

 [89] O give thanks to the Lord, because he is good: because his mercy endureth for ever and ever. [90] O all ye religious, bless the Lord the God of gods: praise him and give him thanks, because his mercy endureth for ever and ever.

In the pslams that follow, this theme is, I think expanded in this way: God confronts us with the truth (veritas, veritatis) about ourselves which we must acknowledge and ask for his mercy (misericordia -ae); those who refuse to do that will be subject to his justice (justitia).

It's the same key theme as in Psalm 129 (Tuesday Vespers):

3  Si iniquitátes observáveris, Dómine: * Dómine, quis sustinébit?	3 If you, O Lord, will mark iniquities: Lord, who shall stand it.
4  Quia apud te propitiátio est: * et propter legem tuam sustínui te, Dómine.	4 For with you there is merciful forgiveness: and by reason of your law, I have waited for you, O Lord.
7  Quia apud Dóminum misericórdia: * et copiósa apud eum redémptio.

So make that key refrain your own:

Confitémini Dómino quóniam bonus: Dicat nunc Israël (the Church) quóniam bonus:  Dicat nunc domus Aaron (the priests): Dicant nunc qui timent Dóminum (the faithful):

quóniam in sæculum misericórdia ejus.

Scriptural and liturgical uses

NT references	Rom 8:31, Heb 13:6 (v6); Lk 1:51 (v16); Rev 22:14 (v19); Jn 10:9 (v20); Mt 21:42, Acts 4:11, 1 Cor 3:11, Eph 2:20, 1Pet 2:4-7 (v21); Mt21: 9-14, 23-39 (v24)
RB cursus	Sunday Lauds
Feasts, antiphons etc	AN: 3297 (5); 1745 (5); 1809 (11); 3289, 3290, 5509 (15);3577 (v22-3); 2997 (v24); 4024 (25); 4117 (25-6); 2175(28)
Roman pre 1911	Sunday Prime
Roman post 1911	1911-62: Lauds II . 1970:
Responsories	Epiphanytide Friday v28; 6073, 6799 (v24, Haec dies)
Mass propers (EF)	Nativity Aurora GR (23, 26, 27) Lent 2 TR (v1=105) Lent 3 Tues OF (16-17); Lent 4 Friday GR (8-9); Passion I OF (17, ), Maundy Thurs OF (16-17); Easter Vigil AL (1); Easter Day GR (1, 23), Easter Mon GR (2, 24) Easter Tues IN v(1),GR (24,3) Easter Wed GR (24, 16) Easter Thurs GR (23,21,22); Easter Fri GR (23, 24-5); Easter Sat AL 23, OF 24-25; Eastertide 4 AL (16); PP14 GR (8-9). Finding holy Cross May 3: OF (5,6, 16, 17)

You can find some of my previous notes on this psalm here.

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

The liturgical genius of St Benedict's Lauds Pt 4 - the variable psalmody

The New Jerusalem and the River of Life (Apocalypse XII),
Beatus de Facundus, 1047

So far in this series I've talked about the overall structure and context of Lauds; today I want to start on the main focus of this series, the variable psalms of the hour.

The variable psalms St Benedict uses for the hour are Psalms 5, 35, 42, 56, 62, 63, 64, 75, 87, 89, 91, 117 and 142.

Relationship to the Roman Office?

Some, but not all of these psalms also feature in the later Roman Office - that Office though, only had one variable psalm each day, and St Benedict doesn't use all of those; nor does he use them on the same days as the Roman Office.

This presents something of a puzzle, since although St Benedict lists out all of the psalms to be said each day (in contrast to the variable canticles where he just says use the Roman ones), he also describes them as the customary psalms:

Post quem alii duo psalmi dicantur secundum consuetudinem, id est...

 After these, two other psalms are to follow, according to established usage; thus...

Established use, or customary where?  In his monastery? In some Roman monastery whose Office has subsequently vanished? We will perhaps never know.

Purely mechanistic?

At least some of these psalms do have a history in association with Lauds though.

Two of the thirteen psalms St Benedict uses - viz Psalms 5 and 62 - have a long tradition of association with the hour behind them, attested to as early as Origen in the second century, and so their use is readily explicable.

Five more - Psalms 42, 64, 89, 91 and 142 - feature in the later Roman Office and most commentators now assume he borrowed them from a primitive version of the Roman Office.

If that was the case though, the Roman practice at this hour (assuming it really was settled at this time, a proposition for which there is no hard evidence) cannot have been the definitive criterion for their use for several reasons

First, St Benedict doesn't use two of the Lauds psalms of the Roman Office viz Psalms 92 and 99,in his Office (the current 'festal' version of Lauds is a later addition which I will look at briefly at the end of this series).

Secondly, St Benedict frequently displays a willingness to move psalms between hours (such as shifting Psalms 1-2 and 6-19 out of Matins and 119-125 out of Vespers), and between days (Psalm 91 is said on Saturday in the Roman Office, on Fridays in the Benedictine, and vice-versa for Psalm 142). In the case of Lauds, for example, he doesn't just take psalm from the Matins sequence but also Psalm 117 which in the later Roman Office was said at Prime (though probably was originally located at Vespers). Similarly, Psalm 53 may have formed part of Roman Prime at this time, but St Benedict places it in Matins.

Still, if we accept their use in the Roman Office as the rationale for their inclusion for the moment, we still have to explain the choice of six additional psalms, Psalms 35, 56, 63, 75, 87 and 117 (and the reasons for the initial rejection and later acceptance of Psalms 92 and 99 in the Benedictine cursus).

Morning prayer?

One possible explanation is that St Benedict selected the variable psalms for Lauds on the basis of their references to morning prayer and/or the light of dawn.

Certainly the two Roman Office psalms that St Benedict excludes from his version of the hour don't contain any explicit references to these themes, while the ones he selects do.  The table below summarises the key references in question sometimes cited (for example in Hildemar's c850 commentary on the Rule).

Table: Allusions to morning and light in the variable psalms of Lauds

Monday	O Lord, in the morning you shall hear my voice In the morning I will stand before you (Ps 5: 3-4)
	and in your light we shall see light (Ps 35:10)
Tuesday	Send forth your light and your truth (Ps 42:3)
	Arise, O my glory, arise psaltery and harp: I will arise early (Ps 56:11)
Wednesday	you shall make the outgoings of the morning and of the evening to be joyful (Ps 64:8) Shall your wonders be known in the dark (Ps 64:13)
Thursday	But I, O Lord, have cried to you: and in the morning my prayer shall prevent you. (87:14)
	In the morning man shall grow up like grass; in the morning he shall flourish and pass away (89:6) our life in the light of your countenance (89:8)  We are filled in the morning with your mercy: and we have rejoiced, and are delighted all our days (89:16) And let the brightness of the Lord our God be upon us (89:17)
Friday	You enlighten wonderfully from the everlasting hills (75:4)
	To show forth your mercy in the morning (91:2)
Saturday	Cause me to hear your mercy in the morning; for in you have I hoped (142: 9)
Sunday	O my God, to you do I watch at break of day (62:1) I will meditate on you in the morning (62:7) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Lord is God, and he has shone upon us (117:27)

Does this listing fully explain his choices however?

Well no, not in my opinion.

First, Psalm 63 on Wednesday has no obvious references to light or morning at all.

Secondly, while Psalm 117 does contain a reference to light, it is not obviously to dawn or morning prayer.  And several of the other references seem somewhat tenuous on the face of it.

Thirdly, and most importantly perhaps, there are actually quite a few other psalms that St Benedict could have selected for this purpose.

If we ignore the psalms of the Vespers cycle (though in reality, there is no good reason to, since St Benedict shifted several of them to Terce to None!), and just look at the (Roman) Matins sequence in particular that meet this criteria of strong references to morning and light and could have been allocated to Lauds - many of them (including Psalms 17, 18, 26, 29, 45, 73, 77, 106 and 107) with rather stronger claims than those St Benedict actually uses.

Psalms 17&18 have key places in Prime, so we can eliminate them from consideration, and Psalms 73, 77 and 106 might perhaps have been deemed too long for the hour.

But consider these possibilities, all of which fit with the prayer while awaiting the Resurrection/Christ as light theme:

• The Lord is my light and my deliverance; whom have I to fear? (Ps 26)
• sorrow is but the guest of a night, and joy comes in the morning (Ps 29) 
• But the city of God, enriched with flowing waters, is the chosen sanctuary of the most High, God dwells within her, and she stands unmoved; with break of dawn he will grant her deliverance (ps 45); and
• Wake, my heart, wake, echoes of harp and viol; dawn shall find me watching (Ps 107).

On the face of it, St Benedict's selection criteria involved more than just a reference to dawn/early morning.

Allocation to the day of the week

Another curious feature of the Lauds psalms is how St Benedict allocates them to the particular day of the week and place in the hour.  The table below shows which psalm is said on each day.

Table: Variable psalms and canticles of Lauds as set out in RB 13

Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday
Matins:20-31	Matins: 32-44	Matins: 45-58	Matins: 59-72	Matins: 73-84	Matins: 85-100	Matins: 101-108
Ps 117	Ps 5	Ps 42	Ps 63	Ps 87	Ps 75	Ps 142
Ps 62	Ps 35	Ps 56	Ps 64	Ps 89	Ps 91	Deut
Benedicite (Dan 3)	Is 12:1-6	Is 38:10-20	1 Kings 2:1-10	Ex 15:1-10	Hab 3:2-19	32:1-43

Note that some psalms (viz Psalms 62, 75 and 117) are used out of their numerical sequences, the only hour of the Benedictine Office at which this occurs (fixed psalms aside).

In addition, unlike the Roman version of this hour, the psalms used at Lauds each day often - viz on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday don't all sit within the Matins (or other) sequence(s) for the day of the week.

In some cases there is perhaps an explanation for this.  Psalm 5, for example, is presumably on Monday because it is the only one missing from the Psalm 1-6 group on that day (Ps 1,2 and 6 being said at Prime, Ps 3&4 at Matins and Compline each day).

In other cases, the reasons for the allocations are less obvious.  Why place not place Psalm 142 on Friday, for example, as it was in the later Roman Office,  the day it would otherwise have been said at Vespers?

The shaping of Benedictine Lauds

The explanation for the psalm selections for Lauds, I think, reflects several different factors:

• some psalms are left in Matins or removed from the sequence in order to ensure that Matins each day has a thematic coherence - Psalm 45 presumably opens Tuesday Matins, for example, rather than being moved to Lauds because it so clearly states the themes of that day and is important to that particular sequence of psalms;
• there is rather more to the dawn theme than just references to the morning than the simple references might suggest;
• there was a need to ensure that the psalms used each day have a link to the themes of the day suggested by the Old Testament canticles said at Lauds; and 
• St Benedict's desire to use psalms that include some common memes - including but not limited to the morning prayer/light theme - that help give the hour and the psalm group a horizontal unity.

Perhaps the most important of the unifying memes in this psalms is that if one looks at the variable psalms placed first each day as a group, one can find repeated allusions to the theme of entering heaven; if you look at the set of second variables psalms each day at Lauds one can find brief descriptions of heaven itself (with the high point being Psalm 64 on Wednesday).

The linking theme between them is that in this life God offers us his protection in weathering the attacks of evildoers so that we can endure, best summarised in this line from Psalm 56:

And in the shadow of your wings will I hope, until iniquity pass away.

As we look more closely at this group of psalms over the next few weeks I will try and draw out these linkages and themes out more closely.

Latin word study

As we go along in this series, I'm also going to provide some key word prompts for those wanting to become more familiar with the Latin, focusing on key concepts, images and phrases that tend to recur in the psalms and elsewhere in Scripture, particularly those relevant to the key themes of Lauds.

The psalms use a huge vocabulary (4,000 words plus, compared to most people's normal everyday vocabulary of around 1500 words) so are quite challenging to learn (and remember!).  So focusing on a few key words each day can help push the learning process on a little!

Next part in the series

In the meantime, continue on to Psalm 117.

The liturgical genius of St Benedict's Lauds - Pt 3: The fixed psalms, structure and symbolism of the hour

c6th mosaic map of Jerusalem

In the previous part of this series I talked about some of the theological context for the hour of Lauds, and today I want to take that theme a little bit further, and look very briefly at the fixed psalms of the hour.

The table below summarises the structure of the psalmody section of Lauds.  The weekday and Sunday prescriptions are from St Benedict's Rule; the festal version is a later development.

The psalmody at Lauds	Sunday	Festal	Weekday
Opening prayers	Fixed
Psalm 66	Fixed
Antiphon:	Variable (normally alleluia)
Psalm 50+ Gloria	Fixed	Psalm 92+variable antiphon	Fixed +variable antiphon
Psalm+Gloria	Psalm 117	Psalm 99+variable antiphon	Of the day +variable antiphon
Psalm+Gloria	Psalm 62	Psalm 62+variable antiphon	Of the day +variable antiphon
Antiphon	Variable
Antiphon for the canticle	Variable	Variable	Variable
OT Canticle	Benedicite Domino (no Gloria)	Festal canticle of the day of the week with Gloria	Ferial or festal canticle of the day of the week  with Gloria
Antiphon	Variable
Ps 148+149+150+Gloria	Fixed (Laudate psalms)
Antiphon	Variable

The symbolism of seven?

The first issue worth noting is how many psalms are said at the hour - should we count it as five (ie the Laudate psalms count as one not three since they are said under the same Gloria); seven (counting Psalms 148-150 separately); or eight (including the Old Testament canticle as a pseudo-psalm)?

This is not just of arithmetic interest, but goes to the symbolism of the hour.

A later commentary on the Roman Office Office, for example, by Amalarius of Metz, pointed to the five psalms of Lauds and Vespers as symbolising the five wounds of Christ.

St Benedict, of course, has only four psalms at Vespers.  But his Office, too, has a certain parallelism in the psalms - provided you count Lauds as having seven, and the two evening Offices, Vespers and Compline has having seven between them. This then provides to a parallel psalm number for the rest of the night and day - twelve (plus two) at Matins, and twelve from Prime to None.

There is another reason to think St Benedict had the number seven in mind as well that goes to number symbolism, and that is a mathematical connection between seven and twelve.  St Augustine, for example, makes a great deal of play upon in several different places on the symbolic meanings and mathematical relationships between these numbers and their constituents, viz three (Prime, Terce, Sext, None, Compline) plus four (Vespers) makes seven (Lauds, Vespers/Compline); three times four makes twelve (Matins).

So what is the significance of seven?  One obvious meaning is that it goes to the idea of praying without ceasing - seven in Scripture often standards for universality or continuousness due to the association with the days of creation.  It also stands for this life (as opposed to the 'eighth' eternal day ushered in by the Resurrection, perhaps also relevant to this hour's meaning courtesy of that Canticle!), and the cultivation of'the sevenfold graces of the Holy Ghost.

One particularly important association of seven, though, is the idea of venturing out into the wide world, or the expansion of the faith: Abraham set out from his fathers land with 70 in his group; when Jesus appeared to the apostles after the Resurrection and they hauled in 153 fish, seven of the apostles were present; and seven deacons were appointed to help the Twelve as the number of faithful grew for example.  It is this particular association that I think is worth considering in relation to Lauds.

Mission in Psalms 66 

Lauds begins and ends with a call to praise God.  In Psalm 66, the call is to all the peoples of the earth; in the Laudate psalms at the end, the call is to the whole universe, to all of creation.

After the opening prayers, Lauds always starts with Psalm 66, a joyful and uplifting psalm that starts and ends by requesting God’s blessing on us.  

Its placement at Lauds each day is no doubt due in large part to its images of light, and the commitment to praise God in all places, as well as foreshadowing the Benedictus Canticle also said at Lauds.  It is also the quintessential psalm of the Church’s mission though: it asks for and points to God’s guidance for Governments, and for the spread of God’s word and praise across the whole world.

You can find my previous notes on this psalm in the following posts:

Introduction to Psalm 66

Notes on verses 1-2: God the farmer of our souls

Notes on verses 3-4: let the nations rejoice

Notes on verses 5-6: the spiritual harvest

Psalm 50: Penitence and mission

Psalm 50 has been described as the penitential psalm par excellence, and I think that’s a fair description: it is a powerful expression of deep humility and contrition, and every verse has great spiritual and theological riches waiting to be uncovered.  

But it also reflects the whole path of the soul, from penitence to joy.  St Benedict, I think, actually puts more emphasis on the second half of the psalm, due to his use of verse 16 (O Lord open my lips that I may announce your praise) to open Matins each day, and through both with his insistence that it be said even on Sundays, with an alleluia as antiphon.  St Benedict is, I think, directing us to the last two verses, which pray for the rebuilding of the city of Jerusalem, a meaning explained by his biographer St Gregory the Great as follows:  

Holy Church has two lives: one that she lives in time, the other that she receives eternally; one with which she struggles on earth, the other that is rewarded in heaven; one with which she accumulates merits, the other that henceforth enjoys the merits earned. And in both these lives she offers a sacrifice: here below, the sacrifice of compunction, and in heaven above, the sacrifice of praise. Of the former sacrifice it is said: "The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit'; of the latter it is written: "Then will you delight in right sacrifices, in burnt offerings and in whole burnt offerings'.... In both, flesh is offered, since the sacrifice of the flesh is the mortification of the body, up above; the sacrifice of the flesh is the glory of the resurrection in praise to God. In heaven, flesh will be offered as a burnt holocaust when it is transformed into eternal incorruptibility, and there will be no more conflict for us and nothing that is mortal, for our flesh will endure in everlasting praise, all on fire with love for him.

The monk or nun arguably bridges St Gregory's 'two lives', living the angelic life as far as this is possible in this life through the total holocaust of self and offering the sacrifice of praise on behalf of the Church.

You can find my previous posts on Psalm 50 through the links below:

Psalm 50 at Lauds

Psalm 50 as a penitential psalm:

Introduction to Psalm 50
Psalm 50: verses 1-4
Psalm 50: verses 5-6
Psalm 50: verses 7-9
Psalm 50: verses 10-12
Psalm 50: verses 13-15
Psalm 50: verse 16
Psalm 50: verses 17-18
Psalm 50: verses 19-20

The Laudate psalms

The psalms that give Lauds its (current) name though, are the three Laudate, or 'praise' psalms, Psalm 148, 149 and 150 that end the Book of Psalms and praise God for his creation of the world, and its recreation through Christ.

Psalm 148 has been described as Genesis 1 in poetic form, because it invites all creation to give God in an order that mirrors the days of creation.  It's content and structure is echoed in a number of other Old Testament canticles, including the Benedicite (Daniel 3) said at Lauds on Sunday, Job 28, and Sirach 43.  Read in the light of the New Testament however, the call to praise is not just for creation, but more particularly for our redemption through the Resurrection of Christ.  St Augustine explains the context:

This is the Halleluia which we sing, which, as you know, means (in Latin), Praise ye the Lord...this, after His Resurrection: by which time is signified the future hope which as yet we have not: for what we represent after the Lord's Resurrection, we shall have after our own. For in our Head both are figured, both are set forth. The Baptism of the Lord sets forth to us this present life of trial, for in it we must toil, be harassed, and, at last, die; but the Resurrection and Glorification of the Lord sets forth to us the life which we are to have hereafter, when He shall come to recompense due rewards, evil to the evil, good to the good.

Psalm 149 very much picks up where Psalm 148 leaves off, for the last verse of Psalm 148 shifts from the universal praise of God to the role of the faithful (the 'saints') in particular, and this is the main focus of Psalm 149.  The psalm opens with a call to sing a 'new song', a phrase that the Fathers always interpret as a reference to the Messianic era inaugurated by Christ's Incarnation and Resurrection, and especially the conversion of the nations to Christianity (cf Rev 5:9).

The last psalm of the psalter, and the final psalm of Lauds each day, serves as a doxology to the whole book, conjuring up an image of the celestial liturgy played out with voices and orchestra, as the universe reverberates with praise for the greatness of God.  It consists of ten separate calls to praise God - a number that the Fathers associated both with then 'ten words' of creation, and the ten commandments.

For more on these, follow the links below...

Psalm 148

Introduction to Psalm 148
Psalm 148 v1-4
Psalm 148 v5-6
Psalm 148 v7-10
Psalm 148 v11-12
Psalm 148 v13-14

Psalm 149

Introduction to Psalm 149
Psalm 149 v1-3
Psalm 149 v4-6
Psalm 149 v7-9

Psalm 150

Introduction to Psalm 150
Psalm 150 v1-2
Psalm 150 v3-5a
Psalm 150 v5b

The variable psalms and canticle

Sitting in between these fixed psalms of the hour then, and the progression they map in our lives and the history of salvation, come the variable psalms and canticles, and it is at these I want to turn in the next part of this series

The liturgical genius of St Benedict's Lauds - Pt 2: The theology of Lauds

In my last post I spoke a little about the deliberateness in St Benedict's choice of the psalms for this hour, and that is what I want to focus on in this series.  Before getting down to that, however, I want to take a brief look at the context for those choices.

Building on the tradition - Old Testament sources

Much of what St Benedict does with Lauds drew on an existing tradition.  There are numerous other references to early morning prayer in Scripture though, many of them cited by the Fathers and other key sources of the monastic tradition, which St Benedict could reasonably presume his readers were familiar with.

The only Scriptural citations St Benedict included in the Rule to justify the eight hours of his Office come from Psalm 118.  He in effect adds several more references through the psalms set for each of the hours, not least at Lauds where several of the psalms contain references to prayer at first light and/or dawn.

Still, he undoubtedly assumed his readers were familiar with the ancient roots of this time for prayer.  In Exodus, for example, God instructs that:

Aaron, when he trims the lamps each morning, shall burn fragrant incense on it, and again when he lights them at evening he shall burn incense in the Lord’s presence; a custom you are to preserve age after age (30:7-8).

The non-canonical Book of Jubilees suggests that this tradition is even more ancient:

And on that day on which Adam went forth from the Garden, he offered as a sweet savour an offering, frankincense, galbanum, and stacte, and spices in the morning with the rising of the sun from the day when he covered his shame (3:27).

In terms of later Jewish practice, another key source for later commentators on the Office was the book of Ezra, which records eight  hours of prayers, four for the night and four for the day, which later Christian commentators following Bede applied to the Office, Lauds being counted amongst the night hours with Vespers, Compline and Matins:

And they rose up to stand: and they read in the book of the law of the Lord their God, four times in the day, and four times [in the night] they confessed, and adored the Lord their God.

The Fathers and the monastic tradition

St Benedict's selection of some of the variable psalms for the hour also draws on earlier thinking about the theology of the hour, with Origen, Cyprian and Basil amongst others variously pointing to Psalms 5 and 62 in relation to the hour.  St Basil, for example, in his longer Rule, says:

Prayers are recited early In the morning so that the first movements of the soul and the mind may be consecrated to God and that we may take up no other consideration before we have been cheered and heartened by the thought of God, as it is written: 'I remembered God and was delighted, and that the body may not busy itself with tasks before we have fulfilled the words: To thee will I pray, O Lord; in the morning thou shalt hear my, voice. In the morning I will stand before thee and will see.' 

Similarly Cassian mentions Psalm 50 in relation to morning prayer, as well as the three 'Laudate' psalms (Psalm 148, 149 and 150) that close the psalmody of the hour.

The Resurrection and early Christian practice

One of the most important features of St Benedict's Lauds, though, is insistence that it be started at first light.  I  chapter 8 of the Rule he says:

the morning office (Lauds), which is to be said at the break of day

In the chapter 11 on Matins, he notes that in the unfortunate event that the monks sleep in, the lessons and responsories might need to be shortened in order to start Lauds at the proper time.

The symbolism is that the rising son symbolises the rising on the Son.

Whatever the Old Testament origins of the hour (and the sources vary on the antiquity and origins of the custom of Lauds), the idea that prayer at first light is a celebration of the Resurrection is a very early feature of the Christian tradition.  Clement of Rome's letter to the Corinthians, for example, comments:

Let us consider, beloved, how the Lord continually proves to us that there shall be a future resurrection, of which He has rendered the Lord Jesus Christ the first-fruits by raising Him from the dead. Let us contemplate, beloved, the resurrection which is at all times taking place. Day and night declare to us a resurrection.

The night sinks to sleep, and the day arises; the day [again] departs, and the night comes on. Let us behold the fruits [of the earth], how the sowing of grain takes place.

The sower goes forth, and casts it into the ground, and the seed being thus scattered, though dry and naked when it fell upon the earth, is gradually dissolved. Then out of its dissolution the mighty power of the providence of the Lord raises it up again, and from one seed many arise and bring forth fruit. (ch 24)

 Building on this, the fourth century Apostolic Constitutions, says:

Likewise, at the hour of the cock-crow, rise and pray. Because at this hour, with the cock-crow, the children of Israel refused Christ, who we know through faith, hoping daily in the hope of eternal light in the resurrection of the dead.

The very first psalm of Lauds, then, Psalm 66, draws us to this theme with its request for God to shine his light upon us:

1 Deus misereátur nostri, et benedícat nobis: * illúminet vultum suum super nos, et misereátur nostri.

May God have mercy on us, and bless us: may he cause the light of his countenance to shine upon us, and may he have mercy on us.

And for the next part in this series, go here.

St Benedict's liturgical genius and the design of Lauds - Part I

Frescos in St. Michael the Archangel Church in Lesnovo, Macedonia, c14th

Over the next few weeks I plan to take a look at the psalms and canticles of Lauds, and today I want to provide a brief overview of where I am coming from on this topic.

On the ordering of St Benedict's psalm cursus

One of the staples of current orthodoxy about the Benedictine Office, courtesy largely of the work of Dom Adalbert de Vogue, is that the allocation of psalms to particular hours by St Benedict has no particular rationale other than keeping the hours relatively short.

The prevailing consensus is that St Benedict largely took the Roman Office of his time (and/or perhaps that of 'the Master'), and tweaked it a bit to make the day hours a bit shorter and more varied: the reasoning for his redistribution of psalms is essentially 'mechanistic'.

This view continues to be propagated through the work of Paul Bradshaw and others, who argued, for example, that St Benedict's Prime was simply as place to dump the unneeded psalms of Matins freed up by the alleged reduction in the length of the Night Office compared to that of the Master's (Daily Prayer in the Church, 1981, pg 148).

There are several problems with this position, which I won't go into here.  Suffice it to say for the moment that our knowledge of the details of Roman Church's Office at this time is pretty much entirely speculation: the first full description of it dates from around 850 AD.  In my view the numerous tables of reconstructed Roman Offices so popular in twentieth century and current liturgical studies reflect the same mentality as attempts to construct the mythological 'Q' source text for the synoptic Gospels.  And just as the consensus around that theory is now happily collapsing, sooner or later the current orthodoxy around the Office will surely follow.

But what should replace it?

The content of the psalms

The biggest problem with virtually all of the modern commentaries on the Office seems to me to be that they pay only superficial attention to comments by the Fathers and monastic writers on the content and meaning of the psalms, and largely ignore the symbolism embedded in some of the features of the Office.

This isn't terribly surprising.  Given that the modern Office has entirely abandoned the traditional eight hour structure, one wouldn't expect a lot of emphasis on the symbolism that underlies that number for example.  And when it comes to the psalms themselves, the Christological meaning of the psalms that was so central to the Fathers has largely been lost in recent centuries, replaced by historico-critical preoccupation with the development of the texts and their literal sense that renders them largely devoid of modern relevance.

My view is that by learning to walk 'in the steps of the Fathers', and understand the way they approached the psalms (and the symbolism of the Office more generally), I think we can arrive at a much richer understanding of the Divine Office.

St Benedict's liturgical genius

Fr Cassian Folsom, in his series of conferences on monastic prayer a few years back, for example argued that when St Benedict, in the Rule, says put nothing before the Office, he is implicitly saying put nothing before Christ (who we can find in the Office).  He noted that understanding the Christological content of the psalms is essential to this end.

One way in which St Benedict uses these Christological means, in my view is through a certain 'vertical' unity in the Office, with the psalms chosen for each day effectively providing a meditation on key events in the life of Christ.  Lauds is key to this program, since my theory is that St Benedict started from the ferial canticles he took from Roman practice, and developed his Office around the program they set up.  My recent series on the first psalms of Matins each day suggested that these psalms were specifically chosen to give effect to this program, and I've previously looked at the variable psalms of Lauds in this context.

I've also suggested that St Benedict gives the individual hours of his Office a certain 'horizontal unity'.

Prime, for example, far from being a mere dumping ground for some psalms surplus to requirements as some have suggested, I would argue is very carefully designed indeed, focusing on the kingship (including the judicial power) of Christ.

And I'm not alone in thinking that the themes of Prime are very closely connected to the Benedictine Rule: the Rule's very opening lines invite us to renounce our own will and take up arms under Christ our true King; and mindfulness of God's scrutiny of our actions and the coming judgement is a key theme of both the Prologue and the spiritual teaching of the Rule.

Where Lauds fits

In this series I want to focus primarily on another key theme of the Prologue to the Rule, namely that Christ is calling us into his kingdom, inviting us to be dwellers in heaven, and pointing to the way to enter.  It is this theme, centred on the priesthood of Christ, that I think is the key focus for Lauds.

The key Scriptural text for the priesthood of Christ is the book of Hebrews, which draws out the idea of Christ's sacrifice on the cross as playing out the role of the High Priest, who on the feast of the Atonement each year offered a sacrifice and then brought the blood into the holy of holies, the innermost sanctum of the temple and the microcosm of heaven.  Through his death he offers the perfect sacrifice for our sins; through his Resurrection he enters with his blood into the holy of holies, allowing us 'to follow him to glory' (RB Prologue).

The second Matins invitatory, Psalm 94, which is given an extensive exposition in Hebrews, perhaps invites us to reflect on the twelve tribes of Israel wondering in the desert for forty years, unable to enter the Promised Land.

Lauds in St Benedict's conception, I think, moves us to the happy resolution of this piece of salvation history, with Christ reopening the way to the true promised land for those who respond to his call.

Above all, Lauds is a celebration of the Resurrection, an hour at which Christ continuously calls us into the kingdom, and invites us to enter the gates of heaven, to become dwellers in his tabernacle through faith and good works.

Click here for the next part in this series.