The Divine Lamp

The Text: My translation unless otherwise noted

Vs 1 Why do the nations rage, and the gentiles mutter vainly?
Vs 2 The kings of the earth stand up, the rulers consult in counsel together, opposing the Lord, and opposing his Anointed one, saying,
Vs 3 “Let us burst their bonds completely, cast their chains off from us.
Vs 4 He that sitteth in the heavens will laugh: The Lord will have them in derision.
Vs 5 Then will he speak unto them in his wrath, And vex them in his sore displeasure:
Vs 6 Yet I have set my king Upon my holy hill of Zion. (ASV. Public domain)
Vs 7 I will tell of the decree: The Lord said to me, ‘You are my son; this day have I begotten you.
Vs 8 Ask it of me, and I will give you the nations for your inheritance, and put the ends of the earth into your pessesion.
Vs 9 With an iron rod you shall break them; like a clay dish you shall smash them to pieces.
Vs 10 Be wise, O you kings; be instructed rulers of the earth.
Vs 11 Serve God with fear, tremble as you bow down to him.
Vs 12 Render him homage, lest he grow angry with you and you perish from the way, for his anger ignites suddenly. Happy are those who put their trust in him.
The heading for this Psalm used in the Divine Office speaks of the Messiah as a royal and victorious figure.  The heading for the Psalm in the Douay-Rheims Translation reads: The Vain Efforts of Persecutors Against Christ and His Church.

The Antiphon used in Ordinary Time with this Psalm emphasizes that the Messiah reigns by God’s choice, an idea which receives major emphasis in this Psalm.

Psalm 2 is a sublime vision of the nations in revolt against God and his anointed, with a declaration of the divine purpose to maintain his kings authority, and a warning to the world that it must bow down or perish. The structure of this psalm is extremely regular. It naturally falls into four stanzas of three verses each. In the first (1-3), the conduct of the rebellious nations is described. In the second(4-6) , God replies to them by word an deed. In the third (7-9), the Messiah or Anointed One declares the divine decree in relation to himself. In the fourth (10-12), the Psalmist exhorts the rulers of the nations to submission, with a threatening of the divine wrath to the disobedient, and a closing benediction on believers. The several sentences are also very regular in form, exhibiting parallelism of great uniformity. Little as this psalm might, at first sight, seem to resemble the one coming before it, there is really a very strong affinity between them. Even in form they are related to one another. The number of verses and of stanzas in this psalm is just double that of the first, and this Psalm moreover begins, as the first ends, with a threat, and ends, as the first begins, with a beatitude. There is also a resemblance in their subject and contents. The contrast indicated in the first is carried out and rendered more distinct in the second. The first is in fact an introduction to the second, and the second to what follows. And as the psalms which follow bear the name of David, there is the strongest reason to believe that these two psalms are his likewise, a conclusion confirmed by the authority of Acts 4:25, as well as by the internal character of the psalm itself. The imagery of the scene presented is evidently borrowed from the warlike and eventful times of David. He cannot, however, be himself the subject of the composition, the terms of which are wholly inappropriate to any king but the Messiah, to whom they are applied by the oldest Jewish writers, and again and again in the New Testament. This is the first of those prophetic psalms, in which the promise made to David, with respect to the Messiah (2 Sam 7:16; 1 Chron 17:11-14), is wrought into the lyrical devotions of the ancient church. The supposition of a double reference to David, or to some one of his successors, and to Christ, is not only needless and gratuitous, but hurtful to the sense by the confusion which it introduces, and forbidden by the utter inappropriateness of some of the expressions used to any lower subject. The style of this psalm, although not less pure and simple, is livelier than that of the first, a difference arising partly from the nature of the subject, but still more from the dramatic structure of the composition.

For Consideration and Further Study:

Vs 1 Why do the nations rage, and the gentiles mutter vainly?
Vs 2 The kings of the earth stand up, the rulers consult in counsel together, opposing the Lord, and opposing his Anointed one, saying,
Vs 3 “Let us burst their bonds completely, cast their chains off from us.

The word here translated as rage ( רגשׁ = ragash) is used only here in the OT, however, an identical Chaldean word (regash) is used several times in Daniel 6 where it refers to opposition against God and his followers:  Then the princes, and the governors, craftily suggested (regash) to the king, and spoke thus unto him: King Darius, live for ever: All the princes of the kingdom, the magistrates, and governors, the senators, and judges, have consulted together, that an imperial decree, and an edict be published: That whosoever shall ask any petition of any god, or man, for thirty days, but of thee, O king, shall be cast into the den of the lions (Dan 6:6-7, see also vss 11 & 15).  Opposition to God, His will, His teaching, His Christ, His Church, renders one no better than a heathen (Matt 18:17), this is why the Apostles could direct this Psalm toward the Jewish leaders who persecuted them: The kings of the earth stood up: and the princes assembled together against the Lord and his Christ.  For of a truth there assembled together in this city against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, Herod, and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, To do what thy hand and thy counsel decreed to be done.  And now, Lord, behold their threatenings: and grant unto thy servants that with all confidence they may speak thy word…(see Acts 4:26-30).

Our Blessed Lord Himself, in His end-time discourse in Mark’s Gospel (13:24-25), applies certain images to the destruction of Jerusalem which in the OT were originally referred to the punishments of Pagan nations and cities.  Because the city had rejected Him it was no better off than ancient Babylon (compare the Marcan passage with Isa 13:9-10; 34:4; Ezek 32:7-8; Joel 2:10, 31; Amos 8:9).  This is not an excuse for triumphalism, still less for anti-semitism; recall what St Paul wrote: I want you to know, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same supernatural food and all drank the same supernatural drink. For they drank from the supernatural Rock which followed them, and the Rock was Christ.  Nevertheless with most of them God was not pleased; for they were overthrown in the wilderness.
Now these things are warnings for us, not to desire evil as they did.  Do not be idolaters as some of them were; as it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to dance.”  We must not indulge in immorality as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in a single day.  We must not put the Lord to the test, as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents; nor grumble, as some of them did and were destroyed by the Destroyer.  Now these things happened to them as a warning, but they were written down for our instruction, upon whom the end of the ages has come.  Therefore let any one who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall (RSV 1 Cor 10:1-12.  See also Rom 1:11-24).

Those who are within the Church and who continue to live as unbelievers are far worse than the unbelievers who are outside her boundries: Your glorying is not good. Know you not that a little leaven corrupteth the whole lump?  Purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new paste, as you are unleavened. For Christ our pasch is sacrificed.  Therefore, let us feast, not with the old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness: but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.   wrote to you in an epistle not to keep company with fornicators.   I mean not with the fornicators of this world or with the covetous or the extortioners or the servers of idols: otherwise you must needs go out of this world.  But now I have written to you, not to keep company, if any man that is named a brother be a fornicator or covetous or a server of idols or a railer or a drunkard or an extortioner: with such a one, not so much as to eat.  For what have I to do to judge them that are without? Do not you judge them that are within?  For them that are without, God will judge. Put away the evil one from among yourselves…Know you not that the unjust shall not possess the kingdom of God? Do not err: Neither fornicators nor idolaters nor adulterers: Nor the effeminate nor liers with mankind nor thieves nor covetous nor drunkards nor railers nor extortioners shall possess the kingdom of God (see 1 Cor 5:5-13 & 6:9-10).

Vs 4 He that sitteth in the heavens will laugh: The Lord will have them in derision.
Vs 5 Then will he speak unto them in his wrath, And vex them in his sore displeasure:
Vs 6 Yet I have set my king Upon my holy hill of Zion. (ASV. Public domain)

The raging and vain muttering of the enemies of God and his Anointed remind me of the first psalm.  The happy man is one who “walks not according to the counsel of the wicked,” and who “sits not in the assmebly of scorners” (Ps 1:1); rather, upon God’s teaching (the manifestation of His will) “he ponders day and night.” As I pointed out in my notes on Psalm 1, the term “scorner” refers to someone who talks in a childish, mocking voice.  This stands in contrast to the “pondering” of the just man.  Again, as I pointed out in my notes on Psalm 1, the term “ponder” implies the soft repetition of God’s teaching.  Here, in Psalm 2, we are not dealing with just a few men acting childish, rather, we are looking at wide-scale rebellion; the petualnt mimicking has become great sound and fury.  All of this is about as troublesome as a cloudy day to God: while the nations  speak in rage (so the Hebrew word implies) and vainly mutter, and while the the kings of the earth stand up and rulers take counsel against the Lord and His anointed, God sits calmly on his throne, responding to their verbal violence and their plotting with mere laughter.   God knows that such as these will not withstand the judgment, and that sinners will not stand in the assembly of the righteous (Ps 1:5).

At this point in the Psalm the Anointed king (Messiah) speaks.  Like the just man who has pondered the teachings of the Lord he knows the decrees of God and trusts in Him, therefore he is confident and unafraid:

Vs 7 I will tell of the decree: The Lord said to me, ‘You are my son; this day have I begotten you.
Vs 8 Ask it of me, and I will give you the nations for your inheritance, and put the ends of the earth into your pessesion.
Vs 9 With an iron rod you shall break them; like a clay dish you shall smash them to pieces.

At this point the Anointed One gives the rebels advice and warning:

Vs 10 Be wise, O you kings; be instructed rulers of the earth. The terms kings and rulers recalls verse 2.  The exhortaion to be wise and instructed recalls the purpose of Psalm 1, a Wisdom Psalm which extolled God’s instructions.

Vs 11 Serve God with fear, tremble as you bow down to him. Serving God is the exact opposite of rebelling against Him.  The call to bow down to Him is in contrast to their attempt to stand up against Him (vs 2).

Vs 12 Render him homage, lest he grow angry with you and you perish from the way, for his anger ignites suddenly. Happy are those who put their trust in him. As noted at the beginning, the phrase perish from the way recalls the end of Psalm 1, while the phrase happy are those recalls its beginning.

I’m in the process of preparing a series of reflections on the Psalms and Canticles used during the Office of Readings according to the four week cycle.  This will be a time consuming task, but as I complete each Psalm I will post it here, under the title Seeds of Meditation and Study, followed by the passage reference.  When each day is complete I will post the results in the iPaper format on my sister sight, as I did with my notes on Amos.   For an example of this post in iPaper (the formatting is much better and the printing bigger than on this blog) please go HERE. It may take 2-4 seconds for the document to appear.

<!– @page { size: 8.5in 11in; margin: 0.79in } P { margin-bottom: 0.08in } –>

First, some important preliminaries:

1. The modern Divine Office (also called The Roman Breviary or The Liturgy of the Hours) uses the Grail Translation of the Psalms and Canticles and is under copyright, as a consequence of this I will be using public domain translations or, on occasion, my own translation.

2. The Antiphons, headings, and sentences (see #5 below) are also under copyright, therefore I can only refer to their substance rather than quote them directly. Needless to say, it is best if you have a copy of the Office before you.

3. The full Divine Office consists of four large and rather expensive volumes, and may not be suitable for everyone. I personally use a large, one volume version entitled CHRISTIAN PRAYER: THE LITURGY OF THE HOURS, published by The Daughters of St Paul. This work is extremely popular among lay Catholics who wish to pray the office. It currently sells for $31.95, far less expensive than the complete edition. A large print edition is available, but it will not contain the Office of Readings. Those who desire the complete four volumes can find them HERE.

4. This paper-and others which will follow-is not intended as an in-depth commentary on the Psalms and Canticles, rather, I’m looking only to provide food for thought and meditation, and also themes you may wish to study further. Whenever possible I will give a link to some online commentary on the Psalm/Canticle being treated of.

5. Definitions:

a. Heading: Not part of the Scripture text itself, unlike some of the titles found in the Psalms (e.g., Ps 3:1). A Heading serves the same basic function as the title of a chapter in a book; for example, the heading to Psalm 1 in the Douay-Rheims translation reads: “The happiness of the just and the evil state of the wicked.”

b. Sentence: Usually taken from or based upon a Scripture text, though it is sometimes taken from or based upon a Church Father. The sentence appears below the Heading and often helps to “Christianize” it.

c. Antiphon: The Antiphon is often taken from or based upon the Psalm or Canticle being prayed and is designed to help highlight a theme. It is usual when praying the office in private to repeat the antiphon only at the beginning and end of the Psalm/Canticle. During public recitation by a group is is usual to also repeat the Antiphon after each verse.

Sunday-Week 1

Psalm 1 (My Translation):

Vs 1 Happy the man who walks not according to the direction of the wicked, stands not on the path with sinners, sits not in the assembly of scorners

Vs 2 But in the instruction of the Lord is his delight, upon this teaching he ponders day and night.

Vs 3 He is like a tree well-planted by steams of water, which gives forth its fruit in its season; its leaves do not wither. Whatsoever he does, he prospers.

Vs 4 But not so are the wicked! They are like chaff driven on by the wind

Vs 5 For this reason the wicked will not withstand the judgment, nor sinners stand in the assembly of the righteous.

Vs 6 The Lord watches over the way of the just, but the way of the wicked perishes.

As the heading of the Psalm indicates, the purpose of the text is to show that ultimately, man has only two directions to travel: one towards God, and the other away from Him. As the ancient Christian document called the Didache (late 1^st -early 2^nd century puts it: “There are two ways, one which leads to life, the other which leads to death; and great is the difference between the two ways.” (see Deu_30:15, Deu_30:19; Jer_21:8; Mat_7:13, Mat_7:14).

The Antiphon is from an unknown second century author who compares the Cross of our Blessed Lord to the fruitful tree rooted in life giving waters (see verse 3). comparing the Cross to the Tree of Life was commonplace in the ancient Church and is still so today. It is based upon the Adam/Christ parallel found in St Paul and St John. Concerning the former see Romans 5:12-21 and 1 Corinthians 15:20-23. Concerning the second consider that St John wrote: “Now there was in the place where he was crucified a garden: and in the garden a new sepulchre, wherein no man yet had been laid” (19:41). Later, when Mary Magdalene first sees our Lord she mistakes him for the gardener (20:15).

Adam was placed inside a garden and told to guard and keep it, but he failed to do so. He lost access to the tree of life, was banished from the garden and died outside it. But Christ, dying on a tree outside of a garden, came to new life in that garden, having lost none of those the Father had given him to guard (see Jn 17: 12).

The Cross and the Tree of Life:

It may help for us to consider that in both Scripture and Tradition the Cross is often called “the tree.” On Good Friday, in fact, we sing an ancient song on this theme:

“Faithful Cross! Above all other,
One and only noble tree!
None in foliage, none in blossom,
None in fruit thy peer may be.
(Pange Lingua, St Venantius Fortunatus, 6th cent.)

When we trace the use of the word “tree” through the Scriptures, we find three main images that all join up in a wondrous way to explain the meaning the Cross has for us.

The first tree is the “Tree of Life.” This was placed in the Garden of Eden together with the “Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil,” from which Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit. After this first sin, God hastened to evict Adam and Eve from the Garden – not as a punishment, but because he feared “lest the man put forth his hand and take also of the Tree of Life, and eat, and live for ever.” (Gen 3:22) The effect of this would have been to make sinners (and thus also sin) immortal. For it is a fact that death, while being the result of sin, is also the limit that brings an end to sin.

The second tree is the Cross of Christ. The New Testament often uses “tree” rather than “cross” (eg. Acts 10:39 “they put him to death by hanging him on a tree.”) Saint Paul reminds us that the ancient Jewish law declared: “Cursed be anyone who is hanged on a tree.” (Gal 3:13) Jesus thus came under this curse. Yet, Saint Peter explains more clearly what was involved: “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness.” (1 Peter 2:24) Jesus accepted the “curse” we should have received, and underwent death in our place – precisely so that we might not die but live.

The third tree is also called the “Tree of Life”, and it is reported by John, who saw it in the heavenly Jerusalem in the Book of Revelation. This Tree is so full of life that it bears fruit once every month, and “the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.” (Rev 22:2) All who have “conquered” in faith (Rev 2:7) and who have “washed their robes” in baptism (Rev 22:14) may enter the heavenly city and eat from the Tree of Life.

The Triumph of the Cross is therefore the expulsion from Eden reversed! Through the Tree of the Cross, sin is forgiven, death is defeated, and life is restored, as the Preface from the Mass of the day proclaims:
“Father…you decreed that man should be saved through the wood of the cross. The tree of man’s defeat became his tree of victory; where life was lost, there life has been restored.”

So for us, the Cross is the Tree of Life, the very source of life itself. Why then do so many today still reject the Cross as a thing of shame and horror? At the handing over of the World Youth Day Cross to the Australian pilgrims on Palm Sunday this year, Pope Benedict attempted to articulate this modern rejection of the Cross:

“[It is] said, the Cross is the sign of the denial of life. Instead, we want life in its entirety, without restrictions and without sacrifices. We want to live, all we want is to live.” He goes on: “The Cross itself is the true Tree of Life. We do not find life by possessing it, but by giving it. Love is a gift of oneself, and for this reason it is the way of true life symbolised by the Cross.” (Denis J. Hart, Archbishop of Melbourne. Source)

For Your Consideration and Further Study;

1. General observation: The first verse of the Psalm opens with the word “happy” (Heb. ‘ashre’), which in Hebrew begins with the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet. The last verse ends with the word “perish,” which word begins with the last letter of the Hebrew alphabet. As far removed as “Z” is from “A”, this is how far removed the wicked will be from the righteous when God’s judgment comes.

2. On Verse 1: The fact that this Psalm opens by defining what the just man is not (vs 1), indicates how important it is to avoid evil. Only the one who can honestly pray thus: I have not sat with the council of vanity: neither will I go in with the doers of unjust things. I have hated the assembly of the malignant; and with the wicked I will not sit will escape God’s punishment.

1. On Verse 2: Taking delight in the Lord’s instruction brings many benefits, as Psalm 112 shows. Recall also that our Blessed Lord rejoiced in the Father’s Revelation given to us: In that same hour, he rejoiced in the Holy Ghost and said: I confess to thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hidden these things from the wise and prudent and hast revealed them to little ones. Yea, Father, for so it hath seemed good in thy sight. All things are delivered to me by my Father. And no one knoweth who the Son is, but the Father: and who the Father is, but the Son and to whom the Son will reveal him. In this we are more blessed than the Psalmist and Prophets of old: And turning to his disciples, he said: Blessed are the eyes that see the things which you see. For I say to you that many prophets and kings have desired to see the things that you see and have not seen them; and to hear the things that you hear and have not heard them (see Luke 10:21-24).

Pondering or meditating on the teaching of the Lord stands in marked contrast to following the counsel of the wicked (see vs 1). As I point out in my Notes On Psalm 1 the Hebrew word for “ponder/meditate” implies the subtle, nearly silent recitation of words, the act of scoffers implies childish, irrational mimicking.

4. On Verse 3: A fruitful tree does not have life in and of itself, rather, it gets its life from good soil and water. We have our spiritual life from a source other than ourselves; it is the Lord who has planted us (Jer 11:17). Aquinas writes: For planting, one needs earth moistened by the waters, otherwise the tree dries up, and so he says: which is planted near running waters, that is, nest to streams of grace…And he who has roots next to water will bear fruit in doing good works; and this is what follows: which shall bring forth its fruit, for in Galatians 5:22 we read: the fruit of the Spirit is charity, joy, peace, and patience, long-suffering, goodness, benignity, ect.”

5. On Verse 4: The opening of this verse is emphatic in Hebrew: But not so are the wicked!, indicating one more way by which the author of the Psalm tries to highlight the contrast between the righteous and the unrighteous.

In stark contrast to verse 3 the wicked are here described as useless chaff. Chaff refers to the outer shell or husks from which grain was taken. Light, dry, sterile, it was utterly useless. It was fit only to burn, but even in this it was useless, since it burned so quickly it wasn’t even adequate for use as kindling. Most people simply left it on the ground to be driven away by the wind. It is hard to imagine an image of rootlessness and bareness more fitting than this. (see the prayer against enemies in Psalm 35:5) The winnowing of chaff is used, throughout the Bible, as a image of God’s judgment (see Hosea 13:2-3 and Matt 3:12). I have seen those who work iniquity, and sow sorrows, and reap them, Perishing by the blast of God, and consumed by the spirit of his wrath(Job 4:8-9).

6. On Verse 5: Not being rooted in grace means the unrighteous will not stand when God judges. In the morning I will stand before thee, and I will see: because thou art not a God that willest iniquity. Neither shall the wicked stand near thee: nor shall the unjust abide before thy eyes. Thou hatest all the workers of iniquity: thou wilt destroy all that speak a lie. The bloody and the deceitful man the Lord will abhor (Psalm 5:4-6). And they say to the mountains and the rocks: Fall upon us and hide us from the face of him that sitteth upon the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb. For the great day of their wrath is come. And who shall be able to stand? (Rev 6:16-17).

7. On Verse 6: God keeps His eye on and protects those who seek after righteousness. May he not suffer thy foot to be moved: neither let him slumber that keepeth thee. Behold he shall neither slumber nor sleep, that keepeth Israel. The Lord is thy keeper, the Lord is thy protection upon thy right hand. The sun shall not burn thee by day: nor the moon by night. The Lord keepeth thee from all evil: may the Lord keep thy soul. May the Lord keep thy coming in and thy going out; from henceforth now and for ever (Ps 121:3-8).

The term “First Nocturn” refers to the Psalm used at Matins on Sundays, Mondays, and Thursdays.  These Psalms change for Tuesdays and Fridays (the Second nocturn), and for Wednesdays and Saturdays (the Third Nocturn).  My source’s commentary on the First Nocturn is 30 pages long, for this reason I’ll be posting only on Psalm 8 today.  The other two Psalms for the First Nocturn are 18 and 23, and these will also be dealt with in individual posts.

Antiphon: Blessed art thou amongst women, and blessed is the Fruit of thy womb.

The following psalm being concerned with the wonders of creation, the Antiphon directs our minds to Our Lady as the choicest and most perfect creature of God.  For if man be made a little lower than the angels and crowned with glory and honor, how much more honorable and glorious is She whose Office and holiness is far above that of the highest Angel?  For which one of them could say to their God as She could say: Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten Thee? (Heb 1:5).

Argument: Defines what the Psalm is about according to the views of Venerable Bede and Tomasi.

Tomasi:  That Christ, the Son of Man, was made in His Passion a little lower than the angels.  The voice of the ancient Church speaking of Christ and of faith.  Also of the Ascension of our Savior and of the infants that glorified Him and that said Hosanna in the highest! The voice of the Church giving praise to Christ for the fiath of all creatures.

Venerable Bede:  (The first verse of the Psalm is actually a directive and reads: To the Leader; according to the Gittih.  “Gittih” is probably a reference to a musical tune and is derived from the word “Gath,” meaning wine-press.  The gathering of the vintage harvest was a time of great joy, and it seems that the directive is indicating that the tune which accompanied the text was to be joyful.  This helps explain Bede’s argument).  For the wine-press; that is, a vintage song of thanksgiving.  As in the wine-press when the grapes are bruised and the hardest pips crushed the sweetest wine pours forth, so when obstinacy and pride are crushed in the Church,  which is the true wine-press, at the commencement of these Psalms sings the praises of her Lord God, setting forth His majesty and the greatness of His operations.  Then she speaketh more plainly of the nature of man which, from the low and depraved condition whereto Adam’s fall had reduced it, He raised to the height of glory; and the one Person of Christ in its two distinct and inconfused Natures is unhesitatingly acknowledged.

8:1 O Lord, our Lord, how admirable is Thy Name in all the world.

O Lord our Lord. God’s name is twice repeated; for He is twice our Lord, in that He made us and in that He redeemed us.  he is our Lord also through our knowledge and love of Him.  We also are His servants; by the special claim He has to our life, by our holy vocation; therefore His interests are in a special sense ours.  Again, our Lord naturally suggests Him Who by mortal birth is bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh (Gen 2:23); our Elder Brother, Who has shown to us the infinite tenderness and love of the Father.

How admirable is Thy name: The name of God implying perfection, all beauty, all riches, all power, all wisdom, and implying also that sweetest of all relations, taught us by our Lord Himself, the Divine Fatherhood.  But the name of our Lord is still more admirable; for it is the name of Jesus, name above all other names at which every knee shall bow (Phil 2:10); the name which is the joy of the faithful and the true revelation of the Father.

8:2  For Thy magnificence is lifted up above the heavens.

Commentators take this for the most part literally of the Ascension according to the words of St Paul: Who descended, He it is also Who ascended above all the heavens that He might fill all things (Eph 4:10); For then Christ, sitting at the right hand of  God the Father, sent the Holy Ghost and charged His Apostles to speak salvation in His Name as the only means of reaching heaven, and that He was constituted Judge of the living and the dead (Acts 10:42).  Others, and especially the Angelic doctor, see here implied the infinite distance between Christ Who is the power of God and the wisdom of God (1 Cor 1:24), and the very highest of the saints; not only the Apostles or the angels, but even Her who bare Him, Her whom Christian singers delight in styling the “new heaven.”  Father Lorin takes these words as implying the magnificence of glory of God is far beyond what we can gather from the Scriptures, which tell us of the mysteries of heaven, or from those wonderful manifestations of His power and wisdom, the seven sacraments.

8:3  Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings Thou has perfected praise because of Thine enemies, that Thou mightest destroy the enemy and the avenger.

Literally, the Holy Innocents who thus glorified Christ by their death, and they cried Hosanna by their acclamations, as he Himself hath taught us (Matt 21:16).  Spiritually, the weaker members of the Church of whom the  Apostle writes: I have fed you with milk and not with strong meat (1 Cor 3;2).  And again, those who had the innocence and simplicity of babes; as the first-born of the Church, the Apostle, who, taught by their Lord to speak, fed by Him, like new-born babes with the sincere milk of the word (1 Pet 2:2), and called by Him His children (Jn 21:5).  So teach the Carmelite Angriani and Perez.  Also we may understand it of all religious souls who, in simplicity and innocence, look to God alone and receive from Him their meat in due season, the food of their souls, by the teaching of the Holy Ghost ever whispering to their conscience.

Because of thine enemies- for their conversion; or, if they will not turn, from their destruction, as it is written: The arrows of the little ones are made their wounds (Ps 63:8).

That Thou mightest destroy the enemy: for God has chosen the weak things of this world to confound the wise.

Avenger: Not only tyrants and unbelieving nations whom God has at various times raised up to chastise a sinful people, but the evil spirit himself who is only an instrument in his Creator’s hands, and whose power, like those other avengers, will be destroyed when the good designed to be done through them is accomplished.

2:4  For I see Thy heavens, the works of Thy fingers: the moon, and the stars, which Thou hast established.

The heavens, the works of Thy fingers: The whole course of events under God’s Providence, Who has declared that all things should work together for good to them that love Him (Rom 8:28).  Thy fingers, not hands, because, as St John Chrysostom says, this is but a small thing for God’s omnipotence.  .

The moon, that is, the Church, which is constantly renewed and receives all her light from the true Sun.  The stars, the Saints of God, as it is written: They that turn many to righteousness shall shines as the stars forever (Dan 12:3).  Note: He mentions not the sun, because the Sun of Righteousness (Mal 4:4, or, in some translations 3:20) was begotten not made.  Thus St Ambrose.  Again, the moon, says Jorgius, who was the confessor of Edward the First, denotes our ever dear and blessed Lady; and that for various reasons: as the moon draws all its brightness from the sun, and yet it is the most luminous object next to it, so Mary, made full of grace by Him whose countenance is as the sun shining in his strength (Rev 1:16), is the brightest of all the saints.  And yet, as the moon is nearest to earth, so our Lady is the lowliest of all in her humility.  As the moon rules the tides, so Mary by her prayers helps those who are tossed on the bitter surges of the world.  And as Easter, the festival of the Resurrection, follows the course of the moon, so the spiritual arising of the Man by the Incarnation followed the consent of Mary’s will to the message of the Angel.  The choirs of angels which are her fellows (Ps 44:15) and bear her company, are rightly compared to the stars; only less than the moon in glory and beauty.

8:5  What is Man that Thou art mindful of him? or the Son of Man that Thou visitest him?

When, therefore, the prophet considers all the things tending to man’s salvation, the Providence whereby all events work together for his good, the Church given him as a mother, the saints as examples and friends, his thoughts are naturally carried back to the one source of all, which is the Incarnation.  What is Man? The Psalmist answers in another place, Every man is bu vanity (Ps 39:12); and again, All men are liars (Ps 117:10).  Man: taken absolutely, as a sinner: the  Son of Man, those who are endeavoring to keep the law of God.  Thus St Augustine.  Also the Son of Man, our Lord’s own description of Himself.  In this sense the term is to be understood of His headship over the mystical body.

Visitest the Incarnation, was God visiting His people, as it is written: Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for He hath visited and redeemed His People (Lk 1:68).  And again, Thou visitest the earth and blessed it (Ps 65:9).

8:6  Thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, with glory and honor hast Thou crowned him: and Thou hast set him above all the works of Thy hand.

The Carmelite says: For as much as Christ went not up unto joy, but first suffered pain, so here we see Him in His low estate first, and then in His glory; for the humility of His Passion was the merit of His exaltation.

Lower than the angels, in that He condescends to become mortal and passable.  A little lower:  And what marvel, then, of speaking in respect of His humanity, He saith: My Father is greater than I! (Jn 14:28).

With glory, as respects Himself; with worship, in reference to others.  Thus St Basil.  Again, a little lower, for it was but for a short time-a little, because He was mortal and passable of His own free will, and not like us, of necessity.  Glory, in the victory of the Resurrection; honor, on the throne of the Ascension.  And note, as St Albert the Great says, Christ is said to have many crowns, of which the chief are: the Crown of Mercy, wherewith He was crowned in the Incarnation and Nativity; the Crown of Sorrow, when the thorny diadem of the passion was given Him; that of Glory in the Resurrection and Ascension; and that of Dominion, which He will receive when the Court of the Redeemed gathers around Him.

Over the works of Thy hands: and therefore over those angels than whom for a season He was made a little lower.

8:7  All things Thou hast out beneath His feet, sheep and all oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field.

All things Thou hast put beneath His feet. Let the Apostle interpret: In that He put all in subjection under Him, He left nothing that is not put under Him (Heb 2:8).  But when He saith all things are put under Him, it is manifest that He is excepted Who did put all things under Him (1 Cor 15:27).  Note in these three verses of the Psalm we have the four living creatures of the Apocalypse (4:7) for these might denote the four parts of Christ’s works of mercy, as well as the four Evangelists.  What is man? Here we have the face of a man.  Thou hast made Him a little lower than the angels, there we have the ox, the animal fit for sacrifice; Thou hast crowned Him with glory and honor, there the victorious lion; Thou hast put all things under His feet, there the eagle that soars above everything else.  So thinks Rupertus.

Beneath His feet.  As the head of Christ is His Divinity, so His feet are His manhood; and to Him, as Man, is given the empire, which, as God, was always His, Who is the image of the invisible God, the first born of every creature…that in all things He might have the headship (Col 1:15, 18).

Sheep: By these we understand those whose business in Christ’s Church is not to teach but to learn: My sheep hear My voice (Jn 10:27).

And all oxen: Those who labor in His word and doctrine; according to that saying of St Paul, quoting from Deuteronomy 5:4, Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn (1 Cor 9:9).  For by these great profit is obtained in His Church; as it is written: Much increase is by the strength of the ox (Prov 14:4).

Yea: The word shows that a change of subject is made, namely, from the good to the wicked.

The beasts of the field: Those that own no master, but follow their own hearts’ lusts, like brute beasts, as St Peter teaches, made to be taken and destroyed (2 Pt 2:12).  For the wicked as well as the good are made subject to Christ.  Thus St Bruno, of Aste-Perez remarks, not only are the sheep, the lowly and the docile who hear the voice of the Shepherd, put under Him, but even the oxen, the powerful rulers of the earth; and the beasts of the field, the wandering and barbarous tribes which knew no law before.

8:8  The fowls of the air and the fishes of the sea, and whatsoever walketh through the paths of the seas.

The fowls of the air are the saints who rise above the world, but only by means of the sign of the Cross (A bird with extended wings forms a cross).

The fishes of the sea: ordinary Christians regenerated of water and of the Holy Ghost, and who are made fellows of Jesus Christ, the Divine Fish (The fish was an ancient symbol for Christ found throughout the catacombs.  The Greek letters for fish form an acrostic: Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior).

And whatsoever bad, as well as good, unholy, no less than holy; walketh through the paths of the seas, that is, exposed to the waves and storms of this troublesome world.  Thus Casiodorus.  But St Augustine will have the fowls of the air to be the proud and the ambitious, the fishes those who are restless and acquisitive.  While others see in the winged fowls the angels; in the fishes the evil spirits of the Abyss; or again, in a good sense the dwellers in the isles afar, and mariners in them who walk through the paths of the seas.  So Perez.

8:9  O Lord, our Lord, how admirable is Thy Name in all the world.

Admirable, not only because He is very God, as set forth in the first verse, but also because He is very Man, as taught in the succeeding verses.  Teh beginning and the ending of this Psalm is the same, as being in His praise Who is the First and the Last (Rev 22:13), the same yesterday, today, and for ever (Heb 13:8).

The Doxology: Glory be to the Father Who hath put all things under the feet of the Son of Man; Glory be to the Son Who vouchsafed to become Son of Man, made lower than the angels, but now crowned with glory and honor as Priest and King and Prophet; Glory be to the Holy Ghost, the Finger of God’s right hand by Whom the heavens were made.

Text in red are my additions.

1. “To the end,” for His own resurrection, the Lord Jesus Christ Himself speaketh.   For in the morning on the first day of the week was His resurrection, whereby He was taken up, into eternal life See Jn 20:1-17), “Over whom death shall have no more dominion.”(Rom 6:9).   Now what follows is spoken in the person of The Crucified. For from the head of this Psalm are the words, which He cried out, whilst hanging on the Cross, sustaining also the person of the old man, whose mortality He bare. For our old man was nailed together with Him to the Cross.

2. “O God, my God, look upon me, why hast Thou forsaken(8) me far from my salvation?” (verse 1). Far removed from my salvation: for” salvation is far from sinners.”(9) “The words of my sins.” For these are not the words of righteousness, but of my sins. For it is the old man nailed to the Cross that speaks, ignorant even of the reason why God hath forsaken him: or else it may be thus, The words of my sins are far from my salvation (The old man is a reference to Adam or, more likely, “Adamite” man.  See Rom 6:6).

3. “My God, I will cry unto Thee in the daytime, and Thou wilt not hear (verse 2). My God, I will cry unto Thee in the prosperous circumstances of this life, that they be not changed; and Thou wilt not hear, because I shall cry unto Thee in the words of my sins. “And in the night-season, and not to my folly.” And so in the adversities of this life will I cry to Thee for prosperity; and in like manner Thou wilt not hear. And this Thou doest not to my folly, but rather that I may have wisdom to know what Thou wouldest have me cry for, not with the words of sins out of longing for life temporal, but with the words of turning to Thee for life eternal.

4. “But Thou dwellest in the holy place, O Thou praise of Israel” (verse 3). But Thou dwellest in the holy place, and therefore wilt not hear the unclean words of sins. The “praise” of him that seeth Thee; not of him who hath sought his own praise in tasting of the forbidden fruit, that on the opening of his bodily eyes he should endeavour to hide himself from Thy sight.

5. “Our Fathers hoped in Thee.” All the righteous, namely, who sought not their own praise, but Thine. “They hoped in Thee, and Thou deliveredst them” (verse 4).

6. “They cried unto Thee, and were saved.” They cried unto Thee, not in the words of sins, from which salvation is far; and therefore were they saved. “They hoped in Thee, and were not confounded” (verse 5). “They hoped in Thee,” and their hope did not deceive them. For they placed it not in themselves.

7. “But I am a worm, and no man” (verse 6). But I, speaking now not in the person of Adam, but I in My own person, Jesus Christ, was born without human generation in the flesh, that I might be as man beyond men; that so at least human pride might deign to imitate My humility. “The scorn of men, and outcast of the people.” In which humility I was made the scorn of men, so as that it should be said, as a reproachful railing, “Be thou His disciple: ” (Jn 9:28) and that the people despise Me.

8. “All that saw Me laughed Me to scorn” (verse 7). All that saw Me derided Me. “And spoke with the lips, and shook the head”(Matt 27:39).  And they spoke, not with the heart, but with the lips.

9. For they shook their head in derision, saying, “He trusted in the Lord let Him deliver Him: ” (Matt 27:43)  let Him save Him, since He desireth Him” (ver 8).These were their words; but they were spoken “with the lips.”

10. “Since Thou art He who drew Me out of the womb” (verse 9). Since Thou art He who drew Me, not only out of that Virgin womb (for this is the law of all men’s birth, that they be drawn out of the womb), but also out of the womb of the Jewish nation; by the darkness whereof he is covered, and not yet born into the light of Christ, whosoever places his salvation in the carnal observance of the Sabbath, and of circumcision, and the like. “My hope from My mother’s breasts.” “My hope,” O God, not from the time when I began to be fed by the milk of the Virgin’s breasts; for it was even before; but from the breasts of the Synagogue, as I have said, out of the womb, Thou hast drawn Me, that I should not suck in the customs of the flesh.

11. “I have been strengthened in Thee from the womb” (verse 10). It is the womb of the Synagogue, which did not carry Me, but threw Me out: but I fell not, for Thou heldest me. “From My mother’s womb Thou art My God.” “From My mother’s womb: My mother’s womb did not cause that, as a babe, I should be forgetful of Thee.

12. “Thou art My God,” “depart not from Me; for trouble is hard at hand” (verse 11). Thou art, therefore, My God, depart not from Me; for trouble is nigh unto Me; for it is in My body. “For there is none to help.” For who helpeth, if Thou helpest not?

13. “Many calves came about Me.” The multitude of the wanton populace came about Me. “Fat bulls closed Me in” (verse 12). And their leaders, glad at My oppression, “closed Me in.”

14. “They opened their mouth upon Me” (verse 13). They opened their mouth upon Me, not out of Thy Scripture, but of their own lusts. “As a ravening and roaring lion.” As a lion, whose ravening is, that I was taken and led; and whose roaring, “Crucify, Crucify.”(Jn 19:6).

15. “I was poured out like water, and all My bones were scattered” (verse 14). “I was poured out like water,” when My persecutors fell: and through fear, the stays of My body, that is, the Church, My disciples were scattered from Me (Matt 26:56).  “My heart became as melting wax, in the midst of my belly.” My wisdom, which was written of Me in the sacred books, was, as if hard and shut up, not understood: but after that the fire of My Passion was applied, it was, as if melted, manifested, and entertained in the memory of My Church.

16. “My strength dried up as a potsherd” (verse 15). My strength dried up by My Passion; not as hay, but a potsherd, which is made stronger by fire. “And My tongue cleaved to My jaws.” And they, through whom I was soon to speak, kept My precepts in their hearts. “And Thou broughtest Me down to the dust of death.” And to the ungodly appointed to death, whom the wind casteth forth as dust from the face of the earth(Psalm 1:4)), Thou broughtest Me down.

17. “For many dogs came about Me” (verse 16). For many came about Me barking, not for truth, but for custom. “The council of the malignant came about Me.” The council of the malignant besieged Me.  “They pierced My hands and feet.” They pierced with nails My hands and feet.

18. “They numbered distinctly all My bones” (verse 17). They numbered distinctly all My bones, while extended on the wood of the Cross. “Yea, these same regarded, and beheld Me.” Yea, these same, that is, unchanged, regarded-and beheld Me.

19. “They divided My garments for themselves, and cast the lot upon My vesture” (verse 18).  (Note: The ‘garments’ he elsewhere makes the ’sacraments,’ his vesture the undivided unity of the Church.  See his Second Exposition of this Psalm)

20. “But Thou, O Lord, withhold not Thy help far from Me” (verse 19). But Thou, O Lord, raise Me up again, not as the rest of men, at the end of the world, but immediately. “Look to My defence.” “Look,” that they in no wise hurt Me.

21. “Deliver My soul from the sword.” “Deliver My soul” from the tongue of dissension. “And My only One from the hand of the dog” (verse 20). And from the power of the people, barking after their custom, deliver My Church.

22. “Save Me from the lion’s mouth:” save Me from the mouth of the kingdom of this world: “and my humility from the horns of the unicorns “(The base of the underlying Hebrew word here translated as ‘unicorn’ refers to a horn.  Some see the Hebrew word ‘reem’ as being a reference to a rhinoceros, which has one horn.  In the Bible the horn is often a symbol of strength or power, hence the word could be taken as referring to any strong animals.  The animals mentioned in the Psalm are, of course, symbols of evil people) (verse 21). And from the loftiness of the proud, exalting themselves to special pre-eminence, and enduring no partakers, save My humility.

23. “I will declare Thy name to My brethren” (verse 22). I will declare Thy name to the humble, and to My Brethren that love one another as they have been beloved by Me(see Jn 17:6, 21).  “In the midst of the Church will I sing of Thee.” In the midst of the Church will I with rejoicing preach Thee.

24. “Ye that fear the Lord, praise Him.” “Ye that fear the Lord,” seek not your own praise, but “praise Him.” “All ye seed of Jacob, magnify Him” (verse 23). All ye seed of him whom the elder shall serve, magnify Him.

25. “Let all the seed of Israel fear Him.” Let all who have been born to a new life, and restored to the vision of God “fear Him.” “Since He hath not despised, nor disregarded the prayer of the poor man” (verse 24). Since He hath not despised the prayer, not of him who, crying unto God in the words of sins was loath to overpass a vain life, but the prayer of the poor man, not swollen up with transitory pomps. “Nor hath He turned away His face from Me.” As from him who said, I will cry unto Thee, but Thou wilt not hear. “And when I cried unto Him He heard Me.”

26. “With Thee is My praise” (verse 25). For I seek not Mine own praise(see Jn 8:50), for Thou art My praise, who dwellest in the holy place; and, praise of Israel, Thou hearest The Holy One now beseeching Thee. “In the great Church I will confess Thee.” In the Church of the whole world” I will confess Thee.” “I will offer My vows in the sight of them that fear Him.” I will offer the sacraments of My Body and Blood in the sight of them that fear Him.

27. “The poor shall eat, and be filled” (verse 26). The humble and the despisers of the world shall eat, and imitate Me. For so they will neither desire this world’s abundance, nor fear its want. “And they shall praise the Lord, who seek Him.” For the praise of the Lord is the pouring out of that fulness. “Their hearts shall live for ever and everse” For that food is the food of the heart.

28. “All the borders of the earth shall remember themselves, and be turned to the Lord” (verse 27). They shall remember themselves: for, by the Gentiles, born in death and bent on outward things, God had been forgotten; and then shall all the borders of the earth be turned to the Lord. “And all the kindreds of the nations shall worship in His sight.” And all the kindreds of the nations shall worship in their own consciences.

29. “For the kingdom is the Lord’s, and He shall rule over the nations” (verse 28). For the kingdom is the Lord’s, not proud men’s: and He shall rule over the nations.

30. “All the rich of the earth have eaten, and worshipped”  (verse 29).  (Augustine is following the African Psalter which contains the phrase divites terrae=’rich of the earth’.  The Douay-Rheims and the King James Versions read, respectively: “All the fat ones of the earth have eaten and have adored” ; “All they that be fat upon the earth shall eat and worship.”   In the OT ‘fatness’ is an image of wealth and proseperity, as in Deut 31:20; 32:15). The rich of the earth too have eaten the Body of their Lord’s humiliation, and though they have not, as the poor, been filled even to imitation, yet they have worshipped. “In His sight shall fall all that descend to earth.” For He alone seeth how all they fall, who abandoning a heavenly conversation, make choice, on earth, to appear happy to men, who see not their fall.

31. “And My Soul shall live to Him.” And My Soul, which in the contempt of this world seems to men as it were to die, shall live, not to itself, but to Him. “And My seed shall serve Him” (verse 30). And My deeds, or they who through Me believe on Him, shall serve Him.

32. “The generation to come shall be declared to the Lord” (verse 31). The generation of the New Testament shall be declared to the honour of the Lord. “And the heavens shall declare His righteousness.” And the Evangelists shall declare His righteousness. “To a people that shall be born, whom the Lord hath made.” To a people that shall be born to the Lord through faith.

The following is a commentary on the most used of the inviatory Psalms, namely, Psalm 94 (95).  It is taken from a commentary on the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary by Father Tauton, which work is in the public domain.  Some text from the Little Office, along with some commentary can be found by clicking on the words “The Little Office” in the link field below this blogs header.

Antiphon:  Hail Mary! ful of Grace, the Lord is with thee.

“But for it sufficeth not to you to praise and to joy in God alone but you must stir others to the same.  Therefore, after Alleluia, or Laus Tibi, you begin the Inviatory, that is as much as to say, a ‘calling,’ or a ’stirring,’ wherebey each of you stirreth and exhorteth others to the praising of God and of our Lady.  And thereby also you call them that hear you and desire the others that are absent to come and praise with you.  And thereto accordeth the Psalm Venite that followeth and is sung with the Inviatory” (Myroure, pp. 82-83).

As these words were said by the Angel, it will be well to say them with the same feelings of joy, love, and reverence with which he greeted our Lady.

Psalm 94 (95):  A Prayer of a Son for David

Argument: Cardinal Tomasi in the collection of arguments collected from Origen, gives the following as meanings of this psalm.  That Christ, the Good Shepherd, predestinates His sheep with eternal rest.  The voice of the Church to the Lord touching the Jews.  The voice of Christ to the Apostles touching the Jews.  The voice of the Church advising to repentance.

Venerable Bede in his exposition of the Psalms says concerning this one: “Praise denotes devotion of voice; song, cheerfulness of mind, for David, Christ our Savior, to the end that we may come together and rejoice, not in vain delights, but in the Lord.  The prophet forseeing the rejection of Christ, invites the chosen people to come and praise God.  Secondly, the Lord Himself speaks that the aforesaid people should not harden its heart lest that if befall them which befell their fathers who did not reach the Land of Promise” (Migne P.L. vol xciiim p. 478).

1.  Oh, come let us sing unto the Lord.  Let us heartily rejoice in God our savior.  Let us come before His Face in confession, and in psalms let us rejoice before Him.

St Augustine (in Ennarationes in Psalmos), commenting on this verse, remarks that the prophet invites us to rejoice, not in the world, but in the Lord.  In saying Oh come, he means that those who are far off are to draw near.  But how can we be far off from Him Whom is present everywhere?  By unlikeness to Him, by an evil life, by bad habits.  A man standing still in one spot draws near to God by loving Him, and by loving that which is evil he withdraws from God.  Although he does not move his feet, he can yet both draw nigh and retire; for in this journey our feet are our affections.  Come, as sick men to a doctor to obtain relief, as scholars to a master to learn wisdom, as thirsty men to a fountain, as fugitives to a sanctuary, as blind men to the sun.  Thus writes the Carmelite, Michael Angriani.  Let us sing to the Lord.  Why then do we find it said: Blessed are they that mourn and Woe to you that laugh (Matt 5:4 and Luke 6:25)?  Surely because they are blessed who mourn to the world, and the woe is to them that laugh to the world; but blessed are they who exalt unto the Lord, who know not how to be glad of violence, of fraud, of their neighbor’s tears.  He joys in the Lord, who in word, deed, and work, exults not for himself but for his maker.  Thus states St Peter Chrysologus (Migne, P.L., vol liii. p. 328). Our Savior. St Jerome in his version of the psalms translates these words simply as “Jesus our Rock.”

Let us come before His face, that is, says St Augustine, let us make haste to meet Him, not waiting till He sends to call us before Him.  Not that we can in anyway forestall His grace and bounty to us, but that we may offer our thanksgiving with sufficient promptness to avoid the charge of ingratitude.

In confession, which may either be the confession of God’s might and goodness, or of our frailty and sin, the confession of praise, or the confession of grief.  In this second sense we are called upon to come away from our sins, to come in penance to God before He comes in judgment.  Confession in the Psalms is often used s equivalent to thanksgiving, for if we confess our unworthiness we must be filled with gratitude to God for His mercy in granting us forgiveness and restoring us to His favor.   The Face of God often stands in Holy Writ for His wrath, e.g., Turn away Thy Face from my sins (Psalm 50:9); and also for offering sacrifice (see Hosea 5:5-6; Habakkuk 2:20.  Modern translations may read ‘before, ‘ or ‘presence.’).   The sacrifice of thanksgiving under the Mosaic code was an oblation of cakes of fine flour and wafer bread; and thus in this place, says Fr. Lorin, S.J., we see a prophecy of the Sacrifice of the New Law, that Eucharistic oblation of praise and thanksgiving wherein Christ is Himself offered to the Father.

And in psalms let us rejoice before Him.-Psalms, says St Ambrose, denote the combination of will and action in good works because the word implies the use of an instrument as well as of a voice (Migne, P.L., vol xiv).  And, says Denis, the Carthusian, we may rejoice in psalms when we are alone, as well as when joining with others in the offices of the Church, saying, Oh come all ye powers of my soul, my whole being and all that is within me, especially my reason, memory and will, let us be glad together in the Lord.

2.  For the Lord is a great God and a great King above all gods: For the Lord will not repel His people, for in His hands are all the ends of the earth, and the heights of the mountains doth He behold.

Says Fr. Corder, To us the words teach the mystery of the Eternal Son, pointing out that our Lord even in His mortal body is a great God, by reason of the Hypostatic Union, and also because He is the express Image of the Father; whence we find this very title given Him by the Apostle saying: Looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ (Titus 2:13).  Christ, says St Bruno, is moreover the King whom all the gods, all those saints and rulers of His Church whom He has made partakers of Him, obey and love: I have said ye are gods (Jn 10:34).

For the Lord will not repel His people, That Christian folk, says Cardinal Hugo, which He hath purchased with His own Blood, He will not reject it, crying, praying, seeking or knocking to Him.

In His hands are all the ends of the earth.-If we take this as descriptive of the power of God over creation there is no better commentary on them that the words of Isaiah: He hath measured the waters in the hollow of His hand and meted out heaven with the span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure and weighed the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance (Isaiah 40:12).  But the fuller explanation is to take it as showing that whilst false gods are worshipped in special places, He alone is Lord everywhere.  And thus we see here a reference to the Church, no longer confined to the narrow limits of one people, but made up from all the nations of the earth.  The ends of the earth may denote all the powers and faculties of man, a notion which is brought out better by the Hebrew-all the deep places of the earth.

The heights of the mountains are types of the exalted citizens of heaven: thus says Fr. Lorin.  St Bruno says the earth is often put for men of earthly nd groveling minds, mountains for the saints lifted high by contemplation of Divine things.

3.  For the sea is His and He made it, and His hands formed the dry land.  Come let us worship and fall down before God: Let us weep before the Lord who made us, for He is the Lord our God: but we are His people and the sheep of His pasture.

Besides the obvious interpretation concerning the wonder of creation, the sea, says St Augustine, denotes the Gentile nations tossed about in the bitterness and barreness of heathendom whom the Jews, in their spiritual pride, refused to believe God’s children.  Yet He made them, as it is written: Doubtless Thou art our Father though Abraham be ignorant of us, and Israel acknowledge us not: Thou, O Lord, art our Father, our Redeemer (Isaiah 63:16).   And His hands have formed the dry land. This land, differing from the sea in stability and in capacity of fruitfulness, denotes the Church or any holy soul.  It is dry, says St Bruno, because without the grace of God it can do nothing, as land will not bear unless it be watered, but gaspeth for Him as a thirsty ground (see Ps 144:6).  He formed it, which means more than he made it, implying that He gave shape and beauty and fulness to that which before was without form and void (Gen 1:2) by reason of Adam’s sin.  (Note: the commentator is applying a text about creation to the idea of re-creation.  Adam’s sin affected creation inasmuch as it caused disunity among men with one another and with God, as Genesis 3:8-13 shows.  Also, as a result of Adam’s sin, God cursed the earth so that in some ways it rebels against man, as we see in Gen 3:17-19.  In some sense it can be said that the earth is without form and is void because it no longer retains the fulness of purpose for which it was intended by God; this is why St Paul can write that “all creation groans in eager anticipation of the full revelation of the sons of God” in Romans 8:19).

We are to worship, that is, to bend the head as servants to their master, to fall down as subjects acknowledging their king.  To weep, for as Cassiodorus says: God calls His people first to rejoice, while they, yet, do not know the spiritual life, lest they be alarmed and repelled by its sorrows and austerities; but when they have once accepted the faith, He then summons them to repent of their sins (Migne, P.L., lxx).  But, says St Peter Chrysologus, they are tears of joy; for gladness, as well as sorrow, brings weeping, and grief for our past sins is blended with the hope of blessing and glory to come.  Some commentators, who take this Psalm as having special reference to our Lord’s nativity, see here a command to adore Him in the manger, undeterred ty the tokens of mortality and poverty around.

But we are His people and the sheep of His pasture.-St Augustine tells us that we are hereby taught that we, even as people, are sheep, in respect to God, needing Him as a Shepherd, and only to be satisfied with His green pastures.  Yet we are not unreasoning sheep to be driven with a staff.  We are guided with God’s Own hands, the very hands which made us and are so loving and ever heedful to prevent any harm that may come from negligence, ignorance, or malice of those inferior shepherds, to whom He commits, in a measure, the task of tending His flock.  He feeds us, says St Bruno, with Bread from heaven, as He once fed our spiritual forefathers with mann in the wilderness; and He cares for us as a shepherd cares for his flock, so that we need not be solicitous, but cast all our care on Him.  Says St Bonaventure, we must be like sheep in trustfulness, patience and innocence, and yet men in understanding, according to His Own saying: And ye My flock, the flock of My pasture, are men, and I am your God, saith the Lord (Ezek 34:31).

4.  Today if ye shall hear His voice harden not your hearts, as in the provocation and as in the day of temptation in the desert: Where your fathers tempted Me, proved Me and saw My works.

Today, that is, daily while it is called today, as the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews explains in one of his threefold citations of this verse: But exhort one another daily while it is called today (Heb 3:13). So long as the night has not yet come, so long as the door of mercy is not shut.  today, at once, not deferring till tomorrow.

If you will hear His voice is the reply to the assertion in the previous verse: We are the sheep of His pasture; for the proof of being one of Christ;s flock is according to His own words-My sheep hear My voice and I know them and they follow Me (Jn 10:27).  This flock He gave in its entirety, both sheep and lambs, to His apostle Peter to be fed for Him (Jn 21:15-17).  So if we are fed by Peter we are fed by Christ, and belong to His one fold.  You call yourself His sheep; prove your claim, then, by hearing His voice.  And yet, as St Bernard tells us, there is no difficulty at all in hearing His voice; on the contrary, the difficulty is to stop our ears effectually against it, so clear is its sound, so constantly does it ring in our ears.  The Jews, remarks the Carmelite, sinned by refusing to listen to the voice of our Lord; and we also sin in the same way when we put off or refuse to repent.  Satan’s counsel, observes St Basil, is “today for me, tomorrow for God”; whereas, He that hath promised pardon to repentance hath not promised tomorrow to the sinner.

Harden not your hearts.-For in doing so, says St Albert the Great, you set yourselves in direct opposition to the will of God, which is to soften those hearts, in that He said: My doctrine shall drop as the rain, My speech shall distill as the dew (Deut 32:2), to moisten the dry ground that it may bring forth the tender buds of grace; whereas it is said of sinners that their hearts are stony: I will take the stony heart out of your flesh and I will give you a heart of flesh (Ezek 36:26); and of Leviathan, the type of evil power, His heart is as firm as a stone; yea, as hard as a piece of nether millstone (Job 41:24).

As in the provocation and as in the day of temptation.-Some commentators refer the word provocation to the resistance of the Jews to the authority of Moses and temptation to their unbelief in the providence of God: And he called the naem of the place Massah and Meribah, because of the chiding of the children of Israel, and because they tempted the Lord, saying, Is the Lord among us nor not? (Exodus 17:7).  Cardinal Hugo points out that the words which follow in the wilderness, are an aggravation of guilt, because it was exactly there, in the absence of all other help, that the thoughts of the Jews should have been most firmly set on God Who had so wonderfully brought them out of Egypt.  Those who come out of the Egypt of sin or worldliness, who begin a life of repentance, are at first in the wilderness.  They are deserted by those they have left behind; and, not attaining yet to what they seek, they re much exposed, in that stage of spiritual progress, to the risk of rebellion, of unbelief in God, and of resisting the pleadings of the Holy Ghost.

Where your fathers tempted Me.-There is a stress on your fathers, implying that we are the same nations which sinned in a former period of its history and are therefore likely to fall again.  The Carmelite remarks, we may tempt God in several ways: His mercy, by careless prayer; His patience, by remaining in sin; His justice, by desiring revenge; His power, by not trusting Him during perils; His wisdom, by undertaking to teach others without previous study and meditation.

Proved Me.-This is more than tempting, which denotes the bare experiment, whereas proving implies its success, for the God, whose power they doubted, slew them all in the wilderness.

And saw My works.-That is, says Fr. Lorin, although they saw them, and that during forty continuous years, yet they did not believe and were never subdued, but renewed their experiment after each miracle and judgment.

5.  Forty years was I nigh to this generation, and said, these do always err in heart; in truth they have not known My ways.  Unto whom I swore in My wrath that they should not enter into My rest.

Forty years.-The writers do not fail to point out the mystical meaning of the number forty, repeated in the fasts of Elijah and our Lord, and in the great forty days after Easter; and they tell us that as ten is the first limit we meet in computation, so that this number and its multiples give all the subsequent names to sums, it serves as a type of fulness; while four, as denoting either the seasons of the year or the quarters of the heavens, extends that fulness to all time and place; and thus forty years stands here for the entire span of our earthly sojourn.  Remigius, monk as St Germain (see Migne, P.L. 131), points out the stress on years, because the journey of Elijah teaches us that the Israelites could have passed through the desert in forty days had they only been obedient (1 Kings 19:8).

Nigh.-Some commentators take this word in the sense that one who punishes is near the criminal, or of a teacher who keeps beside an idle and refractory pupil to compel his attention.  St Augustine explains it of God’s continual presence in signs and miracles; while St Bernard interprets it of an inward voice and inspiration.  The cause of God’s anger was the ingratitude of the children of Israel for His unceasing watch over them.

This generation.-And whereas this applies literally to the 60,000 who came up out of Egypt, and then by accommodation, to all living men at any time while it is called today, there is also a special fitness in taking it of the Jews after the Passion of Christ; for, says Perez of Valentia, the interval which lay between that and the final destruction of Jerusalem was almost precisely forty years, up to which time the door of hope was still open for Israel, and it was still today ere that terrible night set upon the Temple worship.

Always do these err in their heart.-This is much more forcible, observes Cardinal Hugo, than if it were said, they err in act; for the error of an act has a definite end, whereas the error of the will has no end.  Death puts an end to the evil doings of a sinner, not because he has lost the will to sin, but because he has no longer the power to do so.

For they have not known My ways.-The word known does not here signify acquaintance with God’s ways which may be gathered from reading or meditation, but that knowing which comes from a careful keeping to His ways themselves, that is, from living lives fruitful in good works.  And the ways of God, as St Bonaventure remarks, are all reducible to one, that is Jesus Himself, the Way, the Truth, and the Life (Jn 14:6); moreover, they all lead to the same heavenly country.  They are one way in their making, their maker, and their end; they are many ways according to the diversities of the working of grace, the variety of vocations and of disposition among those who journey home through the wilderness.

Unto whom I swore in My wrath that they should not enter into My rest.-This He did when the spies brought back evil reports of the Land of Promise and the children of Israel prepared to elect a leader to take them back to Egypt (Num 14:26).  It is a terrible warning, comments St Augustine.  We began the Psalm with rejoicing but we end with awful dread.  It is a great thing that God should speak; but how much more that God should swear.  A man who hath sworn is to be feared, lest he should, for his oath’s sake, do aught against his will.  How much more then ought we not to fear God Who cannot swear rashly?  Let no one say in his heart, that which he promiseth is true, that which he threateneth is false.  As sure as thou art of rest,happiness, eternity, immortality, if thou keep the commandments, so certain shouldest thou be of destruction, of the burning of everlasting fire, of damnation with the devil, if thou despise His Law.  He hath sworn that these shall not enter into His rest, and yet, it remaineth that some must enter therein (Heb 4:6), for it could not be designed for no occupant.  And this rest, which meant the early Canaan to the Jews of old, means for us that Sabbath of the heavenly Fatherland whereof the Epistle to the Hebrews tells us: Now there remained a rest to the people of God (Heb 4:9).  Even here, on earth, says the Carmelite, before reaching the blessed Land, there remaineth a rest for God’s people, whereof the weekly Sabbath is a sign and a pledge.  This is the rest from sin, common to all the just, and the rest from bodily cares and stilling of temptation, which comes in measure to contemplative saints; while, crowning all, there is the rest of the blessed, whence sorrow is banished for evermore.  Let us labor therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief (Heb 4:11) and be included under the terrible oath of exclusion; and in prayer for grace that it may not be so, O come let us worship and fall down and weep before the Lord our Maker. Thus says the Carthusian.

Gloria Patri:

Glory be to the Father, the great King above all gods; Glory be to the Son, the Strength of our salvation; Glory be to the Holy Ghost who saith, Today if ye hear His voice harden not your hearts.

Next installment in this series will be a commentary on the Matin Hymn The God, Whom earth and sea and sky, Adore and laud and magnify.

Note: Unless otherwise noted, I’ll be using my own translation of this Psalm.

7:1  A shiggaion of David, which he sang unto the Lord, against the words of Cush, the son of a Benjamite.

Shiggaion (pronounced shig-gaw-yone’) is a word found only here and in Habakkuk 3:1.  It is derived from the Hebrew shagaw (shaw-gaw), which means to stray.  The word here means to wander, ramble, be an aberration.  Some suggest that the word is equivalent to our poetic term dithyramb. Some, seizing on the meaning “to wander,” suggest that the word is meant to convey the fact that David used this Psalm as he fled from King Saul.  David’s comings and goings during this time might logically be described as “wanderings.”

against the words of Cush, the son of a Benjamite. Note that David’s song is directed unto the Lord and against the words of Cush.  Cush, as an individual is unmentioned elsewhere in the Bible.  The fact that he is identified as a Benjamite (like King Saul), and the content of the Psalm, suggests that the circumstances related in this song are to be dated to the time of King Saul’s persecution of David, which we find narrated in 1 Samuel chapters 18-26.  Protestant commentator Matthew Henry suggested that Cush was a pejorative reference to King Saul “Whose barbarous usage of David bespoke him rather a Cushite, or Ethiopian, than a true-born Israelite.”  This makes little sense to me since on more than one occasion, even at the height of Saul’s persecution, David proclaimed his utmost respect for the King as the Lord’s Anointed (see 1 Sam 24:5-16; 26:1-12).  In fairness to Matthew Henry though, I should point out that he felt it more likely that Cush was “some kinsman of Saul…who was an inveterate enemy to David, misrepresented him to Saul as a traitor, and (which was very needless) exasperated Saul against him, one of those children of men, children of Belial indeed, whom David complains of (1Sa_26:19), that made mischief between him and Saul. David, thus basely abused, has recourse to the Lord.”

7:2-3 The Psalmist prays for divine deliverance from an enemy/enemies. O Lord, my God, to you do I flee, put space between me and all who run after me, snatch me away from them.  Remove me, lest he pluck off my soul like a lion, rending me to pieces with none to help or deliver me.

Tradition translations of these verse: O LORD my God, in Thee have I taken refuge; save me from all them that pursue me, and deliver me; Lest he tear my soul like a lion, rending it in pieces, while there is none to deliver. (Jewish Publication Society Translation, hereafter JPS).

O Jehovah my God, in thee do I take refuge: Save me from all them that pursue me, and deliver me, Lest they tear my soul like a lion, Rending it in pieces, while there is none to deliver (American Standard Version, ASV).

O Lord, my God, in thee have I put my trust; save me from all them that persecute me, and deliver me.  Lest at any time he seize upon my soul like a lion, while there is no one to redeem me, nor to save. (Douay-Rheims Version, DRV).

O Lord, my God, The Divine Name YHWH, commonly misspelled as Jehovah, and usually translated as Lord, appears seven times in this Psalm.  Additionally, the noun Elohim (God) appears six time, and the title “the Most High” once, giving a total of 14 specific reference to God in this Psalm.

To you do I flee.  (in thee have I put my trust) The Hebrew word chasah (khaw-saw) is from a primitive root meaning to flee somewhere for protection.  Since one seeks protection only with someone (or in something) in which one has trust and confidence, standard translations use the word trust.  My translation preserves the contrast between the Psalmist running (fleeing) to God and away from those who are running after him.

Put space between me and all who run after me, snatch me away from them.  (save me from all them that persecute me, and deliver me.). The Hebrew word yasha (yaw-shah’) means to be open, wide, or free and, by implication, to be safe.  The word as used in our text is in the Hiphil tense and the imperative mood, hence it has a causative meaning.  Salvation as separation from evil things, people, sin, ect, is a common motif in the OT.  While my translation obscures the technical vocabulary (save), it does maintain the poetic imagery inherent in the wording of the text.  A person flees from enemies who are running after him in order to put space between them and himself, thus acquiring safety.  The Psalmist cannot achieve this space (salvation) alone, hence the Hiphil (causative) tense and the imperative mood (a strong request) of the words addressed to God: Put space between me &c. Likewise, snatch me away from them is causative and imperative.

Remove me, lest he pluck off my soul like a lion. (Lest at any time he seize upon my soul like a lion).  The Hebrew word pen (pane) means removal, here it is being used adverbially as a conjugation (lest).  My translation (remove me, lest) preserves both the proper meaing of the word and it conjugal form.  Whether this was intended by the Psalmist I do not know, however, my translation remove me builds upon the request snatch me away from them, and contrasts with the image that follows: Lest he pluck off my soul. The Psalmist might mean something like this: “Remove me, Lord, from my enemies before they remove me from you.”

Rending me to pieces with none to help or deliver me. (rending it in pieces, while there is none to deliver.)  a lion typically rends its prey to picece in order to devour it.  None to deliver recalls the Psalmist’s plea in verse 2.

7:4-6  The Psalmist examines his conscience and pleads his innocence, but leaves the judgment up to God.

4 O Lord, my God, if I have done this thing, if there be iniquity in my hands (DRV): 5 If I have requited my benefactors with evils, let me rightly fall empty before my enemies. 6 Let the enemy run after my soul, and remove it, trample down my life to the earth, and lodge my glory in the dust.

These verses, especially vs 5, are notoriously difficult to translate, as an examination of older and modern translations would show.

If I have done this…if their be iniquity in my hands…if I have requited my benefactors… The psalmist has been accused of certain crimes against a benefactor or benefactors (King Saul and the Royal Family?) but insists he is innocent, nonetheless, he leaves the judgment up to God, thus exhibiting a confidence in God’s justice.

Let me rightly fall empty before my enemies. Recalls to my mind St Paul’s words to Festus at his trial in Acts 25:11-”For if I have injured them or have committed any thing worthy of death, I refuse not to die. But if there be none of these things whereof they accuse me, no man may deliver me to them. I appeal to Caesar” (DRV).  The word translated as empty can also mean lacking cause, thus the meaning might be: “Let me rightly fall before my enemies, being guilty of the charges I have no cause pleading to you or against them.”

Let the enemy run after my soul, and remove it. recalls the plea of verse two: “O Lord, my God, to you do I flee, put space between me and all who run after me. If my plea against those who run after me is unjustified due to my guilt, then let them run after me and remove it.  If the Psalmist is in fact guilty, then his plea that God snatch me away from them, remove me from them (vs 2), is in vain; he would deserve to have his adversaries remove his soul (Hebrew, nephesh= soul, life principle, life).

Trample down my life to the earth, and lodge my glory in the dust. The reference to earth and dust calls to mind the creation of Adam in Genesis 2, and his fall in Gen 3.    Having formed Adam from the earth  God breathed into his nostrils  and Adam became a nephesh, a living being (see previous paragraph).  After his sin God said to him: “You are dust, and to dust you shall return.”  Lodge my glory in the dust suggests the grave, and the whole statement with its Adam connection is suggestive of death.

7:7-9  After his plea of innocence the Psalmist appeals to God to render a judgment on his behalf, against his enemies.

7:7  Rise up, O Lord, with your nostrils flaring, lift yourself up because of the anger of my oppressors.  Awake for me, O Lord, my God, the verdict you have enjoined.  Note the contrast with the previous verse.  Because the Psalmist has done nothing to merit his life being trampled down to the ground, nor his glory being lodged in the dust, he can call upon God to Rise up, lift Himself up, and awake.

With you nostrils flaring. The Hebrew text uses the term nose or nostril to denote God’s anger, for a flaring nose is a universal image of anger.  I’ve chosen to retain the literal translation in virtue of the fact that the word nephesh, which is usually translated as soul or life or me, means literally breath.   Recall that the previous verse (6) read: Let the enemy run after my soul (nephesh), and remove it, trample down my life to the earth, and lodge my glory in the dust, and that I interpreted this as an allusion to Adam, whom God made a living soul (nephesh) by breathing (naphach, a related word) into his nostrils.  If the life-breath of man is threatened unjustifiably, then one can expect a reaction from the God who breathed life into man.  I don’t know how to express adequately the point I am trying to make.  A threat to man’s life-breath is a threat to the Living One Himself, whose life is reflected in man.

Because of the anger of my oppressors. The Hebrew word for oppressors is derived from a word meaning to be cramped, thus the meaning is something like this: “Arise…because of those who are cramping me, pressing in upon me, ect.”  The image recalls the Psalmists request that God put space between himself and his enemies (vs 2).   The grave image of verse 6 (trampled down to the earth, lodged in the dust) are also very constricting.

Awake for me, O Lord, my God, the verdict you have enjoined.  Do not delay you verdict/judgment against them.

7:8  Have the congregation of people surround you. And for their sakes return on high.  The imperatives of the previous verse (rise up, lift yourself up, awake) are derived from battle cries in which the ark of the covenant was used (e.g., Num 10:35-36).  It was in the tabernacle in the desert, and latter the Temple in Jerusalem  where God mirrored his enthronement in heaven with the enthronement of his Glory on the ark.  It was from heaven that God rendered judgment, but it was through the tabernacle/temple that it came (see Numbers 12).  The Psalmist, it appears, expects a public vindication from God while in the midst of the people assembled for worship in the temple courts.  See the Jerome Biblical Commentary for a slightly different interpretation.

7:9  The Lord shall rule the people; judge me, O Lord, according to my righteousness, according to the integrity that is in me.   I suspect that the accusations made against the Psalmist were both public and widespread.  The Psalmist seems to envision both detractors and sympathizers assembled before the Lord to hear his judgment of the Psalmists situation.  In issuing a favorable judgment for the Psalmist God is excercisng rule over all His people.  In vindicating the Psalmist he will thereby vindicate the sympathizers and indict the detractors/oppressors of the Psalmist.

7:10-17 The Psalmist describes how God treats the righteous in comparison with the wicked.

7:10  I pray that the wickedness of the wicked comes to and end, and that the just stand, O righteous God who investigates the mind and the heart.  The Psalmist here prays that all wickedness and all wicked people come to an end.  In verse 5 the Psalmist had stated: If I have requited my benefactors with evils, let me rightly fall empty before my enemies. The word translated as evil in verse 5 is the same as that translated as wicked in verse 10.  Likewise, the word translated as empty in verse 5 is the same as that translated as end in verse 10.  Wicked (evil) people should be brought to an end (emptied) if they are guilty, but because the Psalmist was not such a person, he now prays for all those who find themselves in his situation: unjustly accused and confronted by the unrighteous.

That the just stand. Provides yet another contrast with the image of being trampled down to the earth and lodged in the dust.

Who investigates the mind and heart. The Hebrew word bachan (baw-khan) is usually translated here as “tries” or “test;” however, given the fact that the Psalmist has been subjected to false accusations, raising the question of his innocence or guilt, investigates seems to me to be a better translation.

7:11 God is a shield in front of me, who saves the upright in heart.  The word heart is repeated from the previous verse.  It has a wide range of meaning, including ones center or in-most being.  God searches (investigates) the mind and heart-the very depths of a person-and if he finds them not empty  (see comments on vs 10) or devoid of righteousness, He can be expected to come to the aid of such a person.  The image of God as a shield protecting the heart obviously needs no explanation.

7:12  God is a righteous judge, yea, a God that hath indignation every day: (Young’s Literal Translation, YLT).  The Hebrew word translated here as indignation is za’am (zaw-am’), which means “to foam at the mouth.”  This facial feature denoting anger reminds me of the reference to God’s flaring nostrils earlier in the Psalm.  He hath indignation every day stands as a warning in preparation for the next verse.

7:13  If you will not turn back he will sharpen his sword and string his bow so that it is ready for use. The martial imagery here stands in contrast to the earlier description of God as a shield who saves the upright of heart.  Sooner or latter, against the unrepentant God will make war, hence the need to turn back (repent).  God’s existing and constant indignation against wickedness stands in tension with the fact that he has not yet sharpened his sword or strung his bow.  Sinners are living on borrowed time:

The Lord is not slow about his promise as some count slowness, but is forbearing toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. 10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a loud noise, and the elements will be dissolved with fire, and the earth and the works that are upon it will be burned up.
11 Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of persons ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, 12 waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be kindled and dissolved, and the elements will melt with fire! 13 But according to his promise we wait for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.  Therefore, beloved, since you wait for these, be zealous to be found by him without spot or blemish, and at peace. 15 And count the forbearance of our Lord as salvation (2 Pet 3:9-15, RSV)

7:14  He hath also prepared for him (i.e., the unrepentant sinner) the weapons of death, yea, His arrows which He made sharp (JPS).   Continues the theme of the previous verse.

He hath also prepared. The Hebrew word for prepared is kun (koon), which was used in verse 9: I pray that the wickedness of the wicked comes to and end, and that the just stand (kun). Sinners had better be willing to repent and stand with the just because God’s weapons of death are prepared (stand ready) for use against them.

7:15  The sinner suffers contractions of iniquity; having conceived mischief, he brings forth falsehood. 7:16 He plans and digs a pit, only to fall into it himself.  7:17 His evil toil shall turn back upon his own head, his own violence shall descend upon his own pate. The images in verses 15 & 16 are found several times in the Bible and show the futility of sinners plotting in the face of God’s coming judgment (see Job 15:35; Isa 59:4; Prov 26;27; Ps 9:16; Ps 28:4).  Verse 17 reiterates the message of the images.  I am reminded of St Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 3:

18 Let no one deceive himself. If any one among you thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise. 19 For the wisdom of this world is folly with God. For it is written, “He catches the wise in their craftiness,” 20 and again, “The Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are futile.”

His evil toil shall turn back upon his own head. The words turn back are a translation of the Hebrew shub (shoob), which is usually translated as “repent.”  The same word was used in verse 13: If you will not turn back (shub) he will sharpen his sword and string his bow so that it is ready for use. If a sinner will not turn back from his evil his evil will turn back upon him.

7:18  I will give glory to the Lord according to his justice: and will sing to the name of the Lord the most high (DRV).

Praise. The Hebrew means literally “I will hold out my hands to the Lord,” a common posture of prayer.

According to his justice. the justice or rightness God manifested in saving the Psalmist and punishing the wicked.

You can find an number of commentaries on Psalm 1 (and other Psalms) by clicking on the “Notes on the Psalms” link under this blog’s title header.  What follows below is a brief meditation on the Psalm from a Benedictine Monk.

The desire of the soul which has given herself to the religious life, avoiding both the counsel of the wicked and the way of sin, which is self-seeking.

And the seat of pestilence, which is a confirmed habit of sin, is that her will shall be with God, and that she occupy her heart with Him day and night.

She is so confirmed in her holy profession as to be like a tree planted by a brook of water; and she shall offer her fruit to God in His good time.  The brook is the fount of good example in community life, for the soul is always able to gain strength and encouragement from it.

The leaves which draw nourishment from the sun and the air, i.e., from the warmth of God’s consolations, and the freedom and constancy of His inspirations shall not fail; and whatever the soul does, relying on God, shall profit for the life everlasting.

On the other hand, those who despise the life of religion, though they seem to succeed here, will profit nothing before God, but the falseness of their ideals and aspirations will be exposed to the whole world at the last day.

In that day the light of God will make the hidden and despised life of a religious glorious to all.

As our Lord appreciates the life of perfection so He would have us grow in our love of it and desire to attain to it with our whole hearts.  In the last day the life of the sinner will be seen in its true light, and will be abhorred by all.  May God grant me the greatest constancy in the holy vocation which He has given to me.-An Easy Way to the Psalms, by Abbot Smith, O.S.B.

The Title: English Version: To the Chief Musician upon Nehiloth, a Psalm of David. LXX.: To the end; for the heiress, a Psalm of David. Vulgate: In finem, pr ea haereditatem consequitur; Psalmus David. Or, as modern critics: To the Supreme; on the wind instruments; a Psalm of David.

The argument: St Thomas: That the Christ is the inhabiter of the Saints, the hearer of the Church.  The voice of the Church.  Christ speaketh to the Father concerning the Jews, and to the Church which hath received the heritage of Paradise, not of the Old Testament, as the title of the Psalm proves.

Venerable Bede: To the end: for her that obtaineth the inheritance.  That is, for the Church, who by the Resurrection of Christ, has received the gift of spiritual good; and who herself is sometimes called the heritage of the Lord, since by His precious Blood she hath been redeemed.  Whence it is written in the second Psalm: Desire of Me, and I shall give thee the Gentiles for thine heritage.”  All this Psalm is spoken in the person of the Church.  In the first section she desireth that her prayer may be heard, and showeth how heretics and schismatics are shut out from the gifts of the Lord.  In the second, she maketh request that, through the understanding of Holy Scripture, she may be led in a right path to that happy country, from whence she knoweth that they who are treacherous will be for ever shut out.  In the last she setteth forth the rewards of the blessed, that in one and the same discourse she may convert the wicked by the prediction of their punishment, and excite the good by the promise of their reward.

Syriac Psalter: A prayer of David in the person of the Church when in the morning he went up to the temple of the Lord.

Note: at this point the author gives a list of various uses to which the Psalm was put in the patristic/medieval period; followed by a list of antiphons commonly used.  I have appended these to the end of the post.

1.  Ponder my words, O Lord: consider my meditation.

Here we distinguish two kinds of prayer: words and meditations.  Words may refer both to that form of prayer which Our Blessed Lord has left us, and to those prayers which, by His teaching, His Church has provided for her children.  Meditations, to the thoughts and desires of our heart, whether put into, or ascending without, words.  We call upon God to ponder the first, to weigh their full meaning, oftentimes more than we are aware of, and to give us according to that: to consider the second, bestowing on us what He sees to be good among the things which we ask, and regarding our meaning rather than our expressions.

2.  O hearken thou unto the voice of my calling, my King and my God: for unto thee will I make my prayer.

Note: there are three things which make prayer acceptable to God; faithfulness, humility, and assiduity; and we have them all here.  Faithfulness: my King, showing that we are subjects to none other.  Humility: I will look up.  Assiduity: Early in the morning.  My King and my God.  By King we understand the Son, by God, the Father.  And the reason of this order of the words may be, that by Christ we draw near to the Father, as He saith: “No man cometh unto the Father but by Me” (Jn 14:6).

[All Three Persons of the Holy Trinity are marked in the opening of this Psalm, in the three titles, Lord, King, and God, but the verb is singular, denoting the indivisible Unity].

3.  My voice shalt thou hear betimes, O Lord: early in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee, and will look up.

In the morning. This may be expounded in several senses: first, of diligence in seeking God, not only in the morning, but early in the morning.  Again, of purity; the morning being the clearest and purest time of the day.  Again, the night may be taken of the darkness of original sin: the the illumination of Baptism is signified by the morning.  And literally, David appointed by the Levites to stand every morning, to thank and praise the Lord (1 Chron 23:30).  Look up, because looking down to the earth we can obtain no real help.

[Early in the morning, that is, as soon as Christ, Who is the bright and morning Star, arises on our darkened heart, I will begin to pray (Rev 22:16).  Early in the Resurrection morning, which has no night, I will stand by Thee (Vulgate) at Thy right hand, and will behold (Vulg.) Thy righteous judgments.  Early, because Divine grace is like the manna, which had to be gathered before the sun arose to melt it (Ex 16:21).  Early in the morning, says Rabbi Rasi, because we are guilty sinners, and that is the time of judgment and execution, according to the saying of the Prophet: "Execute judgment in the morning" (Jer 1:12).  Direct the Hebrew verb means "set in order," and is that word which is used to denote the arrangement of the wood or the victims for sacrifice, and therefore denotes either sacrificial worship, or the care and deliberation with which prayer should be offered.  The words my prayer are not in the Hebrew, but are rightly supplied.  Observe further, that the seven stages of true prayer are all set before us in these verses, and in the seventh.  First, right intention: My voice shalt Thou hear; secondly, eagerness: betimes; thirdly, constancy: Early in the morning I will direct my prayer unto Thee; fourthly, a pure conscience: and will look up.  The three other stages are,-union with God: I will come into Thy house; confidence: in the multitude of Thy mercies; and reverence: I will worship.  Look up, in this life, for help, and yet more ponder on the Divine mysteries of the New Law.  Look up, in the life to come, on the ineffable glory and the Beatific Vision.  Some Greek texts, and the Arabic version, read here, Thou shalt see me; and the Syriac and Ethiopic are nearly the same: I shall appear unto Thee.  It is David, observes a Saint, calling on God in trouble, and saying, "Thou hast seen me a shepherd, Thou wilt see me a king.  Thou hast seen me harping (i.e., playing the harp), Thou wilt see me prophesying].

4.  For thou art the God that hast no pleasure in wickedness: neither shall any evil dwell with thee.

The God: Not like the many gods and many lords of the heathen, which were so often served by, and took pleasure in, wickedness.  He saith not, Come unto Thee, but dwell with Thee; for it was in order that, being made clean, they might dwell with Him for ever, that publicans and sinners came into the presence of the Lord.

5.  Such as be foolish shall not stand in thy sight: for thou hatest all them that work vanity.

In this and the next verse are set forth three kinds of sinners who are not to stand in the presence of God; the foolish, that is, sinners in thought (for “The fool hath said in his heart, there is no God”); them that work wickedness, that is, sinners in deed; and them that speak leasing, that is, sinners in words.  Shall not stand in Thy sight: They shall not in this world stand in His sight- even in His holy temple- because they will it not; and because they will it not, they shall not then stand in His sight before His Judgment seat, but will be swept from His presence.  That work vanity: Note the present tense.  It does not say “Those who have worked vanity,” for if such were the case, who among the children of men could hope to stand?  (The sense seems to be that the phrase, that work vanity, applies to the unrepentant who come to judgment).

6.  Thou shalt destroy them that speak leasing: the Lord will abhor the blood-thirsty and deceitful man.

Will abhor: That is, thou He now abhors them, He will in the last day manifest His abhorrence by condemning them to everlasting destruction.  Note: the sins of hte heart are visited as if they were sins of action.  Blood-thirsty, not bloody; deceitful, not an open liar.

7.  But as for me, I will come into thine house, even upon the multitude of thy mercy: and in thy fear will I worship toward thy holy temple.

And yet, nevertheless, we who have so often and so grievously offended both in thought, word, and deed, will come into the House of God; and can only do so upon the multitude of His mercy.  Or if prevented from actually going up hither, like Daniel (6:10), who when he made his prayer looked towards Jerusalem, we will worship towards His holy temple. Again, the words may be taken of that heavenly house into which we one day hope to enter, and of the Lamb Who is the Temple thereof (Rev 1:22).

[In Thine house: As a stone let into the very substance of the building, never more to go out.  Toward, not "in", Thy holy temple, doing reverence to the human Body of Christ Jesus, the true sanctuary of God, in which dwelt all His fulness, the temple destroyed by the Jews, and raised up again in three days].

8.  Lead me, O Lord, in thy righteousness, because of mine enemies: make thy way plain before my face.

And because in attaining to this celestial dwelling, we are surrounded by many enemies, we therefore call upon God to lead us in His righteousness, even Christ Who is the Way.  Because of mine enemies: In a twofold sense; that they may be preserved from hurting us, or that we may be enabled to do them good.  Before my face: That there may be no turning back from it; no “ye did run well” (Gal 5:7).  Or again, that the true Way, our blessed Lord, may be more and more plainly manifested to us; and that we may more and more trustfully look to Him.

[Make Thy way plain: There is an especial pathos in selecting this verse as the Antiphon for that Office of the Dead which takes its name Dirge from the Vulgate Dirige, here found.  It is the cry of the parting soul, about to begin its mystic journey to another world, by a road beset with ghostly enemies, can calling on God for help against them and for light and guidance by the way.

Through death's valley, dim and dark,
Jesus guide thee in the gloom,
Show thee where His footprints mark
Tracks of glory through the tomb.
Grant him, Lord, eternal rest,
With the spirits of the blest.

It is Thy way before my face in the Hebrew and in the English versions.  The LXX, Vulgate, and Ethiopic read it conversely, my way before Thy face.  God's way is before our face when we are following Christ, Who is the Way; our way is before God's Face, when having gone in that Way from strength to strength, we appear at the last unto the God of gods in Zion (Ps 84:7)].

9.  For there is not faithfulness in his mouth: their inward parts are very wickedness.

For their is no faithfulness: and therefore, since there are so many that would lead us into error, we the more require that God’s way may b mead plain to us.  In his mouth…their inward parts are very wickedness: As our blessed Lord says, “out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh” (Matt 12:24).

10.  Their throat is an open sepulchre: they flatter with their tongue.

An open sepulchre: Dangerous and noisome, and as silent in the praises of God, as the tomb.  The two clauses set forth the open and secret endeavors of her enemies to destroy or injure the Church, and they thus also doubly attacked our Lord.  Openly, as when they said, “He hath a devil”; and when “they took up stones to stone Him” (Jn 8:48, 59); as when they “led Him to the brow of a hill” to cast Him down (Lk 4:29).  Secretly, as when tempting Him, they said, “We know that Thou art true” (Matt 22:16); and as when Judas betrayed Him with a kiss.

[An open sepulchre: And so more dangerous even than hypocrites, who are like sepulchres closed and whited outwardly.  Open, because they are gaping to swallow up the labors of others, as the grave gapes for bodies.  Open, because their soul is not only dead in sins, but emits it noisome savor in evil words of heresy, which bring others down into the same tomb of unrighteousness.  They would do less harm were they silent].

11.  Destroy thou them, O God; let them perish through their own imaginations: cast them out in the multitude of their ungodliness; for they have rebelled against thee.

Let them perish: This is the first instance of that praying for evil on others which has so much perplexed some with the Psalms, and which, as clearly as anything else, shows that they are to be taken in a sense above that of the letter.  (This subject is referred to in the Third Dissertation).  But if we always apply such expressions to our spiritual enemies, the difficulty will disappear.  Through their own imaginations: Like Gehazi, who thought to obtain the gold, and was visited with the leprosy, of Naaman (2 Kings 5)

[Destroy them: The LXX and Vulgate read, Judge them. Modern critics take it as: Make them repent.  Let them perish by their own imaginations: The LXX and the Vulgate are somewhat nearer to the Hebrew, reading, as they do, Let them fall away from their thoughts, that is, let them abandon, or be baffled in, their evil plans, or, let their own consciences accuse and condemn them.  Cast them out: So long as the sinner hides his guilt, he is within the grave.  But when the voice of the Lord calls on any Lazarus to come forth (Jn 11:43), then, by moving him to confession, He casts him out of darkness into light in this life, that he may not be cast out of light into outer darkness in the world to come.  Rebelled: The LXX and Vulgate read, embittered Thee. By their own sin, making that Bread of Life which is sweet to the taste of the righteous, a bitter poison to them.

This is the Bread which, taken well,
Preserveth from the flames of hell,
But is of death eternal knell
To them that take it ill.

12.  And let them that put their trust in thee rejoice: they shall ever be giving of thanks, because thou defendest them; they that love thy name shall be joyful in thee.

[Thou defendest them: LXX, Syriac, and Vulgate read, "Thou shalt dwell in them."  The Ethiopic, yet better reads, "Thou shalt dwell over them."  As a sheltering tent, notes Cardinal Bellarmine, but we may better take the Lord's own simile, as a bird gathering her young under her wings (see Matt 23:37)]

13.  For thou, Lord, wilt give thy blessing unto the righteous: and with thy favorable kindness wilt thou defend him as with a shield.

In these verses we have the help of God promised in His Church.  Where note three things.  1. It is eternal: they shall EVER be giving of thanks.  2. Divine: THOU defendest them. 3. Free: Thou wilt GIVE Thy blessing.  And what then matters it who scorns or injures us?  If God be for us, who can be against us?  The Vulgate translation somewhat differs from ours: For Thou shalt give Thy blessing to the righteous: O Lord, Thou has crowned us as with the shield of Thy good-will. “In the life of this world,” says St Jerome, “a shield is one thing, and a crown another: God Himself is both Crown and Shield.  As a shield, He defends; as a crown, He rewards.”  Well, then, may the Church pray in one of  her sweetest hymns:

Thy guardian shield o’er us extend,
Thy glorious sheepfold to defend.

[Wherefore:  Glory be to the Father, unto Whom is said, Ponder my words, O Lord; glory be to the Son, unto Whom is said, Consider my meditation; glory be to the Holy Spirit, unto whom is said, Hearken Thou unto the voice of my calling. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be: world without end.  Amen.

Various uses:

Gregorian: Monday: Lauds.  [Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross: II Nocturn.  Feast of the Crown of Thorns, and of the Nails and Spear: II Nocturn.  Feasts of Sts Agnes and Agatha: II Nocturn.  Common of One Martyr: II Nocturn.  Common of Confessors: II Nocturn.  Office of the Dead: Lauds].

Monastic: Ferial; Monday: Lauds.  [Common of One Martyr and of Confessors: I Nocturn].

Parisian: Wednesday: Lauds.

Lyons: Monday: Lauds.

Ambosian: Monday of the First Week: Matins.

Quignon: Tuesday: Prime.

Eastern Church: Prime.

Antiphons:

Gregorian: Ponder my words, O Lord. [Office for the Dead: Make Thy way plain, O Lord my God, before Thy face.  Common of one Martyr: Thou hast crowned him with the shield of Thy good will, O Lord.  Common of Confessors: Let all them that put their trust in Thee, O Lord, rejoice, for Thou hast blessed the righteous, and crowned him with the shield of Thy good will].

Parisian: All they that hope in Thee shall ever be giving of thanks, and Thou shalt dwell in them.

Lyons: Consider my crying, O Lord.

Mozarabic: My voice shalt Thou hear betimes, O Lord.  Early in the morning will I direct my prayer unto Thee, and will look up.

Collects:

O merciful Lord, Who understandest the groaning of the contrite heart before it is expressed; make us, we pray Thee, the Temple of the Paraclete, to the end that we may merit to be crowned with the shield of celestial mercy.-Attributed to St Thomas Aquinas.

Our King and our God, repel from our hearts the night of error and ignorance, so that renewing us into a new man, Thou mayest in the morning hear our voice.  Grant that we may very early by good works present ourselves to Thee, and vouchsafe that we may contemplate Thee in the Sacrament of Thy Resurrection-Mozarabic, at Eastertide.

O God, Who hatest all that work iniquity, fill us with the strength of Thy love; that they may at some time turn to Thee and bitterly lament their sins, who now speaks falsely against Thee.-Mozarabic, at Eastertide.

O Lord, the expectation of our salvation, receive the prayers of them that call upon Thee: Thou that art the discoverer of hidden things, give ear to the hidden cry of the heart; that those things which we tremble to have committed and blush to confess, Thou, our King, mayest forgive of Thy clemency, and blot out of Thy goodness; so that our supplication may arise to Thee in the morning, and the good gifts of Thy mercy may descend on us right early.Mazarabic, during Lent.

O our King and God, lead us in Thy righteousness because of our enemies, and direct my way in Thy sight, that Thou mayest ever rejoice and dwell in us, who re crowned with the shield of Thy good-will.

To access all my posts on the psalms, click on “Notes on Psalms” found beneath this blogs title, or click HERE.

The Title: English Version-To the Chief Musician on Neginoth; a Psalm of David.  Vulgate-To the end, in the Songs, a Psalm of David.  Or according to modern critics: To the Supreme, for the stringed instruments: a Psalm of David.

The Argument: Aquinas- That Christ after His Passion was glorified by God the Father.  The prophet blameth the Jews.  Of admonishing our neighbor.  Bede-Christ is the End of the law for righteousness unto every one that believeth, the glorious perfection of all good; or as others will have it, it is said of us, “Upon whom the Ends of the world are come.”  Through the whole Psalm holy Mother Church speaks.  In the first part, she makes supplication that her prayers may be heard, and blames unbelievers, who, adoring fake gods, neglected the worship of the true Lord.  In the second, she admonishes the Gentile world to forsake their false superstition, and to offer the Sacrifice of Righteousness; and in order that she may convert them by holding forth a promise, she commemorates the blessings which the Lord hath bestowed on Christians.  Arnobius-That the God of justice heard His Son on the Cross, against whom His own people in their rage sin even to this very day.

Note: At this point the source I am using lists the various ways in which this Psalm was used in the ancient Offices, along with the antiphons employed.  At the end of the commentary he lists the various collects used.  I have felt it best to include the uses and antiphons at the end with the collects, since these will be of little interest to most readers.

Introduction: We must use this Psalm as David did.  It would seem to have been written when he had been concealed from the pursuit of Saul in a rock in the wilderness of Maon (1 Sam 23:25).  And we, if we would say it aright, must take refuge from our spiritual enemies in the true Rock, which is Christ: according to the saying, “The conies are but a feeble folk, yet make they their houses in the rocks” (Prov 30:20).  This is a Compline Psalm all through the Western Church.

Commentary:

4:1  Hear me when I call, O God of my righteousness: Thou hast set me at liberty when I was in trouble; have mercy upon me, and hearken unto my prayer.

God of my righteousness. For “this is His Name whereby He shall be called;” else it will be said to us, as it was to the Jews, “When ye make many prayers, I will not hear” (Isa 1:15).  Have mercy upon me, by removing evil, and hearken unto my prayer, by bestowing good.  Have mercy, and therefore we must have mercy (i.e., if we want God’s mercy we must be willing to show mercy to others).  In trouble: God therefore allows His people to fall into distress, that the trial of faith may be theirs, and the glory of their deliverance His; even as it is written, “My strength is made perfect in weakness” (2 Cor 12:9-10).

[Set me at liberty.  More exactly, with the LXX and the Vulgate, &c.  Thou hast enlarged me. It is the Church which speaks, dwelling on the goodness of God in giving her the greatest increase of converts exactly in the time of trouble, when Martyrs and Confessors had to strive for their crowns.]

4:2  O ye sons of men, how long will ye blaspheme mine honor: and have such pleasures in vanity, and seek after leasing?

Still the Church cries to God in her trouble.  Sons of men, as distinguished from sons of God.  Mine honor, that is, Him Who condescends to all shame for us, that we might obtain all glory through Him.  In vanity: in the things of this world, which are “Vanity of Vanities,” (Eccle 1:2) or in the devices of our own hearts: for “the Lord knoweth the thoughts of man, that they are but vain” (Ps 94:11).

[Blaspheme min honor. Literally, as in A.V., turn my glory into shame.  And so, very nearly, the Syriac.  But the LXX, Vulgate, Ethiopic, read, How long will ye be heavy of heart? This is, they note, how long will you be laid down with mere temporal cares, instead of rising to the divine contemplation?  Following the Hebrew, we may remember how the idolatrous Jews, "turned their glory into the similitude of a calf that eateth hay" (Ps 106:20); how too, later, they mocked and reviled the Father's Splendor, and lastly, how evil Christians "blaspheme that worthy Name by which ye are called" (James 2:7)]

4:3  Know this also, that the Lord hath chosen to himself the man that is godly: when I call upon the Lord he will hear me.

The man that is godly: even that Man Who did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth (see Isa 53:9; 1 Pet 2:22).  And it is because He is chosen to be our Intercessor, that, therefore, when we call upon the Lord, He wil hear us.  Know this: And how?  By prophecies and types in the Old Testament: in the New, by the miracles of “Him who went about doing good” (Acts 10:38), and the victories of the “Lion of the tribe of Judah” (Rev 5:5).

[Chosen to Himself: The LXX and Vulgate have, He hath made His saint wonderful.  His Saint, or Holy One, is Christ the Son, Whose Name shall be called Wonderful (Isa 9:6), Whom the Father made wonderful in His Conception, Nativity, Transfiguration, Passion, Resurrection, and Ascension.  And Therefore, because He, My Advocate, is throned on high, His Father will hear me when I call upon Him.]

4:4  Stand in awe, and in not: commune with your own heart, and in your chamber, and be still.

It is, therefore, only by standing in awe, that we can be free from sin.  Commune with your own heart on the sins of the past day, following the disease with a remedy; and in your chamber, for:

“I seek for Jesus in repose,
When round my heart its chambers close”-St Bernard

And be still: for “the wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest” (Isa 57:20).

[Stand in awe. The Hebrew is, Tremble (denoting agitation from whatever cause).  But the ancient versions, with one voice, turn it Be ye angry.  And so the Apostle read these words, for he cites them exactly: "Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon thy wrath" (Eph 4:26).  Angry, with your past sins, determining not to repeat them; angry with the first motions of sin, resisting them steadily.  Angry with the zeal which is jealous for God's honor, but not for your own wrongs.  The verse runs on in the LXX and Vulgate: Sin not; for that which ye say in your hearts, be smitten with compunction upon your beds. That is to say, that impunity from earthly tribunals and public shame does not acquit us in the sight of God, and we must therefore try and judge ourselves in secret at the bar of conscience even when men count us innocent.  Or it might be directed against lip-worship, and mean, What ye say outwardly, say again in the hidden recesses of your heart, and that with piercing eagerness of prayer.  And lastly, whereas the literal sense applies to secret cabals and treason against David, so the mystical sense warns against false teachers in the Church who, rebels at heart against David's Son, have not the courage to express their unbelief openly, but are not the less guilty on that account].

4:5  Offer the sacrifice of righteousness: and put your trust in the Lord.

Offer the sacrifice of righteousness.  And in the first sense by restoring to God that of which we have defrauded Him: for we have robbed Him of many things.  As it is written: “Will a man rob God? yet ye have robbed Me” (Mal 3:8).  We have robbed Him of that glory that is His due; of the love we should bear Him, of the obedience we should pay Him, of the fear we should render Him.  And we must offer all these as just sacrifices before we can put our trust in the Lord.  Note, sacrifice (the biblical text is in the singular), not sacrifices, because they all spring from one root, which is, love a sacrifice needing no altar, fire, nor victim but the heart alone.  But in the higher sense offer the sacrifice of righteousness, by setting forth the Lord’s Death till His coming again; the sacrifice of Him Who is our Righteousness, the sacrifice by which holiness is increased: and put your trust in the Lord, Whose death you thus set forth, according to His own commandment.

4:6  There be many that say: Who will show us any good?

This may be taken in tow senses.  There be many that say, despising God’s promises of eternal blessedness, Who will show us any earthly good? Again, therbe many heathen lands who long for some knowledge of future and eternal good, and yet, because none go forth to evangelize them, are compelled again and again to ask, Who will show us any good, who will show us any good? And the question is answered in another Psalm, “No good thing shall He withhold from them that walk uprightly” (Ps 84:11).

4:7  Lord, lift thou up: the light of thy countenance upon us.

In opposition to such vain inquiries after good, in this and the two following verses, we have the three sources whence the servants of God obtain it.  In this verse, light, in the 8th, gladness, and in the 9th, peace.  The light of Thy countenance, which is the true light; the Light of light; the pillar of fire to guide us through the wilderness of this world, which cannot mislead, and cannot fail: a light to show us the recesses of our own hearts, their sinfulness and vileness; the enemies that beset us, their malice and watchfulness; the defenders that fight for us, their love and power: the light of grace, which shineth more and more unto the perfect day, the light of glory.

[Lift Thou up.  as a banner in the day of battle.  But the LXX and Vulgate read, The light of Thy countenance hath been signed upon us, O Lord.  Signed, as the image of a king upon a coin, as his signet upon wax, because we have been stamped anew with the Image of God, formerly marred and worn by sin, and that through His mercy Who is the Light of God's countenance.  The word signed causes many of the commentators to look to the Cross, the especial badge of Christ's victory, and type of His Passion, the seal which the servants of God receive in their foreheads at baptism.  Seal or banner, we have it alike in the hymn:

Ave, signum novae legis,
Et vexillum summi Regis,
In te culpas sui gregis
Bonus Pastor abstulit:
Ipsum habeamus ducem
Ad coelestis regni lucen,
Qui cruore suo crucem
Consecrare voluit

4:8  Thou has put gladness in my heart: since the time that their corn and wine and oil increased.

Since the time that our Lord left us His blessed Sacraments; the corn, nmely, the Body which He took for us men, and which was born at Bethlehem, which is by interpretation the "house of bread;" the wine, His precious Blood, which indeed "maketh glad the heart of man," and the oil, the grace of the Holy Ghost; gladness is truly put into the heart of His servants, which shall lead on to that time, when they shall "obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away" (Isa 35:10).  The Vulgate translation is entirely different: "From the fruit of their corn, wine, and oil, they have been multiplied."  And they explain it, of course, of the multiplication of the Church's graces in the multiplication of her Sacraments;  all which Sacraments had their rise, as it were, in the Passion of our Lord, to which the next verse so beautifully leads us.

[Corn and wine, and oil. The wicked have their fruits as well as the Saints, the corn of earthly riches, the wine of intoxicating pleasures, the oil of flattery and ease, with which, as the LXX has it, they have been filled.  With these they are busily engaged, but the Church, turning from such thoughts, looks to her rest in Christ alone.  The true meaning of the passage is that given in the AV.  Thou has put gladness in my heart more than in the time that their corn and wine were increased.  That is, joyful and gladdening as is the Holy Eucharist upon earth, there is yet something better, a still more perfect union, awaiting us, when the Sacramental veils shall be withdrawn, and we shall see face to face.

Jesu, Whom thus veiled I must see below,
When shall that be granted, which I long for so,
That at last beholding Thy uncovered Face,
Thou wouldst satisfy me with Thy fullest grace?St Thomas Aquinas].

4:9  I will lay me down in peace, and take my rest: for it is thou, Lord, only that makest me dwel in safety.

And they who have all their life long been fed with the Body and Blood of their Lord, and been one with Him, as He is with them, may well say, when its evening is drawing on, I will lay me down in peace in the grave where He Who is our Peace also lay, and, after the trials and temptations of this life, take my rest.  It is a beautiful motto for the resting-place of a line of kings, “I sleep, but my heart waketh” (Cant 5:2).  To dwell in safety.  In safety, amidst temptations while on earth; in safety, as respects the body from final dissolution in the grave; in perfect safety,-in heaven.

[In peace.  The LXX and Vulgate here add the phrase in idipsum, that is, as they say, the same, unchangeable, eternal.  So the Cluniac:

The peace of all the faithful,
The calm of all the blest,
Inviolate, unvaried,
Divinest, sweetest, best.-St Bernard

But far lovelier than this is the Ethiopic, which reads, In peace, in Him, I will lay me down:

Pillow where lying,
Love rests its head,
Peace of the dying,
Life of the dead:
Path of the lowly,
Prize at the end,
Breath of the holy,
Savior and Friend].

Note: These first four Psalms contain in brief the whole Gospel.  The first, the Life of Christ: “Blessed is the Man that hath not walked in the counsel of the ungodly;” the second, His Passion: “The rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against His Anointed;” the fourth, His Precious Death and Burial: “I will lay me down in peace and take my rest;” the third, His Resurrection: “I laid me down and slept, and rose up again.”

[Wherefore:  Glory be to the Father, Who is the Lord; glory be to the Son, Who is His Countenance; glory be to the Holy Ghost, Who is the Light of that Countenance.  As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be: world without end.  Amen]]

Posting this took much longer than I thought; so I’m going to post the uses, antiphons and collects to this post later (115).

The following is a compilation of texts taken from patristic and Medieval writers and is quoted from a public domain text by John Mason Neale, entitled A COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS FROM PRIMITIVE AND MEDIEVAL WRITERS. Neale was, I believe, an Anglican writer. The texts in blue represent my notes, thoughts, speculations, ect. I have chosen not to give the many references to the writers being quoted/referred to, because of the sheer number of them, and because of the confusing reference system employed by Neale. The commentary is prefaced with an argument (exposition) concerning the content, purpose, meaning, circumstances, ect. of the Psalm. There then follows a list of some of the various usages made of this Psalm by the ancient and medieval Church according to the practice of various Monastic Orders and/or regional usage; followed by a list of antiphons. People who use the Psalms in their prayer-life will probably find at least some of the preface material useful.  Enjoy.

Psalm 3

Title: A Psalm of David when he fled from Absalom his son.

Argument.

(Thomas) That Christ for us slept the sleep of death and rose again. The voice of Christ in His Passion to the Father concerning the Jews. Of the guile of heretics.

(Bede). By David understand Christ; by Absalom Judas Iscariot; from whose face Christ fled either literally when He departed to Mount Olivet, or spiritually when He hid from him the light of His knowledge and love. It was meet, on account of the correspondence between type and antitype, that both persecutors should die in the same way, namely by hanging. Note that this Psalm was composed after the 50th (51st in some editions), and many others which refer to the plots of Saul; but is placed before them for a mystical reason: namely, that this, which speaks of the resurrection on the third day, should come third in order, and that which tells of remission and the fruits of repentance, should be 50th. It pertains altogether to the Person of Christ. First, He speaks to the Father, rebuking the persecutors who spake blasphemously against Him; Lord, how are they increased &c. Next, His faithful people are instructed by His example not to fear death, since they also, like their Head, are consoled by the hope of a most certain resurrection. (Bede sees a connection between the 50th {51st} Psalm and the fact that a Jubilee Year occurred every fifty years. These were years of restoration and forgiveness)

(Syriac Psalter) Written by David concerning good things to come.

Various Uses (in various Psalters and Monastic Orders).

Gregorian. Sunday: 1. Nocturn. [Easter Day: 1. Nocturn. Exaltation of the Cross: 1 Nocturn. Saints Agnes and Agath: 1. Nocturn. Common of one and of Many Martyrs: 1. Nocturn. Common of Confessors: 1. Nocturn.]

Monastic. Before Psalm 95: daily.
Parisian. Sunday: 1 Nocturn.
Lyons. Sunday: 1 Nocturn.
Ambrosian. Monday of the First Week: Matins.
Quigon. Friday: Terce.
Eastern Church. Prime: Daily.

Antiphons.

Gregorian. Serve the Lord, &c. [Easter Day: I laid me down and slept, and rose up again, for the Lord sustains me. Alleluia. Alleluia. Common of One Martyr: I did cry unto the Lord with my voice, and He heard me out of His holy hill. His holy hill is an allusion to the Temple which stood on a mountain. It is a symbol of His dwelling in heaven see Hebrews 12:22-24. Many Martyrs: If they have suffered torments before men, the life of the elect is immortal for evermore. Common of Confessors: Thou art my glory, Thou art my defense, O Lord: Thou art He that liftest up my head: Thou hast heard me from Thy holy mountain].

Parisain. They say to my soul, there is no help for him in his God. But Thou, O Lord, art my defender.

Commentary.

This Psalm in its literal sense applies to the flight of David from Absalom, but mystically to the Son of David; and it is one of the six which relate to His Passion and Resurrection. In commenting on this Psalm I have followed almost exactly St Bruno of Aste. The other Psalms are 22, 43, 64, 83, and 108 (109).

1. Lord, how are they increased that trouble me: many are they which rise against me.

Literally this refers to the multitude of those that troubled David. In his youth Saul, then the Philistines, now Absalom, Ahithophel, and Shimei. But principally it relates to Christ. How are they increased. Herod, when he slew the Holy Innocents, the Chief Priests and Scribes, the tempters that feigned themselves just men, Judas, Herod, Pilate, the band of soldiers, the thief that railed on Him, the standers-by at the cross; yes, and the Apostles that forsook Him, and St Peter that denied Him. Or we may understand the word of things as well as of persons. Our Lord was troubled in His Head, by the crown of thorns; in His hands, by the nails; in His side, by the spear; in His whole body, by the scourge; in His face, by the blows of the soldiers; in His sight, by the blindfold; in His hearing, when He was blasphemed; in His taste, when they gave Him vinegar to drink. An by this multiplication of sufferings was brought to pass a multiplication of Christ’s elect, even as it is written, “Lift up Thine eyes round about and see, all they gather themselves together, they come to Thee” (isa 60:4 se also Jn 12:32)); and a multiplication of the abodes of the blessed, for it is said, “In My Father’s house are many mansions” (Jn 14:2). Many that rise up. As the many false witnesses that rose up against Jesus to put Him to death (see Mark 14:55-60).

How many. So as to include even one of My chosen disciples, without whose aid they could not have succeeded (see Luke 22:1-6).

2. Man one there be that say to my soul: There is no help for him in his God.

So daid the Chief Priests: “He trusted in God; let Him deliver him now if He will have him (Matt 27:43);” “let him save himself, if he be the Christ the chosen of God” (Luke 23:35). And with reference to ourselves, the craft of the devil is often displayed in representing a sin to which we are tempted as trifling; after we have committed it, as so great that there is no help for us in our God. Note the various helps which there are for the Christian: the help of redemption, against the deceit of sin; of illumination, against ignorance; of peace which passeth all understanding, against discord; of hope of glory, against present trouble.

No help for him in his God. They said it, not merely when He hung upon the cross, but when they rejected His miracles, saying, “He casteth out devils through Beelzebub” (Luke 11:15).

3. But thou, O Lord, art my defender: thou art my worship, and the lifter up of my head.

Here we have the patience of Christ under the revilings of His enemies. And we, like Him, may thus look to our Father in tribulation as our defender, for all things work together for good to them that love Him (Rom 5:3); as our glory, for “we glory in tribulations also;” as the lifter up of our head, for He that lifted up our great Head from the grave will raise us likewise, like the butler of Pharaoh (Gen 40:20).

Observe that the Father was the lifter up of the Son in two ways. First, by exalting Him on the Cross, that He might draw all men unto Him (Jn 13:32); and then, by giving Him a Name which is above every other name (Phil 2:9-11), so that the stone rejected by the builders was exalted to the head of the corner (Ps 118:22). God lifts up the head of His Saints, when He raises their thoughts above all earthly desires to heavenly things.

4. I did call upon the Lord with my voice: and he heard me out of his holy hill.

Thus is the efficacy of our Lord’s intercession set forth: I did cal; as when He said, “I have prayed for thee that thy faith may not fail” (Lk 22:32); and again, “Neither pray I for these alone” (Jn 17:20); and again, “Father, I will that They also whom Thou hast given Me, may be with Me where I am” (Jn 17:24). Holy hill; even heaven, the hill to which we lift our eyes, and whence our help comes (see Ps 121:1).

I did call, saying, “Father, the hour is come, glorify Thy Son,” and “glorify Thy Name,” (Jn 17:1), and He heard me, answering, “I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again” (Jn 17:28). And every Saint who calls upon God is heard out of His holy hill, that is, through Christ, Who, born of no human father, is the “stone cut out without hands, which became a great mountain” (Dan 2:34-35).

5. I laid me down and slept, and rose again: for the Lord sustained me.

Still our blessed Lord is speaking: He laid Him down in a new sepulchre (tomb). He slept His sleep of three days; He rose up again, the third day from the dead. It was sleep in three senses; as being voluntary, for He said, “I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it up again” (Jn 10:18); as being short, for “His soul was not left in Hell” (Ps 16:10); as being harmless, for the “Holy One saw no corruption.”

I have laid me down, is said of man, when he takes pleasure in the thought of sin, and slept, indulging in sinful act, and forgetting God’s commands, and rose up again, in repentance, not of my own might, but of God’s grace, for He, the Lord, sustained me.

6. I will not be afraid for ten thousand of the people: that have set themselves against me round about.

If her dear Lord showed His love for the Church by lying down and sleeping, and His might by rising again, surely she needs not to be afraid of tens of thousands of enemies. And herein she further imitates that Savior, Who, when they cried, “Away with Him, away with Him, crucify Him” (see Lk 23:18-21), “for the joy that was set before Him He endured the cross” (Heb 12:2). That have set themselves against me round about. Before, by alluring into sin; behind I.e., afterwards; after the sin has been committed), by exciting memories of evil things; on our right I.e., “on the one hand”), by prosperity; on our left (on the other hand), by misfortunes.

Ten thousands of peoples. This Psalm is fitly used by the Church in commemoration of the Martyrs, in whom this verse was fulfilled again and again to the letter, even by maidens and children, as they stood in the amphitheater, alone, unpitied, the mark for the cruel stare of myriads of spectators, crying Christians ad leones (Christians to the lions).

Thus in the arena he stood by himself, one minute, not longer:
Here on this side a child; on the other ten myriad pagans.
Then did the Christians in peace send up one deep supplication,
God would again show His praise in the mouth of babes and of sucklings:
Trembling nor fear now; but Philemon came forward a little
Nearer the mouth of the den, where the creaking which told was the lion.
Back flew the gate: black-maned, the beast, with the roar of his fury,
Sprang in one bound on the child,-and the child was in Abraham’s bosom.

7. Up, Lord, and help me, O my God: for thou smitest all mine enemies upon the cheek-bone; thou hast broken the teeth of the ungodly.

The Church continues to pray to God for help, drawing from past deliverances present comfort. Note, both here and all through the Psalms, the repetition of that holy argument, “Because Thou hast been my helper, therefore under the shadow of Thy wing will I rejoice” (Ps 63:7).

The teeth of the ungodly, are the evil speeches of envious and slanderous men, of whom the Apostle saith: “If ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed (literally, eaten up) of one another” (Gal 5:15). Or, again, the words may denote those who cut men away from the fellowship of the just, and incorporate them into the body of evil, as the teeth do with food. Opposed to these are the teeth of the righteous preachers of the Church, who bring men into the Body of Christ, teeth which should not decay through luxury, but be white with innocence, joined in charity, even (straight; well aligned) in justice, firm in constancy, bony (hard) in vigor, biting into sin with doctrine and truth. Of such is written, “Thy teeth are like a flock of sheep that are even shorn (groomed), which came up from the washing” (Song 4:2).

8. Salvation belongeth unto the Lord: and thy blessing is upon thy people.

Here our Lord teaches us what we are to believe; and what, if we believe, will be our reward. Salvation belongeth unto the Lord; there is the doctrine; Thy blessing is upon Thy people; there is the prayer.

Wherefore: Glory be to the Father, Who, lifting up my Head, which is Christ, is glorified in Him; glory be to the Son, Who laid Him down and slept, and rose again; glory be to the Holy Ghost, Who is the salvation and Blessing of which is said, Salvation is of the Lord, and Thy blessing is upon Thy people. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be; world without end. Amen.

Collects.

Pour forth, O Lord, Thy blessing upon Thy people, that being fortified by Thy Resurrection, we may not be afraid for ten thousands of the adversaries that set themselves against us round about (From St Thomas?)

Albeit, O Lord, that there are many who say, that there is no help for us in God; yet Thou art our defender, and the lifter up of our head: vouchsafe, therefore, to give us the increase of hope, and to surround us with Thy perpetual mercy (Mozarabic Liturgy, collect in Advent).

O Lord, those are increased that trouble us; let Thy mercy be increased above them: for then we shall fear no evil, when we are defended by Thy grace (Mozarabic Liturgy, collect in Advent).

Hear us, O Lord, from Thy holy hill, when we cry unto Thee from the deep of our sin; be Thou our rock and our defense, that no kind of tempest may overthrow us, and no violence of adversaries may destroy us (Mozarabic Liturgy, collect in Advent).

Hear, O Lord, the confession of our sin, and vouchsafe to accept it, that as our resurrection had its beginning in Thee, so from Thee our life may have its reward: that our frailty may be so strengthened by Thy ready succor, as that our foes may be scattered by Thy just judgment: that Thy people, created by Thee, redeemed by Thee, regenerated by Thee, may here set forth Thy praise and may do all such good works as Thou hast prepared for them to walk in (Mozarabic Liturgy, collect in Advent).

Lord Jesus Christ, Who didst for us undergo the sleep of death, to the end that we might never sleep in death, grant that we, who have been born again by Thy dying, may rise from the bed of sins by Thy quickening, and may no longer be overwhelmed by the penalty of sin, who have been redeemed by the price of Thy most precious Blood (Mozarabic Liturgy, collect in Advent).