The emphasis on the Book of Psalms

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Do you pray the Office? If you’re only relying on the Psalm excepts used at Mass you may not be seeing the full picture. There’s a pretty wide spectrum of feelings and experience in the Psalms.
 
I don’t pray the Office, but I have read the Psalms all the way through, and also I attend daily Mass on most days. At times I also participate in Vespers or other liturgical prayer at church involving reading Psalms. I am in the process of reading them through again, so we’ll see if I feel differently about them this time.

I like some of them, don’t get me wrong. Just not seeing this breadth.
 
Psalms being songs and poems are for me fun to try to memorize. I knew someone who memorized all of them. Considering medieval monks would memorize the whole Bible - Aquinas is said to have done that in a year - memorizing the Psalms sounds like a piece of cake, but it’s not.
 
A lot of the Psalms prophetically point to Christ or the Church… more so, on average I think, than texts in the other OT Books. That’s part of it too.
 
Psalmody and lessons from Scripture formed a natural part of Synagogue worship, and they became equally naturally features of Christian use. The Psalms formed the hymn book of the Early Church, and were so well known as to be sung by the people at home or over their work.

When people, both men and women, forsaking ordinary occupations, dedicated their lives to devotion and prayer, the singing of Psalms together with the reading of Scripture formed the bulk of the religious exercises in which they spent the day. At first all was done privately - the hermits in their desert cells, and the consecrated virgins within their own homes followed out their own course as it seemed best.

Community life developed out of the solitary life: monasteries were formed in the deserts of Egypt and Palestine, while in the towns men and women gathered together in the churches to unite in their devotions, or formed urban communities which were often grouped round a particular church. Then the systematizing of the psalmody and lectionary began. With the Eastern monasticism of Saint Basil or Saint Pachomius the Eastern type of services also penetrated into Southern Gaul and other parts of the Western Empire, and was soon confronted with a Western type of service which had grown up (as far as can be surmised) chiefly in the religious establishments which had become attached to churches in Rome.

At first there was great variety of practice: the Eastern method which St Cassian brought into Gaul in the first half of the fifth century was the progenitor of many Gallican systems while the old Western system had also its descendants. In course of time the recitation of the Psalter in Divine Service, which had begun outside clerical circles among the monks and virgins, became a clerical obligation as well; in Rome the secular clergy discarded their old services in favour of the more developed system of the Roman monks; but meanwhile the monks were everywhere conforming their practice to the rule and system of Saint Benedict. From that time forward the old Roman monastic system came to be regarded as the ‘secular’ method of service, and this secular course of psalmody and lectionary became contrasted with the new monastic or Benedictine method and course.

Speaking as an Anglican whose church uses the BCP we don’t include Psalmody at the Eucharist but have an Epistle and Gospel reading. Psalmody forms part of our daily office of Mattins and Evensong where the Psalms are sung/recited in their entirety over the course of a month and the OT & NT lessons maintain the principal of lectio continua with most of the Bible being read over the course of the year.
 
I looked it up. “The 288” were a group of musicians established by King David (1 Chronicles 25) to prophesy “with lyres, harps and cymbals” in preparation for the construction of the Solomon’s Temple. According to this article (because I can’t find much more atm), there were about 15 psalms which were routinely sung on the steps inside of the Temple. And then, of course, psalms were sung during the ascent to the Temple as people came to offer their sacrifices.

I can’t say for sure why the Church has emphasized the Psalms (not my area of expertise), but I can say that their use in Temple worship set a precedent.
 
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Does anybody nowadays get some lyres, harps and cymbals together and attempt to sing the Psalms with accompaniment as they were originally planned?
 
Tis_Bearself said:
Does anybody nowadays get some lyres, harps and cymbals together and attempt to sing the Psalms with accompaniment as they were originally planned?
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Of course, the organ has since replaced more traditional instruments.

Singers were also among the 288, though. Maybe not in all parishes, but in both my Roman parishes, they’re sung. In the Byzantine parish I go to now, quite literally everything except the homily is sung.
 
Nobody sings the Psalm at the weekday Masses any place I go.

On Sundays at OF, they’re sometimes (not always, depends where I go) sung by some lector whose voice may or may not do them justice, with the congregation of course joining in on the refrain.

Sometimes there is chanting, or a good choir arrangement. Those are nice.
 
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“Tis_Bearself said:
Why all the emphasis on the Book of Psalms for prayer and worship? I hate to say I get tired of hearing the Psalms, but there are so very many other Bible books.=
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Sounds problematic perhaps…

Praise is a Special Form of Prayer… .
 
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The best explanation of the Church is in the General Instruction of the Liturgy of the Hours, specifically #109, but the whole range of #100-#109 provides the full rationale. You don’t get any better than this.
  1. Those who pray the psalms in the name of the Church should be aware of their full sense (sensus plenus), especially their Messianic sense, which was the reason for the Church’s introduction of the psalter into its prayer. This Messianic sense was fully revealed in the New Testament and indeed was affirmed publicly by Christ the Lord in person when he said to the apostles: “All that is written about me in the law of Moses and the prophets and the psalms must be fulfilled” (Lk 24:44). The best-known example of this Messianic sense is the dialogue in Matthew’s Gospel on the Messiah as Son of David and David’s Lord, [4] where Ps 110 is interpreted as Messianic.
Following this line of thought, the Fathers of the Church saw the whole psalter as a prophecy of Christ and the Church and explained it in this sense; for the same reason the psalms have been chosen for use in the liturgy. Though somewhat contrived interpretations were at times proposed, in general the Fathers and the liturgy itself had the right to hear in the singing of the psalms the voice of Christ crying out to the Father or of the Father conversing with the Son; indeed, they also recognized in the psalms the voice of the Church, the apostles, and the martyrs. This method of interpretation also flourished in the Middle Ages; in many manuscripts of the period the Christological meaning of each psalm was set before those praying by means of the caption prefixed. A Christological meaning is by no means confined to the recognized Messianic psalms but is given also to many others. Some of these interpretations are doubtless Christological only in an accommodated sense, but they have the support of the Church’s tradition.

On the great feasts especially, the choice of psalms is often based on their Christological meaning and antiphons taken from these psalms are frequently used to throw light on this meaning.
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In Addition to Praise…
Psalms are also Instructive for Wisdom, contain Prophecy, Petition, ThanksGiving and more. .

Psalm 1

1 Blessed is the one
who does not walk in step with the wicked
or stand in the way that sinners take
or sit in the company of mockers,
2 but whose delight is in the law of the Lord,
and who meditates on his law day and night.
3 That person is like a tree planted by streams of water,
which yields its fruit in season
and whose leaf does not wither—
whatever they do prospers.

4 Not so the wicked!
They are like chaff
that the wind blows away.
5 Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,
nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.

6 For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous,
but the way of the wicked leads to destruction.

Psalm 2​

1 Why do the nations conspire
and the peoples plot in vain?
2 The kings of the earth rise up
and the rulers band together
against the Lord and against his anointed, saying,
3 “Let us break their chains
and throw off their shackles.”

4 The One enthroned in heaven laughs;
the Lord scoffs at them.
5 He rebukes them in his anger
and terrifies them in his wrath, saying,
6 “I have installed my king
on Zion, my holy mountain.”

7 I will proclaim the Lord’s decree:

He said to me, “You are my son;
today I have become your father.

8 Ask me,
and I will make the nations your inheritance,
the ends of the earth your possession.
9 You will break them with a rod of iron
you will dash them to pieces like pottery.”

10 Therefore, you kings, be wise;
be warned, you rulers of the earth.
11 Serve the Lord with fear
and celebrate his rule with trembling.
12 Kiss his son, or he will be angry
and your way will lead to your destruction,
for his wrath can flare up in a moment.
Blessed are all who take refuge in him.
 
One reason is probably that since the Mass is based on the Last Supper, and psalms were sung at the Last Supper.
 
Yes…

And to suggest that’s there’s negatories connected with Psalms is untenable, yes?
 
Tis_Bearself said:
Since we usually do not sing the Psalms today
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speak for yourself, westerner! 🤣 😱 😜

(in the east, they are always sung/chanted)

I do find the typical ways in which the Responsorial Pslam is typically “sung” in the OF in the US cringeworthy . . . (vapid sing-song, with parts repeated to make a longer performance for the musicians in many of the forms used)
 
I love the Psalms because they are the prayers of Christ ( as stated in the rubrics in the introduction of the first volume of the Liturgy of the hours.)
I love the psalms when prayed well and not treated like something to hurry and get over with (when in public prayer or with a community)
I also love how they connect me with the Jewish roots of our faith. I am amazed at how King David composed these. And I love the psalms because Jesus, Mary and St. Joseph prayed them.
 
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