Fr Matthew Reese

1 Give ear to my words, O Lord; *
consider my meditation.
2 Hearken to my cry for help, my King and my God, *
for I make my prayer to you.
3 In the morning, Lord, you hear my voice; *
early in the morning I make my appeal and watch for you.

—Psalm 5 (Book of Common Prayer, 1979)

1 Ponder my words, O Lord, *
consider my meditation.
2 O hearken thou unto the voice of my calling, my King and my God: *
for unto thee will I make my prayer.
3 My voice shalt thou hear betimes, O Lord; *
early in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee, and will look up.

—Psalm 5 (Coverdale, 1535)

Dear friends,

One of this morning’s Psalms is numbers 5, and what better start could we have for our prayerful contemplation: “Give ear to my words, O Lord; consider my meditation.”

Psalm 5 seems to me especially rich and complex. At the beginning, we have this sense of deep introspection—scripture is replete with the phrase “hearken to my prayer,” and yet here it feels so quiet and intimate.

And yet, verses 4-12 are so strident, like one of the “Oracles against the Nations”—a kind of invective against the enemies of the people of God.

From the personal to the political. From quietude to cries of war.

In the translation of the Psalter in the 1979 Prayerbook (given first above), you probably get a more accurate reading of the original. This translation was specifically commissioned for the 1979 book and was based on the most recent scholarship and—critically—the extant Hebrew manuscripts.

But in every previous American (and English) Prayerbook, the translation was that of Miles Coverdale (with periodic editorial emendations). Coverdale’s translation—which the choir sings on Sundays—is somewhat less accurate, being based on the Latin Vulgate. But it is to my ear, much more musical.

And Coverdale does a beautiful job of capturing this sense of intimacy, and then of enormous linguistic, thematic, and emotional expansion.

Today, however, I will be meditating on just two verses—set so subtly by the composer Edward Elgar—knowing that as I make my morning prayer to God, however timidly, however quietly, however haltingly, that He is listening.

Yours in Christ,

—Fr Matthew