aka the Psalms Blog. A blog on Scripture in line with the "new exegetical movement" proposed by Pope Benedict XVI, with a particular focus on the psalms.
In the last post in this sub-series on the design of the Benedictine Office, I pointed to the development of a connection between key events in the life of Christ and days of the week in the early Church, which was then appropriated into the liturgy in various ways, such as the Roman traditions around fasting practices.
Today I want to draw out a little some particular links between these weekly schemas and the Benedictine Office at Thursday Vespers.
Weekly schemas around the life of Christ
While the various life of Christ in seven days schemas offered by the Fathers differed, Rome was not certainly not alone in viewing seven as a 'sacred number' (see RB 16) and seeing it as an organising principle for viewing the life of Christ, sometimes linking this to the seven seals of the book of Revelation.
Hilary of Poitiers gave such a list in his commentary on the psalms, for example, while the commentary of St Benedict's contemporary Aspringius may have been influenced by the Mozarabic practice of dividing the consecrated host into seven pieces, each of which piece of which was associated with an event in the life of Christ.
St Benedict then, would have a rich Patristic and liturgical tradition on which to draw if he did use the life of Christ as a thematic principle for his organisation of the psalter.
Exodus 15
I noted earlier in this series that on Thursdays, the Lauds canticle is from Exodus 15, and is the song of victory after safely crossing the Red Sea.
The Carolingian Benedictine commentator Rabanus Maurus provided a brief summary of its relevance to the Office on Thursday, saying:
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 Pasch 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.
There are, I think, some obvious connections between the canticle - and Maurus's summation of it - and the psalms of Thursday Vespers.
First, at the very literal level, the idea that the wicked will not just let the good person alone, but will pursue them and try and drag them back to 'Egypt', or idle and dangerous pursuits, runs through Psalms 139 and 140.
Secondly, I've noted that Psalm 138 was frequently viewed as the quintessential prayer of the agony in the Garden, and is fundamentally about not just the omnipotence and omniscience of God, but also the two natures of Christ.
Thirdly, I noted that the interpretation of the pure evening prayer of Psalm 140 as speaking of Christ's institution of the Eucharist and Passion, of which the paschal sacrifice offered by the Jews before they fled Egypt is a type.
Circumcision of the heart
Perhaps the key thread connecting all three of the psalms of Benedictine Vespers on Thursday, though, is, I think, the idea of the old circumcision of the flesh being replaced, because those who practiced it did not translate it into a spiritual practice (Psalms 138 and 139), by the new covenant of grace, with some of its key petitions being those asking for various graces in Psalm 140.
In this light, it is intriguing, I think, to read the comments of another of St Benedict's contemporaries, Cassiodorus, on the interpretation of Psalm 138, employing a number symbolism of a kind that St Benedict seems also to have been deeply attached to:
Observe here shining before us the eighth psalm which presents the two natures [of Christ]; these eight beat off the arrogant infidelity of those in error.
They should at any rate be healed by the precedent of circumcision.
Just as the Jews surrendered their foreskins on the eighth day, so those in error should be schooled by this eighth psalm and abandon their idle obduracy.
As has been mentioned earlier, Psalms 2, 8, 20, 71, 81, 107, 109, and here 138 discuss this matter....
And you can find the next part in this series here.
[Key: V=Vulgate; OR=Old Roman; NV=Neo-Vulgate; JH=St Jerome's translation from the Hebrew; Sept=Septuagint]
Phrase by phrase (Vulgate v Douay Rheims)
Non declínes
cor meum
in verba malítiæ:
ad excusándas excusatiónes
in peccátis.
Incline not
my heart
to evil words
to make excuses
in sins.
Word by word
Non (not) declínes cor (heart) meum (mine) in
verba (words) malítiæ: * ad excusándas (to the excusing) excusatiónes (excuses)
in (in) peccátis (of sins).
Key vocabulary
declino, avi, atum, are, to bend from the straight path, to turn
aside or away, depart from, go astray cor, cordis, n., the heart,
regarded as the seat of the faculties, feelings, emotions, passions; the mind,
the soul malitia, ae, f, evil, malice, wickedness verbum, i, n.,word, command, edict, also
a promise; saying, speech; Law, the Eternal Son excusatio,
onis f an excuse excuso
are avi atum to excuse peccatum, i,
n., sin, failure, error , perversion, going astray
Selected English translations:
DR
Incline not my heart to evil
words; to make excuses in sins.
Brenton
Incline not my heart to evil things, to
employ pretexts for sins,
MD
Let not my heart incline to evil words,
to make excuses for my sins.
RSV
Incline not my heart to any evil, to busy
myself with wicked
Cover
O let not mine heart be
inclined to any evil thing;
Knox
do not turn my heart towards thoughts of
evil, and deeds of treachery;
Grail
Do not turn my heart to things that are
wrong, to evil deeds with men who are sinners.
[Key: DR=Douay-Rheims Challoner; MD=Monastic Diurnal; RSV=Revised Standard Version; Cover=Coverdale]
Heart and mind
St John Chrysostom posed an interesting question in relation to this verse, namely why does the reference to protecting the heart (or as we would say mind) come after the request for control over what we say in the previous verse, rather than before it?
The answer, he suggests, is akin to the approach of a prison: first make sure that the doors to the prison are secure, then worry about subduing the impulses to evil within.
In essence, our aim must be to achieve that circumcision of heart, which Origen argued means guarding "..the pure faith of sincerity of conscience, about whom it can be said, 'Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God'".
Thoughts and words
The first petition in this verse is to protect our mind so that our thoughts do not deviate onto the wrong path. As Theodoret puts it:
He begs that not only his tongue be guarded but also the very movements of the mind lest any other thought beyond the divine laws be found in them.
But it goes on to ask for help in confessing when we have failed, whether in words or deeds, so that we acknowledge our sins rather than coming up with excuses for them.
St Jerome commented:
0 unhappy race of men! We seek excuse for sin by saying, 'Nature got the better of me,' and all the while it has been in our power to sin or not to sin. We are always justifying ourselves and saying: I did not want to sin, but lust overwhelmed me; that woman came to me; she herself made the advances; she touched me; she said this or that to me, she called me; and while we ought to be doing penance and crying, 'Lord, I have sinned,' we excuse ourselves instead, and yoke sin to sin.
St Robert Bellarmine adds:
...such is human frailty, that even the “just man falls seven times,” and “we all offend in many things;” that God may give us the grace to make a free confession of our sins, for fear, by representing ourselves in a state of perfect health, we may prevent our heavenly physician from curing us. “Incline not my heart to evil words.” Do not allow us, when we shall have fallen into sin, to let our heart incline” to lies and excuses. “To make excuses in sins;” instead of acknowledging our guilt, to excuse ourselves in all possible forms.“
Several of the commentaries provide helpful examples of what to do and what not to do when we have sinned, drawn from Scripture. St John Chrysostom for example, points to Adam and Eve and King David amongst others:
Adam should have confessed his mistakes, but he transferred responsibility to the other person, and she in tum to the devil. They should have said, "We sinned, we broke the law," whereas not only did they not confess but they even concocted an excuse...Observe David offering no excuses when he sinned, but saying, "I have sinned against the Lord." Actually, he could have said, Why did the woman expose herself, after all? I mean, why did she bathe before my eyes? But he knew this excuse was baseless; hence he proceeded to the clear admission in saying, "I have sinned."
It is our thoughts that drive sin
The point is that excuses are a barrier to reform: instead of experiencing shame, we will continue to commit the same sins over and over again, even at the cost of our salvation, and God's anger, as St John Chrysostom explained:
The devil, in fact, knowing that confession of sin is absolution of sin, persuades the soul to lose all shame. You for your part, on the contrary, dearly beloved, when you sin, say, I have sinned: nothing is more righteous than this admission. In this way you make God propitious; in this way you also make yourself less likely to fall victim to the same sins. But when you are anxious to look for excuses that do not exist, and to rid your soul of fear, you make it more inclined to be addicted to the same sins again and irk God further. No sinner is short of a shameful excuse, after all: the murderer has anger to blame, the robber indigence, the adulterer lust, another influence of saying that, he beat about the bush in search of baseless excuses, offering no commendable defence; not they but the sinners' attitudes are the cause of sin.
The heart of the Church
It is also important to keep in mind that there is a collective force to all of this.
God made both the new and old covenants on the basis of a people, not just one individual, and offers his grace to all of us through that body of people, the Church, not just to each of individually, most especially through the sacraments, above all in this case, that of confession.
But St Augustine suggested that the verse can also be read as a prayer by Christ for his body the Church more generally, asking that it not be turned to wicked words. In times such as ours, such prayer is needed more urgently than ever!
Vulgate
Douay-Rheims
Psalmus
David.
A psalm of David.
1 Dómine, clamávi ad te, exáudi me: * inténde voci meæ,
cum clamávero ad te.
I
have cried to you, O Lord, hear me: hearken to my voice, when I cry to you.
2 Dirigátur
orátio mea sicut incénsum in conspéctu tuo: * elevátio mánuum meárum
sacrifícium vespertínum.
2 Let my prayer be directed as incense in your
sight; the lifting up of my hands, as evening sacrifice.
3 Pone,
Dómine, custódiam ori meo: * et óstium circumstántiæ lábiis meis.
Set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth: and a door
round about my lips.
4 Non
declínes cor meum in verba malítiæ: * ad excusándas excusatiónes in peccátis.
4 Incline not my heart to evil
words; to make excuses in sins.
5 Cum homínibus operántibus iniquitátem: * et non
communicábo cum eléctis eórum
With
men that work iniquity: and I will not communicate with the choicest of them
6 Corrípiet
me justus in misericórdia, et increpábit me: * óleum autem peccatóris non impínguet
caput meum.
5 The just man shall correct
me in mercy, and shall reprove me: but let not the oil of the sinner fatten
my head.
7
Quóniam adhuc et orátio mea in beneplácitis eórum: * absórpti sunt
juncti petræ júdices eórum.
For my prayer shall still be against the things
with which they are well pleased: 6 Their
judges falling upon the rock have been swallowed up.
8 Audient verba mea quóniam potuérunt: * sicut
crassitúdo terræ erúpta est super terram.
They shall hear my words, for they have prevailed: 7 As when the thickness of the earth is broken up
upon the ground:
9
Dissipáta sunt ossa nostra secus inférnum: * quia ad te, Dómine, Dómine,
óculi mei: in te sperávi, non áuferas ánimam meam.
Our bones are scattered by the side of hell. 8 But to you, O Lord, Lord, are my eyes: in you have
I put my trust, take not away my soul.
10 Custódi
me a láqueo, quem statuérunt mihi: * et a scándalis operántium iniquitátem.
9 Keep me from the snare,
which they have laid for me, and from the stumbling blocks of them that work iniquity.
11 Cadent
in retiáculo ejus peccatóres: * singuláriter sum ego donec tránseam.
10 The wicked
shall fall in his net: I am alone until I pass.
The Funeral of St Benedict, Spinello Aretino, 1388, San Miniato , Florence.
From chapter 7 of the Rule of St Benedict:
The first degree of humility, then, is that a person keep the fear of God before his eyes and beware of ever forgetting it. Let him be ever mindful of all that God has commanded; let his thoughts constantly recur to the hell-fire which will burn for their sins those who despise God, and to the life everlasting which is prepared for those who fear Him. Let him keep himself at every moment from sins and vices, whether of the mind, the tongue, the hands, the feet, or the self-will, and check also the desires of the flesh. Let a man consider that God is always looking at him from heaven, that his actions are everywhere visible to the divine eyes and are constantly being reported to God by the Angels. 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".
This week contains three Class I feasts (St Joseph, St Benedict and the Annunciation) that override the Lenten day and their associated penances, and so I'm going to pause my series of verse by verse notes on Psalm 140 on these days.
By way of compensation though, I thought I'd offer on each of these days a short reading relevant to the psalms of Thursday Vespers, that may stimulate your meditation on them, and hopefully also has some relevance to the feast of the day.
Today's reading comes from St Augustine's introduction to Psalm 138:
Our Lord Jesus Christ speaks in the Prophets, sometimes in His own Name, sometimes in ours, because He makes Himself one with us; as it is said, they two shall be one flesh.
Wherefore also the Lord says in the Gospel, speaking of marriage, therefore they are no more two, but one flesh.
One flesh, because of our mortality He took flesh; not one divinity, for He is the Creator, we the creature.
Whatsoever then our Lord speaks in the person of the Flesh He took upon Him, belongs both to that Head which has already ascended into heaven, and to those members which still toil in their earthly wandering.
Let us hear then our Lord Jesus Christ speaking in prophecy. For the Psalms were sung long before the Lord was born of Mary, yet not before He was Lord: for from everlasting. He was the Creator of all things, but in time He was born of His creature.
Let us believe that Godhead, and, so far as we can, understand Him to be equal to the Father.
But that Godhead equal to the Father was made partaker of our mortal nature, not of His own store, but of ours; that we too might be made partakers of His Divine Nature, not of our store, but of His.
Verse 3 of Psalm 140 is arguably closely linked to the previous two, in going to the conditions necessary to effect pure prayer, but also more broadly to the circumcision of the spirit that we must practice under the new covenant instituted by Christ at the Last Supper. It is particularly important to the monastic tradition, given the tradition's emphasis on the value of both silence, and of care in speech.
Looking at the Latin
3
V/OR
Pone, Dómine, custódiam ori meo: * et óstium circumstántiæ lábiis meis.
NV
Pone, Domine, custodiam ori meo et
vigiliam ad ostium labiorum meorum.
JH
Pone, Domine, custodiani ori meo; serua
paupertatem labiorum meorum.
[Key: V=Vulgate; OR=Old Roman; NV=Neo-Vulgate; JH=St Jerome's translation from the Hebrew; Sept=Septuagint]
Phrase by phrase:
Pone,
Dómine,
custódiam ori meo:
et óstium
circumstántiæ
lábiis meis.
Set a watch,
O Lord,
before my mouth:
and a door
round about
my lips.
Word by word
Pone (put, set), Dómine (O Lord), custódiam
(a watch/guard) ori (to the mouth) meo (my): * et (and) óstium (a door/gate/
entrance) circumstántiæ (of fortification) lábiis (the lips) meis (my).
Vocabulary
pono,
posui, itum, ere 3, to put, place, lay, set. custodia ae f a guard, watch;
night watch; custody, prison os, oris, n., the mouth. ostium ii n door, gate, entrance circumstantia ae fa standing around, fortification,
surrounding with a wall labium,
ii, n., a lip By
metonymy lips frequently stands for language, speech, thought, plan,
design.
Selected English translations
DR
Set a watch, O Lord,
before my mouth: and a door round about my lips.
Brenton
Set a watch, O Lord, on my mouth, and a
strong door about by lips.
MD
Set a watch O Lord upon my mouth and a
gate about my lips
RSV
Set a guard over my mouth, O LORD, keep
watch over the door of my lips!
Cover
Set a watch, O
Lord, before my mouth, and keep the door of my lips
Knox
Lord, set a guard on my mouth, post a
sentry before my lips;
Grail
Set, O Lord, a guard over my mouth; keep
watch, O Lord, at the door of my lips!
[Key: DR=Douay-Rheims Challoner; MD=Monastic Diurnal; RSV=Revised Standard Version; Cover=Coverdale]
The new covenant of grace
Verse 3 of Psalm 140 presents us with the first of a series of requests for assistance from God to stay on the right path, covering our words, thoughts and actions.
These requests can readily be interpreted, I think, as about cultivating and preserving the correct intentions needed to effect the pure prayer described in the first two verses, and to stay on the path that leads to eternal life (Ps 138).
In looking at the last verse, though, we saw that a number of the Fathers saw it as a reference to the institution of the new covenant. As I've previously noted, St John Cassian, for example, suggested that we should see the offering of incense and the lifting up of hands to God in prayer as "that true evening sacrifice which was given by the Lord our Saviour in the evening to the Apostles at the Supper, when He instituted the holy mysteries of the Church...".
Circumcision of the lips and mouth
In an important sermon on the circumcision of Abraham, Origen explored the distinction between the Old and New Covenants in terms of the need for our connection to God to be more than mere circumcision of the flesh, but rather, as St Paul describes it, 'circumcision of the heart'. And one of the key dimensions of circumcision of the heart, he argues, is what might be called circumcision, or control of the tongue, lips and mouth.
To be circumcised of tongue, Origen argued, has both positive and negative dimensions. The positive is that the person "always speaks the word of God and brings forward sound doctrine fortified with evangelic and apostolic norms."
By contrast the person with "uncircumcised lips" is he who:
has not yet ceased from silly talk, from scurrility, who disparages good men, who calumniates his neighbours, who instigates quarrels, who promotes false accusations, who sets brothers against themselves by making false statements, who utters vain words, inept words, profane words, shameless words, filthy words, injurious words, wanton words, blasphemous words, and other words that are unworthy of a Christian.
St John Chrysostom built on this, drawing on the analogy of the door used here, to explain that it is not just about what it is said, but also when:
Consequently, let us guard our mouth constantly, set reason on it to close it, not for it to be constantly closed but for it to open appropriately in season: there are times when silence is of more value than speech, as likewise speech more than silence. This is the reason why that most sage composer said, "A time for keeping silence, and a time for speaking. After all, if being open at all times was necessary, there would be no doors, while if being closed was required at all times, there would be no need of a guard. I mean, what would you guard if things were closed up? Door and guard are for this reason, however, for us to use each at the proper time.
Guard of the tongue in monastic practice
It is worth noting though, that the monastic tradition goes rather further, advocating not just control over what is said and when, but also actively advocating for silence as a means of spiritual progress.
St Benedict refers to the importance of control over speech in many places in his Rule, but key summaries of his teaching on the subject are contained in chapter 4 the tools of good work), 6 (On silence) and 7 (where he devotes three of the twelve steps of humility to the topic).
In these chapters St Benedict built on an already well established monastic tradition that taught that speech too often and easily constituted sin, but even where it did not, it could be an impediment to the receptive listening necessary to progress in the spiritual life.
Both Chapters 4 and 6 include commentary that uses words that echo Psalm 140. Chapter 4 contains a series of injunctions on the subject of control over what is said including 'Guard your lips from harmful or deceptive speech' (os suum a malo vel pravo eloquio custodire). And chapter 6 opens with a quote from Psalm 38:
Let us do as saith the prophet: I said, I will take heed unto my ways, that I offend not with my tongue. I have set a guard to my mouth [posui ori meo custodiam]. I was dumb and was humbled, and kept silence even from good words.
The key distinction between Psalm 38's text and Psalm 140 goes to the role of grace: in Psalm 38 the speaker has made a deliberate decision not to speak, lest he stir up those who inevitably attack the good; in Psalm 140 we ask for God's help in withstanding such assaults.
Presumably because the verse corresponds well to the verse that opens each day in the monastic life, O Lord open my lips that I may announce your praise, a seventh century document describing Roman Benedictine practices of the time instructs it to be used as the last thing said each night after Compline, to mark the start of the Great Silence.
Vulgate
Douay-Rheims
Psalmus
David.
A psalm of David.
1 Dómine, clamávi ad te, exáudi me: * inténde voci meæ,
cum clamávero ad te.
I
have cried to you, O Lord, hear me: hearken to my voice, when I cry to you.
2 Dirigátur
orátio mea sicut incénsum in conspéctu tuo: * elevátio mánuum meárum
sacrifícium vespertínum.
2 Let my prayer be directed as incense in your
sight; the lifting up of my hands, as evening sacrifice.
3 Pone,
Dómine, custódiam ori meo: * et óstium circumstántiæ lábiis meis.
Set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth: and a door
round about my lips.
4 Non
declínes cor meum in verba malítiæ: * ad excusándas excusatiónes in peccátis.
4 Incline not my heart to evil
words; to make excuses in sins.
5 Cum homínibus operántibus iniquitátem: * et non
communicábo cum eléctis eórum
With
men that work iniquity: and I will not communicate with the choicest of them
6 Corrípiet
me justus in misericórdia, et increpábit me: * óleum autem peccatóris non impínguet
caput meum.
5 The just man shall correct
me in mercy, and shall reprove me: but let not the oil of the sinner fatten
my head.
7
Quóniam adhuc et orátio mea in beneplácitis eórum: * absórpti sunt
juncti petræ júdices eórum.
For my prayer shall still be against the things
with which they are well pleased: 6 Their
judges falling upon the rock have been swallowed up.
8 Audient verba mea quóniam potuérunt: * sicut
crassitúdo terræ erúpta est super terram.
They shall hear my words, for they have prevailed: 7 As when the thickness of the earth is broken up
upon the ground:
9
Dissipáta sunt ossa nostra secus inférnum: * quia ad te, Dómine, Dómine,
óculi mei: in te sperávi, non áuferas ánimam meam.
Our bones are scattered by the side of hell. 8 But to you, O Lord, Lord, are my eyes: in you have
I put my trust, take not away my soul.
10 Custódi
me a láqueo, quem statuérunt mihi: * et a scándalis operántium iniquitátem.
9 Keep me from the snare,
which they have laid for me, and from the stumbling blocks of them that work iniquity.
11 Cadent
in retiáculo ejus peccatóres: * singuláriter sum ego donec tránseam.
10 The wicked
shall fall in his net: I am alone until I pass.
For notes on verse 4 of the psalm, continue on here.
Verse 2 of Psalm 140 is used in many different contexts in the liturgy, and has been given several different layers of interpretation by the Fathers. It is this verse in particular that makes it the quintessential Vespers psalm.
Looking at the Latin
2
V/NV/JH/OR
Dirigátur orátio mea sicut incénsum in conspéctu tuo: * elevátio mánuum
meárum sacrifícium vespertínum.
[Key: V=Vulgate; OR=Old Roman; NV=Neo-Vulgate; JH=St Jerome's translation from the Hebrew; Sept=Septuagint]
Phrase by phrase
Dirigátur orátio mea
sicut incénsum
in conspéctu tuo:
elevátio mánuum meárum
sacrifícium vespertínum.
Let my prayer be directed
as
incense
in your sight;
the lifting up of my hands,
as evening sacrifice.
Word by word
Dirigátur (let it be directed) orátio (prayer)
mea (my) sicut (like) incénsum (incense) in conspéctu (in the presence) tuo
(your): * elevátio (the lifting up) mánuum (of the hands) meárum (of my) sacrifícium
(sacrifice) vespertínum (of the evening).
cf Exodus 30:7; Lev 24:7-8 for the incense
offered morning and evening on the altar of incense.
dirigo, rexi, rectum, ere 3 to direct, guide,
set aright. (a) to prosper, to be established oratio, onis, f. prayer, supplication incensum i n incense; the smoke of
sacrifice, smell of the sacrificial offerings conspectus, us, m. sight,
presence evelatio onis f a raising up, a lifting up manus,
us, f,the hand sacrificium, ii, n., an offering, oblation, sacrifice vespertinus a um of or
belonging to the evening or eventide
Selected English translations:
DR
Let my prayer be directed as incense in
your sight; the lifting up of my hands, as evening sacrifice.
Brenton
Let my prayer be set forth before thee as
incense; the lifting up of my hands [as] an evening sacrifice.
MD
Let my prayer be directed as incense in
Thy sight the uplifting of my hands as an evening sacrifice.
RSV
Let my prayer be counted as incense
before thee, and the lifting up of my hands as an evening sacrifice
Cover
Let my prayer be set forth in thy sight as the incense; and let the
lifting up of my hands be an evening sacrifice.
Knox
Welcome as incense-smoke let my prayer
rise up before thee; when I lift up my hands, be it acceptable as the evening
sacrifice
Grail
Let my prayer arise before you like
incense, the raising of my hands like an evening oblation.
[Key: DR=Douay-Rheims Challoner; MD=Monastic Diurnal; RSV=Revised Standard Version; Cover=Coverdale
The offering of pure prayer
In verse 1 of Psalm 140, the focus was on the importance of continuous prayer; in verse 2 it is on the pure intentions behind it.
At the literal level, this verse seems on the face of it, quite straightforward: it asks for the speaker's prayers to be as if they were the sacrifice of incense in the temple. As St Robert Bellarmine put it:
My first request is, that my prayer, through your grace, may ascend like incense.
The Temple offerings
Several of the commentaries on the verse, though, take the key elements of the temple offering as the basis for a spiritual interpretation of them, so it is worth listing out some of the elements they considered important to the verses interpretation.
First, incense was offered in the temple, and on the altar. Secondly, it was an offering of incense made up of four different elements. Thirdly, although there was also a daily offering of incense, the most solemn form of this offering was done by the high priest when he entered the holy of holies once each year, at an altar specifically designated for this purpose and using a censor used only for incense, and finally, it was put on the fire.
Such offerings were always acceptable in that they complied with a requirement of the law, but its acceptability as an offering for sins, according to St John Chrysostom "...was sometimes acceptable, sometimes unacceptable, depending on the disposition of the offerers of each in terms of virtue or vice..."
The temple and altar of our bodies
St Robert Bellarmine saw the fact that the original offering of incense happened in the Temple as a reminder that the old temple has been destroyed, and rebuilt as Christ, and in us:
Man is the temple of God, for the Apostle says, “Your members are the temple of the Holy Ghost,” the inmost part of which is the soul, in which is the law, written there by the finger of God; there, also, is the will, representing the altar of gold, namely, a pure heart, adorned by the grace of God.
Incense as the pure prayers of the saints
The meaning of the reference to incense can simply mean worthy prayer. St Jerome, for example, argues that, in the light of the book of Revelation's reference to incense as the pure prayer of the saints, incense means just that:
May my prayer rise up to You directly; there is nothing in it that is mean, nothing malicious, nothing that is the work of the devil. Incense, moreover, represents the prayers of the saints. We know this from the Apocalypse [cf Rev 5:8, 8: 3-4] where the twenty-four elders were holding vessels of incense and saying: 'These are the prayers of the saints.'
Similarly, St John Chrysostom suggested that the reference to the temple offerings of incense are intended to convey that the pure intensions and fervour of the person praying:
The psalmist therefore asks for his prayer to become like that sacrifice defiled by no blemish of the offerer, like that pure and holy incense. Now, by his asking he also teaches us to offer prayers that are pure and fragrant...
St Robert Bellarmine developed this idea further, suggesting the the four elements used to make the incense represent the virtues that we must bring to prayer:
The four aromatic substances represent the four virtues, Faith, Hope, Love, Humility, and the most grateful prayer that can be put up to God is composed of them.
An evening offering
The temple sacrifice of incense was offered both morning and evening, so one question to ponder in relation to this verse is, why is the reference to evening prayer only?
Some commentaries suggest that morning can readily be substituted in for evening here, since the daily sacrifices of the Temple occurred both in the morning and in the evening. Indeed, St Augustine provides an elaborate explanation, which I'll come to in the next post, on how evening prayer generates morning prayer.
One possible explanation provided by St Cassiodorus, is that it is a reference to us in the evening of our lives, as we approach death:
Evening sacrifice perhaps denotes that offering which scrupulous devotion is wont to offer up at life's end, when we show repentance and cleanse ourselves with humble entreaty; in the words of Psalm 50: A sacrifice to God is an afflicted spirit. Our evening is when we leave the light of day at the onset of death. Notice the point which we have often emphasised, that no-one should despair provided that he cleanses his final deeds with the fount of his tears.
The lifting up of hands
Although the lifting up of hands as a gesture in prayer can be taken literally, most of the Fathers interpret it spiritually, to refer to good works, or our actions more generally.
St Cassiodorus summarised this line of commentary as follows:
The lifting up of hands denotes works of devotion performed either
in almsgiving or achieved in some praiseworthy relationship.
The fire of love
St John Chrysostom took the placing of the incense on fire as an injunction to spiritual fervour when praying:
As, then, the incense even of itself is fine and sweet-smelling, but gives particular evidence of its fragrance at the time when it is mixed with the fire, so too is prayer fine of itself but becomes finer and more sweet-smelling when offered with ardor and a glowing spirit, when the soul becomes a censer and lights a burning fire. I mean, the incense would not be added unless the brazier had previously been lit, or the coals set alight. Do likewise in the case of your own mind: first light it with enthusiasm, and then offer your prayer.
St Robert Bellarmine similarly suggested that:
...the fire that produced the fragrant smoke, that rose up and ascended
so directly, is fervor of desire, but in order that it should ascend in a
straight and direct line, there must be a pure intention and constant
attention; for they who pray with a view to attract notice have their incense
aside by the draught of the world, and it will not ascend in a direct line; while
they who allow the cares of this world, and its distractions, to interfere with
them when they pray, they do not give proper direction to their prayer, and
such distractions, like so many currents, blow away, and dissipate the incense
of their prayer, and will not suffer it to soar aloft, as it ought; and it was
a consciousness of this that makes the prophet pray, “Let my prayer be directed
as incense in thy sight.”
The evening sacrifice is the Passion
Perhaps the most interpretation of this verse though, is as it speaking of the replacement of the sacrifices of the Old Covenant by the New: St Jerome, for example, argued that the evening sacrifice,' of the eleventh hour, means that 'I lift up my hands in the New Testament'.
St Augustine in particular built on this idea, to make clear that the evening sacrifice is that of the Last Supper, the Passion and the Resurrection, for as the latter said:
For when the day was now sinking towards evening, the Lord upon the Cross laid down His life to take it again, did not lose it against His will...That then is the evening sacrifice, the Passion of the Lord, the Cross of the Lord, the offering of a salutary Victim, the whole burnt offering acceptable to God. That evening sacrifice produced, in His Resurrection, a morning offering. Prayer then, purely directed from a faithful heart, rises like incense from a hallowed altar. Nought is more delightful than the odour of the Lord: such odour let all have who believe.
Vulgate
Douay-Rheims
Psalmus
David.
A psalm of David.
1 Dómine, clamávi ad te, exáudi me: * inténde voci meæ,
cum clamávero ad te.
I
have cried to you, O Lord, hear me: hearken to my voice, when I cry to you.
2 Dirigátur
orátio mea sicut incénsum in conspéctu tuo: * elevátio mánuum meárum
sacrifícium vespertínum.
2 Let my prayer be directed as incense in your
sight; the lifting up of my hands, as evening sacrifice.
3 Pone,
Dómine, custódiam ori meo: * et óstium circumstántiæ lábiis meis.
Set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth: and a door
round about my lips.
4 Non
declínes cor meum in verba malítiæ: * ad excusándas excusatiónes in peccátis.
4 Incline not my heart to evil
words; to make excuses in sins.
5 Cum homínibus operántibus iniquitátem: * et non
communicábo cum eléctis eórum
With
men that work iniquity: and I will not communicate with the choicest of them
6 Corrípiet
me justus in misericórdia, et increpábit me: * óleum autem peccatóris non impínguet
caput meum.
5 The just man shall correct
me in mercy, and shall reprove me: but let not the oil of the sinner fatten
my head.
7
Quóniam adhuc et orátio mea in beneplácitis eórum: * absórpti sunt
juncti petræ júdices eórum.
For my prayer shall still be against the things
with which they are well pleased: 6 Their
judges falling upon the rock have been swallowed up.
8 Audient verba mea quóniam potuérunt: * sicut
crassitúdo terræ erúpta est super terram.
They shall hear my words, for they have prevailed: 7 As when the thickness of the earth is broken up
upon the ground:
9
Dissipáta sunt ossa nostra secus inférnum: * quia ad te, Dómine, Dómine,
óculi mei: in te sperávi, non áuferas ánimam meam.
Our bones are scattered by the side of hell. 8 But to you, O Lord, Lord, are my eyes: in you have
I put my trust, take not away my soul.
10 Custódi
me a láqueo, quem statuérunt mihi: * et a scándalis operántium iniquitátem.
9 Keep me from the snare,
which they have laid for me, and from the stumbling blocks of them that work iniquity.
11 Cadent
in retiáculo ejus peccatóres: * singuláriter sum ego donec tránseam.
10 The wicked
shall fall in his net: I am alone until I pass.
For notes on verse 3 of the psalm, continue on here.
