Sidneian Psalms: Psalm 6

Domine, ne in furore.

Lord, lett not mee a worm by thee be shent,
      While thou art in the heate of thy displeasure;
Nor let thy rage of my due punnishment
                  Become the measure.


But mercy, Lord, lett mercy thine descend,
      For I am weake, and in my weaknes languish:
Lord, help, for ev'n my bones their marrow spend
                  With cruel anguish.

Sidneian Psalms: Psalm 4

Cum invocarem.

Heare me, O, heare me when I call,
         O God, God of my equity !
         Thou sett'st me free when I was thrall,
         Have mercy therefore still on me,
         And hearken how I pray to thee.

O men, whose fathers were but men,
         Till when will ye my honor high
         Stain with your blasphemies? till when
         Such pleasure take in vanity?
         And only haunt where lies do lye.

Yet know this to, that God did take,
         When he chose me, a godly one;
         Such one, I say, that when I make
         My cryeng plaintes to him alone,
         He will give good eare to my moane.

O, tremble then with awfull will;
         Sinne from all rule in you depose,
         Talk with your harts and yet be still;
         And, when your chamber you do close,
         Your selves, yet to your selves disclose.

The sacrifices sacrifie
         Of just desires, on justice staid;
         Trust in that Lord that cannot ly.
         Indeed full many folkes have said,
         From whence shall come to us such aid?

But, Lord, lift thou upon our sight
         The shining; cleerenes of thy face;
         Where I have found more harts delight;
         Then they whose store in harvests space
         Of grain and wine fills stoaring place.

So I in peace and peacefull blisse
         Will lay me down and take my rest:
         For it is thou, Lord, thou it is,
         By pow'r of whose own onely brest
         I dwell, laid up in safest neast.

Sidneian Psalms: Psalm 3

Domine, quid multiplicati?

Lord, how do they increase
That hatefull never cease
         To breed my grievous trouble?
How many ones there be
That all against poor me
         Their numerous strength redouble?

Even multitudes be they
That to my soul do saye
         No help for you remaineth
In God, on whom you build.
Yet, Lord, thou art my shield;
         In thee my glorie raigneth.

The Lord lifts up my head ;
To him my voice I spread;
         From holy hill he heard me:
I laid mo downe and slept,
While he me safelie kept,
         And safe from sleepe I rear'd me.

I will not be afraid,
Though legions round be laide,
         Which all against me gather:
I say no more but this,
Up, Lord, now time it is,
         Help me, my God, and Father!

For thou, with cruel blows
On jawbone of my foes,
         My causelesse wrong hast wroken;
Thou those men's teeth which bite,
Venomed with godlesse spight,
         Hast in their malice broken.

Salvation doth belong
Unto the Lord most strong;
         He it is that defendeth:
And on those blessed same
Which beare his people's name
         His blessing he extendeth.

Sidneian Psalms: Psalm 2

Quare fremuerunt gentes?

What ailes this Heath'nish rage? what do the people meane,
         To mutter murmurs vaine?
Why do these earthly kings and lords such meetings make,
         And councell joyntly take
Against the Lord of Lords, the lord of ev'rie thing,
         And his annointed king?
Come, let us break their bonds, say they, and fondly say,
         And cast their yokes away.
But he shall them deride who by the Heav'ns is borne,
         He them shall laugh to scorn,
And after speak to them with breath of wrathfull fire;
         And vex them in his ire.
And say, O kings, yet have I set my King upon
         My holy hill Sion;
And I will (saith this king) the Lords decree display,
         And say that he did say,
Thou art my Son indeed, this day begot by me:
         Ask, I will give to thee
The heath'n for thy childs right, and will thy realm extend
         Far as worlds farthest end;

With iron scepter bruise thou shalt and piecemeal break
         These men like potsherds weak.
Therefore, O kings! be wise, O rulers, rule your minde,
         That knowledge you may finde.
Serve God, serve him with fear, rejoice in him, but soe
         That joy with trembling goe;
With loving homage kiss that only Son he hath,
         Lest you inflame his wrath ;
Whereof if but a sparke once kindled be, you all
         From your way perish shall;
And then they that in him their only trust do rest,
         O, they be rightly blest!

Sidneian Psalms: Psalm 1

Beatus vir.

He blessed is who neither loosely treads
The straying steps as wicked councel leads,
         Ne for bad mates in way of sinners waiteth,
         Nor yet himself with idle scorners seateth;
But on Gods law his whole delight doth bind,
Which night and day hee calls to marking mind.

He shall be like a freshly planted tree,
To which sweet springs of waters neighbours be;
         Whose branches faile not timely fruite to nourish.
         Nor withered leaf shall make it faile to flourish:
So all the things whereto that man doth bend
Shall prosper still with well succeeding end.

Such blessing shall not wicked wretches see,
But like vile chaff with wind shall scattred be;
         For neither shall the men in sinne delighted
         Consist when they to highest doome are cited,
Ne yet shall suff'red be a place to take
Where godly men do their assembly make.

For God doth know, and knowing doth approve
The trade of them that just proceedings love:
         But they that sinne in sinfull breast do cherish,
         The way they go, shall be the way to perish.

Augustine's commentaries on the Psalms

The Oxford Movement translation of Augustine's commentaries on the Psalms.

• Subject Index
• Index of Texts

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25
26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50
51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75
76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100
101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125
126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150

Commentaries on the Psalms

The Psalm commentaries of John Mason Neale and Richard Frederick Littledale

• Volume 1, Preface
• Volume 1, Preface to 2nd edition
• Volume 2, Preface
• Dissertation 1: The Psalms as Employed in the Offices of the Church
• Dissertation 2: Primitive and Medieval Commentators on the Psalms
• Dissertation 3: The Mystical and Literal Interpretation of the Psalms
• Dissertation 4: Chronology of the Psalms
• Dissertation 5: The Psalms as Used in the Sacraments and Rites of the Church
• Index of Scripture references

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25
26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50
51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75
76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100
101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125
126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150

Psalm 1

From one of my multitude of small text-formatting projects, the first of Sir Philip Sidney's Psalm translations:

PSALM I.

Beatus vir.

He blessed is who neither loosely treads
The straying steps as wicked councel leads,
      Ne for bad mates in way of sinners waiteth,
      Nor yet himself with idle scorners seateth;
But on Gods law his whole delight doth bind,
Which night and day hee calls to marking mind.

He shall be like a freshly planted tree,
To which sweet springs of waters neighbours be;
      Whose branches faile not timely fruite to nourish.
      Nor withered leaf shall make it faile to flourish:
So all the things whereto that man doth bend
Shall prosper still with well succeeding end.

Such blessing shall not wicked wretches see,
But like vile chaff with wind shall scattred be;
      For neither shall the men in sinne delighted
      Consist when they to highest doome are cited,
Ne yet shall suff'red be a place to take
Where godly men do their assembly make.

For God doth know, and knowing doth approve
The trade of them that just proceedings love:
      But they that sinne in sinfull breast do cherish,
      The way they go, shall be the way to perish.

Here's the KJV.

The Sidneian Psalms online!

Here's a gem of English psalmody: the 1823 edition of the Psalm translations of Philip Sidney (nos. 1-43), completed by his sister, Mary Herbert, after his death in 1586. John Donne wrote a short poem about their work.

St Athanasius' guide to the Psalms

Matching Psalms to circumstances.

Two down, one hundred forty eight to go

As of early this morning I've got Psalms 1 & 2 memorized (in the KJV, for the perfection of its English). I read somewhere recently (Leclercq?) that in late antiquity "meditatio" referred to the simple memorization and recital of texts, not that fancy-schmancy off-putting esoterica that "meditation" can mean today.

Poets on the Psalms

Via dylan, an exchange of letters by two American poets, Peter O'Leary and Alicia Ostriker, bewildered by the Psalms even as they're drawn to them. I'm grateful for their mention of John Milton's psalm translations and paraphrases, collected here via google:

• paraphrases of Psalms 1-8 and 80-88
  
• Psalm 114 at age 15
  
• Psalm 135
  
• Psalms 80-89
  

Have you tried to memorize the Psalms?

Or some of them? Or did you manage to get all of them? Why did you do it? How did it go? Which translation did you use?

On this feast of Mary

Here are some texts for today's Mass from the 1966 Saint Joseph Daily Missal and Hymnal from the Catholic Book Publishing Company. As far as I can tell this was the last official "Englishing" of the Tridentine Mass before the Mass of Paul VI was introduced in 1970. It's satisfying to note echoes of the apparition at Lourdes in these texts: flowers appear; the cleft of the rock; the watered land and so on.

Gradual Canticle 2:12; 10:14

The flowers appear in our land,
the time of pruning has come,
the song of the dove is heard in our land.
Arise, my beloved, my beautiful one,
and come!
O my dove, in the clefts of the rock,
in the secret recess of the cliff.

Alleluia, alleluia.
Show me your face,
let me hear your voice,
For your voice is sweet
and your face is beautiful. Alleluia.

Or, after Septuagesima,

Tract Judith 15:10; Canticle 4:7

You are the glory of Jerusalem,
you are the joy of Israel,
you are the honor of our people,
You are all-beautiful, O Mary,
and there is in you no stain of original sin.
Happy are you, O holy Virgin Mary,
and most worthy of all praise,
For with your virgin foot
you have crushed the serpent's head.

Communion Antiphon Psalm 64:10

You have visited the land and watered it;
greatly have you enriched it.

Liturgy of the Hours

More and more lay Catholics are praying the Liturgy of the Hours.

If the whole thing (four volumes, thousands of pages of psalms, readings and prayers) is too daunting, try just the readings from the Office of Readings (in your email daily), or try Tom Kreitzberg's microbreviary:

Anyone who wants to ease into the spirit of the Liturgy of the Hours without any prayerbooks can try this three-step method:

• When you wake up, pray the Benedictus
• In the early evening, pray the Magnificat
• When you go to bed, pray the Nunc Dimittis

If your memorization skills are up to it, you can throw in a Miserere Friday mornings and a Te Deum Sunday and feast day mornings.

Oh, and a Visita, quaesumus, Domine following the Nunc Dimittis as you lay you down to sleep is also liturgically correct.

(And don't forget that, except for the Benedictus and the Nunc Dimittis, all these prayers are indulgenced. The souls in purgatory will thank you.)