Today’s Chapter: Thanksgiving with Mary at Vespers
Chapter 18: In what order the Psalms are to be said (vv. 12-19)
Vespers are to be sung every day with four Psalms. And let these begin from the hundred and ninth, and go on to the hundred and forty-seventh, omitting those of their number that are set apart for other Hours – that is, from the hundred and seventeenth to the hundred and twenty-seventh, the hundred and thirty-third, and the hundred and forty-second. All the rest are to be said at Vespers. And as there are three Psalms wanting, let those of the aforesaid number which are somewhat long be divided, namely the hundred and thirty-eighth, the hundred and forty-third, and the hundred and forty-fourth. But let the hundred and sixteenth, as it is short, be joined to the hundred and fifteenth. The order of the Psalms at Vespers being thus disposed, let the rest, that is, the lessons, responses, hymns, verses and canticles, be said as already laid down. At Compline the same Psalms are to be repeated every day: namely the fourth, ninetieth, and hundred and thirty-third.
As has been noted already, in his arrangement of the Psalter Saint Benedict has drawn in many ways on the practice of the Roman liturgy, but has also made significant adaptations. His reliance on the Roman tradition is seen today in the choice of Psalms at Vespers, where Saint Benedict follows the Roman practice in beginning the cycle at Sunday Vespers with Psalm 109, Dixit Dominus, the great Messianic Psalm which describes in a mysterious way Our Lord’s Eternal Generation, His Birth in time, His victory over His foes through His Death and Resurrection, His Enthronement at God’s right hand, and His Judgment of the nations. From here, the Vespers cycle continues through the remainder of the Psalter. Saint Benedict’s arrangement differs from the Roman one in that he has only four Psalms at Vespers rather than the Roman five, and also because he skips the Gradual Psalms, having assigned them to the Little Hours. But in general, the Psalmody of Vespers in both the Roman and the Benedictine traditions goes through this final portion of the Psalter. This feature has also survived the various reforms of the Office over the past century: Saint Pius X’s very substantial revision of the Roman psalter left the Vespers psalmody nearly unchanged, and the current Liturgy of the Hours, while spreading the Psalms over four weeks, continues to reserve the final portion of the Psalter for Vespers. In the Benedictine context, even many monasteries which have adopted significantly different arrangements of the Psalter maintain the traditional Benedictine cursus for Vespers.
What is the characteristic of this final portion of the Psalter that the Church sings at eventide? According to Bergsma and Pitre’s Catholic Introdution to the Bible, the last ‘book’ of the Psalter, which in fact begins with Psalm 106, consists of three cycles, each of which goes from lament to praise, each cycle having at its center a Psalm of David: Psalm 109, Dixit Dominus, Psalm 131, Memento Domine David, and in the last cycle Psalm 144, Benedicam te Deus meus rex. In each of these cycles, in which we hear David lamenting and calling for help, and then praising God for his deliverance, we see Our Lord’s Passion and Glorification presented to us.
Thus, the hour of Vespers, traditionally associated in the Church’s piety with Our Lord’s Descent from the Cross, is a time when the Psalms invite us join Our Lady at the foot of the Cross, sharing in Our Lord’s sufferings, and hoping in His Resurrection. It is appropriate that this hour culminates in the Magnificat—a song which Our Lady sang, to be sure, during the joyful mystery of the Visitation, but which would still have been her prayer at the Cross, since she knew well that, as the Church makes us hear virtually every day in the Preface of the Mass, it is truly worthy and just, our duty and our salvation, to give thanks to God semper et ubique, always and everywhere. And so, always and everywhere, no matter whether we are in joy or in sorrow, we end each day with Our Lady in the thanksgiving, eucharistia, that should be the constant thread in the life of a Christian.