The Psalter of the Blessed Virgin Mary by St Bonaventure : Psalm 9

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 9

“May sinners find grace with God through thee.” Our Lady
  of Częstochowa, Jasna Góra Monastery. Public domain.

1. I will praise thee, O Lady, with my whole heart : and I will declare among the nations thy praise and glory.[1]

2. For to thee is due glory, and thanksgiving : and the voice of praise.

3. May sinners find grace with God : through thee, the finder of grace[2] and salvation.

4. May the humble penitents hope for pardon : heal thou the bruises of their hearts.[3]

5. In the beauty of peace and wealthy rest[4] : thou shalt feed us after the toil of our pilgrimage.

Glory be to the Father etc.

1. Confitebor tibi Domine in toto corde meo : et narrabo in popilis laudem, et gloriam tuam.

2. Tibi enim debetur gloria, et gratiarum actio : et vox laudis.

3. Invenient gratiam peccatores apud Deum : per te inventricem gratiæ, et salutis.

4. Respirent ad indulgentiam humiles pœnitentes : sana contritiones cordis eorum.

5. In pulcritudine pacis, et requie opulenta : cibabis nos post pregrinationis nostræ.

Gloria Patri, etc.

Footnotes

[1] Cf. I will give praise to thee, O Lord, with my whole heart: I will relate all thy wonders: Davidic Ps. IX.

[2] Fear not, Mary, for thou hast found grace with God : Luke i. 30.

[3] Ps. CXLVI. 3 speaks of the Lord who healeth the broken of heart, and bindeth up their bruises.

[4] And my people shall sit in the beauty of peace, and in the tabernacles of confidence, and in wealthy rest : Isai. xxxii. 18.

Davidic Psalm IX 

“I will sing to thy name, O thou most high.” King David
playing the harp, by Gerard van Honthorst (1622).
Centraal Museum, Utrecht. Public domain.

1 Unto the end, for the hidden things of the Son. A psalm for David.  2 I will give praise to thee, O Lord, with my whole heart: I will relate all thy wonders.  3 I will be glad and rejoice in thee: I will sing to thy name, O thou most high.  4 When my enemy shall be turned back: they shall be weakened and perish before thy face.  5 For thou hast maintained my judgment and my cause: thou hast sat on the throne, who judgest justice.  6 Thou hast rebuked the Gentiles, and the wicked one hath perished: thou hast blotted out their name for ever and ever.  7 The swords of the enemy have failed unto the end: and their cities thou hast destroyed. Their memory hath perished with a noise.  8 But the Lord remaineth for ever. He hath prepared his throne in judgment:  9 And he shall judge the world in equity, he shall judge the people in justice.  10 And the Lord is become a refuge for the poor: a helper in due time in tribulation.  11 And let them trust in thee who know thy name: for thou hast not forsaken them that seek thee, O Lord.  12 Sing ye to the Lord, who dwelleth in Sion: declare his ways among the Gentiles:  13 For requiring their blood he hath remembered them: he hath not forgotten the cry of the poor.  14 Have mercy on me, O Lord: see my humiliation which I suffer from my enemies.  15 Thou that liftest me up from the gates of death, that I may declare all thy praises in the gates of the daughter of Sion.  16 I will rejoice in thy salvation: the Gentiles have stuck fast in the destruction which they have prepared. Their foot hath been taken in the very snare which they hid.  17 The Lord shall be known when he executeth judgments: the sinner hath been caught in the works of his own hands.  18 The wicked shall be turned into hell, all the nations that forget God.  19 For the poor man shall not be forgotten to the end: the patience of the poor shall not perish for ever.  20 Arise, O Lord, let not man be strengthened: let the Gentiles be judged in thy sight.  21 Appoint, O Lord, a lawgiver over them: that the Gentiles may know themselves to be but men.

Hebrew Ps. X

101 Why, O Lord, hast thou retired afar off? why dost thou slight us in our wants, in the time of trouble?  102 Whilst the wicked man is proud, the poor is set on fire: they are caught in the counsels which they devise.  103 For the sinner is praised in the desires of his soul: and the unjust man is blessed.  104 The sinner hath provoked the Lord according to the multitude of his wrath he will not seek him:  105 God is not before his eyes: his ways are filthy at all times. Thy judgments are removed from his sight: he shall rule over all his enemies.  106 For he hath said in his heart: I shall not be moved from generation to generation, and shall be without evil.  107 His mouth is full of cursing, and of bitterness, and of deceit: under his tongue are labour and sorrow.  108 He sitteth in ambush with the rich in private places, that he may kill the innocent.  109 His eyes are upon the poor man: He lieth in wait in secret like a lion in his den. He lieth in ambush that he may catch the poor man: to catch the poor, whilst he draweth him to him.  110 In his net he will bring him down, he will crouch and fall, when he shall have power over the poor.  111 For he hath said in his heart: God hath forgotten, he hath turned away his face not to see to the end.  112 Arise, O Lord God, let thy hand be exalted: forget not the poor.  113 Wherefore hath the wicked provoked God? for he hath said in his heart: He will not require it.  114 Thou seest it, for thou considerest labour and sorrow: that thou mayst deliver them into thy hands. To thee is the poor man left: thou wilt be a helper to the orphan.  115 Break thou the arm of the sinner and of the malignant: his sin shall be sought, and shall not be found.  116 The Lord shall reign to eternity, yea, for ever and ever: ye Gentiles shall perish from his land.  117 The Lord hath heard the desire of the poor: thy ear hath heard the preparation of their heart.  118 To judge for the fatherless and for the humble, that man may no more presume to magnify himself upon earth.

Notes

1. for the hidden things of the Son (pro occultis filii, ύπέρ τῶν χρυφίων του υίοῦ): these words are very obscure and have been given very different interpretations. The Ancient commentators Nobody gives them a mystical sense and sometimes apply them to the mysteries of the passion and resurrection of the Son of God, and sometimes through the mysterious direction that Jesus Christ Himself gives to his church by way of analogy with other titles, it is fairly certain that the corresponding Hebraic locution (‘al-mut labben, literally, on the death of the son),  it is a musical expression which indicates the first words (mut labben) of an ancient chant known to the contemporaries of David and which was to be adapted for Psalm IX (‘al, to the tune).

Difference in numbering: It is in the middle of this canticle that the difference begins between the Hebrew numbering of the Psalms and that of the Vulgate and the Septuagint. This is only one Psalm according to the latter two versions but in the Hebrew it is two, the second beginning after verse 21. It is somewhat difficult to declare with authority either in favour of or against the unity of the original. At first sight, the subject seems to require separation into two Psalms; Psalm IX of the Hebrew text is a triumphant act of thanksgiving following on from a victory gained by David over his enemies; Psalm X is a plaintive and urgent prayer for help against internal enemies who threaten the security of the Jewish state; each of these themes, divided in this way, seem finished and complete in themselves. On the other hand, why is there no title at the beginning of Psalm X? This is very rare in the Psalter, Ps. I, II & XXXIII (in the Hebrew) are the only examples. There are moreover certain striking resemblances in the ideas, the expressions and the rhythm which argue in favour of the text constituting one Psalm ( cf. IX 10, and X Hebr. 1; IX 20 and X 12, etc.). Apart from this, the two parts are manifestly presented alphabetically, albeit in an imperfect manner. The strophes in the first part begin with the initial letters of the Hebrew alphabet, those of the second part with the final letters (subject to some exceptions).The author has therefore unified and intertwined the whole in a manner inseparable from this acrostic. As for the difference between the subject of the two parts, this is more apparent than real : after gaining victory over his external enemies, David wanted to overcome his interior enemies as well. Theis prayer exists in the first part (cf. Ps. IX 14-15, 18-21) and in the second there is also mention made of the pagans (Ps. X Hebr. 16). The various editions of the Vulgate, however, whilst uniting the two parts separate them by a title and restart the numbering of the verses at the beginning of the second part. 

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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.