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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 60
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| “Hear my prayer, O Lady . . . Be thou to me a tower of strength.” Our Lady of Victories, 1809 (artist n/k). From the Basilica Notre-Dame des Victoires, Paris. Public domain.[9] |
2. Be thou to me a tower of strength[3]: protect me from the face of the cruel destroyer.[4]
3. Be thou to him terrible as an army in battle array[5]: and may he fall living into the depths of hell.[6]
4. For thou art shining and terrible: a cloud full of dew, and the rising dawn.[7]
5. Thou art beautiful and bright as the full moon: thy sacred aspect is as when the sun shines in its strength.[8]
Glory be to the Father etc.
1. Exaudi, Domina, orationem meam super firmam petram stabilias mentem meam.
2. Esto mihi turris fortitudinis: me tuearis a facie crudelis vastatoris.
3. Ut castrorum acies, sis illi terribilis: et vivus corruat in profundum inferni.
4. Tu enim es rutilans et decora: nubes rorifera, et consurgens aurora.
5. Pulchra es et clara, ut luna plenissima: tanquam sol refulget, sacer aspectus tuus.
Gloria Patri, etc.
Footnotes
[1] Cf. “Hear, O God, my supplication: be attentive to my prayer,”: Davidic Ps. XL, 2.
[2] Cf. “when my heart was in anguish, thou hast exalted me on a rock;” Ibid. 3; “He is like to a man building a house, who digged deep, and laid the foundation upon a rock. And when a flood came, the stream beat vehemently upon that house, and it could not shake it; for it was founded on a rock”: Luke vi, 48.
[3] Cf. “For thou hast been my hope; a tower of strength against the face of the enemy.”: Davidic Ps. LX, 3; “Tower of David” in Litany of Loreto (Paris, 1150-1200) : “And they built the city of David with a great and strong wall, and with strong towers, and made it a fortress for them:” 1 Machabees i, 35.
[4] “destroyer”: Cf. “A king, the angel of the bottomless pit; whose name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in Greek Apollyon; in Latin Exterminans”: Apoc. ix, 11.
[5] Cf. “Who is she . . . terrible as an army set in array?” Cant. vi, 9.
[6] Cf. “And there came down fire from God out of heaven, and devoured them; and the devil, who seduced them, was cast into the pool of fire and brimstone, where both the beast; and the false prophet shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.” Apoc xx, 9-10.
[7] “rutilans”: bright as the light of dawn (Cf. “Who is she that cometh forth as the morning rising,”: (Cant. vi, 9)’ “decora”: beautiful, graceful.
[8] Cf. “Who is she . . . fair as the moon, bright as the sun?” Cant. vi, 9.
[9] For St Thérèse's attachment to Our Lady of Victories (following a particular miracle of healing), see the website of Notre-Dame des Victoires.
Davidic Psalm LX
1 Unto the end, in hymns, for David.
2 Hear, O God, my supplication: be attentive to my prayer, 3 To thee have I cried from the ends of the earth: when my heart was in anguish, thou hast exalted me on a rock. Thou hast conducted me; 4 For thou hast been my hope; a tower of strength against the face of the enemy. 5 In thy tabernacle I shall dwell for ever: I shall be protected under the covert of thy wings.
6 For thou, my God, hast heard my prayer: thou hast given an inheritance to them that fear thy name. 7 Thou wilt add days to the days of the king: his years even to generation and generation. 8 He abideth for ever in the sight of God: his mercy and truth who shall search? 9 So will I sing a psalm to thy name for ever and ever: that I may pay my vows from day to day.
Notes
In exile, David calls upon the Lord to lead him back to Jerusalem and to grant him long days.
Title: Vers 1: “in hymns”: Hebr. ‘al-n’ginat. literally: On the corded instrument; with the singular denoting the plural, meaning “with the accompaniment of corded instruments.” Cf. Ps. IV, 1.
A king (see vers. 7) prey to bitter sadness, finding himself in one of the remote corners of his kingdom and threatened by his enemy, prays that God may save him. This is the subject matter of this composition.
Historical background: The psalm was probably written on the occasion of Absalom’s revolt when David was fleeing from the other side of the Jordan in the province of Galaad. Cf. II Kings xviii, 24.
Structure: The may be divided into two parts separated by a sélah:(a punctuation indicating a pause or a "forte").
1. verses 2-5, the Exiled King calls upon the Lord to lead him back soon to the sanctuary;
2. verses 6-9, he also asks him for length of days, promising to thank him in sacred chants. The second part is messianic , since predicts the eternal duration of David’s dynasty, a promise which is realised only in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ.
First part: David implores the Lord to put an end to his exile and to lead him back to Jerusalem to this sanctuary. Verses 2-5.
3: “thou hast exalted me on a rock”: in a completely safe place of refuge where David’s enemies could not approach.
5: “In thy tabernacle I shall dwell for ever”: David firmly believes that God will allow him to return to the Tabernacle in Jerusalem and to dwell there forever : in sæcula sæculorum : an expression which signifies a lively belief in a future state of happiness throughout eternity.
Second part: the king asks God to grant him a long life, promising to thank Him forever through his psalms. Verses 6-9.
6: “thou hast given an inheritance”: God returns to his faithful servants their legitimate inheritance when they have been unjustly dispossessed of the same.
7: “Thou wilt add days to the days”: a picturesque locution denoting numerous days, in other words a long life. The psalmist is speaking directly about himself in this passage but, as the Jewish and Christian commentators have in turn admitted, his language goes far beyond himself and is especially suited to the M alka’ M’sihah (the king Messiah), for in him alone was David’s royalty to have an eternal duration. Cf. II Kings vii, 12-16; Luke i, 32-33.
8: “his mercy and truth”: according to the Vulgate: Who could scrutinise and understand the depths of these infinite attributes of God? According to the Hebrew: Order thy goodness and thy fidelity to keep him safe. Two precious Guardian angels. Cf. “Send forth thy light and thy truth: they have conducted me, and brought me unto thy holy hill, and into thy tabernacles.” Ps. XLII, 3.
9: “So will I sing a psalm to thy name for ever and ever: that I may pay my vows from day to day”: [Ed. This reads almost like a prophecy that his psalms will be chanted in prayer from his time onwards even to the present day, et in sæcula sæculorum!]
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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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