The Psalms of David

Translated from the Septuagint Greek

Donald Sheehan, Xenia Sheehan, Sheehan

• Publisher: Wipf and Stock
• Year: 2013
• ISBN:
  9781630871246
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Biblical Studies

"In this rendering, the Psalms become once again what they were for Christian believers from the very beginning: the hymnal of the Church. They remain, certainly, the songs of Israel: from its cries of lamentation to its shouts of exultation. But for the Christian reader, they become as well hymns of petition and praise that express both the joy and the longing of those who live 'in Christ'... At the same time their very language can convey to us the assurance that, as he has throughout the millennia, God hears our prayer and responds to it with boundless mercy, love, and compassion."--from the Preface by Fr. John BreckProfessor Sheehan's brief introductory exposition of the Davidic roots of Psalms and the poetics of chiasmus guides us in understanding how the ruining oppositions of actual experience are held in Psalms within the musical disciplines of lyric art: held, until God Himself can be seen in the ruins: seen, and felt, and overwhelmingly and gratefully loved. The psalmist's world doesn't change as he turns his experience toward God. What changes is he himself. How he changes is toward acquiring the very mind of Christ, to which each of us is called.

Kathisma Seventeen

Psalm 118

Alleluia.

Aleph

lessed are the blameless in the way,

Who walk in the law of the Lord.

2 Blessed be those searching his testimonies, Who seek him with the whole heart.

3 For the workers of iniquity

Have never walked in his ways.

4 Thou hast charged that thy commandments

Be kept most diligently.

5 O that my ways be all directed

To the keeping of thy statutes.

6 Then I shall not be ashamed

When I behold all thy commandments.

7 I shall praise thee with upright heart

As I learn thy righteous judgments.

8 I shall keep thy statutes,

Do not utterly forsake me.

Beth

9 How shall a young man make straight his way?

In the keeping of thy words.

10 I have sought thee with my whole heart,

Let me not stray from thy commandments.

11 In my heart I have hidden thy teachings,

That I might not sin against thee.

12 Blessed art thou, O Lord,

Teach me thy statutes.

13 With my lips I have declared

All the judgments of thy mouth.

14 I delight in the way of thy testimonies

As much as in every kind of wealth.

15 I shall deeply ponder thy commandments,

I shall comprehend thy ways.

16 I shall meditate in thy statutes,

I shall never forget thy words.

Gimel

17 Give thy servant this reward:

That I shall live and keep thy words.

18 Take away the veil from my eyes

That I may see the wonders in thy law.

19 I am a stranger on the earth,

Hide not thy commandments from me.

20 My soul has always longed to desire

Thy judgments at every moment.

21 Thou didst rebuke the proudly arrogant,

Cursed be they that reject thy commandments.

22 Take from me reproach and contempt

For I have sought thy testimonies.

23 For princes sat and spoke against me,

But thy servant pondered on thy statutes.

24 Thy testimonies are my medita...

Table of contents

• The Psalms of David
• Foreword
• Preface
• Translator’s Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• The Psalms of David
• Kathisma One
• Kathisma Two
• Kathisma Three
• Kathisma Four
• Kathisma Five
• Kathisma Six
• Kathisma Seven
• Kathisma Eight
• Kathisma Nine
• Kathisma Ten
• Kathisma Eleven
• Kathisma Twelve
• Kathisma Thirteen
• Kathisma Fourteen
• Kathisma Fifteen
• Kathisma Sixteen
• Kathisma Seventeen
• Kathisma Eighteen
• Kathisma Nineteen
• Kathisma Twenty
• Appendix
• Bibliography