The Seven Penitential Psalms. Part Five.

Roman Text is taken from The Liturgical Year, by Abbot Guéranger, O.S.B.
Translated from the French by Dom Laurence Shepherd, O.S.B.
Volume 4. Septuagesima.

Bold Italic Text is taken from Wikipedia - the free encyclopaedia,
unless otherwise stated.

English: Saint Augustine of Hippo.

Deutsch: Hl. Augustinus in betrachtendem Gebet.

Four of the Penitential Psalms
were well known to Saint Augustine of Hippo.

Artist: Sandro Botticelli (1445–1510).

Date: Circa 1480.

Current location: Florence, Italy.

Notes: Deutsch: Auftraggeber: wahrscheinlich aus der Familie der Vespucci (Wappen).

Source/Photographer: The Yorck Project: 10.000 Meisterwerke der Malerei.
DVD-ROM, 2002. ISBN 3936122202. Distributed by DIRECTMEDIA Publishing GmbH.

Permission: [1].

(Wikimedia Commons)

PSALM 101.
Domine, exaudi orationem meam,
Et clamor meus ad te veniat.

PSALM 101.
Domine, exaudi orationem meam,
Et clamor meus ad te veniat.
Available on YouTube at
http://youtu.be/M0ASfj-5lyI.

The Penitential Psalms, or Psalms of Confession, so named in Cassiodorus's commentary of the 6th-Century A.D., are Psalms 6, 32, 38, 50, 102, 130, and 143 (6, 31, 37, 50, 101, 129, and 142 in the Septuagint numbering).

Note: The Septuagint numbering system has been used throughout this Series of Articles.

Psalm 6.      Domine ne in furore tuo (Pro octava).
Psalm 31.    Beati quorum remissae sunt iniquitates.
Psalm 37.    Domine ne in furore tuo (In rememorationem de sabbato).
Psalm 50.    Miserere mei Deus.
Psalm 101.  Domine exaudi orationem meam et clamor meus ad te veniat.
Psalm 129.  De profundis clamavi.
Psalm 142.  Domine exaudi orationem meam auribus percipe obsecrationem meam.

A Setting by Lassus of Psalm 129,
"De profundis clamavi ad te Domine", 

("Out of the depths have I cried unto Thee, O Lord").

Psalm 129 is one of the Seven Penitential Psalms.

Available on YouTube on
http://youtu.be/luLLO3c3LlE.

THE SEVEN PENITENTIAL PSALMS.

Part Five.

David laments over the captivity of God's people in Babylon, and Prays for the restoration of Sion. His words are appropriate for the Soul, who grieves over her sins, and implores to be regenerated by Grace.

Psalm 101.
Domine, exaudi orationem meam,
Et clamor meus ad te veniat.

Domine, exaudi orationem meam:
* Et clamor meus ad te veniat.

Non avertas faciem tuam a me:
* In quacumque die tribulor, inclina ad me aurem tuam.

In quacumque die invocavero te:
* Velociter exaudi me.



Quia defecerunt sicut fumus dies mei:
* Et ossa mea sicut cremium aruerunt.

Percussus sum ut foenum, et aruit cor meum:
* Quia oblitus sum comedere panem meum.

A voce gemitus mei:
* Adhaesit os meum carni meae.



Similis factus sum pellicano solitudinis:
* Factus sum sicut nycticorax in domicilio.

Vigilavi:
* Et factus sum sicut passer solitarius in tecto.

Tota die exprobrabant mihi inimici mei:
* Et qui laudabant me adversum me jurabant.



Quia cinerem tamquam panem manducabam:
* Et potum meum cum fletu miscebam.

A facie irae et indignationis tuae:
* Quia elevans allisisti me.

Dies mei sicut umbra declinaverunt:
* Et ego sicut foenum arui.



Tu autem, Domine, in aeternum permanes:
* Et memoriale tuum in generationem et generationem.

Tu exsurgens misereberis Sion:
* Quia tempus miserendi ejus, quia venit tempus.

Quoniam placuerunt servis tuis lapides ejus:
* Et terrae ejus miserebuntur.



Et timebunt gentes nomen tuum, Domine:
* Et omnes reges terrae gloriam tuam.

Quia aedificavit Dominus Sion:
* Et videbitur in gloria sua.

Respexit in orationem humilium:
*Et non sprevit precem eorum.



Scribantur haec in generatione altera:
*Et populus qui creabitur laudabit Dominum.

Quia prospexit de excelso sancto suo:
* Dominus de coelo in terram aspexit.

Ut audiret gemitus compeditorum:
* Ut solveret filios interemptorum.



Ut annuntient in Sion nomen Domini:
* Et laudem ejus in Jerusalem.

In conveniendo populos in unum:
* Et reges, ut serviant Domino.

Respondit ei in via virtutis suae:
* Paucitatem dierum meorum nuntia mihi.



Ne revoces me in dimidio dierum meorum:
* In generationem et generationem anni tui.

Initio tu, Domine, terram fundasti:
* Et opera manuum tuarum sunt coeli.

Ipsi peribunt, tu autem permanes:
* Et omnes sicut vestimentum veterascent.



Et sicut opertorium mutabis eos, et mutabuntur:
* Tu autem idem ipse es, et anni tui non deficient.

Filii servorum tuorum habitabunt:
* Et semen eorum in saeculum dirigetur.

Here, O Lord, my Prayer:
And let my cry come unto Thee.

Turn not away Thy face from me:
In the day when I am in trouble, incline Thine ear to me.

In what day soever I shall call upon Thee:
Hear me speedily.



For my days are vanished like smoke:
And my bones are grown dry like fuel for the fire.

I am smitten as grass, and my heart is withered:
Because I forgot to eat my bread.

Through the voice of my groaning:
My bone hath cleaved to my flesh.



I am become like to a pelican of the wilderness:
I am like a night-raven in the house.

I have watched:
And am become as a sparrow all alone on the house-top.

All the day long mine enemies reproached me:
And they that praised me, did swear against me.



For I did eat ashes like bread:
And mingled my drink with weeping.

Because of Thy anger and indignation:
For having lifted me up, Thou hast thrown me down.

My days have declined like a shadow:
And I am withered like grass.



But Thou, O Lord, endurest for ever:
And Thy memorial to all generations.

Thou shalt arise and have mercy on Sion:
For it is time to have mercy on it, for the time is come.

For the stones thereof have pleased Thy servants:
And they shall have pity on the Earth thereof.



And the Gentiles shall fear Thy name, O Lord:
And all the Kings of the Earth Thy Glory.

For the Lord hath built up Sion:
And He shall be seen in His Glory.

He hath had regard to the Prayer of the humble:
And He hath not despised their petition.



Let these things be written unto another generation:
And the people that shall be created, shall praise the Lord.

Because He hath looked forth from His high sanctuary:
From Heaven, the Lord hath looked upon the Earth.

That He might hear the groans of them that are in fetters:
That He might release the children of the slain.



That they may declare the name of the Lord in Sion:
And His praise in Jerusalem.

When the people assembled together:
And Kings to serve the Lord.

He (the royal prophet),
longing to see these glorious things,
answered him though still in the way of his strength:
Declare unto me the fewness of my days.



Call me not away in the midst of my days:
Thy years are unto generation and generation.

In the beginning, O Lord, Thou foundedst the Earth:
And the heavens are the works of Thy hands.

They shall perish, but Thou remainest:
And all of them shall grow old, like a garment.



And as a vesture Thou shalt change them, and they shall be changed:
But Thou art always the self-same, and Thy years shall not fail.

The children of Thy servants shall continue:
And their seed shall be directed for ever.

The Seven Penitential Psalms are expressive of sorrow for sin. Four were known as 'Penitential Psalms' by Saint Augustine of Hippo in the early 5th-Century. Psalm 50 (Miserere) was recited at the close of daily Morning Service in the Primitive Church.

Translations of the Penitential Psalms were undertaken by some of the greatest poets in Renaissance England, including Sir Thomas Wyatt, Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, and Sir Philip Sidney. Before the Suppression of the Minor Orders and Tonsure, in 1972, by Pope Paul VI, the Seven Penitential Psalms were assigned to new Clerics after having been Tonsured.

Orlande de Lassus'

"Psalmi Davidis poenitentiales".

This is a Setting of Psalm 6, "Domine, ne in furore tuo arguas me",

("O Lord, do not reprove me in Thy wrath, nor in Thy anger chastise me").

Psalm 6 is the first of the Seven Penitential Psalms.

Available on YouTube on

http://youtu.be/-0cILFy2sW4.

Perhaps the most famous musical setting of all the Seven Penitential Psalms is by Orlande de Lassus, with his Psalmi Davidis poenitentiales of 1584. There are also fine settings by Andrea Gabrieli and by Giovanni Croce. The Croce pieces are unique in being settings of Italian sonnet-form translations of the Psalms by Francesco Bembo. These were widely distributed. They were translated into English and published in London as Musica Sacra and were even translated (back) into Latin and published in Nürnberg as Septem Psalmi poenitentiales.

William Byrd set all Seven Psalms in English versions for three voices in his Songs of Sundrie Natures (1589). Settings of individual Penitential Psalms have been written by many composers. Well-known settings of the Miserere (Psalm 50) include those by Gregorio Allegri and Josquin des Prez. Settings of the De profundis (Psalm 129) include two in the Renaissance era by Josquin.


PART SIX FOLLOWS.