PSALTERIVM

PSALMVS CXLI — VOCE MEA AD DOMINVM

I Cried to the Lord With My Voice

Voce mea ad Dominum clamavi is a psalm of desperate petition when the spirit fails and all refuge seems gone. The imagery of a prison from which there is no escape expresses complete abandonment. In the 1962 Breviary it appears at Vespers on Saturdays. The Fathers apply this psalm to Christ in Gethsemane and to souls in spiritual desolation.

LATINE
Voce mea ad Dominum clamavi: voce mea ad Dominum deprecatus sum.
Effundo in conspectu eius orationem meam, et tribulationem meam ante ipsum pronuntio.
In deficiendo ex me spiritum meum, et tu cognovisti semitas meas.
In via hac, qua ambulabam, absconderunt laqueum mihi.
Considerabam ad dexteram, et videbam: et non erat qui cognosceret me.
Periit fuga a me: et non est qui requirat animam meam.
Clamavi ad te, Domine, dixi: Tu es spes mea, portio mea in terra viventium.
Intende ad deprecationem meam: quia humiliatus sum nimis.
Libera me a persequentibus me: quia confortati sunt super me.
Educ de custodia animam meam ad confitendum nomini tuo: me exspectant iusti, donec retribuas mihi.
ENGLISH
I cried to the Lord with my voice: with my voice I made supplication to the Lord.
In his sight I pour out my prayer, and before him I declare my trouble:
When my spirit failed me, then thou knewest my paths.
In this way wherein I walked, they have hidden a snare for me.
I looked on my right hand, and beheld, and there was no one that would know me.
Flight hath failed me: and there is no one that hath regard to my soul.
I cried to thee, O Lord: I said: Thou art my hope, my portion in the land of the living.
Attend to my supplication: for I am brought very low.
Deliver me from my persecutors: for they are stronger than I.
Bring my soul out of prison, that I may praise thy name: the just wait for me, until thou reward me.
NOTA
FONS
Douay-Rheims (1609) / Vulgata
USUS
Times of abandonment, Holy Saturday
CONTEXT
Psalm 142 in Hebrew numbering. Composed when David hid from Saul in the cave. Applied to Christ in the tomb and to souls in purgatory.