Footnotes

1. Psalm 21:1 One would have a poor understanding of feasts if one did not allow chants to intermingle desires and reality. On a feast, the king appears to share the privileges of God: authority, long rule, and majesty, for the Lord has blessed and established him to save his people from their foes. The history of Israel will more than once give the lie to this ideal figure of the monarch. The Church sees therein the traits of Jesus Christ, King and Savior of the People of God; in him resides the blessing for the whole world. The psalm continued to be sung in Israel even when the kingship ended after the sixth century A.D.—but this time concerning a future Messianic King.
   By a very simple spiritual transposition, this psalm enables us to sing of the divine blessings granted to Christ, especially his Resurrection, and to hope for his complete and decisive triumph over his enemies (the devil, sin, and death).
2. Psalm 21:1 For the director: these words are thought to be a musical or liturgical notation.