Cathivo
Psalm 119
DR

The Book of PsalmsPsalm 119

Ad Dominum. A prayer in tribulation. A gradual canticle. The following psalms, in number fifteen, are called gradual psalms, or canticles, from the word gradus, signifying steps, ascensions, or degrees: either because they were appointed to be sung on the fifteen steps, by which the people ascended to the temple: or, that in the singing of them the voice was to be raised by certain steps or ascensions: or, that they were to be sung by the people returning from their captivity and ascending to Jerusalem, which was seated amongst mountains. The holy fathers, in a mystical sense, understand these steps, or ascensions, of the degrees by which Christians spiritually ascend to virtue and perfection; and to the true temple of God in the heavenly Jerusalem.

The Douay-Rheims numbers the Psalms as the Latin Vulgate does. In Bibles translated from the Hebrew this is Psalm 120. Read Psalm 120 in the WEBC.

King David Playing the Harp
Gerard van Honthorst, King David Playing the Harp · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

119In my trouble I cried to the Lord: and he heard me.

2O Lord, deliver my soul from wicked lips, and a deceitful tongue.

3What shall be given to thee, or what shall be added to thee, to a deceitful tongue.

4The sharp arrows of the mighty, with coals that lay waste.

5Woe is me, that my sojourning is prolonged! I have dwelt with the inhabitants of cedar:

6My soul hath been long a sojourner.

7With them that hate peace I was peaceable: when I spoke to them they fought against me without cause.