Friday Prime

On Friday morning the Church asks us to meditate upon the utter dereliction of our Lord on his Cross.  This thought is to be ours throughout the day.  Psalm 21 is one of the most celebrated of the Messianic Psalms: David sees Christ on the Cross in deepest agony and abandonment.  We are to pray this Hour of Prime with heartfelt and holy sympathy:  our Lord prayed the selfsame words in the greatest and most terrible hour of his life:  "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?"

Psalm 21
Christ on the Cross

Psalm 21. i.  Deus, Deus meus

Lament in suffering

Deus, Deus meus, réspice in me : quare me dereliquísti? * longe a salúte mea verba delictórum meórum.
2  Deus meus, clamábo per diem, et non exáudies: * et nocte, et non ad insipiéntiam mihi.
3  Tu autem in sancto hábitas: * laus Israël.
4  In te speravérunt patres nostri: * speravérunt, et liberásti eos.
5  Ad te clamavérunt, et salvi facti sunt: * in te speravérunt, et non sunt confúsi.
6  Ego autem sum vermis, et non homo: * oppróbrium hóminum, et abjéctio plebis.
7  Omnes vidéntes me derisérunt me: * locúti sunt lábiis, et movérunt caput.
8  Sperávit in Dómino, erípiat eum: * salvum fáciat eum, quóniam vult eum.
9  Quóniam tu es, qui extraxísti me de ventre: * spes mea ab ubéribus matris meæ.  In te projéctus sum ex útero.
10  De ventre matris meæ Deus meus es tu, * ne discésseris a me :
11  Quóniam tribulátio próxima est: * quóniam non est qui ádjuvet.

My God, my God, look upon me; why hast thou forsaken me? * far from my salvation are the words of my sins.
2  O my God, I will cry in the day-time, but thou shalt not hear; * and in the night season, and it shall not be reputed as folly in me.
3  But thou dwellest in the holy place, * O thou Worship of Israel.
4  Our fathers hoped in thee; * they trusted in thee, and thou didst deliver them.
5  They called upon thee, and were holpen; * they put their trust in thee, and were not confounded.
6  But as for me, I am a worm, and no man; * a very scorn of men, and the outcast of the people.
7  All they that see me have laughed me to scorn; * they  have spoken with their lips, and have shaken their heads.
8  He trusted in the Lord, that he would deliver him; * let him deliver him, if he delight in him.
9  For thou art he that took me out of my mother's womb; * thou wast my hope from my mother's breasts.  I was cast upon thee from the womb.
10  Thou art my God even from my mother's womb, * O go not from me.
11  For trouble is hard at hand, * and there is none to help me.


Psalm 21. ii.  Circumdedérunt me

The scene of suffering

12  Circumdedérunt me vítuli multi: * tauri pingues obsedérunt me.
13  Aperuérunt super me os suum: * sicut leo rápiens et rugiens.
14  Sicut aqua effúsus sum: * et dispérsa sunt ómnia ossa mea.
15  Factum est cor meum tamquam cera liquéscens: * in médio ventris mei.
16  Aruit tamquam testa virtus mea, et lingua mea adhæsit fáucibus meis: * et in púlverem mortis deduxísti me.
17  Quóniam circumdedérunt me canes multi: * concílium malignántium obsédit me.
18  Fodérunt manus meas et pedes meos: * dinumeravérunt ómnia ossa mea.
19  Ipsi vero consíderavérunt et inspexérunt me: * divisérunt sibi vestiménta mea, et super vestem meam misérunt sortem.
20  Tu autem, Dómine, ne elongáveris auxílium tuum a me: * ad defensiónem meam cónspice.
21  Erue a frámea, Deus, ánimam meam: * et de manu canis únicam meam.
22  Salva me ex ore leónis: * et a cornibus unicórnium humilitátem meam.
23  Narrábo nomen tuum frátribus meis: * in médio Ecclésiæ laudábo te.

12  Many oxen are come about me; * fat bulls close me in on every side.
13  They gape upon me with their mouths, * as it were a ramping and a roaring lion.
14  I am poured out like water, * and all my bones are scattered.
15  My heart also is even like melting wax * in the midst of my bowels.
16  My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue hath cleaved to my jaws, * and thou hast brought me down into the dust of death.
17  For many dogs are come about me, * and the council of the wicked hath laid siege against me.
18  They have pierced my hands and my feet : * they have numbered all my bones.
19  They have stood staring and looking upon me : * they have parted my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture.
20  But remove not thy help far from me, O Lord; * haste thee to help me.
21  Deliver my soul from the sword, O God, * mine only one from the power of the dog.
22  Save me from the lion's mouth; * and my lowness from the horns of the unicorns.
23  I will declare thy Name unto my brethren; * in the midst of the Church will I praise thee.


Psalm 21. iii.  Qui timétis Dóminum

The fruit of suffering

24  Qui timétis Dóminum, laudáte eum: * univérsum semen Jacob, glorificáte eum.
25  Tímeat eum omne semen Israël: * quóniam non sprevit, neque despéxit deprecatiónem páuperis :
26  Nec avértit fáciem suam a me: * et cum clamárem ad eum, exaudívit me.
27  Apud te laus mea in ecclésia magna: * vota mea reddam in conspéctu timéntium eum.
28  Edent páuperes, et saturabúntur: et laudábunt Dóminum qui requírunt eum: * vivent corda eórum in sæculum sæculi.
29  Reminiscéntur et converténtur ad Dóminum * univérsi fines terræ :
30  Et adorábunt in conspéctu ejus * univérsæ famíliæ Géntium.
31  Quóniam Dómini est regnum: * et ipse dominábitur Géntium.
32  Manducavérunt et adoravérunt omnes pingues terræ: * in conspéctu ejus cadent omnes qui descéndunt in terram.
33  Et ánima mea illi vivet: * et semen meum sérviet ipsi.
34  Annuntiábitur Dómino generátio ventúra: * et annuntiábunt cæli justítiam ejus pópulo qui nascétur, quem fecit Dóminus.

24  O praise the Lord, ye that fear him: * magnify him, all ye of the seed of Jacob.
25  And fear him, all ye seed of Israel : * for he hath not despised nor abhorred the supplication of the poor :
26  Neither hath he hid his face from me; * and when I called unto him he heard me.
27  My praise is of thee in the great congregation; * my vows will I perform in the sight of them that fear him.
28  The poor shall eat, and be satisfied; they that seek after the Lord shall praise him: * their hearts shall live for ever and ever.
29  All the ends of the world shall remember, * and be turned unto the Lord :
30  And all the kindreds of the nations * shall worship before him.
31  For the kingdom is the Lord's, * and he shall have dominion among the nations.
32  All such as be fat upon earth have eaten, and worshipped : * all they that go down into the dust shall fall before him.
33  And unto him shall my soul be quickened : * and my seed shall serve him.
34  They shall be declared unto the Lord a generation to come, * and the heavens shall declare his righteousness unto a people that shall be born, whom the Lord hath made.