Bellarmine's Preface : Part 2 ("Psalm" & "Psalterium")

I now come to the words Psalmus and Psalterium. Psalterium / Psalter for us means the book of Psalms : St. Augustine uses it in this way in his letter 140 ad Audacem, when he says : “I do not have the Psalter translated by St. Jerome from the Hebrew.” St. Jerome also uses it thus in his letter ad Sophronium on the order and titles of the Psalms : “I know,” he says, “people who think the Psalter is divided into five books.” But in the sacred Scriptures, Psalterium is a musical instrument constructed with ten strings, which in Hebrew is nebel. St. Basil, in his commentary on Psalm I, and St.Augustine in his commentary on Psalm XXXII, state that it differs from the cithara / harp and the lyra /lyre because they produce sound from their lower part but the psalterium[1] produces sound from the upper part. S. Hilary adds, in his Prologue to the Psalms, that the psalterium was a straight instrument, with no curving. Mention of this instrument is very frequent in the sacred Scriptures, and in Psalm XXXII it says of it : “I shall sing to thee on the psalterium of ten strings.”[2] The word Psalm, in Hebrew mizmor, means something sung or a sound : it is derived from the word zamar, which means to sing and to pluck a harp or a psalterium, in the same way indeed as the word ψἁλλω[3] among the Greeks. On the meaning of plucking with the hands, that is, plucking an instrument, we have I Kings xvi : “(thy servants) ... will seek out a man skillful in playing on the harp, that when the evil spirit from the Lord is upon thee, he may play with his hand.”[4]

The same is found in chapter xvii, xviii and elsewhere. On the meaning of psallendi voce, that is, singing, we have Psalm XXXII : “Sing well unto him with a loud noise;”[5] and with the Apostle in I Corinth. xiv : “I will sing with the spirit, I will sing also with the understanding,”[6] that is, I will sing with the spirit of the mouth, singing with my bodily voice the praises of God, and I will sing with the spirit of the heart, desiring and loving God’s glory. The following is of interest in the writings of St. Hilary and St. John Chrysostom, both authors of a Prologue to the Psalms, namely the difference between a Psalm and a Canticle, and between a Psalm of a Canticle and a Canticle of a Psalm : a Psalm is the sound of the instrument alone, without any human voice singing; a Canticle is the voice of a man singing without the music of the instrument; a Psalm of a Canticle is when the Psalm follows on from a prior Canticle; a Canticle of a Psalm is when a voice singing imitates the previous sound. Now the Psalms of David do not refer to just any song or music, but to that which offers harmonious praises to God, or prayers to God, or an exhortation to virtue; not empty fables, lustful love-stories or flatteries of princes. Hence, the book of Psalms is written in Hebrew as sepher thehillim, that is, the book of hymns, or of divine praises; and at the end of Psalm LXXI, which is the last of all the Psalms that David sang, we read : the praises (that is, the prayers) of David have run out.  For the majority of the Psalms contain either praises of God, or prayers to God, or both at the same time : although there are a few which are wholly taken up with exhorting men to virtue, such as the first Psalm and a few others.

[1] psalterium :A small ancient or medieval stringed instrument, trapezoidal or rectangular in shape and played like a harp or lyre. Later also: a similar instrument with a sounding board or box; = psaltery n. 1. historical in later use. OED. 

[2] Give praise to the Lord on the harp; sing to him with the psaltery, the instrument of ten strings. Confitemini Domino in cithara; in psalterio decem chordarum psallite illi.[Psalm XXXII 2]

[3]  ψάλλω, to touch sharply, to pluck, pull, twitch

[4] Let our lord give orders, and thy servants who are before thee will seek out a man skillful in playing on the harp, that when the evil spirit from the Lord is upon thee, he may play with his hand, and thou mayest bear it more easily. Jubeat dominus noster, et servi tui, qui coram te sunt, quaerent hominem scientem psallere cithara, ut quando arripuerit te spiritus Domini malus, psallat manu sua, et levius feras. [ I Kings xvi 16]

[5] Sing to him a new canticle, sing well unto him with a loud noise. Cantate ei canticum novum; bene psallite ei in vociferatione. [Psalm XXXII 3]

[6] What is it then? I will pray with the spirit, I will pray also with the understanding; I will sing with the spirit, I will sing also with the understanding. Quid ergo est? Orabo spiritu, orabo et mente : psallam spiritu, psallam et mente. [I Corinth. xiv 15]

Totus tuus ego sum

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam.