PSALTERIVM

PSALMVS XCIV — VENITE EXSVLTEMVS

Come, Let Us Praise the Lord With Joy

Venite, exsultemus Domino is the invitatory psalm that opens Matins throughout the 1962 Breviary. Called the Invitatorium, this psalm summons the Church to worship with the warning from Hebrews 3: 'Today if you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.' The daily repetition makes this call foundational to the entire Office.

LATINE
Venite, exsultemus Domino, iubilemus Deo salutari nostro.
Praeoccupemus faciem eius in confessione, et in psalmis iubilemus ei.
Quoniam Deus magnus Dominus, et Rex magnus super omnes deos.
Quia in manu eius sunt omnes fines terrae: et altitudines montium ipsius sunt.
Quoniam ipsius est mare, et ipse fecit illud: et siccam manus eius formaverunt.
Venite, adoremus et procidamus: et ploremus ante Dominum, qui fecit nos.
Quia ipse est Dominus Deus noster: et nos populus pascuae eius, et oves manus eius.
Hodie si vocem eius audieritis, nolite obdurare corda vestra:
Sicut in exacerbatione, secundum diem tentationis in deserto: ubi tentaverunt me patres vestri, probaverunt me, et viderunt opera mea.
Quadraginta annis proximus fui generationi huic, et dixi: Semper hi errant corde.
Et isti non cognoverunt vias meas: ut iuravi in ira mea: Si introibunt in requiem meam.
ENGLISH
Come let us praise the Lord with joy: let us joyfully sing to God our saviour.
Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving; and make a joyful noise to him with psalms.
For the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods.
For in his hand are all the ends of the earth: and the heights of the mountains are his.
For the sea is his, and he made it: and his hands formed the dry land.
Come let us adore and fall down: and weep before the Lord that made us.
For he is the Lord our God: and we are the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand.
Today if you shall hear his voice, harden not your hearts:
As in the provocation, according to the day of temptation in the wilderness: where your fathers tempted me, they proved me, and saw my works.
Forty years long was I offended with that generation, and I said: These always err in heart.
And these men have not known my ways: so I swore in my wrath that they shall not enter into my rest.
NOTA
FONS
Douay-Rheims (1609) / Vulgata
USUS
Invitatory (daily opening of Matins)
CONTEXT
Psalm 95 in Hebrew numbering. The entire Epistle to the Hebrews 3-4 is a meditation on this psalm. 'Today if you hear his voice' is the daily call to conversion.