The sense of this supernatural continuance has left its mark on the Psalms. The rout of the Assyrian armies is commemorated in one at least, the 76th:
The proud are robbed, they have slept their sleep:
And all the men whose hands were mighty have found nothing.
At Thy rebuke, O God of Jacob:
Both the chariot and horse are fallen.
The secret of victory preludes the Psalm. Jerusalem is the seat of God's special presence:
At Salem is His tabernacle:
And His dwelling in Sion.
The 46th may also refer to the same event. The flood of heathen invasion is breaking itself in vain against the walls of the city of God:
God is in the midst of her, therefore shall she not be removed:
God shall help her, and that right early.
The great historical Psalm, the 78th, speaks at its close of the hill of Sion and the Temple "built there on high" as coeval with the earth itself; its foundation is "like the ground which He hath made continually."16 And the later Psalms seem even to unite Sion and Jerusalem and the sacred nation with the very eternity of God Himself:
This shall be My rest for ever.
* * * * *
The Lord thy God, O Sion, shall be King for evermore.
* * * * *
Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem:
Praise thy God, O Sion.
For He hath made fast the bars of thy gates:
And hath blessed thy children within thee.
(cxxxii. 15, cxlvi. 10, cxlvii. 12, 13.)
The end of earthly Jerusalem, when it came, was no less significant than her long continuance. The double destruction of the city by the Roman armies (A.D. 70 and A.D. 135) was consummated by the strangeness of the failure of Julian the Apostate to rebuild and re-establish the Temple; flames burst out from the foundations and the workmen fled in terror.17 But long before this the Christian Church had recognised that in her world-wide citizenship and her worship, confined no longer (as the Lord had foretold) either to Jerusalem or a mountain in Samaria, she had inherited in fuller measure these promises of continuance. Had it not been said, when the great Apostle made his confession of Christ's Divinity, "Upon this rock I will build My Church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it"? And in this consciousness the Catholic Church rightly appropriated to herself the songs of Sion's confidence. Just as early Christian art set above the altars the figure of the living Christ enthroned as the Eternal King of the universe, so the Church has always known in her darkest moments that her continuance is as certain as her Master's throne; and that as He remains the same, though the heavens and the earth decay, and are changed as a garment, the promise of the 102nd Psalm is hers for ever:
The children of Thy servants shall continue:
And their seed snail stand fast in Thy sight.
Once again, the Psalmists feel that as Israel, the Church, is in a sense partaker in God's own eternity, so she is, even on earth, a shadow of His essential beauty, she appeals with His attractiveness to the soul of man. Hence the Christian finds in the Psalter words in which he may express his joy in his calling in the Church, his love and delight in his heavenly citizenship; words which may also remind him that, in spite of all the failures and littlenesses of the visible Church, it is through her that he is in touch with the ideal and the invisible.
Thus in no mere partisan or ecclesiastical spirit we are invited in the Psalms to express our love of the Catholic Church. On Whit Sunday, the Church's birthday, we take up the ancient strain of affection:
The hill of Sion is a fair place, and the joy of the whole earth.
We gaze with awe upon her jewelled foundations and her jasper walls; we wander with delight in her spacious golden streets:
Walk about Sion, and go round about her:
And tell the towers thereof.
Mark well her bulwarks, set up her houses:18
That ye may tell them that come after.
For this God is our God for ever and ever:
He shall be our guide unto death.
(xlviii.)
In another Psalm, the 122nd, one of the pilgrim-psalms recited of old as the faithful drew near to Jerusalem, we contemplate with joy and self-forgetfulness the ideal unity of the Church as the true centre of the earth, and as "the seat of judgment" to which all this world's shams and shadows must come sooner or later for their reformation or their sentence:
O pray for the peace of Jerusalem:
They shall prosper that love thee.
Peace be within thy walls:
And plenteousness within thy palaces.
For my brethren and companions' sakes:
I will wish thee prosperity.
Yea, because of the house of the Lord our God:
I will seek to do thee good.
It is an aspiration that should find an echo in the heart of every faithful son of the Church, especially in such "a day of trouble and of rebuke and blasphemy" as our own.
Thus while we recognise in the Psalter the expression, put into our lips by the Holy Spirit, of our own personal struggles and joys and sorrows in the spiritual life, while we remember with awe and gratitude that the Eternal Son of God Himself here speaks and prays and suffers as one of us, we shall find here also the voice of our corporate consciousness, our life and worship as citizens even on earth of that "Jerusalem which is above, which is the mother of us all."
And so as we conclude every Psalm in the Church's service with the Gloria, with that confession of our faith which prophets and kings would fain have known and knew not, let us lift up our hearts and give glory to the Father, Who has revealed to us His Name; glory to the Son, Who has vouchsafed in all things to be made like unto us His brethren; glory to the Holy Ghost, Whose word and power in the Church is undying, Who is still bringing forth from the ancient treasury old things which are ever new.
Gloria Patri, et Filio:
Et Spiritui Sancto.
Sicut erat in principio, et nunc, et semper:
Et in sæcula sæculorum.
Amen.
NOTES
A. The extent to which the Psalms were used liturgically by the Jews in Temple and Synagogue is not at all fully known. The following list of uses is interesting in itself, but probably does not by any means cover the whole field. And it seems certain, from the free and natural way in which the Psalms are referred to in the New Testament, that, even if a comparatively small number were used in the public services, the Psalter must have been very familiar indeed to the pious Jew of our Lord's time and have formed practically his book of private devotion.
DAILY IN THE TEMPLE (AND PROBABLY ELSEWHERE):
First day. Ps. xxiv. The earth is the Lord's, etc.
Second day. Ps. xlviii. Great is the Lord.
Third day. Ps. lxxxii. God standeth in the congregation.
Fourth day. Ps. xciv. O Lord God, to Whom vengeance belongeth.
Fifth day. Ps. lxxxi. Sing we merrily unto God our strength.
Sixth day. Ps. xciii. The Lord is King.
Sabbath day. Ps. xcii. It is a good thing to give thanks.
THE PASSOVER, AND ON OTHER GREAT FESTIVALS. The Hallel, probably Pss. cxiii.-cxviii.
FEAST OF TABERNACLES:
First day. Ps. cv. O give thanks.
Second day. Ps. xxix. Bring unto the Lord.
Third day. Ps. l. 16. But unto the ungodly said God.
Fourth day. Ps. xciv. 16. Who will rise up with me.
Fifth day. Ps. xciv. 8. Take heed, ye unwise.
Sixth day. Ps. lxxxi. 6. I eased his shoulder. Pss. cxx.-cxxxiv. Songs of Degrees.
Seventh day. Ps. lxxxii. 5. They will not be learned.
NEW MOON OF SEVENTH OR SABBATICAL MONTH. Ps. lxxxi. Sing we merrily.
DEDICATION. The Hallel, as at the Passover.
PRESENTATION OF FIRST-FRUITS. Ps. cxxii. I was glad. Ps. xxx. I will magnify Thee, O Lord.
B. The allusions to the singing of Psalms in the New Testament shew that it was from the first a recognised Christian devotion, both in public and private (Acts xvi. 25; 1 Cor. xiv. 26; Eph. v. 19; James v. 13). This is borne out by the evidence of the Christian Fathers (see, for example, S. Athanasius' Epistle to Marcellinus; S. Aug. Confess. ix. 8; S. Jerome, Ep. xlvi.). But it was no doubt the rise of the monastic life in Egypt and its subsequent spread over the whole Church in the fourth and fifth centuries that led by its disciplined devotion to the systematic arrangement of the Psalter for daily services and to its continuous recitation. Many of the early monks, indeed, recited the whole Psalter daily; but the Western use, settled traditionally by S. Gregory the Great, aimed at a weekly recitation, and this system in theory dominated the Breviary services all through the Middle Ages.
The normal arrangement of the Psalter in the daily offices was, roughly speaking, as follows:
At Mattins, Ps. i.-cix., divided into nine "Nocturns," three of which were said on Sunday, and one on each of the following week-days, beginning each day with the 95th, the Invitatory Psalm.
At Lauds, Pss. lxiii., lxvii., cxlviii.-cl., with certain other varying Psalms.
At Prime, always Ps. liv. and the first four portions of the 119th, and one varying Psalm.
At Terce, the next six portions of the 119th.
At Sext, the next six portions of the 119th.
At None, the last six portions of the 119th.
At Vespers, Pss. cx.-cxlvii., divided into seven portions, omitting the 119th.
At Compline, iv., xxxi. 1-6, xci., cxxxiv.
Thus the bulk of the Psalms were said at the two offices which corresponded most closely to our Morning and Evening Prayer; some few were said daily, the 51st was said at every one of the offices, and the others were said weekly.
But in practice a festival arrangement of the Psalms, in which a much smaller number, and chiefly of the shorter Psalms, were recited, was largely substituted for the normal or ferial use, thus justifying the criticism of our Reformers, "Now of late time a few of them have been daily said and the rest utterly omitted."
The following special uses are also interesting:
THE OFFICE OF THE DEAD:
Vespers (the "Placebo"): cxvi., cxx., cxxi., cxxx., cxxxviii.
Mattins (the "Dirge"): v., vi., vii.; xxiii., xxv., xxvii., xl., xli., xlii.
Lauds: li., lxv., lxiii., cxlviii.-cl., cxlv.
PREPARATION FOR MASS: lxxxiv., lxxxv., lxxxvi., cxvi. 10., cxxx., xliii.
THANKSGIVING AFTER MASS: cl.
C. Antiphons were originally verses sung as a refrain between each verse of the Psalms, one side of the choir taking the former and the other the latter. The refrain varied at different seasons and festivals. An example of this early and more elaborate use survived in the Breviary in the treatment of the Venite as an Invitatory Psalm. But gradually, for the sake of brevity, this method was abandoned, and the normal use of antiphons in the Breviary was simply after (or on festivals before and after) each Psalm or set of Psalms. The advantage of the antiphon lay in the fact that it shewed at once with what particular intention the Psalm was sung, as the same Psalm naturally might be sung on many different occasions and with reference to a different season or festival. But the very complex nature of the antiphons or "anthems" led the English Reformers to abandon them altogether; "many times," as they said, "there was more business to find out what should be read, than to read it when it was found out." The only traces of antiphons left in the Prayer Book are: (1) "O Sapientia," in the Kalendar on December 16, the first words of the first of the "Greater Antiphons" to the Magnificat, which began on that day and continued till Christmas Eve, each commencing with some striking Old Testament title of the Messiah; (2) in the Litany, the repetition of the words, "O Lord, arise," etc., shews that this is the antiphon to the Psalm "O God, we have heard" (perhaps originally the whole of Ps. xliv., but now one verse only); (3) the words "O Saviour of the world," etc., in the Office for the Visitation of the Sick. The last is the best example: the antiphon connects the recitation of Ps. lxxi. with the Passion of our Lord; the intention of the Psalm is thus shewn to be the association of our sufferings in sickness with the Cross of Christ (cf. the second exhortation in the same office).
D. Helps to the study of the Psalter.
Literal Meaning:
Kirkpatrick, in the Cambridge Bible (3 vols.). The Introduction is extremely useful, and an excellent list of the literature bearing on the Psalter is also given.
Perowne, The Book of Psalms.
Cheyne, The Book of Psalms.
Barry, Teacher's Prayer Book.
Mystical and Spiritual Meaning:
Neale and Littledale, Commentary on the Psalms (4 vols.). This has a very valuable Introduction on the Psalms as used in the offices of the Church, and a dissertation (in vol. i.) on the mystical and literal interpretation of the Psalms.
Walpole, The People's Psalter.
General:
Prothero, The Psalms in Human Life.
Marson, The Psalms at Work.
Church, The Sacred Poetry of Early Religions, in The Gifts of Civilisation. The Discipline of the Christian Character, iii.
Robertson Smith, The Old Testament in the Jewish Church, lect. vii.
Orr, The Problem of the Old Testament, c. xii.
Alexander (Archbishop), The Witness of the Psalms to Christ.
APPENDIX
Brief Suggestions as to the Christian Use of each Psalm
The following suggestions, which follow the lines of the preceding lectures, do not claim any special authority, except in cases noted, where the New Testament or the Church's actual use has appropriated a Psalm to some particular Christian application.
PSALM i. Beatus vir
The Church's witness to the blessedness of the life of holiness, based on obedience to the revealed Word of God (the great example of which is the life of Christ Himself); with which is contrasted the eternal failure of the ungodly.
PSALM ii. Quare fremuerunt gentes?
Acts iv. 25-28. Easter Day, morning (Prayer Book)
The futile warfare of the princes of this world against Christ and His Church. The certainty of Christ's victory and His universal kingdom, as seen in His Resurrection and Ascension.
PSALM iii. Domine, quid multiplicati?
[Introit for Second Mass on Easter Day, in 1549 Prayer Book]
Christ's victory in His Resurrection over all His enemies; the blessedness of His Church.
PSALM iv. Cum invocarem
The deliverance of Christ from the contradiction of sinners. The Church's certainty of salvation in Christ, both in this life and in that which is to come, contrasted with the doubts and uncertain riches of the world.
[One of the Compline Psalms, in which the Christian commends himself to sleep in Christ.]
PSALM v. Verba mea auribus
A Psalm illustrating the life of prayer, public and private; witnessing to prayer and meditation as the source of inward strength and guidance, both in the life of Christ and in that of His people, in the face of this world's treachery and cruelty.
[One of the Psalms for the Dirge (whence it derives its name, ver. 8, "Dirige"), referring to God's leading the departed soul through the attacks of evil spirits to its rest in Him.]
PSALM vi. Domine, ne in furore
Ash Wednesday, morning (Prayer Book)
The prayer of the human soul suffering the temporal punishments, bodily and mental, of sin. Christ Himself endured these sufferings to the utmost, not for Himself, but for His people, and in this sense it, with the other penitential Psalms, may be called a Psalm of the Incarnation.
PSALM vii. Domine, Deus meus
The declaration of the Innocency of Christ against the persecution and treachery of His enemies; His appeal to the Father's justice.
PSALM viii. Domine, Dominus noster
Heb. ii. Ascension Day, morning (Prayer Book)
The glory of God's Name (or revelation of Himself) in nature and in the Incarnation. The triumph and universal empire of Christ as the Son of Man, and the Second Adam.
PSALM ix. Confitebor tibi
Thanksgiving for the triumph of God's righteousness in Christ, which is the pledge of the future destruction of all evil.
PSALM x. Ut quid, Domine?
Continues the thought of Ps. ix., and prays for the manifestation of God's righteousness in Christ, in view of the continuance of evil, the apparent immunity of the wicked, and their unceasing warfare against the Church.
PSALM xi. In Domino confido
A Psalm of the Passion of Christ; His faith in the Father's righteousness, and in the ultimate overthrow of the wicked.
PSALM xii. Salvum me fac
A prayer of Christ and His Church against the evil tongues of the wicked; with these are contrasted the purity and certainty of the Divine revelation, "the words of the Lord."
PSALM xiii. Usque quo, Domine?
A prayer of Christ and His faithful ones in view of the approach of death.
PSALM xiv. Dixit insipiens
Rom. ii. 10-18
The judgment of the world's unbelief, contrasted with the Church's faith, and her hope in the coming of Christ.
PSALM xv. Domine, quis habitabit?
Ascension Day, morning (Prayer Book)
The human perfections of Christ, enthroned in heaven as the Son of Man.
Also a picture of the saintly life, in union with Christ, Who is God's tabernacle among men (Rev. xxi. 3).
PSALM xvi. Conserva me, Domine
Acts ii. 25-28. [Introit for Easter Day, Prayer Book of 1549]
Christ's devotion to the Father; His preservation through death and the grave; His Resurrection and eternal joy at the right hand of the Father.
PSALM xvii. Exaudi, Domine
A prayer of Christ and His Church against the temptations of the world, in view of the hope of the Resurrection and the Life everlasting.
PSALM xviii. Diligam te, Domine
The triumph of Christ (under the figure of David); His universal empire.
PSALM xix. Coeli enanant
Rom. x. 18. Christmas Day, morning (Prayer Book)
The Church's thanksgiving for God's Word in Nature, in the Incarnation, in the Bible; and her prayer for faithfulness.
PSALM xx. Exaudiat te Dominus
King's Accession (Prayer Book)
The Church's witness to Christ her King as He goes forth to battle in the power of His finished sacrifice. Suitable also as a prayer for a Christian ruler, whose strength is in Christ.
PSALM xxi. Domine, in virtute tua
Ascension Day, morning (Prayer Book)
The Church's joy in the triumph of Christ; in the Father's answer to His prayer, and in His glorious coronation as the Son of Man.
PSALM xxii. Deus, Deus meus
Matt. xxvii. 35-46 (with parallels in other Evangelists), Heb. ii. 12. Good Friday, morning (Prayer Book)
Christ's prayer in His Passion and Crucifixion; His prophecy of the calling of His Church, and of the Eucharist. (See above, pp. 77, 78.)
PSALM xxiii. Dominus regit me
John x. 1-16, 26-29
The Church's confession of faith in Christ the Good Shepherd, and in His sacramental gifts.
PSALM xxiv. Domini est terra
Ascension Day, evening (Prayer Book)
The joy of the Church and of the angels in the Ascension of Christ, the King of Glory.
PSALM xxv. Ad te, Domine, levavi
A confession of faith in the Name of God; the Church's prayer for deliverance from temptation and adversity.
PSALM xxvi. Judica me, Domine
A prayer of Christ as He approaches His Passion; and of the Christian priest when about to offer the Holy Eucharist.
PSALM xxvii. Dominus illuminatio
The hope of Christ and His Church in the Fatherhood of God; a prophecy of the Resurrection and the Holy Eucharist (vv. 6, 7).
PSALM xxviii. Ad te, Domine
The prayer of Christ for deliverance from His enemies; and for His Church (ver. 10).
PSALM xxix. Afferte Domino
The Church's thanksgiving for the sovereignty of Christ over all the powers of nature, and over His Church.
PSALM xxx. Exaltabo te, Domine
A thanksgiving of Christ and His Church for the Resurrection.
PSALM xxxi. In te, Domine, speravi
S. Luke xxiii. 46
Christ's prayer in His Passion and Crucifixion; His exhortation to His Church (vv. 26, 27).
PSALM xxxii. Beati, quorum
Rom. iv. 6-8. Ash Wednesday, morning (Prayer Book)
The Church's confession of sin, and the blessedness of forgiveness through faith in Christ. (See on Ps. vi.)
PSALM xxxiii. Exultate, justi
The Church's thanksgiving for creation and redemption, and for her own exceeding blessedness in being called to be the people of the Lord.
PSALM xxxiv. Benedicam Domino
A thanksgiving of Christ for His Resurrection. His call to His Church to obedience, to holiness, to courage.
PSALM xxxv. Judica, Domine
A prayer of Christ against the persecution and false witness of His enemies, and on behalf of those who love Him.
PSALM xxxvi. Dixit infustus
The Church's witness to the awfulness of sin; her confession of hope in the blessedness of the life eternal in contrast with the doom of the ungodly.
PSALM xxxvii. Noli cemulari
A Psalm of a proverbial character; the testimony of the Church's experience of the justice of God, in spite of the apparent prosperity of the wicked: it expresses the restfulness of the life of faith.
Cf. ver. ii with Matt. v. 5.
PSALM xxxviii. Domine, ne in furore
Ash Wednesday, morning (Prayer Book)
A Psalm of Christ bearing in loneliness and silence the burden of human sin, confessing it on man's behalf to the Father, and praying for our salvation.
PSALM xxxix. Dixi, custodiam
Burial of the Dead (Prayer Book)
Continues in some respects the tone of the previous Psalm. It may be regarded as a Psalm of Christ bearing the sorrow of man's mortality, and interceding on man's behalf with the Father.
PSALM xl. Expectans expectavi
Heb. x. 5-10. Good Friday, morning (Prayer Book)
A Psalm of Christ's Incarnation, Passion, Sin-bearing, and Resurrection; it expresses the secret of His Atonement (see above, pp. 61, 62) and His fulfilment of O.T. prophecy (ver. 10).
PSALM xli. Beatus qui intelligit
John xiii. 18
A Psalm of Christ's compassion; and of the treachery of His enemies, especially of Judas.
PSALM xlii. Quemadmodum
[Introit for Burial of the Dead, Prayer Book of 1549]
A Psalm of Christ's human soul in His earthly pilgrimage, and in the prospect of death; His desire to return to the Father. Hence also suitable for the Christian soul in sickness and dying.
PSALM xliii. Judica me, Deus
A continuation of the previous Psalm. Christ speaks in it to the Father as He approaches His Passion, and contemplates with joy the sacrifice He is about to offer for man. Hence this Psalm has long been used in the Church as the immediate preparation of the Priest for offering the Holy Eucharist.
PSALM xliv. Deus, auribus
Rom. viii. 36
The appeal of the suffering and persecuted Church to Christ; her confession of faithfulness to that which He has entrusted to her keeping.
PSALM xlv. Enructavit cor meum
Heb. i. Christmas Day, morning (Prayer Book)
The Church celebrates the Incarnation under the figure of a royal marriage. The bridegroom is Christ Himself, described in vv. 3-9; the bride, the King's daughter, is the Church destined to spread into all lands. The "daughter of Tyre" is symbolical of the heathen world coming to Christ. The "queen" (or queen-mother) of ver. 10 has often been interpreted of the Blessed Virgin.
PSALM xlvi. Deus nosier refugium
A Psalm of the Church's confidence: she is conscious of the presence of Christ and the Holy Spirit (ver. 4, R.V.) within her; and confesses that this is her eternal strength amidst the warfare and tumult of the world.
PSALM xlvii. Omnes gentes, plaudite
Ascension Day, morning (Prayer Book)
The joy of the Church in the glorious Ascension of Christ; and in His universal sovereignty, which all the world will ultimately acknowledge.
PSALM xlviii. Magnus Dominus
Whitsun Day, morning (Prayer Book)
The joy of the Church in her ideal beauty and her steadfastness; and her sure hope of ultimate victory over all the powers of this world.
[The Psalm should be compared both with the promise of Christ in Matt. xvi. 18 and the picture of the perfected Church in Rev. xxi., xxii.]
PSALM xlix. Audite hæc, omnes
The Church's meditation upon the vanity of human riches and greatness in view of death; the need of man's redemption through Christ alone (vv. 7, 8); the certainty of the resurrection of the faithful through the Resurrection of Christ.
PSALM 1. Deus deorum
The second advent of Christ as the final Judge of the world, and especially of His Church.
PSALM li. Miserere mei, Deus
Ash Wednesday (Commination Service)
The Church's confession of sin, and of failure to fulfil her great vocation in the world; her prayer to Christ for forgiveness and restoration. (See on Ps. vi.)
PSALM lii. Quid gloriaris?
The Church's challenge to "the prince of this world" and to Antichrist; and the confession of her own eternal hope in Christ.
PSALM liii. Dixit insipiens
See on Ps. xiv.
PSALM liv. Deus, in nomine
Good Friday, morning (Prayer Book)
A prayer of Christ in His Passion, and His self-consecration to the Father.
PSALM lv. Exaudi, Deus
A prayer of Christ in His loneliness and desolation, amidst the treachery of His enemies and especially of His false disciple.
PSALM lvi. Miserere mei, Deus
Christ's complaint to the Father against the contradiction of sinners; His confidence in the Father's word, and His sure hope in His Resurrection.
PSALM lvii. Miserere mei, Deus
Easter Day, morning (Prayer Book)
The Psalm of Christ "glorified" through His Passion and Resurrection.
PSALM lviii. Si vere utique
Christ's judgment upon sinners; the vindication of Divine justice.
PSALM lix. Eripe me de inimicis
A prayer of Christ in His Passion against the malice of His enemies; His denunciation of their impenitence; His hope of the Resurrection and the final vindication of Divine justice.
PSALM lx. Deus, repulisti nos
A prayer of the scattered and persecuted Church, and the answer of the triumphant Christ (under the figure of David's victories).
PSALM lxi. Exaudi, Deus
A prayer of the scattered Church, praying to be established on the rock of Christ; her confession of faith in the eternal royalty of Christ.
PSALM lxii. Nonne Deo?
The Church's confidence in Christ her rock in contrast with the falsehood of the world and the deceitfulness of riches; her faith in the ultimate manifestation of the Divine justice.
PSALM lxiii. Deus, Deus meus
A prayer of the exiled Church; her joy in worship, and her confidence in the sovereignty of Christ.
PSALM lxiv. Exaudi, Deus
A prayer of Christ in His Passion; the prediction of the overthrow of the Jewish nation, and the continual testimony of this overthrow to the truth of Christ.
PSALM lxv. Te decet hymnus
The Church's hope of her heavenly inheritance in Christ, and of the regeneration of the earth by the river of His spiritual gifts. The Psalm seems to be a forecast of the joy and prosperity of "the new heaven and the new earth."
PSALM lxvi. Jubilate Deo
Thanksgiving after a Storm at Sea (Prayer Book)
The thanksgiving of the Church in the conversion of the world; she looks forward to the end of this world and her deliverance from its sufferings, and contemplates her entrance into the eternal worship of heaven.
PSALM lxvii. Deus misereatur
Alternative to Nunc Dimittis; Holy Matrimony (Prayer Book)
The joy of the Church in the conversion of the world to Christ; her hope of God's blessing upon all her works.
PSALM lxviii. Exurgat Deus
Whitsun Day, morning (Prayer Book)
The triumphant procession-hymn of the Catholic Church in her progress through the world; rejoicing in the gifts of the ascended Christ, and in the hope of the conversion of the heathen.
PSALM lxix. Salvum me fac
Matt. xxvii. 34; John ii. 17, xix. 28, 29; Rom. xv. 3. Good Friday, evening (Prayer Book)
A Psalm of the Passion and Crucifixion of Christ; a denunciation of Divine vengeance upon the Jews; concluding with a prophecy of the calling and continuance of the Church.
PSALM lxx. Deus in adjutorium
A Psalm similar in tone to the preceding; it may be applied to Christ in His Passion, or to the faithful ones who suffer with Him, and look to Him as Redeemer.