Showing posts with label Compline. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Compline. Show all posts

Tuesday, March 2, 2021

Notes on the relationship between the early Roman and Benedictine Offices: The Nunc Dimittis at Compline**

On the feast of the Purification, the Gospel reading contains the Nunc Dimittis, which is said daily at Compline in the traditional forms of the Roman Office. This canticle is not, however, said at that hour in the Benedictine Office.

So why did St Benedict omit it?

One recent suggestion, from Jesse Billett, is that he didn't: rather the Nunc Dimittis was added to the Roman Office after the Rule of St Benedict was written. [1]

On the face of it the suggestion seems eminently plausible. There are, however, some reasons for questioning this conclusion.

The origins of Compline

It is worth starting by considering, by way of context, the origins of the hour of Compline.

Prayers before bed are mentioned in numerous early sources.

Whether these can be construed as references to proto-liturgical prayer though is contested.

Still, the key elements of Compline were clearly in place relatively early: its position as the 'hour' of prayer before sleep is set out in several early Office schemas; the use of certain fixed psalms at it seems to date from very early on; and the idea of an examination of conscience associated with it also has early origins.

The Apostolic Tradition (circa  225 or 375-400) , for example, lists the appropriate hours of prayer for the faithful as on rising at dawn/cockcrow (Lauds); before starting work (Prime); the third, sixth and ninth hours (Terce, Sext and None); before bed (Compline), again at midnight (Matins). [2]

St Ambrose (d397), in his instructions to Virgins, enjoins the use of psalms in conjunction with the Lord's prayer before sleep, as an aid to freeing the mind from earthly cares and focusing instead on the things of God. [3]

Similarly, St Basil (d379), in the Long Rule, includes prayers before bed in his listing of the hours and foreshadowed three of the key elements of what was to become monastic Compline, viz the use of Psalms 4 and 90 and an examination of conscience:
"The examination of our past actions is a great help toward not falling into like faults again; wherefore the Psalmist says: ‘the things you say in your hearts, be sorry for them upon your beds.’ (Ps 4:5)"  Again, at nightfall, we must ask that our rest be sinless and untroubled by dreams. At this hour, also, the ninetieth Psalm should be recited. [4]
The psalms associated with the hour were apparently so well known that the Ordo Monasterii associated with St Augustine (d430) just refers to 'the customary psalms before sleeping'. [5]

And while St Benedict's contemporary St Caesarius of Arles (d542) doesn't mention Compline in his Rule  for Virgins (which he claimed followed the Office of the monastery of Lerins), his mid-sixth century successor as bishop of Arles, Aurelian (d551), did include the hour. [5]

For Italy, St Cassiodorus mentioned the hour as one of the seven hours each day alluded to in an office hymn attributed to St Ambrose. [6] It is St Benedict's Rule (c500-547), though, that contains the first detailed description of the hour. [7]

The Benedictine form of the hour was evidently used in Roman monasteries in the following centuries given the various references to the Rule in the Ordines Romani, including specific references to Compline in Ordo XVIII, which its original editor dated to the end of the eighth century, though others have convincingly argued dates much more likely from the mid-seventh century. [8]

The earliest surviving detailed description of the Roman version of the hour, however, dates from around three centuries later, and was penned by Amalarius of Metz (c775-850). [9]

The Roman hour and the 'organic development of the liturgy'

The hour Amalarius describes differs from the version St Benedict specifies in several respects: Amalarius doesn't repeat St Benedict's instruction that the psalms should be said without antiphon and 'directly' (ie without any repetitions of an antiphon or refrain); an additional psalm is included, namely the first six verses of Psalm 30; the hour is preceded by a reading (although not formally part of the hour itself); and it includes the Nunc Dimittis.

The table below compares the provisions of the Rule and the version of the hour described by Amalarius.

Benedictine Rule
Amalarius
Modern Benedictine (1962)

[Reading]
Reading


Confessional rite
Deus in adjutorium…


                                       Psalm 4
-
Psalm 30:1-6
-
                                       Psalm 90
                                       Psalm 133
Hymn
-
Hymn
Lesson
-
Lesson
Versicle
Versicle
Versicle

Nunc dimittis

Kyrie eleison

Kyrie eleison
Pater Noster


Blessing

Blessing


Marian antiphon


Some of the differences between the two forms of the hour are perhaps readily explicable as part of the process of the development of the liturgy. The addition of antiphons for the psalms and canticle, for example, in later versions of the Roman Office may well reflect a more developed version of the hour, with the Benedictines continuing to omit it because of the explicit specifications of the Rule. Similarly, later Roman forms of the hour include the hymn and short lesson of the Benedictine hour.

One of the difficulties with Billett's suggestion in relation to the Nunc Dimittis though, is that while the core of the Benedictine Office as laid out in the Rule did not (in most cases) change at all, or significantly, it does seem to have developed in parallel with the Roman Office, adding a number of additional features, such as collects. In the case of Compline, the modern version of the Benedictine hour includes both the opening reading, the confessional rite of the Roman hour, as well as the seasonal Marian antiphon after it (which has Benedictine origins). So why include those elements but not the canticle?

Deliberate choices?

One possible answer is that some of the differences between the two forms of Compline reflect deliberate choices, and were recognised as such by contemporaries.

St Benedict's decision not to include Psalm 30 in his version of the hour, for example, probably goes in part to number symbolism: in his version of the Office Vespers and Compline together add up to seven psalms (a number symbolising completeness, as well as paralleling the seven days of creation), paralleling the number of psalms said at Lauds, and matching the symbolism of the twelve psalms said at Matins and again at Prime to None each day (the number of hours of the day).

It may also, though, reflect his preferred theological emphasises.  

Psalm 30's Compline verses end, implicitly, with the crucifixion (since the section ends with the verse Christ recited on the cross before his death) and acceptance of death.  By contrast St Benedict's psalm cursus is organised so as to consistently emphasis the Resurrection, for example in the placement of Psalm 3, with its verse Ego dormívi, et soporátus sum: exsurréxi, quia Dóminus suscépit me at Matins, and often seems to reflect the comments in the Prologue of the Rule on being granted the extension of our lives in order that we grow in merit.

The addition of the opening reading first to the Roman (later replicated in the Benedictine) version of the hour seems, at least if Amalarius is to be believed, to be due to the influence of St Bede, who drew attention to the precedent of having readings eight times a day in Nehemiah: the Benedictine Office had a reading at Compline (and all its other hours) to make up the eight, but the Roman did not, hence, Amalarius claims, the custom arose of adding a reading before the hour started. [10]

So was the omission of the canticle another such deliberate choice? Like Psalm 30, the Nunc Dimittis arguably serves to give Compline more of a flavour of the acceptance of death, rather than on repenting for our sins and resolution to do better in future, as urged by Psalm 4.

Te decet laus

There is another key reason for seeing it as a deliberate choice though, in a reference to a daily evening prayer consisting of an antiphon and the Nunc Dimittis in the fourth century Apostolic Constitutions:
You children, praise the Lord: praise the name of the Lord. We praise You, we sing hymns to You, we bless You for Your great glory, O Lord our King, the Father of Christ the immaculate Lamb, who takes away the sin of the world. Praise becomes You, hymns become You, glory becomes You, the God and Father, through the Son, in the most holy Spirit, for ever and ever. Amen. Now, O Lord, let Your servant depart in peace, according to Your word; for my eyes have seen Your salvation, which You have prepared before the face of all people, a light for the revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of Your people Israel. [11]
Although the Apostolic Constitutions are almost certainly of Syrian origin rather than Roman, it does seem to imply the early use of the Nunc Dimittis as part of the customary prayers before bed, although they do not seem to have become part of any of the Eastern forms of Compline. Early on it appears to have been used at Matins; its use at Vespers seems to have been a thirteenth century development. [12]

All the same the Constitutions, (incorrectly) ascribed to Clement of Rome, were almost certainly known in Rome in the sixth century, since they were rejected as non-canonical by the Gelasium Decretal. [13] More significantly perhaps, the Constitutions provide our sole surviving source for the short doxological hymn, Te decet laus (see the bolding in the text above), that St Benedict specified be used in his version of Matins.

Conclusions

Jesse Billett, in The Divine Office in Anglo-Saxon England 597-c1000, made the suggestion that the Nunc Dimittis was a later addition to the Roman Office in order to explain its absence in an Anglo-Saxon Office manuscript including canticles and hymns thought to have originated with the Gregorian mission in 597. The traditional explanation was of course that the manuscript reflected the Benedictine origin of most of the missionaries: the book after all contains hymns, which were not used in the Roman Office, as far as we know, until the high middle ages. Billett, by contrast, sought to make the case that the missionaries bought the Roman Office (or at least Roman psalm cursus) with them rather than the Benedictine.

But given the continuing development of Benedictine Compline, presumably in response to the evolution of the Roman version of the hour, the traditional case seems to me at least as plausible as Billett's alternative suggestion.  In particular, the circulation in Rome in Benedict's time of the Apostolic Constitutions, at the very least makes the Nunc Dimittis' association with evening prayer in the city by this time a strong possibility. And at the very least, St Benedict's probable familiarity with the Apostolic Constitutions implies that he made a deliberate choice not to use it in that context, instead repurposing the short doxology associated with it, just as he chose to drop Psalm 30 (assuming it too was already part of Compline) from his version of the hour.

Notes

[1] Jesse Billett, The Divine Office in Anglo-Saxon England 597-c1000, Henry Bradshaw Society, London, 2014, pp 114.

[2] Chapter 41 of the Apostolic Tradition (there is an ongoing vigorous debate on its dating and origins, on which see Ashbrook Harvey, Susan; Hunter, David G. (2008). The Oxford handbook of early Christian studies. Oxford University Press. p. 430).

[3] Ambrose On Virgins, Book III;

[4] Trans St. Basil, the Long Rules, tr. M. Wagner, New York, Fathers of the Church Inc., 1950  pp. 306-311.

[5] St Augustine's Ordo Monasterii. (Sr Michaele Puzicha, though, in her recent commentary on the Benedictine Rule argues that this is not a reference to collective prayer).

[5] Caesarius of Arles, Rule for Virgins, in Caesarius of Arles, Oeuvres Monastique, de Vogue and Courreau ed and trans, 2 vols, Sources Chretienne 345, 398; Aurelian of Arles, Rule for Monks, in Vincent Desprez, Adalbert de Vogüé (ed and trans), Règles monastiques d'Occident: IVe-VIe siècle, d'Augustin à Ferréol, Abbaye de Bellefontaine, 1980.

[6] Cassiodorus, Commentary on Psalm P118:164, in P G Walsh (trans), Cassiodorus: Explanation of the Psalms, Paulist Press, NY, 1991: “Should we wish to interpret this number [seven] literally, it denotes the seven offices with which monks in their devoted piety console themselves, namely, matins, terce, sext, none, vespers, compline, nocturn; the hymn of saint Ambrose, sung at the sixth hour, also attests this.”

[7] RB 17&18.

[8]  Although Guy Hallinger argued that the Benedictine Rule was not used in Rome after Benedict, more recent assessments by have challenged this view: see in particular Marios Costambeys and Conrad Leyser, To be the neighbour of St Stephen: patronage, martyr cult, and Roman monasteries c, 600-900 in Kate Cooper and Julia Hillner ed, Religion, Dynasty, and Patronage in Early Christian Rome, 300-900, CUP 2007, pp 262-287, and  Constant J. Mews (2011) Gregory the Great, the Rule of Benedict and Roman liturgy: the evolution of a legend, Journal of Medieval History, 37:2, 125-144.

For Ordo XVIII see Michel Andrieu (ed), Les ordines romani du haut moyen age, 1961, vol iii, pp 197-208.  Andrieu argues that the Ordo as a whole deviates from the Rule in several respects but there is no obvious reason to view these as other than legitimate adaptations to the circumstances. Andrieu points out, for example that the Rule doesn't envisage saying the Office in the dormitory rather than the oratory, but the Roman basilican monasteries were often located at some distance from the church itself, and in some cases there seem to have been specific agreements (mentioned in the Liber Pontificis) as to which of the hours they would provide in the church itself.  On its dating, see Mews above.

[9] Eric Knibbs (ed and trans). Amalar of Metz, On the Liturgy, vol II, Dumbarton Oaks, 2014, pp 376 - 383.

[10] Bede, On Ezra and Nehemiah, quoting Nehemiah 9:3 says: And they rose up to stand, and they read from the Book of the Law of the Lord their God four times a day, and four times at night they confessed and prayed to the Lord their God.   For who would not be amazed that such a great people had such extraordinary concern for devotion that four times a day - that is, at the first hour of the morning, the third, the sixth and the ninth, when time was to be made for prayer and psalmody - they gave themselves over to listening to the divine law in order to renew their mind in God and come back purer and more devout for imploring his mercy; but also four times a night they would shake off their sleepiness and get up in order to confess their sins and beg pardon.  From this example, I think, a most beautiful custom has developed in the Church, namely that through each hour of daily psalmody a passage from the Old or New Testament is recited by heart for all to hear, and thus strengthened by the words of the apostles or the prophets, they bend their knees to perverance in prayer, but also at night, when people cease from the labours of doing good works, they turn willing ears to listen to divine readings.  (trans Scott DeGregorio, Liverpool University Press, 2012, pp 200-201).  Amalarius, op cit, pp 382-3, comments that "And since, according to the arrangement of Ezra, this office must have a reading, that we may read four times a night, pious men are accustomed to read th reading before this Office..."

[11] Book VII , XLVIII.

[12] Gregory Woolfenden, Daily Liturgical Prayer Origins and Theology, pp 285.

[13]  The authenticity and origin of collection of books deemed non-canonical in the Gelasian decretal continue to be debated: their original author suggested a late fifth century southern Gaul origin; Bronwen Neil has recently defended its authenticity.

Friday, April 12, 2019

Psalm 30 v1: Free us from our sin



In te, Dómine, sperávi
non confúndar in ætérnum:
in justítia tua líbera me.
In you, O Lord, have I hoped,
let me never be confounded:
deliver me in your justice.


Aids to understanding the Latin

The key vocabulary for the verse is: 

spero, avi, atum, are, to hope or trust in
confundo, fudi, fusum, ere 3, to put or bring to shame, to discomfit, confounded
aeternus, a, um eternal. forever
iustitia, ae, f justice, righteousness, innocence, piety, moral integrity
libero, avi, atum, are  to free, set free, deliver

A selection of translations follows:

DR
In you, O Lord, have I hoped, let me never be confounded:
deliver me in your justice.
Brenton
O Lord, I have hoped in thee; let me never be ashamed:
deliver me in thy righteousness and rescue me.
Collegeville
In you Lord I have hoped; never shall I be put to shame:
in your justice set me free.
RSV
In thee, O LORD, do I seek refuge; let me never be put to shame;
in thy righteousness deliver me!
Cover
In thee, O Lord, have I put my trust let me never be put to confusion,
deliver me in thy righteousness.
Knox
To thee, O Lord, I look for refuge, never let me be ashamed of my trust;
in thy faithful care, deliver me.
Grail
In you, O Lord, I take refuge. Let me never be put to shame.
In your justice, set me free,

David, Christ and us

St Robert Bellarmine puts the opening verse of Psalm 30 in its original historical context:

King David, in his flight from Absalom, destitute of all earthly assistance, appeals to God, and says, “In thee have I hoped,” and I am therefore confident, as you are all powerful, and most true to me, that you will not disappoint me in my hope.
St Cassiodorus, however, saw David as a type of Christ:
Christ begs the Father, in accordance with the human nature which He as­sumed, that He may not be disappointed in His hope, and suffer the revilings of men's scorn.
It can obviously be applied to our own situation though, as Theodore of Cyr pointed out:
…sin covered me in deep shame, he is saying, but I pray this may not long remain with me owing to my confidence placed in you. In your righteousness rescue me and snatch me away. Do not fix your eyes on my sin, he is saying, but on the lawlessness of my pursuers: by applying this righteous verdict you will free me from the calamities besetting me.

Vulgate
Douay-Rheims
In finem. Psalmus David, pro extasi
Unto the end, a psalm for David, in an ecstasy
1 In te, Dómine, sperávi non confúndar in ætérnum: * in justítia tua líbera me.
In you, O Lord, have I hoped, let me never be confounded: deliver me in your justice.
2  Inclína ad me aurem tuam, * accélera ut éruas me.
3 Bow down your ear to me: make haste to deliver me.
3  Esto mihi in Deum protectórem, et in domum   refúgii: * ut salvum me fácias.
Be unto me a God, a protector, and a house of refuge, to save me.
4  Quóniam fortitúdo mea, et refúgium meum es   tu: * et propter nomen tuum dedúces me, et enútries me.
4 For you are my strength and my refuge; and for your name's sake you will lead me, and nourish me.
5  Edúces me de láqueo hoc, quem abscondérunt mihi: * quóniam tu es protéctor meus.
5 You will bring me out of this snare, which they have hidden for me: for you are my protector.
6  In manus tuas comméndo spíritum meum: * redemísti me, Dómine, Deus veritátis.
6 Into your hands I commend my spirit: you have redeemed me, O Lord, the God of truth.

And the next post in this series can be found here.

Saturday, March 30, 2019

Psalm 90 v16 pt 2: St Benedict's take - Extend our lives O Lord?

Image result for hezekiah sundial
Hezekiah's sundial

Longitúdine diérum replébo eum: et osténdam illi salutáre meum.
I will fill him with length of days; and I will show him my salvation.


In the last post I discussed the interpretations of the last verse of Psalm 90 offered by the Fathers and Theologians that centre around the Christological interpretation of the verse, as well as its promise of eternal life to us.  

In this post I want to continue with some speculation on St Benedict's particular take on the verse.

A long temporal life?

Not all interpreters of this verse see it as referring only to eternal life; instead, some see if as a  promise of a long life here and now.  

St Alphonsus Liguori, for example, argued that of the eight promises set out in these last three verses of the psalm, four of them relate to this work, and four to the next:
I will give him a long life, and will make him enjoy the health and salvation that I shall bestow upon him in this life, and eternal salvation which I reserve for him in the next… that is: I will draw him from this world of tribulation, and I will raise him to the abode of glory; there his life will have no longer an end, and he will enjoy a happiness that I enjoy myself.

How long though, is long enough in this world?

Extend our lives so that we can amend our evil ways

St Benedict's commentary in the Prologue to the Rule suggests that we must hope and pray that God 
'lengthens the days of our life' to give us enough time ‘to amend our evil ways’ and ‘to make our life correspond with God’s holy admonitions’.

There is an interesting possible connection to this theme in the psalm made by Theodore of Cyrus.

King Hezekiah, who, when told he was dying, begged for his life to be extended, and was granted an additional fifteen years of life.

Theodore's commentary on the psalm notes that:
Blessed Hezekiah also enjoyed these benefits, asking for an extended life, he received a span of fifteen years…

The Gradual psalms and the canticle of Hezekiah

Fifteen is of course, a significant number, associated with both the number of steps between the inner and outer courtyards of the Temple, symbolizing the ascent to heaven, and with the Gradual Psalms that were recited as the pilgrims ascended them on great feasts.  

In order to remind us of the need to make our own ascent through humility, St Benedict assigned the first nine of the Gradual psalms to be said at Terce to None most days.  

But it is particularly symbolic that St Benedict assigns all of the Gradual Psalms (bar one) to Tuesdays, the day on which the Canticle of Hezekiah (in which Hezekiah begs for God to save him from death) is traditionally said at Lauds.

We too, it seems to me, are being invited, as the canticle pleads, to ask God to correct us, and thus enable us to live (corrípies me et vivificábis me).

In the Rule, St Benedict makes repeated references to the need for us to continually strive to do good works, to grow in humility and virtue, so that our hearts are enlarged with charity and we can deserve to be partakers in his kingdom.

And our entry into that kingdom is foreshadowed in the fifteenth and last Gradual Psalm (Ps 133) which is recited immediately after this final verse of Psalm 90 each day at Compline in the Benedictine Office.

Psalm 90: Qui habitat 
Vulgate
Douay-Rheims
Laus cantici David.
The praise of a canticle for David
Qui hábitat in adjutório Altíssimi, * in protectióne Dei cæli commorábitur.
He that dwells in the aid of the most High, shall abide under the protection of the God of Jacob.
2  Dicet Dómino : Suscéptor meus es tu, et refúgium meum: * Deus meus sperábo in eum.
He shall say to the Lord: You are my protector, and my refuge: my God, in him will I trust.
3 Quóniam ipse liberávit me de láqueo venántium, * et a verbo áspero.
For he has delivered me from the snare of the hunters: and from the sharp word.
4  Scápulis suis obumbrábit tibi: * et sub pennis ejus sperábis.
He will overshadow you with his shoulders: and under his wings you shall trust.
5  Scuto circúmdabit te véritas ejus: * non timébis a timóre noctúrno.
His truth shall compass you with a shield: you shall not be afraid of the terror of the night.
6  A sagítta volánte in die, a negótio perambulánte in ténebris: * ab incúrsu et dæmónio meridiáno.
Of the arrow that flies in the day, of the business that walks about in the dark: of invasion, or of the noonday devil.
 Cadent a látere tuo mille, et decem míllia a dextris tuis: * ad te autem non appropinquábit.
A thousand shall fall at your side, and ten thousand at your right hand: but it shall not come near you.
8  Verúmtamen óculis tuis considerábis: * et retributiónem peccatórum vidébis.
But you shall consider with your eyes: and shall see the reward of the wicked.
Hezekiah's sundial
9  Quóniam tu es, Dómine, spes mea: * Altíssimum posuísti refúgium tuum.
Because you, O Lord, are my hope: you have made the most High your refuge.
10  Non accédet ad te malum: * et flagéllum non appropinquábit tabernáculo tuo.
There shall no evil come to you: nor shall the scourge come near your dwelling.
11  Quóniam Angelis suis mandávit de te: * ut custódiant te in ómnibus viis tuis.
For he has given his angels charge over you; to keep you in all your ways.
12  In mánibus portábunt te: * ne forte offéndas ad lápidem pedem tuum.
In their hands they shall bear you up: lest you dash your foot against a stone.
13  Super áspidem et basilíscum ambulábis: * et conculcábis leónem et dracónem.
You shall walk upon the asp and the basilisk: and you shall trample under foot the lion and the dragon.
14  Quóniam in me sperávit, liberábo eum: * prótegam eum quóniam cognóvit nomen meum.
Because he hoped in me I will deliver him: I will protect him because he has known my name.
15  Clamábit ad me, et ego exáudiam eum : * cum ipso sum in tribulatióne : erípiam eum et glorificábo eum.
He shall cry to me, and I will hear him: I am with him in tribulation, I will deliver him, and I will glorify him.
16  Longitúdine diérum replébo eum: * et osténdam illi salutáre meum.
I will fill him with length of days; and I will show him my salvation.

And that brings to an end this series on Psalm 90 - please do pass on any reactions, comments or suggestions in the comm box or by emailing me.

Next week, I plan to take a look at one of the repeated psalms of the (pre-1911) Roman Office, Psalm 53, which also features heavily in Tenebrae of Holy Week.

Friday, March 29, 2019

Psalm 90 vs 16 Pt 1 - Christ and the devil


Book of Kells

Longitúdine diérum replébo eum: et osténdam illi salutáre meum.
I will fill him with length of days; and I will show him my salvation.

The final verse of Psalm 90 provides the two final promises of God to those who trust in them.

As I find I have quite a lot to say about this verse, I will split my comments between between two posts.

Understanding the Latin

The key vocabulary is:

longitudo,inis, f lit.,length,
dies,ei, m. and fem. a day, the natural day
repleo, plevi, pletum, ere 2, to fill, sate, satisfy
ostendo, tendi, terttum, ere 3 to show, display; to expose, lay open; to show
salutaris, e a Savior, Helper, used of God; help, saving help,rescue, salvation,

Word by word:
Longitúdine (with length) diérum (of days) replébo (I will fill/satisfy/satiate) eum (him): et (and) osténdam (I will show) illi (to him) salutáre (with salvation) meum (my).

The Douay Rheims translates it as ‘I will fill him with length of days; and I will show him my salvation’.  The Coverdale and the RSV translations change length of days to ‘long life’, but this rather pre-empts a key question of interpretation: is he promising a long temporal life, or rather eternal life in heaven?

Douay Rheims
I will fill him with length of days;
and I will show him my salvation.
Monastic Diurnal
With length of days I will satisfy him,
and show him My salvation.
Brenton
I will satisfy him with length of days,
and shew him my salvation.
RSV
With long life I will satisfy him,
and show him my salvation.
Coverdale
With long life will I satisfy him,
and show him my salvation.
Knox
Length of days he shall have to content him, 
and find in me deliverance.
Grail
With length of days I will content him;
I shall let you see my saving power.

Length of days – the Christological interpretation

St Jerome argued that the verse should be interpreted as relating to Christ, and it can be read as literally meaning he will live for all eternity, and the reference to salvation refers to his eternal kingship.

His interpretation is supported by the use of the phrase (or variants of it) in a number of other key psalms with clear Christological meanings, most notably Psalm 20:4, the first (variable) psalm each week in the Benedictine Office, said at Sunday Matins, which reads:
Vitam pétiit a te: et tribuísti ei longitúdinem diérum in sæculum, et in sæculum sæculi. He asked life of you: and you have given him length of days for ever and ever.
St Irenaeus, for example, commented on that verse that:
In this way, the Psalmist proclaims his Resurrection from the dead and his immortality after rising from the dead. In fact, he entered life in order to rise again, and through the space of time in eternity, so as to be incorruptible.
The phrase also closes Psalm 92, said in the festal versions of Lauds and Matins on Fridays, with a similar connotation:
Testimónia tua credibília facta sunt nimis: domum tuam decet sanctitúdo, Dómine, in longitúdinem diérum. Your testimonies have become exceedingly credible: holiness becomes your house, O Lord, unto length of days.

Applied to us – the promise of eternal life

But the verse can also be applied to us, offering the promise of eternal life and happiness in heaven, since as St Augustine asserted in his commentary in the verse, how can anything less than eternal life be said to satisfy us:
That length is one that has no end, eternal life, that is promised us in long days. And truly, since this suffices, with reason he says, will I satisfy him. What is long in time, if it has an end, satisfies us not: for that reason it should not be even called long. And if we are covetous, we ought to be covetous of eternal life: long for such a life, as has no end.

There is, however, another possible interpretation of this verse, namely that it relates to our current, temporal life, and I will discuss that view in the next post.


Vulgate
Douay-Rheims
Laus cantici David.
The praise of a canticle for David
Qui hábitat in adjutório Altíssimi, * in protectióne Dei cæli commorábitur.
He that dwells in the aid of the most High, shall abide under the protection of the God of Jacob.
2  Dicet Dómino: Suscéptor meus es tu, et refúgium meum: * Deus meus sperábo in eum.
He shall say to the Lord: You are my protector, and my refuge: my God, in him will I trust.
3 Quóniam ipse liberávit me de láqueo venántium, * et a verbo áspero.
For he has delivered me from the snare of the hunters: and from the sharp word.
4 Scápulis suis obumbrábit tibi: * et sub pennis ejus sperábis.
He will overshadow you with his shoulders: and under his wings you shall trust.
5 Scuto circúmdabit te véritas ejus: * non timébis a timóre noctúrno.
His truth shall compass you with a shield: you shall not be afraid of the terror of the night.
6 A sagítta volánte in die, a negótio perambulánte in ténebris: * ab incúrsu et dæmónio meridiáno.
Of the arrow that flies in the day, of the business that walks about in the dark: of invasion, or of the noonday devil.
7 Cadent a látere tuo mille, et decem míllia a dextris tuis: * ad te autem non appropinquábit.
A thousand shall fall at your side, and ten thousand at your right hand: but it shall not come near you.
8 Verúmtamen óculis tuis considerábis: * et retributiónem peccatórum vidébis.
But you shall consider with your eyes: and shall see the reward of the wicked.
9 Quóniam tu es, Dómine, spes mea: * Altíssimum posuísti refúgium tuum.
Because you, O Lord, are my hope: you have made the most High your refuge.
10 Non accédet ad te malum: * et flagéllum non appropinquábit tabernáculo tuo.
There shall no evil come to you: nor shall the scourge come near your dwelling.
11 Quóniam Angelis suis mandávit de te: * ut custódiant te in ómnibus viis tuis.
For he has given his angels charge over you; to keep you in all your ways.
12 In mánibus portábunt te: * ne forte offéndas ad lápidem pedem tuum.
In their hands they shall bear you up: lest you dash your foot against a stone.
13 Super áspidem et basilíscum ambulábis: * et conculcábis leónem et dracónem.
You shall walk upon the asp and the basilisk: and you shall trample under foot the lion and the dragon.
14 Quóniam in me sperávit, liberábo eum: * prótegam eum quóniam cognóvit nomen meum.
Because he hoped in me I will deliver him: I will protect him because he has known my name.
15 Clamábit ad me, et ego exáudiam eum : * cum ipso sum in tribulatióne : erípiam eum et glorificábo eum.
He shall cry to me, and I will hear him: I am with him in tribulation, I will deliver him, and I will glorify him.
16 Longitúdine diérum replébo eum:   * et osténdam illi salutáre meum.
I will fill him with length of days; and I will show him my salvation.

And you can find the final part of this series on Psalm 90 here.