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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 71
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| “Inebriate my soul with the joy of Paradise.” Virgin and Child, by Elisabetta Sirani (1663). NMWA, Washington DC. Public domain. |
2. In thy hand are life and salvation: perpetual joy and glorious eternity[2].
3. Sprinkle my heart with thy sweetness: make me forget the miseries of this life[3].
4. Draw me after thee[4] by the bands of thy mercy[5]: and with the bandages of thy grace and loving kindness heal my pain[6].
5. Stir up in me a desire for Heaven: and inebriate my soul with the joy of Paradise[7].
Glory be to the Father etc.
1. Deus, judicium tuum Regi da: et misericordiam tuam Reginæ matri ejus.
2. In manu tua salus et vita consistunt: lætitia perpetua et æternitas gloriosa.
3. Resperge cor meum dulcedine tua: fac me oblivisci miserias hujus vitæ.
4. Trahe me post te vinculis misericordiæ tuæ: et fomentis gratiæ et pietatis tuæ sana dolorem meum.
5. Concupiscentias sempiternas excita in animam meam: et de gaudio Paradisi inebria mentem meam.
Gloria Patri, etc.
Footnotes
[1] Cf. “Give to the king thy judgment, O God: and to the king’s son thy justice”: Davidic Ps. LXXI, 2.
[2] Cf. “Thou hast dominion over all, in thy hand is power and might: in thy hand greatness, and the empire of all things.” I Para. xxix, 12.
[3] Cf. “He shall come down like rain upon the fleece; and as showers falling gently upon the earth.”: Davidic Ps. LXXI, 6.
[4] Cf. “Draw me: we will run after thee to the odour of thy ointments”: Cant. i, 3.
[5] Cf. “I will draw them with the cords of Adam, with the bands of love”: Osee xi, 4.
[6] Cf. “For I will close up thy scar, and will heal thee of thy wounds, saith the Lord”: Jer. xxx, 17.
[7] Cf. God promises abundance of spiritual graces to the faithful, that shall believe in Christ: “All you that thirst, come to the waters . . . buy wine and milk without money, and without any price. Why do you spend money for that which is not bread, and your labour for that which doth not satisfy you? Hearken diligently to me, and eat that which is good, and your soul shall be delighted in fatness.” Is. lv, 1-2.
Davidic Psalm LXXI
1 A psalm on Solomon.
2 Give to the king thy judgment, O God: and to the king’s son thy justice: To judge thy people with justice, and thy poor with judgment. 3 Let the mountains receive peace for the people: and the hills justice. 4 He shall judge the poor of the people, and he shall save the children of the poor: and he shall humble the oppressor.
5 And he shall continue with the sun, and before the moon, throughout all generations. 6 He shall come down like rain upon the fleece; and as showers falling gently upon the earth. 7 In his days shall justice spring up, and abundance of peace, till the moon be taken away.
8 And he shall rule from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth. 9 Before him the Ethiopians shall fall down: and his enemies shall lick the ground. 10 The kings of Tharsis and the islands shall offer presents: the kings of the Arabians and of Saba shall bring gifts: 11 And all kings of the earth shall adore him: all nations shall serve him.
12 For he shall deliver the poor from the mighty: and the needy that had no helper. 13 He shall spare the poor and needy: and he shall save the souls of the poor. 14 He shall redeem their souls from usuries and iniquity: and their names shall be honourable in his sight. 15 And he shall live, and to him shall be given of the gold of Arabia, for him they shall always adore: they shall bless him all the day.
16 And there shall be a firmament on the earth on the tops of mountains, above Libanus shall the fruit thereof be exalted: and they of the city shall flourish like the grass of the earth. 17 Let his name be blessed for evermore: his name continueth before the sun. And in him shall all the tribes of the earth be blessed: all nations shall magnify him.
18 Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, who alone doth wonderful things. 19 And blessed be the name of his majesty for ever: and the whole earth shall be filled with his majesty. So be it. So be it.
20 The praises of David, the son of Jesse, are ended.
Notes
Prayer for the King.
Title:
1: “A psalm on Solomon”: The word psalm is missing in Hebrew where we read only li’S’lomoh, which refers to the author of the poem and not its object. There is indeed something in this psalm which recalls Solomon’s style as a writer: for example, his way of proceeding in sentences, the richness of his imagery taken from nature etc. If you prefer to adopt the translation of the Septuagint, the Vulgate, and of numerous Jewish and Christian commentators, the author is understood to be David who would have composed this magnificent poetry as a prayer for his son Solomon, at the moment when he was going to leave him the throne.
This has rightly been described as a divine psalm which evidently was written in view of the arrival of a king, son of a preceding king. The author expresses the hopes and prayers natural to such an occasion, desiring and foreseeing a brilliant and happy reign. These hopes and prayers relate to two principal points : internally, justice, peace and prosperity; externally, great power, but a power which is pacific. The result is perfect happiness, especially for the little ones and the poor who normally have so much to suffer.
If the king in question is in fact Solomon, as many serious authors have thought, we should hasten to add that the psalmist goes beyond this Prince and his glories to prophecy in a most evident fashion the kingdom of the Messiah. This is the unanimous opinion of the ancient Synagogue and of the Christian Church. We believe, however, following Theodoret and a hundred other interpreters of the first rank, that Psalm LXXI does not concern Solomon in any way but rather Christ in an immediate and exclusive sense. How is it possible to apply to a king other than the Messiah verses 5, 7-8, 10, and 16 -17, which contain several of the principal ideas in the poem? The psalmist therefore is outlining the story of Christ, His arrival on earth, the exercise of His sovereignty in the world, the spread of the gospel, the spreading of the Church and the diffusion of grace among men until the end of this visible world. (Meignan).
Structure: the psalm may be divided into five unequal strophes:
1. vers. 2-4: the justice of the King-Messiah;
2. vers 5-7: the eternal duration and prosperity of His reign;
3. vers. 8-11: His domination over the entire earth;
4. vers. 12-15: His conduct with regard to little ones and the poor;
5. vers 16-17: the richness and glory of the Messianic reign.
Verses 18 to 19 do not form part of the canticle but are the doxology which finishes the second book in the Psaltery. Verse 20 is an even more general conclusion.
Lack of space precludes a fuller treatment of Fillion’s commentary on this psalm, but readers may find the following of interest in connection with the Blessed Virgin Mary when he cites St Bernard on verse 6. I have included the full excerpt from St Bernard’s Homily below.
6: “He shall come down like rain upon the fleece; and as showers falling gently upon the earth.”
§7. Gideon’s fleece was indeed shorn from the flesh but without any wound to the flesh. It was placed upon the dry ground and firstly there was dew on the fleece and later on the ground. What can this represent if not the flesh assumed from the flesh of the Virgin, and without any loss of virginity? Heaven dropped down dew upon it, filling it with the plenitude of the Divinity, and of that fullness we have all received – we who, but for it, would be like the dry ground. There is a prophetic reference in the Psalms which seems to touch very beautifully on this fact in Gideon’s history: “He shall come down like rain upon the fleece.” The words which follow this – “and as showers falling gently upon the earth,”– have the same meaning as when the dry ground is found wet with dew. That voluntary rain, indeed, which God set apart for His inheritance, first descended gently and without any noise or clamour of human agency in a most tranquil infusion of the virginal womb. But afterwards, it spread throughout the world through the mouths of preachers – no longer like rain coming down upon the fleece, but like showers falling upon the earth, accompanied by a certain clamour of words and the resounding noise of miracles. For indeed, the preachers were like clouds bearing rain and they remembered the command given to them when they were sent forth: “That which I tell you in the dark, speak ye in the light: and that which you hear in the ear, preach ye upon the housetops.” This injunction they carried out, for “their sound hath gone forth into all the earth: and their words unto the ends of the world.” From Homily II §7. of St Bernard’s Praises of the Virgin Mother. (1120).
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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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