The Psalter of the Blessed Virgin Mary by St Bonaventure : Psalm 17

St Bonaventure Receiving the Banner of St Sepulchre
from the Madonna, by Francesco Solimena (1710). The 
Cathedral of San Paolo in Aversa, Italy. Public domain.

The following posts present the text of The Psalter of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Its authorship is generally attributed to St Bonaventure (1221-15 July 1274) who studied at the University of Paris where in 1243 he joined the Franciscan Order. In 1254, he was made a Master of Theology and took over the leadership of the Franciscan School in Paris. Bonaventure was officially confirmed as seventh Minister General of the Franciscans in 1257. He later wrote a life of St Francis and has been called the second founder of the Order. Appointed Cardinal the year before his death in 1274, he was canonised in 1482 and declared a Doctor of the Church in 1588 with the title of Seraphic Doctor.

I offer this annotated presentation of St Bonaventure’s Psalter as a small gift to our gentle Queen and Mother in gratitude for her many graces and favours, praying for her continued help and protection for the author and his family.

This presentation of St Bonaventure’s Marian Psalms will include: an English translation based upon that of Sr Mary Emmanuel O.S.B. in the 1932 edition published by Herder; the Latin text as published in the Psalterium B. Virignis Mariæ of 1679; the text of the Douay-Rheims Psalms; with footnotes and occasional notes translated from Fillion’s Bible (1900 edition).

Psalm 17

“She is your helper and your special advocate.”
Maria Advocata, commonly dated to the 6th century
but there is some evidence it may be 1st century.
Kept in the Church of the Madonna del Rosario
(Rome) since 1931. Public domain.

1. I will love thee, O Lady of heaven and earth[1] : and I will call upon thy name in the nations[2].

2. Give praise to her, ye who are troubled in heart : and she will strengthen you against your enemies.

3. Give to us, O Lady, the grace of thy breasts[3] : from the dropping milk of thy sweetness refresh the hearts and minds of thy children[4].

4. Honour her, O all ye religious : for she is your helper and your special advocate[5].

5. Be thou our refreshment, glorious Mother of Christ : for thou art the wondrous foundation[6] of the religious life.

Glory be to the Father etc.

1. Diligam te, Domina caeli et terrae : et in gentibus nomen tuum invocabo.

2. Confitemini illi tribulati corde : et roborabit vos contra inimicos vestros.

3. Stilla nobis Domina gratiam uberum tuorum : ex manente lacte dulcedinis tuæ refice viscera puerorum tuorum.

4. Religiosi omnes honorate illam : quia ipsa est adiutrix, et vestra specialis advocata.

5. Esto refrigerium nostrum gloriosa Mater Christi : quia tu es totius religionis mirabile firmamentum.

Gloria Patri, etc.

Footnotes

[1] Cf. “I will love thee, O Lord, my strength,” in Davidic Psalm XVII. 1.

[2] Cf. “Give glory to the Lord, and call upon his name: declare his deeds among the Gentiles:” Psalm. CIV. 1.

[3] Cf. “Blessed is the womb that bore thee, and the paps that gave thee suck.” Luke xi. 27. Note too the twelve verses in the Canticle of Canticles that speak of breasts.

[4] Cf. “Thy lips, my spouse, are as a dropping honeycomb, honey and milk are under thy tongue:” Cant. iv. 11.

[5] Cf. the words in the Salve Regina attributed to Hermannus Contractus (1013-1054): “Turn then, most gracious Advocate, thine eyes of mercy toward us.” [lit. Advocata nostra : our Advocate].

[6] “foundation” is given for the Latin firmamentum, which also appears in verse 2 of the Davidic Psalm XVII which reads: “The Lord is my firmament, my refuge, and my deliverer.”

Davidic Psalm XVII

“My God is my helper...” King David, by Rubens.
c. 1616. Städel Museum, Frankfurt. Public domain.

1 Unto the end, for David the servant of the Lord, who spoke to the Lord the words of this canticle, in the day that the Lord delivered him from the hands of all his enemies, and from the hand of Saul. [2 Kings 22]  2 I will love thee, O Lord, my strength:  3 The Lord is my firmament, my refuge, and my deliverer. My God is my helper, and in him will I put my trust. My protector and the horn of my salvation, and my support.  4 Praising I will call upon the Lord: and I shall be saved from my enemies.  5 The sorrows of death surrounded me: and the torrents of iniquity troubled me. 6 The sorrows of hell encompassed me: and the snares of death prevented me.  7 In my affliction I called upon the Lord, and I cried to my God: And he heard my voice from his holy temple: and my cry before him came into his ears.  8 The earth shook and trembled: the foundations of the mountains were troubled and were moved, because he was angry with them.  9 There went up a smoke in his wrath: and a fire flamed from his face: coals were kindled by it.  10 He bowed the heavens, and came down: and darkness was under his feet.

11 And he ascended upon the cherubim, and he flew; he flew upon the wings of the winds.  12 And he made darkness his covert, his pavilion round about him: dark waters in the clouds of the air.  13 At the brightness that was before him the clouds passed, hail and coals of fire.  14 And the Lord thundered from heaven, and the highest gave his voice: hail and coals of fire.  15 And he sent forth his arrows, and he scattered them: he multiplied lightnings, and troubled them.

16 Then the fountains of waters appeared, and the foundations of the world were discovered: At thy rebuke, O Lord, at the blast of the spirit of thy wrath.  17 He sent from on high, and took me: and received me out of many waters.  18 He delivered me from my strongest enemies, and from them that hated me: for they were too strong for me.  19 They prevented me in the day of my affliction: and the Lord became my protector.  20 And he brought me forth into a large place: he saved me, because he was well pleased with me.

21 And the Lord will reward me according to my justice; and will repay me according to the cleanness of my hands:  22 Because I have kept the ways of the Lord; and have not done wickedly against my God.  23 For till his judgments are in my sight: and his justices I have not put away from me.  24 And I shall be spotless with him: and shall keep myself from my iniquity.  25 And the Lord will reward me according to my justice; and according to the cleanness of my hands before his eyes.

26 With the holy, thou wilt be holy; and with the innocent man thou wilt be innocent.  27 And with the elect thou wilt be elect: and with the perverse thou wilt be perverted.  28 For thou wilt save the humble people; but wilt bring down the eyes of the proud.  29 For thou lightest my lamp, O Lord: O my God enlighten my darkness.  30 For by thee I shall be delivered from temptation; and through my God I shall go over a wall.

31 As for my God, his way is undefiled: the words of the Lord are fire tried: he is the protector of all that trust in him.  32 For who is God but the Lord? or who is God but our God?  33 God who hath girt me with strength; and made my way blameless.  34 Who hath made my feet like the feet of harts: and who setteth me upon high places.  35 Who teacheth my hands to war: and thou hast made my arms like a brazen bow.

36 And thou hast given me the protection of thy salvation: and thy right hand hath held me up: And thy discipline hath corrected me unto the end: and thy discipline, the same shall teach me.  37 Thou hast enlarged my steps under me; and my feet are not weakened.  38 I will pursue after my enemies, and overtake them: and I will not turn again till they are consumed.  39 I will break them, and they shall not be able to stand: they shall fall under my feet.  40 And thou hast girded me with strength unto battle; and hast subdued under me them that rose up against me.

41 And thou hast made my enemies turn their back upon me, and hast destroyed them that hated me.  42 They cried, but there was none to save them, to the Lord: but he heard them not.  43 And I shall beat them as small as the dust before the wind; I shall bring them to nought, like the dirt in the streets.  44 Thou wilt deliver me from the contradictions of the people: thou wilt make me head of the Gentiles.  45 A people, which I knew not, hath served me: at the hearing of the ear they have obeyed me.

46 The children that are strangers have lied to me, strange children have faded away, and have halted from their paths.  47 The Lord liveth, and blessed be my God, and let the God of my salvation be exalted:  48 O God, who avengest me, and subduest the people under me, my deliverer from my enemies.  49 And thou wilt lift me up above them that rise up against me: from the unjust man thou wilt deliver me.  50 Therefore will I give glory to thee, O Lord, among the nations, and I will sing a psalm to thy name. 51 Giving great deliverance to his king, and shewing mercy to David his anointed: and to his seed for ever.

Notes

Judging by the context, David did not compose this Psalm until he was approaching the end of his life when God had rendered him victorious over all his enemies.

Occasion of its writing: the universal and decisive victories gained by the great and holy King. Saul here is mentioned separately and last of all because he had been the first, the most dangerous and the most implacable of David’s enemies. To sum up, this poem is a grand Alleluia. Looking back on his life, the psalmist contemplates the course of a life full of incidents. He notes the hand of the Lord intervening to save him at each stage  and his heart overflows with joyous gratitude. The overwhelming thought throughout the entire Psalm is that the Lord Himself made David what he is. He is indebted to the Lord’s loving care and His fidelity at every moment for having been preserved guided and then raised to the heights of power that he now enjoys. In the final verses, the canticle rises to the level of the Messianic idea, proclaiming the universal character of the kingdom of Christ, son of David. Cf. Rom. xv. 9.  

Structure: The Psalm is divided into three parts, framed by a brief prelude, (verses 2 to 4) and a swift conclusion (verses 47 to 51). The first, epic section in verses 5-20 : David is delivered by the Lord from his internal enemies. The second, didactic section in verses 21 to 31 : the reasons for this divine protection. The third, more lyrical section in verses 32 to 46 : David is delivered from his external enemies.

From the literary point of view, this Psalm is truly remarkable : its spirited expressions, its splendid imagery and its brilliant descriptions all make it one of the most beautiful poems in the entire Psalter. It was clearly written with great care and it forms a monument truly worthy of the great blessings which it describes.     

Verses 8-15: God comes down from heaven In the middle of a storm to deliver his servant who is in danger. These verses present a thoroughly dramatic picture filled with high poetry which has not been surpassed in sublimity and in greatness. It represents one of those theophanies, or divine apparitions, which abound in the Bible and which make us contemplate the Lord God coming down from heaven to earth in a visible form and, most frequently, accompanied by a terrible storm, in order to save his friends and to destroy his enemies.These theophanies often took place in reality (cf. Exod. xix. 16-18; Jos, x. 11; Jud. v. 20 et seq., etc.); but more frequently the description is an ideal one and such is the case here because no similar event was recorded in the life of David.

Verses 16-20: David is miraculously saved.

Verses 21-31: The reasons for this divine protection: 1. David’s innocence and holiness (21-25); 2. the principle which invariably guides the Lord in His relations with men (verses 26-28): when He is dealing with the good, God manifests His satisfaction with their conduct by behaving in a similar way to them; He is however hard with those who are hard-hearted and wicked : with the result that each man is treated according to his merits. 3. God’s goodness when it comes to those who trust in Him.

Verses 32-46: David is delivered from his external enemies. This is the most lyrical part of the Psalm which echoes to the sound of warlike expressions and imagery.

Verses 47-51: Conclusion of the canticle: thanksgiving and doxology.

“to his seed for ever” : These words are a faithful echo of the celebrated prophecy, pointing to our Lord Jesus Christ,  in whom alone is realised the divine promise of a line and a throne without end : 

“And when thy days shall be fulfilled, and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, I will raise up thy seed after thee, which shall proceed out of thy bowels, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house to my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom for ever.” II Kings vii. 12-13.

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The Virgin of Tenderness. >12th century.

SUB tuum præsidium confugimus, Sancta Dei Genitrix. Nostras deprecationes ne despicias in necessitatibus, sed a periculis cunctis libera nos semper, Virgo gloriosa et benedicta. Amen. 

 

Totus tuus ego sum

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam.

He that hearkeneth to me, shall not be confounded: and they that work by me shall not sin. They that explain me shall have life everlasting. Ecclesiasticus (Sirach) xxiv. 30-31.30-31.