The Psalter of the Blessed Virgin Mary by St Bonaventure : Psalm 52

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. Virginis Mariæ of 1679; the text of the Douay-Rheims Psalms; with footnotes and occasional notes translated from Fillion’s Bible (1900 edition).

Psalm 52

“It is a woman who shall crush thy head.”
The Immaculate Conception (1767-9), by
Tiepolo. Museo del Prado. Public domain.

1. The foolish enemy hath said in his soul[1]: I will cast men out from the tabernacle of the sons of God.

2. I will go forth, and I will be a lying spirit in the mouth of the serpent[2]: and by the woman I will cast out the man, her husband.[3]

3. O wretched one, as the heavens are exalted above the earth: so are the thoughts of God above thy thoughts.

4. Be not lifted up because of the woman’s fall: for it is a woman who shall crush thy head.[4]

5. Thou hast prepared a pit for her: yet in her net thou shalt be caught.[5]

Glory be to the Father etc.

1. Dixit insipiens inimicus in corde suo: Hominem ejiciam de tabernaculo filiorum Dei.

2. Egrediar, et ero spiritus mendax in ore serpentis: et per fœminam ejiciam virum, virum ejus.

3. Sicut exaltantur, o miser, cœli a terra: sic exaltatæ sunt cogitationes Dei a cogitationibus tuis.

4. Noli extolli de casu mulieris: quia mulier conteret caput tuum.

5. Tu illi foveam præparasti, et in sagena illius capieris.

Gloria Patri, etc.

Footnotes

[1] Cf. “The fool said in his heart…”: Davidic Ps. LII, 1.

[2] Cf. “You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you will do ... and he stood not in the truth; because truth is not in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father thereof.” John viii, 44.

[3] Cf. “Adam said: The woman, whom thou gavest me to be my companion, gave me of the tree, and I did eat.” Gen. iii, 12.

[4] Cf. “I will put enmities between thee and the woman, and thy seed and her seed: she shall crush thy head.” Gen. iii, 15.

[5] Cf. “And I have found a woman more bitter than death, who is the hunter’s snare, and her heart is a net [Lat. sagena], and her hands are bands. He that pleaseth God shall escape from her: but he that is a sinner, shall be caught by her.” Ecclesiastes vii, 27.

Davidic Psalm LII

1 Unto the end, for Maeleth, understandings to David. The fool said in his heart: There is no God.  2 They are corrupted, and become abominable in iniquities: there is none that doth good.  3 God looked down from heaven on the children of men: to see if there were any that did understand, or did seek God.  4 All have gone aside, they are become unprofitable together, there is none that doth good, no not one.  

5 Shall not all the workers of iniquity know, who eat up my people as they eat bread? 6 They have not called upon God: there have they trembled for fear, where there was no fear. For God hath scattered the bones of them that please men: they have been confounded, because God hath despised them.  7 Who will give out of Sion the salvation of Israel? when God shall bring back the captivity of his people, Jacob shall rejoice, and Israel shall be glad.

Notes

Men’s dreadful depravity;  God will have His revenge and will save His people.

The title:

1: “Unto the end, for Maeleth, understandings to David.” The words “ for Maeleth, understandings” are very obscure in the Vulgate (Maeleth intelligentiæ) as in the Septuagint which includes part of the Hebrew (ὑπὲρ μαελέθ). In the original text, we read ‘al-Mahalat, maskil. This normally refers to a didactic poem and is also found at the opening of Ps. LXXXVII. It probably means that the two canticles were to be chanted in a plaintive and melancholic tone (mesto in modern notation).

Psalm LII is an almost word for word reproduction of Psalm XIII, with the exception of the apocryphal additions in the Septuagint and Vulgate which are not reproduced here. The only obvious differences consist in the title, the alteration to the divine name and the variations in verse 6. It is commonly agreed that Psalm LII is a more recent recension but it is difficult to account for its origin and the reason for its inclusion in the Psalter. It seems nevertheless likely Psalm XIII was slightly reworked a long time after David’s death in order to be adapted to a new event in Jewish history. It obtained in this way a second birth, so to speak, and the right to be inserted in the collection of sacred chants of Israel under this slightly modified form.

Structure: Like Psalm XIII, the psalm is divided into two parts : verses 1-4 and 5-7.

First part: the pain experienced by the poet at the sight of moral depravity throughout the whole world. Verses 1-4. 

“ There is no God”: God is named seven times in this canticle as in Psalm XIII but here he is constantly spoken of as ‘Elohim.  In Ps. XIII, there are three uses of this word, the remaining four being to Yehovah (“Dominus” in the Vulgate).

Second part: The high point of men’s malice and its punishment. Verses 5-7.

6:  “For God hath scattered the bones of them that please men: they have been confounded, because God hath despised them.” 

In Ps. XIII we read:

6: “For the Lord is in the just generation: you have confounded the counsel of the poor man, but the Lord is his hope.”  This very general thought has been applied to a particular event. The allusion, in all probability, is to a miraculous demonstration of the Lord’s power with a view to saving His people. The defeat of the Moabites and of their allies, mentioned in Psalms XLV, XLVI and XLVII (cf. II Par. xx), could well be what the poet had in mind in this verse and may have served as the reason for the reworking of Psalm XIII.

“God hath scattered the bones”: this detail suggests that the corpses of the enemy were left unburied on the battlefield, a great humiliation, particularly in the Orient.

“of them that please men”: and that are displeasing to God.

“confounded”: Hebr. “covered with shame.”

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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.