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125-655: The Biblical Psalms are the core of the Divine Office or the Liturgy of the Hours , a Christian prayer practice. Throughout its history, beginning in the pre-Christian era in the context of Jewish religion, believers have been reciting or singing these 150 poems. Scholars point out two main types of this practice in antiquity: so-called cursus cathedralis (a cathedral way of psalms recitation) and cursus monasticus (a monastic way of psalms recitation), which are relevant to

250-945: A Psalm 151 ; a Hebrew version of this was found in the Psalms Scroll of the Dead Sea Scrolls . Some versions of the Peshitta (the Bible used in Syriac churches mainly in the Middle East) include Psalms 152–155 . There are also the Psalms of Solomon , which are a further 18 psalms of Jewish origin, likely originally written in Hebrew, but surviving only in Greek and Syriac translation. These and other indications suggest that

375-594: A benediction ). These divisions were probably introduced by the final editors to imitate the five-fold division of the Torah : Many psalms (116 of the 150) have individual superscriptions (titles), ranging from lengthy comments to a single word. Over a third appear to be musical directions, addressed to the "leader" or "choirmaster", including such statements as "with stringed instruments" and "according to lilies". Others appear to be references to types of musical composition, such as "A psalm" and "Song", or directions regarding

500-418: A doxology , or a hymn of praise. There are several types of psalms, including hymns or songs of praise, communal and individual laments, royal psalms , imprecation , and individual thanksgivings. The book also includes psalms of communal thanksgiving, wisdom, pilgrimage and other categories. While many of the psalms contain attributions to the name of King David and other Biblical figures including Asaph ,

625-560: A Supplement to the book of the Liturgy of the Hours as the Instruction claims. Such a supplement has never appeared. Although it is difficult to explain the Supplement absence, it is possible to find how its announcement was included in the Instruction . According to the reports of the several post-conciliar commissions working on liturgy reform, Jorge Pinell OSB (1921–1997) gave a particular impulse to introduce psalm-prayers to

750-510: A concert of praise at the end. He concluded that the collection was redacted to be a retrospective of the failure of the Davidic covenant , exhorting Israel to trust in God alone in a non-messianic future. Walter Brueggemann suggested that the underlying editorial purpose was oriented instead towards wisdom or sapiential concerns, addressing the issues of how to live the life of faith. Psalm 1 calls

875-434: A day I praise you", and Psalm 118/119:62, "At midnight I rise to praise you". Of these eight hours, Prime and Compline may be the latest to appear, because the 4th-century Apostolic Constitutions VIII iv 34 do not mention them in the exhortation "Offer up your prayers in the morning, at the third hour, the sixth, the ninth, the evening, and at cock-crowing". The eight are known by the following names, which do not reflect

1000-564: A melody recognizable as the tonus peregrinus of church and synagogue. Mitchell includes musical transcriptions of the temple psalmody of Psalms 120–134 in his commentary on the Songs of Ascents. In "The Flow of the Psalms," O. Palmer Robertson posits a thematic progression throughout the five books of Psalms, delineating distinctive characteristics and emphases: Book 1: Opposition - Predominantly attributed to David, these Psalms are perceived as

1125-632: A new cover and revised Calendar of the Movable Feasts. Besides these shorter editions of The Divine Office , there used to be A Shorter Prayer During the Day comprising the Psalter for the Middle Hours also published by Collins. The last known reprint year is 1986, but this edition is now out of print. In 2009, Prayer during the day was published by Catholic Truth Society . The Liturgy of

1250-645: A number of hymns composed by himself and his brother Joseph (see Typicon for further details). In the West, the Rule of Saint Benedict modeled his guidelines for the prayers on the customs of the basilicas of Rome . It was he who expounded the concept in Christian prayer of the inseparability of the spiritual life from the physical life. The Benedictines began to call the prayers the Opus Dei or "Work of God." As

1375-547: A number of minor psalm-types, including: The composition of the psalms spans at least five centuries, from the 10th-century Psalm 29 to others clearly from the post-Exilic period (i.e., not earlier than the fifth century BC). The majority originated in the southern kingdom of Judah and were associated with the Temple in Jerusalem , where they probably functioned as librettos during Temple worship . Exactly how they did so

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1500-618: A part of the canonical hours. By 60 AD, the Didache recommended disciples to pray the Lord's Prayer three times a day; this practice found its way into the canonical hours as well. Pliny the Younger (63 – c.  113 ), mentions not only fixed times of prayer by believers, but also specific services – other than the Eucharist – assigned to those times: "they met on a stated day before it

1625-764: A prayer. The range of sources is much wider than in aforementioned works, whose editors used only psalters containing the prayers following each psalm. The sources of LOP include the Mozarabic psalter preserved in an 11th-century manuscript from the Spanish Abbey of Santo Domingo de Silos , Liber Misticus or Mixtus (10th–11th century), Liber Orationum Festivus (8th–9th century), Liber Ordinum (11th century), Liber Horarum (11th century). Pinell considered early modern printed books from such as Breviarium secundum regulam beati Isidori (Toledo 1502) or Breviarium Gothicum (Madrid 1775). LOP's diversity of sources explain

1750-565: A radical revision of the Roman Breviary, to be put into effect, at latest, on 1 January 1913. See Reform of the Roman Breviary by Pope Pius X . Pope Pius XII allowed the use of a new translation of the Psalms from the Hebrew and established a special commission to study a general revision, concerning which all the Catholic bishops were consulted in 1955. His successor, Pope John XXIII , implemented these revisions in 1960. Following

1875-717: A range of different English Bibles for the readings from Scripture, was published in 1974. The four-volume Liturgy of the Hours , with Scripture readings from the New American Bible , appeared in 1975 with approval from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops . The 1989 English translation of the Ceremonial of Bishops includes in Part III instructions on the Liturgy of the Hours which

2000-409: A special subset of "eschatological hymns" which includes themes of future restoration (Psalm 126) or of judgment (Psalm 82). Communal laments are psalms in which the nation laments some communal disaster. Both communal and individual laments typically but not always include the following elements: In general, the individual and communal subtypes can be distinguished by the use of the singular "I" or

2125-429: A supplement. Pinell published his work a year later in 1972. Contrary to the previous editions of the psalm-prayers presenting three series of such prayers depended on their assumed origin (African, Roman, Spanish). LOP, though limited to one Spanish series, includes a 300-page general introduction to the psalm-prayers and the critical apparatus attached to each. The apparatus provides references to all sources testifying to

2250-534: A third of the psalms are addressed to the Director of Music. Some psalms exhort the worshipper to sing (e.g. Pss. 33:1-3; 92:1-3; 96:1-3; 98:1; 101:1; 150). Some headings denote the musical instruments on which the psalm should be played (Pss. 4, 5, 6, 8, 67). Some refer to the Levites who sang one of eight melodies, one of which was known simply as "the eighth" ( Hebrew : sheminit ) (Pss. 6, 12). And others preserve

2375-569: Is designed not to achieve favor, as such, but rather to inculcate belief in Divine Providence into one's consciousness, consistently with Maimonides ' general view on Providence . (Relatedly, the Hebrew verb for prayer, hitpalal התפלל, is in fact the reflexive form of palal פלל, to intervene, petition, judge. Thus, "to pray" conveys the connotation of "judging oneself": ultimately, the purpose of prayer— tefilah תפלה—is to transform ourselves.) New Testament references show that

2500-438: Is no consistency in the terminology. A term oratio psalmica – psalm-prayer – appears together with a more meaningful term oratio super psalmum , which could be translated literally as a prayer on a psalm . A particular aim of such a prayer is stated: the psalm-prayer sums up the aspirations and emotions of those saying them ( oratio psallentium affectus colligat et concludat – para 112 ). These prayers should be provided by

2625-642: The Liber Orationum Psalmographus , the Book of Psalm-Prayers which originated in the Mozarabic Rite . Shorter editions of the Liturgy of the Hours are also available from various publishers: Christian Prayer (Daughters of St Paul and Catholic Book Publishing Company), Shorter Christian Prayer (Catholic Book Publishing Company) and Daytime Prayer (Catholic Book Publishing Company). In 2007, Liturgy Training Publications released

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2750-569: The tonus peregrinus melody to Psalm 114. Cantillation signs, to record the melody sung, were in use since ancient times; evidence of them can be found in the manuscripts of the oldest extant copies of Psalms in the Dead Sea Scrolls and are even more extensive in the Masoretic text , which dates to the Early Middle Ages and whose Tiberian scribes claimed to be basing their work on temple-period signs. (See Moshe ben Asher's 'Song of

2875-728: The Benedictus and Magnificat antiphons for the 3-year cycle on Sundays added in the Liturgia Horarum, editio typica altera . The Psalms are taken from the Revised Grail Psalter with the rest of the biblical texts taken from the New American Bible . This is the only official English edition of the Office that is based on the Liturgia Horarum, editio typica altera . Following the establishment of

3000-839: The Carmelite , the Carthusian , the Dominican , the Premonstratensian , and the Ambrosian. St. Mark's Basilica in Venice, along with the four churches under its jurisdiction, retained its own unique liturgies, psalms, and Latin translations into the 19th century. Many other churches whose local rites predated Pius V's breviary by 200 years or more, such as that of Mantua, continued to use their own breviaries, liturgical calendars, and psalms, as well. Later popes altered

3125-623: The Gallican Psalter for the Roman. The Franciscans gradually spread this breviary throughout Europe. Pope Nicholas III would then adopt the widely used Franciscan breviary to be the breviary used in Rome. By the 14th century, the breviary contained the entire text of the canonical hours. The Council of Trent in its final session on 4 December 1563 entrusted the reform of the breviary to the then pope, Pius IV . On 9 July 1568, Pope Pius V ,

3250-487: The Latin Catholic , Eastern Catholic , Eastern Orthodox , Oriental Orthodox , Assyrian , Lutheran , Anglican , and some other Protestant churches) celebrate the canonical hours in various forms and under various names. The chant or recitation of the Divine Office therefore forms the basis of prayer within the consecrated life , with some of the monastic or mendicant orders producing their own permutations of

3375-727: The Mundelein Psalter , containing Morning, Evening and Night Prayers and the Office for the Dead, with the 1963 Grail translation of the Psalms set to specially composed chant, and with hymns translated from the hymns of the Latin Liturgia Horarum . The Divine Office and the Liturgy of the Hours editions are both based on the Latin 1971 editio typica. In 2009, on the occasion of the Synod of African Bishops in Rome,

3500-904: The New English Bible and Ronald Knox's Translation of the Vulgate . Some of the canticles taken from the Revised Standard Version were amended slightly to conform the English text to the Vulgate in The Divine Office . The intercessions, concluding prayers, antiphons, short responses, responsories, second readings in the Office of Readings, the Te Deum and the Glory be to the Father are all translations approved by

3625-708: The Psalms , or the Psalter , is the first book of the third section of the Tanakh ( Hebrew Bible ) called Ketuvim ('Writings'), and a book of the Old Testament . The book is an anthology of Hebrew religious hymns . In the Jewish and Western Christian traditions, there are 150 psalms, and several more in the Eastern Christian churches. The book is divided into five sections, each ending with

3750-669: The Roman Rite until the reform of the Liturgy of the Hours after the Second Vatican Council . The General Instruction of the Liturgy of the Hours does not give their particular definition, but enumerates them alongside the antiphons and the headings in Chapter 3 The Various parts of the Liturgy of the Hours , Section 2 The Antiphons and Other Parts which Help in Praying the Psalms (paras 110–120). Moreover, there

3875-465: The doxology . The verse is omitted if the hour begins with the Invitatory (Morning Prayer/Lauds or the Office of Reading). The Invitatory is the introduction to the first hour said on the current day, whether it be the Office of Readings or Morning Prayer. The opening is followed by a hymn . The hymn is followed by psalmody . The psalmody is followed by a scripture reading. The reading is called

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4000-474: The epode are Psalm 14; the two antistrophes are Psalm 70. It is noteworthy that, on the breaking up of the original ode, each portion crept twice into the Psalter: Psalm 14 = 53, Psalm 70 = 40:14–18. Other such duplicated portions of psalms are Psalm 108:2–6 = Psalm 57:8–12; Psalm 108:7–14 = Psalm 60:7–14; Psalm 71:1–3 = Psalm 31:2–4. This loss of the original form of some of the psalms is considered by

4125-400: The ingathering of exiled Israel by a bridegroom-king; his establishment of a kingdom; his violent death; Israel scattered in the wilderness, regathered and again imperiled, and then rescued by a king from the heavens, who establishes his kingdom from Zion, brings peace and prosperity to the earth and receives the homage of the nations. These three views—Wilson's non-messianic retrospective of

4250-469: The monastic practices of the Desert Fathers of Egypt. After the Second Vatican Council (1962 to 1965), which decided that the hour of prime should be suppressed, Pope Paul VI decreed a new arrangement of the Liturgy of the Hours. The structure of the offices, the distribution of psalms, and the prayers were updated. The distinction, already expressed in the 1960 Code of Rubrics , between

4375-481: The morning services ( Shacharit ). The pesukei dezimra component incorporates Psalms 30, 100 and 145–150. Psalm 145 (commonly referred to as " Ashrei ", which is really the first word of two verses appended to the beginning of the Psalm), is read three times every day: once in shacharit as part of pesukei dezimrah , as mentioned; once, along with Psalm 20, as part of the morning's concluding prayers ; and once at

4500-665: The personal ordinariates for former Anglicans in the 2009 apostolic constitution Anglicanorum coetibus , there was sought an Anglican Use form of the Office that reflects Anglican tradition. In the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham in England and Wales , the Customary of Our Lady of Walsingham was adopted. In 2020, the Divine Worship: Daily Office was announced as

4625-479: The sons of Korah , and Solomon , David's authorship is not accepted by most modern Bible scholars, who instead attribute the composition of the psalms to various authors writing between the 9th and 5th centuries BC. The psalms were written from the time of the Israelite conquest of Canaan to the post-exilic period and the book was probably compiled and edited into its present form during the post-exilic period in

4750-614: The 1963 Grail Psalms , while the Scripture readings and non-Gospel canticles are taken from the original 1970 first edition New American Bible . The prayers and intercessions are translated by the International Commission on English in the Liturgy (ICEL). The ELLC versions are used for items such as the Gospel canticles. An additional feature are psalm-prayers at the end of many Psalms, which were ICEL's translation of

4875-468: The 5th century BC. In English, the title of the book is derived from the Greek word ψαλμοί ( psalmoi ), meaning 'instrumental music' and, by extension, 'the words accompanying the music'. The Hebrew name of the book, Tehillim ( תהילים ), means 'praises', as it contains many praises and supplications to God. The Book of Psalms is divided into five sections, each closing with a doxology (i.e.,

5000-400: The Acts of the Apostles testifies that the Christian community prayed together. The testimony of the early Church shows that individual faithful also devoted themselves to prayer at certain hours. In various areas the practice soon gained ground of devoting special times to prayer in common." Early Christians were in fact continuing the Jewish practice of reciting prayers at certain hours of

5125-446: The Babylonian Tiamat , Canaanite Yam and the Leviathan which also appears in the Hebrew Bible—is "reduced to an aquatic pet with whom YHWH can play". The biblical poetry of Psalms uses parallelism as its primary poetic device. Parallelism is a kind of symmetry in which restatement, synonym, amplification, grammatical repetition, or opposition develops an idea. Synonymous parallelism involves two lines expressing essentially

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5250-544: The Book of Psalms. Some psalms are called " maskil " ( maschil ), meaning "enlightened" or "wise saying", because they impart wisdom. Most notable of these is Psalm 142 which is sometimes called the "Maskil of David"; others include Psalm 32 and Psalm 78. A special grouping and division in the Book of Psalms are fifteen psalms (Psalms 120–134) known in the construct case, shir ha-ma'aloth ("A Song of Ascents", or "A Song of degrees"), and one as shir la-ma'aloth (Psalm 121). According to Saadia Gaon , these songs differed from

5375-406: The Catholic Church in Africa, through Paulines Publications Africa, published a new English edition of the Liturgy of the Hours based on the Liturgia Horarum, editio typica altera . The antiphons and orations in this edition are taken from ICEL's 1975 translation of the Liturgy of the Hours, with independent translations for the offices for the new saints added to the General Roman Calendar as well as

5500-450: The Catholic Church's Pontifical Biblical Commission (1 May 1910) to have been due to liturgical practices, neglect by copyists, or other causes. Verse numbers were first printed in 1509. Different traditions exist whether to include the original heading into the counting or not. This leads to inconsistent numbering in 62 psalms, with an offset of 1, sometimes even 2 verses. The Septuagint, present in Eastern Orthodox churches, includes

5625-426: The Davidic covenant, Brueggemann's sapiential instruction, and Mitchell's eschatological-messianic program—all have their followers. However, the sapiential agenda has been somewhat eclipsed by the other two. Shortly before he died in 2005, Wilson modified his position to allow for the existence of messianic prophecy within the Psalms' redactional agenda. Mitchell's position remains essentially unchanged, but he now sees

5750-429: The Divine Office grew more important in the life of the church, the rituals became more elaborate. Soon, praying the Office began to require various books, such as a psalter for the psalms, a lectionary to find the assigned scripture reading for the day, a Bible to proclaim the reading, a hymnal for singing, etc. As parishes grew in the Middle Ages away from cathedrals and basilicas, a more concise way of arranging

5875-460: The Divine Office. A few remained relevant in Latin Christianity. Almost always the psalms are surrounded in contemporary editions of liturgical books by so-called antiphons , short sung sentences preceding and following a particular psalm or an entire psalmody (set of psalms). Antiphons have many sources. Often it is just a verse taken from a psalm as a kind of key-verse to interpret the whole poem. Usually in solemnities, feasts and special seasons of

6000-400: The Divine Office. An English/Latin parallel edition was published by Baronius Press in April 2012. Three English translations are in use. The Divine Office was produced by a commission set up by the Episcopal Conferences of Australia, England and Wales, Ireland and Scotland. First published in 1974 by HarperCollins , this edition is the official English edition for use in the dioceses of

6125-420: The Ezrahite (1), and Heman the Ezrahite (1). The Septuagint , the Peshitta (the Syriac Vulgate) , and the Latin Vulgate each associate several Psalms (such as 111 and 145 ) with Haggai and Zechariah . The Septuagint also attributes several Psalms (like 112 and 135 ) to Ezekiel and Jeremiah . Psalms are usually identified by a sequence number, often preceded by the abbreviation "Ps." Numbering of

6250-432: The Hebrew Psalter proposed—by parallel with other ancient Near Eastern hymn collections—that psalms at the beginning and end (or "seams") of the five books of Psalms have thematic significance, corresponding in particular with the placement of the royal psalms. He pointed out that there was a progression of ideas from adversity through the crux of the collection in the apparent failure of the covenant in Psalm 89, leading to

6375-519: The Hours ( Liturgia Horarum in Latin) is published by Libreria Editrice Vaticana in four volumes, arranged according to the liturgical seasons of the church year. The liturgical books for the celebration of the Liturgy of the Hours in Latin are those of the editio typica altera (second typical edition) promulgated in 1985 and re-issued by the Vatican Publishing House – Libreria Editrice Vaticana – in 2000 and 2003. Midwest Theological Forum has published an edition iuxta typicam with updating of

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6500-404: The Hours , produced by the International Commission on English in the Liturgy , was first published in 1975 by Catholic Book Publishing Company in the USA. This edition is the official English edition for use in the US, Canada and some other English-speaking dioceses. It is in four volumes, an arrangement identical to the original Latin typical edition. The psalms are taken (slightly adapted) from

6625-420: The Liturgy of the Hours and older Roman Breviary. Prayer of the Divine Office is an obligation undertaken by priests and deacons intending to become priests, while deacons intending to remain deacons are obliged to recite only a part. The constitutions of religious institutes generally oblige their members to celebrate at least parts and in some cases to do so jointly ("in choir"). Consecrated virgins take

6750-456: The Mass was first limited to Sundays and then gradually spread to some feast days. The daily prayer kept alive the theme of gratitude from the Sunday "Eucharist" (which means gratitude). The prayers could be prayed individually or in groups. By the third century, the Desert Fathers began to live out Paul's command to "pray without ceasing" ( 1 Thessalonians 5:17 ) by having one group of monks pray one fixed-hour prayer while having another group pray

6875-413: The Old Testament, to which were soon added readings of the Gospels, Acts, and epistles, and canticles . Other elements were added later in the course of the centuries. The canonical hours stemmed from Jewish prayer . This "sacrifice of praise" began to be substituted for the sacrifices of animals. In Roman cities, the bell in the forum rang the beginning of the business day at about six o'clock in

7000-412: The Psalms concern the subject of death and says "This unatural conclusion to every human life can be understood only in the context of the original threat to the original man: 'in the day you shall eat of it you shall surely die.'" Robertson goes on to say "The anticipation from redemption fom the grave overcomes the inevitability of death. The psalmist is fully aware of his need for total deliverance from

7125-399: The Psalms differs—mostly by one—between the Hebrew ( Masoretic ) and Greek (Septuagint) manuscripts. Protestant translations ( Lutheran , Anglican , Calvinist ) use the Hebrew numbering, but other Christian traditions vary: The variance between Masorah and Septuagint texts in this numeration is likely enough due to a gradual neglect of the original poetic form of the Psalms; such neglect

7250-434: The Psalter through the Septuagint , a Greek translation by Alexandrian Jews from the 3rd century BC, rather than in its original Hebrew version. Even after translation its grammar structure and style of syntax remained essentially Hebrew. This rendered Septuagint partly incomprehensible without serious philological studies. Despite these apparent problems the Greek translation of the Psalter not only became widespread, but

7375-451: The Psalter. Gunkel divided the psalms into five primary types: Hymns are songs of praise for God's work in creation or history. They typically open with a call to praise, describe the motivation for praise, and conclude with a repetition of the call. Two sub-categories are "enthronement psalms", celebrating the enthronement of Yahweh as king, and Zion psalms, glorifying Mount Zion , God's dwelling-place in Jerusalem. Gunkel also described

7500-437: The Roman Breviary of Pope Pius V. Pope Clement VIII instituted obligatory changes on 10 May 1602, 34 years after Pius V's revision. Pope Urban VIII made further changes, including "a profound alteration in the character of some of the hymns. Although some of them without doubt gained in literary style, nevertheless, to the regret of many, they also lost something of their old charm of simplicity and fervour." Pope Pius X made

7625-424: The Second Vatican Council as a scholar and a member, so-called consultor, of the Consilium ad Exsequendam Constitutionem de Sacra Liturgia – Commission for implementing the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy Sacrosanctum Concilium promulgated in 1963. Members of the commission knew about Pinell's work on the critical edition of psalm-prayers and were waiting for the final draft. Although Pinell considered only

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7750-403: The Second Vatican Council, the Catholic Church's Latin Church, hoping to restore their character as the prayer of the entire church, revised the liturgical book for the celebration of the Divine Office, and published it under the title "Liturgy of the Hours". The Council itself abolished the office of Prime, and envisioned a manner of distributing the psalms over a period of more than 1 week. In

7875-436: The Southern Cross in Australia, Japan, and Oceania. While developed primarily from the Anglican tradition, the Divine Worship: Daily Office is considered to be a specific use of the Liturgy of the Hours. By the time of Benedict of Nursia (480–548 AD), the monastic Divine Office was composed of seven daytime hours and one at night. In his Rule of St. Benedict , he associated the practice with Psalm 118/119:164, "Seven times

8000-425: The Southern and Northern kingdoms. Expressions like "trust in God" diminish. Book 4: Maturity - Notably, with over 10 quotes from Chronicles , indicating a temporal progression beyond the initial three books. Book 5: Consummation - Robertson proposes that the Psalms of Ascent and Hallel Psalms are post-Babylonian exile compositions, portraying a culmination of themes and perspectives Most individual psalms involve

8125-409: The Spanish Rite were psalm-prayers. Psalm-prayers' role in the renewed Liturgy of the Hours would be to ease recitations. Others did not want to include psalm-prayers to the main text of the Liturgy because another aim of the reform was simplicity. Hence they chose to present the psalm-prayers in a separate book: the Supplement. Eventually in 1971 the renewed Liturgy of the Hours was published without

8250-410: The Vine' colophon to the Codex Cairensis). Several attempts have been made to decode the Masoretic cantillation, but the most "successful" is that of Suzanne Haïk-Vantoura (1928–2000) in the last quarter of the 20th century. Her reconstruction assumes the signs represent the degrees of various musical scales – that is, individual notes – which puts it at odds with all other existing traditions, where

8375-409: The above countries as well as many other dioceses around the world, especially in Asian and African countries. It is arranged in three volumes: The psalms are taken (with slight adaptations) from the 1963 Grail Psalms, while the Scripture readings and non-Gospel canticles are taken from various versions of the Bible, including the Revised Standard Version , the Jerusalem Bible , the Good News Bible ,

8500-454: The address to "sons of God" at the opening "[is] best thought of [as] the flickering literary afterlife of a polytheistic mythology" but that "belief in them...is unlikely to have been shared by the scribal circles that produced Psalms ". The contrast between the Psalmist's theology and the surrounding area's polytheistic religion is well seen in Psalms 104:26,<refr> Psalms 104:26 </ref> in which locals' mythical fierce sea-god—such as

8625-434: The bishop presides, for example the vesper on major solemnities. The General Instruction of the Liturgy of Hours in the Roman Rite states: "The public and communal prayer of the people of God is rightly considered among the first duties of the Church. From the very beginning the baptized 'remained faithful to the teaching of the apostles, to the brotherhood, to the breaking of bread and to the prayers' (Acts 2 :42). Many times

8750-507: The celebration of saints. It is arranged in six volumes: Although most priests and other clerics in the Latin Church now use the Roman breviary, some (such as those in the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter or similar societies) continue to use the breviary as revised by Pope Pius X , the latest edition of which was issued under Pope John XXIII . The motu proprio Summorum Pontificum in 2007 authorized every Latin Church cleric to use this edition to fulfill his canonical obligation to pray

8875-564: The collection bore the imprint of an underlying message or metanarrative , but that this message remained concealed, as Augustine of Hippo said, "The sequence of the Psalms seems to me to contain the secret of a mighty mystery, but its meaning has not been revealed to me" ( Enarr. on Psalms 150:1). Others pointed out the presence of concatenation—that is, adjacent Psalms sharing similar words and themes. In time, this approach developed into recognizing overarching themes shared by whole groups of psalms. In 1985, Gerald H. Wilson 's The Editing of

9000-407: The crippled man at the temple gate occurred as Peter and John were going to the temple to pray ( Acts 3:1 ) at the "ninth hour" of prayer (about three pm). The decision to include Gentiles among the community of believers, arose from a vision Peter had while praying at noontime, ( Acts 10:9–49 ) the "sixth hour". The early church was known to pray the Psalms ( Acts 4:23–30 ), which have remained

9125-431: The current Western Christian and Jewish collection of 150 psalms were selected from a wider set. Hermann Gunkel 's pioneering form-critical work on the psalms sought to provide a new and meaningful context in which to interpret individual psalms—not by looking at their literary context within the Psalter (which he did not see as significant), but by bringing together psalms of the same genre ( Gattung ) from throughout

9250-492: The day or night. In the Psalms are found expressions like "in the morning I offer you my prayer"; "At midnight I will rise and thank you"; "Evening, morning and at noon I will cry and lament"; "Seven times a day I praise you". The Apostles observed the Jewish custom of praying at the third, sixth, and ninth hours, and at midnight (Acts 10:3, 9; 16:25; etc.). Hence the practice of seven fixed prayer times has been taught from

9375-411: The day part. The lyrical subjects praise God in a particular time setting, usually mentioned literally. In cursus monasticus , the whole Psalter was recited continuously through the day and night, regardless of content. Such a practice was typical of monasticism. Both ways of reciting the psalms caused some difficulties. The meaning of these Biblical poems was not always clear. Most Christians received

9500-434: The discussion on the modern Divine Office. The cursus cathedralis was characteristic of urban churches where secular clergy, especially bishops, presided over the liturgy, hence an adjective cathedral in the name. It arranged the order of psalms according to the daily solar cycle, which means that specific psalms were sung at sunrise, others at sunset and some during other parts of the day. Their texts corresponded somehow to

9625-472: The duty to celebrate the liturgy of hours with the rite of consecration. Within the Latin Church, the lay faithful "are encouraged to recite the divine office, either with the priests, or among themselves, or even individually", though there is no obligation for them to do so. The laity may oblige themselves to pray the Liturgy of the Hours or part of it by a personal vow. The present official form of

9750-460: The earliest Christians used the Psalms in worship, and the Psalms have remained an important part of worship in most Christian Churches. The Eastern Orthodox , Catholic , Presbyterian , Lutheran and Anglican Churches have always made systematic use of the Psalms, with a cycle for the recitation of all or most of them over the course of one or more weeks. In the early centuries of the Church, it

9875-495: The earliest in origin, characterized by a focus on trust in God, with Yahweh as the dominant name. Book 2: Communication - Despite continued opposition, this book reflects an outreach even to enemies of God. The prevalent name for God shifts to Elohim, especially when borrowing sections from Book 1. Robertson suggests Book 2 may have Northern Kingdom origins. Book 3: Devastation - Marked by the overtaking of Jerusalem, this book holds out hope for Jacob and Joseph, possibly symbolizing

10000-572: The entire Book of Psalms prior to the morning service, on the Sabbath preceding the calculated appearance of the new moon . The reading of psalms is viewed in Jewish tradition as a vehicle for gaining God's favor. They are thus often specially recited in times of trouble, such as poverty, disease, or physical danger; in many synagogues, Psalms are recited after services for the security of the State of Israel . Sefer ha-Chinuch states that this practice

10125-481: The entire Liturgy of the Hours of the Roman Rite is that contained in the four-volume Latin-language publication Liturgia Horarum , the first edition of which appeared in 1971. English and other vernacular translations were soon produced and were made official for their territories by the competent episcopal conferences . For Catholics in primarily Commonwealth nations , the three-volume Divine Office , which uses

10250-719: The episcopal conferences mentioned and confirmed by the Holy See in December 1973. The Gospel canticles ( Benedictus , Magnificat , Nunc Dimittis ) are from the 1963 Grail Translation, but an appendix at the end of the book gives the English Language Liturgical Consultation (ELLC)) versions of the Gospel canticles as alternatives. Collins also publishes shorter editions of The Divine Office : Between 2005 and 2006, Collins republished The Divine Office and its various shorter editions with

10375-415: The fate of the psalmist. By far the most common type of psalm, they typically open with an invocation of God, followed by the lament itself and pleas for help, and often ending with an expression of confidence. In individual thanksgiving psalms, the opposite of individual laments, the psalmist thanks God for deliverance from personal distress. In addition to these five major genres, Gunkel also recognised

10500-693: The form of the fixed-hour prayers was a hybrid of secular and monastic practice. In the East, the development of the Divine Services shifted from the area around Jerusalem to Constantinople . In particular, Theodore the Studite ( c.  758  – c.  826 ) combined a number of influences from the Byzantine court ritual with monastic practices common in Asia Minor , and added thereto

10625-527: The hours of each day and sanctifying the day with prayer." The term "Liturgy of the Hours" has been retroactively applied to the practices of saying the canonical hours in both the Christian East and West –particularly within the Latin liturgical rites –prior to the Second Vatican Council , and is the official term for the canonical hours promulgated for usage by the Latin Church in 1971. Before 1971,

10750-585: The hours was needed. So, a sort of list developed called the Breviary , which gave the format of the daily office and the texts to be used. The spread of breviaries eventually reached Rome, where Pope Innocent III extended its use to the Roman Curia. The Franciscans sought a one-volume breviary for its friars to use during travels, so the order adopted the Breviarium Curiae , but substituting

10875-405: The immediate family, usually in shifts, but in contemporary practice this service is provided by an employee of the funeral home or chevra kadisha . Many Jews complete the Book of Psalms on a weekly or monthly basis. Each week, some also say a Psalm connected to that week's events or the Torah portion read during that week . In addition, many Jews (notably Lubavitch , and other Chasidim ) read

11000-625: The issue as identifying when the historical beginning of the Psalms turns to eschatology. The Psalms were written not merely as poems, but as songs for singing. According to Bible exegete Saadia Gaon (882–942) who served in the geonate of Babylonian Jewry, the Psalms were originally sung in the Temple precincts by the Levites , based on what was prescribed for each psalm (lineage of the singers, designated time and place, instruments used, manner of execution, etc.), but are permitted to be randomly read by anyone at any time and in any place. More than

11125-407: The last great enemy, and attests to expectation of deliverance." Individual psalms were originally hymns, to be used on various occasions and at various sacred sites; later, some were anthologised, and might have been understood within the various anthologies (e.g., ps. 123 as one of the Psalms of Ascent); finally, individual psalms might be understood within the Psalter as a whole, either narrating

11250-540: The life of David or providing instruction like the Torah. In later Jewish and Christian tradition, the psalms have come to be used as prayers, either individual or communal, as traditional expressions of religious feeling. Many authors have commented on the psalms, including: Some of the titles given to the Psalms have descriptions which suggest their use in worship: Psalms are used throughout traditional Jewish worship . Many complete Psalms and verses from Psalms appear in

11375-466: The liturgical year, like the Advent , Lent or Eastertide, antiphons render passages from the remaining books of the Bible or Patristic writings, casting light on psalms in the context of the particular liturgical time. Moreover, each psalm has a set of texts, almost always printed alongside the poem. Right after the number of a psalm, editors print the heading (Latin titulus ) which is a brief summary of

11500-433: The morning (Prime, the "first hour"), noted the day's progress by striking again at about nine o'clock in the morning (Terce, the "third hour"), tolled for the lunch break at noon (Sext, the "sixth hour"), called the people back to work again at about three o'clock in the afternoon (None, the "ninth hour"), and rang the close of the business day at about six o'clock in the evening (the time for evening prayer). The healing of

11625-419: The morning and evening services. There is a Minhag (custom) to recite Psalm 30 each morning of Chanukkah after Shacharit: some recite this in place of the regular "Psalm for the Day", others recite this additionally. When a Jew dies, a watch is kept over the body and tehillim (Psalms) are recited constantly by sun or candlelight, until the burial service. Historically, this watch would be carried out by

11750-522: The name for ancient eastern modes, like ayelet ha-shachar (hind of the dawn; Ps. 22); shoshanim / shushan ( lilies / lily ; Pss. 45; 60), said to be describing a certain melody; or ʻalmuth / ʻalamoth ( mute ; Pss. 9, 46), which, according to Saadia Gaon, is "a silent melody, nearly inaudible." Despite the frequently heard view that their ancient music is lost, the means to reconstruct it are still extant. Fragments of temple psalmody are preserved in ancient synagogue and church chant, particularly in

11875-794: The new Divine Office of the Anglican Use personal ordinariates. There are two editions: the North American Edition released in late 2020 for use by the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of Saint Peter and the Commonwealth Edition to be released in 2021 to replace the Customary in the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham and introduce an office for the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of

12000-551: The next prayer. As the format of unbroken fixed-hour prayer developed in the Christian monastic communities in the East and West, longer prayers soon grew, but the cycle of prayer became the norm in daily life in monasteries . By the fourth century, the characteristics of the canonical hours more or less took their present shape. For secular (non-monastic) clergymen and lay people, the fixed-hour prayers were by necessity much shorter. In many churches and basilicas staffed by monks,

12125-443: The obligation to use the promulgated text in all places, and the total prohibition of adding or omitting anything, declaring in fact: "No one whosoever is permitted to alter this letter or heedlessly to venture to go contrary to this notice of Our permission, statute, ordinance, command, precept, grant, indult declaration, will decree and prohibition. Should anyone, however, presume to commit such an act, he should know that he will incur

12250-492: The occasion for using the psalm ("On the dedication of the temple", "For the memorial offering", etc.). Many carry the names of individuals, the most common (73 psalms—75 if including the two Psalms attributed by the New Testament to David) being 'of David', and thirteen of these relate explicitly to incidents in the king's life. Others named include Asaph (12), the sons of Korah (11), Solomon (2), Moses (1), Ethan

12375-591: The official form for the Latin Church was the Breviarium Romanum , first published in 1568 with major editions through 1962. The Liturgy of the Hours, like many other forms of the canonical hours, consists primarily of psalms supplemented by hymns , readings, and other prayers and antiphons prayed at fixed prayer times . Together with the Mass , it constitutes the public prayer of the church. Christians of both Western and Eastern traditions (including

12500-557: The other psalms in that they were to be sung by the Levites in a "loud melody" ( Judeo-Arabic : בלחן מרתפע ‎). Every psalm designated for Asaph (e.g. Psalms 50, 73–83) was sung by his descendants while making use of cymbals , in accordance with 1 Chronicles 16:5. Every psalm wherein is found the introductory phrase "Upon Mahalath" (e.g. Psalms 53 and 88) was sung by the Levites by using large percussion instruments having wide and closed bezels on both sides and beaten with two wooden sticks. O. Palmer Robertson observes that many of

12625-530: The plural "we". However, the "I" could also be characterising an individual's personal experience that was reflective of the entire community. Royal psalms deal with such matters as the king's coronation, marriage and battles. None of them mentions any specific king by name, and their origin and use remain obscure; several psalms, especially Psalms 93–99, concern the kingship of God, and might relate to an annual ceremony in which Yahweh would be ritually reinstated as king. Individual laments are psalms lamenting

12750-419: The praise of God for his power and beneficence, for his creation of the world, and for his past acts of deliverance for Israel. They envision a world in which everyone and everything will praise God, and God in turn will hear their prayers and respond. Sometimes God "hides his face" and refuses to respond, questioning (for the psalmist) the relationship between God and prayer which is the underlying assumption of

12875-888: The presence of the word 're-composition' in its subtitle. Paradoxically, this feature could be a motive for the editors' decision to leave this book outside the Liturgy of the Hours. Pinell does not always put together all these prayers in a convincing way and sometimes makes arbitrary decisions about his collection's structure, composing rather than re-composing, so his work is somewhat artificial. Nevertheless, that diversity of sources remains its strongest point. Psalms The Book of Psalms ( / s ɑː ( l ) m z / SAH(L)MZ , US also / s ɔː ( l ) m z / SAW(L)MZ ; Biblical Hebrew : תְּהִלִּים , romanized:  Tehillīm , lit.   'praises'; Ancient Greek : Ψαλμός , romanized :  Psalmós ; Latin : Liber Psalmorum ; Arabic : زَبُورُ , romanized :  Zabūr ), also known as

13000-481: The psalm-prayers of the Mozarabic or Old Spanish Rite, there was a reason to use them in the reform of the Roman Rite . The aim of the reform was to reshape highly monasticised heavy Roman Rite to its original light cathedral form. The lack of sources from such a primitive stage of the Roman Rite development made this task impossible, at least directly. Commission members decided to include cathedral elements of other Latin rites. Such cathedral elements taken from

13125-549: The psalm. A quotation from the New Testament or Patristic writings follows, providing a Christian interpretation. Each psalm ends with a doxology , which is a short praise of the Holy Trinity , putting the psalm in context. Then editors recommend to keep a "sacred silence": a time for a private silent meditation on the text. Psalm-prayers can follow. Contrary to the helping tools these prayers were not testified in

13250-482: The reader to a life of obedience; Psalm 73 (Brueggemann's crux psalm) faces the crisis when divine faithfulness is in doubt; Psalm 150 represents faith's triumph when God is praised not for his rewards but for his being. In 1997, David. C. Mitchell's The Message of the Psalter took a quite different line. Building on the work of Wilson and others, Mitchell proposed that the Psalter embodies an eschatological timetable like that of Zechariah 9–14. This programme includes

13375-566: The renewed Liturgy of the Hours . He was a Spanish monk of the Abbey Santa Maria de Montserrat belonging to the Benedictine Subiaco Congregation . Pinell studied at Catholic University of Leuven , Pontifical Gregorian University and Pontificio Ateneo Sant Anselmo in Rome and became a professor of liturgical studies at the latter. Staying there he actively took part in works on liturgy reform after

13500-513: The same idea. An example of synonymous parallelism: Two lines expressing opposites is known as antithetic parallelism . An example of antithetic parallelism: Two clauses expressing the idea of amplifying the first claim is known as expansive parallelism. An example of expansive parallelism: Many scholars believe the individual Psalms were redacted into a single collection during the Second Temple period. It had long been recognized that

13625-423: The same poem. The Hebrew text is correct in counting as one Psalm 146 and Psalm 147. Later liturgical usage would seem to have split up these and several other psalms. Zenner combines into what he deems were the original choral odes: Psalms 1, 2, 3, 4; 6 + 13; 9 + 10; 19, 20, 21; 56 + 57; 69 + 70; 114 + 115; 148, 149, 150. A choral ode would seem to have been the original form of Psalms 14 and 70. The two strophes and

13750-666: The scripture in the Epistle to the Romans , chapter 3 . Liturgy of the Hours The Liturgy of the Hours ( Latin : Liturgia Horarum ), Divine Office (Latin: Officium Divinum ), or Opus Dei ("Work of God") are a set of Catholic prayers comprising the canonical hours , often also referred to as the breviary , of the Latin Church . The Liturgy of the Hours forms the official set of prayers "marking

13875-542: The signs invariably represent melodic motifs; it also takes no account of the existence of older systems of notation, such as the Babylonian and Palestinian systems. Musicologists have therefore rejected Haïk-Vantoura's theories, with her results dubious, and her methodology flawed. In spite of this, Mitchell has repeatedly defended it, showing that, when applied to the Masoretic cantillation of Psalm 114, it produces

14000-505: The start of the afternoon service . On Festival days and Sabbaths, instead of concluding the morning service, it precedes the Mussaf service. Psalms 95–99, 29, 92, and 93, along with some later readings, comprise the introduction ( Kabbalat Shabbat ) to the Friday night service. Traditionally, a different "Psalm for the Day"— Shir shel yom —is read after the morning service each day of

14125-489: The succeeding revision, the character of Matins was changed to an Office of Readings so that it could be used at any time of the day as an office of Scriptural and patristic readings. Furthermore, the period over which the Psalter is recited has been expanded from one week to four. The Latin hymns of the Roman Office were in many cases restored to the pre-Urban form, albeit several of them were shortened. This Liturgy of

14250-518: The successor to Pius IV who closed the Council of Trent, promulgated an edition, known as the Roman Breviary, with his Apostolic Constitution Quod a nobis , imposing it in the same way in which, two years later, he imposed his Roman Missal and using language very similar to that in the bull Quo primum with which he promulgated the Missal, regarding, for instance, the perpetual force of its provisions,

14375-712: The three sons of Korah . According to Abraham ibn Ezra , the final redaction of the book was made by the Men of the Great Assembly . Some of the psalms show influences from related earlier texts from the region; examples include various Ugaritic texts and the Babylonian Enūma Eliš . These influences may be either of background similarity or of contrast. For example, Psalm 29 shares characteristics with Canaanite religious poetry and themes. Not too much should be read into this, however. Robert Alter points out that

14500-437: The three major hours (Matins, Lauds and Vespers) and the minor hours (Terce, Sext, None and Compline) has been retained. All hours, including the minor hours, start with the versicle from Ps 70 (69) v. 2 (as do all offices in the traditional breviary except Matins and Compline): V. Deus, in adiutorium meum intende ; R. Domine, ad adiuvandum me festina ("O God, come to my aid: O Lord, make haste to help me"), followed by

14625-549: The time of the early Church; in Apostolic Tradition , Hippolytus instructed Christians to pray seven times a day "on rising, at the lighting of the evening lamp, at bedtime, at midnight" and "the third, sixth and ninth hours of the day, being hours associated with Christ's Passion." The Christian prayer of that time consisted of almost the same elements as the Jewish: recital or chanting of psalms and reading of

14750-490: The times of day at which in the second millennium they have traditionally been recited, as shown by the use of the word "noon", derived from Latin (hora) nona , to mean midday, not 3 in the afternoon: This arrangement of the Divine Office is described by Benedict. However, it is found in John Cassian 's Twelve books on the institutes of the coenobia and the remedies for the eight principal faults , which describe

14875-572: The week (starting Sunday, Psalms: 24, 48, 82, 94, 81, 93, 92). This is described in the Mishnah (the initial codification of the Jewish oral tradition ) in the tractate Tamid . According to the Talmud, these daily Psalms were originally recited on that day of the week by the Levites in the Temple in Jerusalem. From Rosh Chodesh Elul until Hoshanah Rabbah , Psalm 27 is recited twice daily following

15000-540: The wrath of Almighty God and of the Blessed Apostles Peter and Paul." With the same bull, Pius V ordered the general abolition of all breviaries other than his reformed breviary, with the same exception that he was to make in his Quo primum bull: he allowed those legitimately in use for at least 200 years to continue. Examples of such breviaries are the Benedictine ( Breviarium Monasticum ),

15125-472: Was expected that any candidate for bishop would be able to recite the entire Psalter from memory, something they often learned automatically during their time as monks . Christians have used Pater Noster cords of 150 beads to pray the entire Psalter. Paul the Apostle quotes psalms (specifically Psalms 14 and 53 , which are nearly identical) as the basis for his theory of original sin , and includes

15250-444: Was light, and addressed a form of prayer to Christ, as to a divinity, … after which it was their custom to separate, and then reassemble, to eat in common a harmless meal." By the second and third centuries, such Church Fathers as Clement of Alexandria , Origen , and Tertullian wrote of the practice of Morning and Evening Prayer, and of the prayers at terce, sext, and none. Daily morning and evening prayer preceded daily Mass, for

15375-517: Was many times translated into everyday Latin, which made the meaning of the text unclear. However, the influence of these translations was so huge that believers in the West did not accept Jerome 's Latin Psalter rendering of the Hebrew version. The power of usus among the ancient Christians was much stronger than the need of clear understanding. To resolve problems of understanding and to avoid sleepiness, boredom and lack of concentration arising during long recitations, Christians added many elements to

15500-541: Was occasioned by liturgical uses and carelessness of copyists. It is generally admitted that Psalms 9 and 10 (Hebrew numbering) were originally a single acrostic poem, wrongly separated by Massorah and rightly united by the Septuagint and the Vulgate. Psalms 42 and 43 (Hebrew numbering) are shown by identity of subject (yearning for the house of Yahweh), of metrical structure and of refrain (comparing Psalms 42:6, 12; 43:5, Hebrew numbering), to be three strophes of one and

15625-517: Was unclear, but there are indications in some of them: "Bind the festal procession with branches, up to the horns of the altar" suggests a connection with sacrifices, and "Let my prayer be set forth before you as incense" suggests a connection with the offering of incense. According to Jewish tradition , the Book of Psalms was composed by the First Man ( Adam ), Melchizedek , Abraham , Moses , David , Solomon , Heman , Jeduthun , Asaph , and

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