The Psalter of the Blessed Virgin Mary by St Bonaventure : Psalm 76

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).

Reminder: I began posting an annotated and illustrated version of St Bonaventure's Life of St Francis on the 4th October (his feast day) this year, the 800th anniversary of his death in 1226. To read these posts, please click on our sister blog:

St Bonaventure’s Life of St Francis

Psalm 76

“She hath taken sorrow and grief from my heart.”
Madonna and Child, by Murillo (1665-60). Palazzo
Pitti, Florence. Public domain (via Wikicommons).

1. With my voice I cried to the Lady[1]: and by her grace she bowed down to me.

2. She hath taken sorrow and grief from my heart: and she hath soothed my heart by her sweetness[2].

3. She hath turned my fear into a sweet confidence: and by her honey-flowing aspect she hath calmed my mind[3].

4. By her holy help I have avoided the dangers of death: and I have escaped the cruel hand[4].

5. Thanks be to God and to thee, O loving Mother, for all things which I have obtained: for thy piety and thy mercy.

Glory be to the Father etc.

1. Voce mea ad Dominam clamavi: et sua gratia intendit mihi.

2. Abstulit a corde meo mœstitiam et mœrorem: et suavitate sua cor meum dulcoravit.

3. Formidinem meam erexit in confidentiam bonam: et suo aspectu mellifluo mentem meam serenavit.

4. Adjutorio sancto suo evasi pericula mortis: et de manu crudeli subterfugi.

5. Gratias Deo et tibi, Mater pia, do omnibus, quæ assecutus sum: de pietate et misericordia tua.

Gloria Patri, etc.

Footnotes

[1] Cf. “I cried to the Lord with my voice”: Davidic Ps. LXXVI, 2.

[2] Cf. “How sweet are thy words to my palate! more than honey to my mouth”: Ps. CXVIII,103.

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

[4] Cf. “And I will deliver thee out of the hand of the wicked, and I will redeem thee out of the hand of the mighty”: Jer. xv, 21; “Deliver me, O my God, out of the hand of the sinner, and out of the hand of the transgressor of the law and of the unjust”: Ps. LXX, 4.

Davidic Psalm LXXVI

1 Unto the end, for Idithun, a psalm of Asaph.

2 I cried to the Lord with my voice; to God with my voice, and he gave ear to me.  3 In the day of my trouble I sought God, with my hands lifted up to him in the night, and I was not deceived. My soul refused to be comforted:  4 I remembered God, and was delighted, and was exercised, and my spirit swooned away.

5 My eyes prevented the watches: I was troubled, and I spoke not.  6 I thought upon the days of old: and I had in my mind the eternal years.  7 And I meditated in the night with my own heart: and I was exercised and I swept my spirit.

8 Will God then cast off for ever? or will he never be more favourable again?  9 Or will he cut off his mercy for ever, from generation to generation?  10 Or will God forget to shew mercy? or will he in his anger shut up his mercies?

11 And I said, Now have I begun: this is the change of the right hand of the most High.  12 I remembered the works of the Lord: for I will be mindful of thy wonders from the beginning.  13 And I will meditate on all thy works: and will be employed in thy inventions.

14 Thy way, O God, is in the holy place: who is the great God like our God?  15 Thou art the God that dost wonders. Thou hast made thy power known among the nations:  16 With thy arm thou hast redeemed thy people the children of Jacob and of Joseph.

17 The waters saw thee, O God, the waters saw thee: and they were afraid, and the depths were troubled.  18 Great was the noise of the waters: the clouds sent out a sound. For thy arrows pass:  19 The voice of thy thunder in a wheel. Thy lightnings enlightened the world: the earth shook and trembled.  20 Thy way is in the sea, and thy paths in many waters: and thy footsteps shall not be known. 21 Thou hast conducted thy people like sheep, by the hand of Moses and Aaron.

Notes

Prayer of one afflicted who arouses himself unto hope through the contemplation of the dazzling benefits received from the Lord.

1: “for Idithun”:  see Ps. XXXVIII, 1. Here the reference can only be a descendant of David's celebrated cantor. “a psalm of Asaph”: The author is a descendant of Asaph. The psalmist is imploring God to show hHis goodness, in the midst of a national calamity which seems to threaten the very existence of the Israelites. To begin with, from verse 2 onwards, he almost despairs of obtaining help; then suddenly, from verse 11 onwards,  having received divine illumination and consolation, he abandons himself to a feeling of joyous confidence, recalling the dazzling miracles through which the Lord had previously saved his unfortunate people, especially at the time of the Exodus from Egypt. That which God once did, can he not do it again? Perhaps the psalm was inspired, as a number of interpreters believe, by the ruin of the breakaway kingdom of the ten tribes (721 B.C.). We do not think that its composition has to be put back to the time of the Babylonian captivity, as certain critics have suggested.

Structure:

‣ the profound grief of the poet the sight of his people's misfortunes: verses 2-10;

‣ lively feeling of confidence at the recollection of ancient miracles worked by the Lord to deliver his people: verses 11-21;    

There are six strophes, each with three verses: 2-4, 5-7, 8-10, 11-13, 14-16, 17-21.

First part: verses 2-10.

5: “My eyes prevented the watches”: night was divided into three watches each lasting four hours , the first of which began at 6:00 p.m. The psalmist is saying that he was constantly awake.

7: “I swept my spirit”: seeking thoughts to console himself or an explanation for the mysterious behaviour of the Lord.

Second part: verses 11-21. 

11: “Now have I begun”: meaning I am beginning to understand. The Hebrew text suggests : This is my infirmity; which seems to mean : my despair comes from my own weakness.  

14: “Thy way, O God, is in the holy place”: a Hebraism for: Thy way, Thy manner of acting is quite perfect. Cf. Ex. xv, 11. This passage recalls the canticle composed by Moses immediately after the passage through the Red Sea.

17-21: a brilliant description of the passage through the waters of the Red Sea. The psalmist is choosing from all other miracles this example of God’s omnipotence and infinite goodness. 

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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.