Psalm 76:5
an ounce of prevention
My eyes prevented the watches: I was troubled, and I spoke not. (Psalm 76:5 DR)
One of the delights of a translation such as the Douay-Rheims is that one is often treated to English archaisms that have shifted fairly significantly in meaning. Such is the case in this verse, where the Latin word anticipaverunt is rendered as prevented.
In Modern English prevent is commonly used in the sense of keeping something from happening, but in the English used at the time of the translation it was also commonly used in the sense of something which precedes another thing or anticipates its action (hence being used for anticipaverunt). Another way of phrasing it is that to prevent something is to come or go before it.
Prevent is formed in a similar way as the word advent, the latter being a conjunction of the prefix ad- [to] and venire [to come]. Similarly, prevent is formed by the prefix pre- [before] and venire, the -ae diphthong of the Latin prae- being collapsed in English to just the -e.
The idea thus inherent in prevent here is that the Psalmist’s eyes go before or anticipate the watches of the night; that is, he rises to meditate on the law of God in the middle of the night. In the previous verse he describes his remembrance of God and how it caused his spirit to exult and rejoice; this carries over into a physical manifestation where he desires to enjoy communion with God more than sleep, to meditate on God’s law more than to give slumber to his eyes:
He explains the meaning of the expression, “I was exercised,” by saying, “my eyes prevented the watches;” that is, I rose at night for meditation, before the military watches turned out for guard. We have a similar phrase in Psalm 118, “My eyes to thee have prevented the morning; that I might meditate on thy words.” (St. Robert Bellarmine, A Commentary on the Book of the Psalms, 76, 4.)
The notion of the watches of the night carries some significance, in that he next mentions that in his meditation he was troubled and spoke not. This rising for prayer is not a nice thing to do if possible or some preference of his; rather, he considers it in martial terms. Just as the safety of the city depends on the watchfulness and diligence of the guard, so the safety of his soul relies upon his own watchfulness in prayer.
In the Divine Office the hour of Matins was commonly in the middle of the night, modeled largely upon this sense of watchfulness in prayer. There is a martial aspect even to the Office, as the body must be trained and brought into submission so as to be able to battle against the enemies of the soul. We are not all monastics and thus not all called to such particular rigor, but the principle for the spiritual life remains nevertheless, to be borne out in one’s own vocation by some means or another.
The Psalmist’s joy and exultation does not exist and cannot exist without this watchfulness and discipline, so much so that he considers the health of his soul of more value than the sleep his body requires. The point isn’t, of course, that one can only increase in spiritual growth by praying for hours in the middle of the night (although it wouldn’t hurt!), but rather that communion with God must be the priority before all else. The Psalmist in preventing the watches orders his life and needs around his communion with and meditation upon God and his law, rather than trying to fit it in as he has time.
In this sense we can prevent in both the archaic and modern sense: by preventing the watches in the sense of ordering everything around our Lord, we also prevent those things from dictating the ordering of our lives.
This animation was very simple, created with just four shape layers in After Effects. I drew and ellipse and made it into a bezier shape so I could animate the paths.
I wanted to give the sense of the watches of the night so I just animated this ellipse to simulate to some extent a moon phase. The first ellipse functions as a track matte for the word my, and the second ellipse similarly for eyes. I finally added a couple additional ellipses and added dashed paths and animated the rotations.
Pretty simple, but I like it.
Enjoy.
My eyes prevented the watches: I was troubled, and I spoke not.
(Psalm 76:5 DR)
View a higher quality version of this gif here: