PSALTERIVM

PSALMVS LXXXVII — DOMINE DEVS

O Lord, the God of My Salvation

Domine Deus salutis meae is the darkest of the lament psalms, ending without resolution in the silence of death. The repeated images of Sheol, the pit, and darkness express utter abandonment. In the 1962 Breviary it appears at Saturday Matins. The Fathers apply this psalm to Christ's descent into Hell on Holy Saturday.

LATINE
Domine, Deus salutis meae: in die clamavi, et nocte coram te.
Intret in conspectu tuo oratio mea: inclina aurem tuam ad precem meam.
Quia repleta est malis anima mea: et vita mea inferno appropinquavit.
Aestimatus sum cum descendentibus in lacum: factus sum sicut homo sine adiutorio, inter mortuos liber.
Sicut vulnerati dormientes in sepulcris, quorum non es memor amplius: et ipsi de manu tua repulsi sunt.
Posuerunt me in lacu inferiori: in tenebrosis, et in umbra mortis.
Super me confirmatus est furor tuus: et omnes fluctus tuos induxisti super me.
Longe fecisti notos meos a me: posuerunt me abominationem sibi.
Domine, clamavi ad te, expandi ad te manus meas tota die.
ENGLISH
O Lord, the God of my salvation: I have cried in the day, and in the night before thee.
Let my prayer come in before thee: incline thy ear to my petition.
For my soul is filled with evils: and my life hath drawn nigh to hell.
I am counted among them that go down to the pit: I am become as a man without help, free among the dead.
Like the slain sleeping in the sepulchres, whom thou rememberest no more: and they are cast off from thy hand.
They have laid me in the lower pit: in the dark places, and in the shadow of death.
Thy wrath is strong over me: and all thy waves thou hast brought in upon me.
Thou hast put away my acquaintance far from me: they have set me an abomination to themselves.
Lord, I have cried to thee, I have stretched out my hands to thee all the day.
NOTA
FONS
Douay-Rheims (1609) / Vulgata
USUS
Office of the Dead, Holy Saturday, Extreme suffering
CONTEXT
Psalm 88 in Hebrew numbering. Applied to Christ in the tomb on Holy Saturday. The only psalm that ends without consolation—yet prayer itself is hope.