Psalms as Liturgy

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The Daily Office – that is the daily recitation of the 150 biblical poems known as The Psalms of David – has been an important part of my devotion life since I joined the Episcopal Church in 1980 or ’81. The parish priest at Grace Church, Father (now the Rev’d Canon) John Osgood, was an associate of the Order of the Holy Cross and bound to the daily recitation of the office according to their breviary. Memory says that there was an older Nun there, one of the Order of St Helena, also bound to the same liturgical use. It was my introduction to a spirituality shared in some way by all liturgical churches: the sanctification of time. Later, at the Church of St Mary the Virgin, I would take on liturgical duties, including leading the office weekly on Mondays at Evening Prayer. The Orthodox and the Catholic Churches have older forms of the same office and it was the heart of life in the Monastic community where I lived for a short while. The Dominican family – including members of the Third Order – recites the psalter daily as do all members of the Diocesan Clergy (Priests and Deacons) in the Roman rite. In the Byzantine rite, there are different rules, but the office is there and is usually celebrated – although, sadly, rarely attended. In many Orthodox and Byzantine Catholic parishes the Morning Prayer (Orthros) rite is something that is just ignored by all but a couple of grandmothers and the few members of the choir required to be there. The “little hours” of Terce and Sext that may precede the Divine Liturgy are hard to perceive as the same Daily Office, and are usually treated as “preparation prayers”.

It is from this last tradition that this series on the Psalms will be drawn. The goal is to reveal these set Psalms as meditation texts. But more, in the Byzantine rite (both Catholic and Orthodox) the entire Psalter is viewed as prophetic. King David is referred to as a prophet in this tradition. I mentioned this once in an Episcopal Church and the clergy assured me the Psalms were not prophetic and they could prove it, but I never took them up on the offer: it’s clear that they are exactly that. They embody a rich tradition of poetic “chewing the cud” of the entire content of the pre-incarnation scriptures. The fullest revelation of their meaning is only in the life of the Messiah as he lived it on Earth and continues to live it in his Church.

I did leave out a few psalms from the series: the Midnight Office uses the entire text of Psalm 118 (119), and Vespers uses selections of certain Psalms nightly. Additionally the First few psalms (“Blessed is the Man…”) are used whenever there is a feast. We may get to these texts at some point in the future. Psalm 50 (51) is used multiple times during the course of the day: Compline, Midnight, Matins, and 3rd Hour – as well as the waking prayers. It’s easily the most-prayed Psalm in the entire Byzantine liturgical corpus. We will only see it once, at the end of the 3rd Hour, on Wed 3 Apr.

This is the first post in the series. The next post in this series will be on the Vespers Psalm: 103 in the LXX/vulgate (in Greek, here, if you’re feeling adventurous) and 104 in the Hebrew Bible (in Hebrew, here).

A Menu for the Series:
Intro; Psalm 103 (Vespers); Psalm 3 (Matins); Psalm 37 (Matins); Psalm 62 (Matins); Psalm 87 (Matins); Psalm 102 (Matins); Psalm 142 (Matins); Psalm 5 (1st Hour); Psalm 89 (1st Hour); Psalm 100 (1st Hour); Psalm 16 (3rd Hour); Psalm 24 (3rd Hour); Psalm 50 (3rd Hour); Psalm 53 (6th Hour); Psalm 54 (6th Hour); Psalm 90 (6th Hour); Psalm 83 (9th Hour); Psalm 84 (9th Hour); Psalm 85 (9th Hour); Psalm 148, 149, 150 (Lauds).

Why are the Psalms numbered in different ways?