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| 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. |
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 56
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| “I will rest in the shelter of thine arms : for sweet to me is thy refreshment.” Madonna of the Pomegranate, by Botticelli (1487). Uffizi Gallery, Florence. Nanae-Livioandronico (2013). CC BY-SA 4.0. |
2. And I will rest in the shelter of thine arms[2]: for sweet to me is thy refreshment.
3. Thy hands have distilled choice myrrh: and thy fingers the unguents of graces.[3]
4. And a fragment of pomegranate is thy throat[4]: and thy breath is sweet as an amalgam of choice smelling herbs.
5. For thou art the mother of fair love[5] and the anchor of hope[6] : the haven of pardon[7], and the gate of salvation.[8]
Glory be to the Father etc.
1. Miserere mei, Domina, miserere mei: quia paratum est cor meum exquirere voluntatem tuam.
2. Et in umbra alarum tuarum requiescam: quia delectabile est mihi refrigerium tuum.
3. Manus tuæ distillant myrrham primam: et digiti tui unguenta gratiarum.
4. Et fragmenta mali punici est guttur tuum: et spiramen oris tui suave, compositum thymiama.
5. Tu enim es mater pulchræ dilectionis, et anchora spei: portus indulgentiæ, et janua salutis.
Gloria Patri, etc.
Footnotes
[1] Cf. “Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy on me: for my soul trusteth in thee”: Davidic Ps. LVI, 2.
[2] Cf. “And in the shadow of thy wings will I hope”: Ibid.
[3] Cf. “His cheeks are as beds of aromatical spices set by the perfumers. His lips are as lilies dropping choice myrrh [myrrham primam]”: Cant. v, 13.
[4] Cf. “Thy cheeks are as a piece of a pomegranate”: Cant. iv, 3; “My sister, my spouse, is a garden enclosed, a garden enclosed, a fountain sealed up. Thy plants are a paradise of pomegranates;” Ibid iv, 12-13. For more on the liturgical symbolism of the pomegranate, see New Liturgical Movement article (Dec. 14 2020).
[5] Cf. “I am the mother of fair love, and of fear, and of knowledge, and of holy hope.” Ecclesiasticus (Sirach) xxiv, 24.
[6] Cf. “The hope set before us which we have as an anchor of the soul, sure and firm”: Hebr. vi, 18-19.
[7] Cf. Marian Ps. 18.
[8] Cf. Marian Ps. 46. “the gate of salvation”: see “Cf. “And he brought me back to the way of the gate of the outward sanctuary, which looked towards the east: and it was shut. And the Lord said to me: This gate shall be shut, it shall not be opened, and no man shall pass through it: because the Lord the God of Israel hath entered in by it, and it shall be shut. The prince himself shall . . .enter in by the way of the porch of the gate, and shall go out by the same way.” Ezech. xliv, 1-3.
Davidic Psalm LVI
1 Unto the end, destroy not, for David, for an inscription of a title, when he fled from Saul into the cave.
2 Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy on me: for my soul trusteth in thee. And in the shadow of thy wings will I hope, until iniquity pass away. 3 I will cry to God the most High; to God who hath done good to me. 4 He hath sent from heaven and delivered me: he hath made them a reproach that trod upon me. God hath sent his mercy and his truth, 5 And he hath delivered my soul from the midst of the young lions. I slept troubled. The sons of men, whose teeth are weapons and arrows, and their tongue a sharp sword. 6 Be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens, and thy glory above all the earth.
7 They prepared a snare for my feet; and they bowed down my soul. They dug a pit before my face, and they are fallen into it. 8 My heart is ready, O God, my heart is ready: I will sing, and rehearse a psalm. 9 Arise, O my glory, arise psaltery and harp: I will arise early. 10 I will give praise to thee, O Lord, among the people: I will sing a psalm to thee among the nations. 11 For thy mercy is magnified even to the heavens: and thy truth unto the clouds. 12 Be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens: and thy glory above all the earth.
Notes
Prayer and thanksgiving at a time grave danger.
The title: “inscription of a title”: See Note for Ps. XV. “ destroy not”: a literal translation of the Hebrew ‘al-tashet: this is an obscure expression which is also found at the head of psalms LVII, LVIII and LXXIV. According to some commentators this is a reference to the general theme of these psalms, Lord, save me ; according to others, these are the first words of a song indicating the melody was to be used for the four psalms in question.
Historical background: “when he fled from Saul into the cave”: There are two possible events : in Odollam, I Kings xxii, 1 et seq.; and in Engaddi, I Kings xxiv, 1 et seq. It is commonly supposed that this song is dealing with events in Engaddi where David found himself in greater danger.
The subject matter is very similar to that of Psalm LV and fully reflects the circumstances indicated in the title. The psalmist, moved by a lively spirit of trust in God who has always wondrously delivered him from all his troubles, implores Him to come unto his aid in this new danger. Then he celebrates his anticipated deliverance by a Canticle of Praise.
Structure: The psalm may be divided into two halves, separated by a refrain which has been described as grandiose: see verses 6 and 11.
1. a prayer replete with faith, to obtain a swift deliverance: verses 2-6;
2. the psalmist’s act of thanksgiving in anticipation, confident that victory is assured: verses7-12.
verses 8-12 are found reproduced at the beginning of Psalm CVII.
First part: an urgent prayer to obtain deliverance. Verses 2-6.
2-3: “Have mercy…”: this is the third of the Psalms which begin with these words (cf, Psalm L and Psalm LV).
5: “young lions”: David compares his enemies to the most terrible of wild beasts. Cf. Ps. VII, 3.
6: “Be thou exalted, O God…”: this verse is the refrain. Here is the most sublime and most effective way for a man to obtain a blessing from God: namely, that He Himself is to be glorified , and proposing for himself this divine glory as his unique end in the prayers which are addressed to Him to obtain the blessing. This is indeed David’s objective when he prays that before all else God may be glorified in heaven and on earth by granting the deliverance that is requested.
Second part: An act of thanksgiving in anticipation. Verses 7-12.
7-9: Although his enemies are still threatening him and drawing closer, David tells himself to praise God, whose salvation he awaits with complete confidence. The psalmist supposes that his night of troubles is coming to an end and already he sings joyfully to his Liberator.
9: “I will arise early”: in Hebrew the sense is even more poetic: literally, “I wish to awaken the dawn.”
10: “I will give praise to thee, O Lord, among the people: I will sing a psalm to thee among the nations”: far beyond the frontiers of the Holy Land, as far as the Pagan peoples. The Psalms of David are today sung throughout the whole world.
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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.
The Virgin of Tenderness. >12th century.
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.
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