NEW MOON OF SEVENTH OR SABBATICAL MONTH. Ps. lxxxi. Sing we merrily.
DEDICATION. The Hallel, as at the Passover.
PRESENTATION OF FIRST-FRUITS. Ps. cxxii. I was glad. Ps. xxx. I will magnify Thee, O Lord.
B. The allusions to the singing of Psalms in the New Testament shew that it was from the first a recognised Christian devotion, both in public and private (Acts xvi. 25; 1 Cor. xiv. 26; Eph. v. 19; James v. 13). This is borne out by the evidence of the Christian Fathers (see, for example, S. Athanasius' Epistle to Marcellinus; S. Aug. Confess. ix. 8; S. Jerome, Ep. xlvi.). But it was no doubt the rise of the monastic life in Egypt and its subsequent spread over the whole Church in the fourth and fifth centuries that led by its disciplined devotion to the systematic arrangement of the Psalter for daily services and to its continuous recitation. Many of the early monks, indeed, recited the whole Psalter daily; but the Western use, settled traditionally by S. Gregory the Great, aimed at a weekly recitation, and this system in theory dominated the Breviary services all through the Middle Ages.
The normal arrangement of the Psalter in the daily offices was, roughly speaking, as follows:
At Mattins, Ps. i.-cix., divided into nine "Nocturns," three of which were said on Sunday, and one on each of the following week-days, beginning each day with the 95th, the Invitatory Psalm.
At Lauds, Pss. lxiii., lxvii., cxlviii.-cl., with certain other varying Psalms.
At Prime, always Ps. liv. and the first four portions of the 119th, and one varying Psalm.
At Terce, the next six portions of the 119th.
At Sext, the next six portions of the 119th.