The Psalter of the Blessed Virgin Mary by St Bonaventure : Psalm 8

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 8

“Like the flame in the burning bush.” McCabe, J. D.
(1842-1883).  Library of Congress. Public domain.

1. O Lady, Our Lord has become our brother[1] and our Saviour.

2. Like the flame in the burning bush[2], and the dew in the fleece[3] : the Word of God[4] descends into thee forever.

3, The Holy Spirit hath made thee fruitful : the power of the Most High hath overshadowed thee[5].

4. Blessed be thy most pure conception : blessed be thy virginal bringing forth.

5. Blessed be the purity of thy body : blessed be the sweetness of the mercy of thy heart.

Glory be to the Father etc.

1. Domina, Dominus noster factus est frater noster, et Salvator noster.

2. Ut ignis in rubo, et ros in vellere : descendit in te æternum Verbum Dei.

3. Spiritu Sancto fœcundante : obumbravit tibi virtus Altissimi.

4. Benedictus sit mundissimus conceptus[6] tuus : benedictus sit partus[7] tuus Virgineus.

5. Benedicta sit munditia carnis tuæ : benedicta sit dulcedo misericordiæ cordis tui.

Gloria Patri, etc.

Footnotes

[1]  “There is no proof of divine charity so clear as that God, the Creator of all things, is made a creature; that Our Lord is become our brother, and that the Son of God is made the Son of man.”See Expositio in Symbolum Apostolorum (Art. 3), by Aquinas.

[2] Exod. iii. 2.

[3] Judges vi. 36-40.

[4] John i.1 & 14; Apoc. xix. 13.

[5] Luke i. 35.

[6] conceptus, ūs, m.: conception w. ref. to Christ. 

[7] partus , ūs, m.: a bringing forth, birth; offspring, son.

Davidic Psalm VIII 

“O Lord our Lord, how admirable is thy name in
the whole earth!”  David playing the lyre (10th
century). Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, München.

1 Unto the end, for the presses: a psalm of David.  2 O Lord our Lord, how admirable is thy name in the whole earth! For thy magnificence is elevated above the heavens.  3 Out of the mouth of infants and of sucklings thou hast perfected praise, because of thy enemies, that thou mayst destroy the enemy and the avenger.  4 For I will behold thy heavens, the works of thy fingers: the moon and the stars which thou hast founded.  5 What is man that thou art mindful of him? or the son of man that thou visitest him?  6 Thou hast made him a little less than the angels, thou hast crowned him with glory and honour:  7 And hast set him over the works of thy hands.  8 Thou hast subjected all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen: moreover the beasts also of the fields.  9 The birds of the air, and the fishes of the sea, that pass through the paths of the sea.  10 O Lord our Lord, how admirable is thy name in all the earth!

Notes

The expression “for the presses” (pro torcularibus, based on the LXX’s ὑπὲρ τῶν ληνῶν) is to be understood according to certain ancient and modern exegetes as meaning that the Psalms preceded by these words (Ps. VIII, LXXX & LXXXIII) were to be sung at the joyful celebrations which accompanied the wine harvest (Cf. Jud. ix 27; Is. Xvi 8-10; & Jer. xlviii 33). This is however an improbable interpretation because the Hebrew does not say ‘al-haggittôt as the Alexandrian translators appear to have read it but rather ‘al-haggittit, an expression for which the Targum seems to have given the true meaning in its paraphrase: “On the guitar which David brought from Geth.” Geth was a city of the Philistines in which David spent time at the height of Saul’s persecution. Cf. I Reg. xxvii 2 et seq. According to an opinion which is today almost universal, he is said to have brought back from there a special type of guitar which he introduced immediately in the music of the Temple. It should not be forgotten that this Prince, once he had become king of Israel, had a bodyguard chosen from the men of Geth. Cf. II Reg. xv 18 etc.

David sings firstly of God's infinite greatness, manifested in creation; he then moves quickly on to contrasting this greatness with man’s smallness; but then he develops a new idea, the astonishing gifts and condescensions of the great God towards man, whom he has made His Regent, ruling over all nature. The Psalmist, while singing in this way of human dignity, has especially in mind the first man Adam, as he was when produced by the hand of the Creator; but what he says applies more fittingly to the ideal man, the man par excellence: the Messiah, the second Adam, true Prince of a restored humanity. Psalm VIII is therefore in this sense a prophecy which the ancient Jewish and Christian interpreters did not hesitate to apply to the Messiah, and which in fact did not achieve its fulfilment until the Incarnation.

Out of the mouth of infants and of sucklings: Our Lord Jesus Christ linked verse 3 to an event in His public life (see Matt. xxi. 14-16).

Verses 6-8: St Paul makes use of these ideas (see I Cor. xv. 26-28; Eph. i. 22; Hebr. ii. 6 et seq.).

The Psalm’s beauty:  The Psalm's literary beauty is universally acknowledged. It is vigorous and concise; It is one of the most gracious chants in the Psalter. Without any pretension to a particular artifice of form, it's sublimity comes from its simplicity.  Within it may be found a wondrously pure source of the most authentic religious sentiment in common with Psalm CIII and several other hymns, with a fine lyrical echo of the first chapter of Genesis. It opens and closes with the same refrain: O Lord, our Lord, how admirable is thy name in the whole earth! 

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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.