People who memorized the Psalms were obviously memorizing them in total with the fullness of each one’s message and topics. For example, some psalms are of great praise and joy, while others are of despair in desperate situations. I’m going to laboriously type through using my bible each number and “topic” of each psalm. I do this for my international readers who do not have ready access to a bible that displays it in that form. Thus even the original tradition of citing 150 Our Fathers deviated from full appreciation of the topics of the psalms, as it homogenized the prayer as a form of repletion of the Our Fathers. The Our Father is THE prayer of faith, taught by Jesus Christ himself, and thus it has great virtue. However an Our Father does not express the full range of worship as does its corresponding psalm. Thus the repetition of either the Our Father or the Hail Mary does not “summarize” what each psalm individually would have said. This is one reason that the rosary with its set of three mysteries linking the life of Jesus stories to the desire to say the psalms made sense and re-introduces more “content” for prayerful meditation, as would have been if one had memorized and recited the psalms. Therefore our Pope John Paul II was not deviating from tradition by adding the Luminous Mysteries but actually adding more content for prayerful meditation that would be consistent with a step back toward actually memorizing the psalms themselves. It is the not the numbers; it is the content.
So here is the list of psalm numbers and topics, and remember this is what an individual Hail Mary (or the traditional Our Father) “substitutes for,” according to the psalter tradition.
List of Psalms by number and topic in the Old Testament Book of Pslams:
1. True Happiness
2. The Universal Reign of the Messiah
3. Trust in God in Time of Danger
4. Joyful Confidence in God
5. Prayer for Divine Help
6. Prayer in Time of Distress
7. An Appeal to the Divine Judge
8. The Majesty of God and the Dignity of Man
9. Thanksgiving for the Overthrow of Hostile Nations
10. Prayer for Help against Oppressors
11. Unshakable Confidence in God
12. Prayer against Evil Tongues
13. Prayer of One in Sorrow
14. A Lament over Widespread Corruption
15. The Guest of God
16. God the Supreme Good
17. Prayer against Persecutors
18. Thanksgiving for Help and Victory
19. God’s Glory in the Heavens and in the Law
20. Prayer for the King in Time of War
21. Thanksgiving and Prayers for the King
22. Passion and Triumph of the Messiah
23. The Lord, Shepherd and Host
24. The Lord’s Solemn Entry into Sion
25. Prayer for Guidance and Help
26. Prayer of an Innocent Man
27. Trust in God
28. Petition and Thanksgiving
29. God’s Majesty in the Storm
30. Thanksgiving for Deliverance from Death
31. Prayer in Distress and Thanksgiving for Escape
32. Remission of Sin
33. Praise of the Lord’s Power and Providence
34. Praise of God, the Protector of the Just
35. Prayer for Help against Unjust Enemies
36. Human Wickedness and Divine Providence
37. The Fate of Sinners and the Reward of the Just
38. Prayer of an Afflicted Sinner
39. The Brevity and Vanity of Life
40. Gratitude and Prayer for Help
41. Thanksgiving after Sickness
42. Desire for God and His Temple
43. Do me justice, O God
44. Israel’s Past Glory and Present Need
45. Nuptial Ode for the Messianic King
46. God the Refuge of Israel
47. The Lord the King of All Nations
48. Thanksgiving for Jerusalem’s Deliverance
49. The Vanity of Worldly Riches
50. The Acceptable Sacrifice
51. The Miserere: Prayer of Repentance
52. The Deceitful Tongue
53. Lament over Widespread Corruption
54. Confident Prayer in Great Peril
55. Complaint against Enemies and a Disloyal Companion
56. Trust in God, the Helper in Need
57. Confident Prayer for Deliverance
58. Against Unjust Judges
59. Against Bloodthirsty Enemies
60. Prayer after Defeat in Battle
61. Prayer of the King in Exile
62. Trust in God Alone
63. Ardent Longing for God
64. Treacherous Conspirators Punished by God
65. Thanksgiving for God’s Blessings
66. Praise of God, Israel’s Deliverer
67. Harvest Prayer That All Men May Worship God
68. God’s Triumphal Procession
69. A Cry of Anguish in Great Distress
70. Prayer for Divine Help
71. Humble Prayer in Time of Old Age
72. The Kingdom of the Messiah
73. The False Happiness of the Wicked
74. Prayer in Time of National Calamity
75. God the Just Judge of the Wicked
76. Thanksgiving for the Overthrow of Israel’s Foes
77. Lament and Comfort in Time of Distress
78. God’s Goodness despite Israel’s Ingratitude
79. The Destruction of Jerusalem and Its Temple
80. Prayer for the Restoration of the Lord’s Vineyard
81. Festive Song with an Admonition to Fidelity
82. Judgment against Wicked Judges
83. Prayer against a Hostile Alliance
84. Desire for the Sanctuary
85. Prayer for Complete Restoration
86. Prayer in Time of Distress
87. Sion the Home of All Nations
88. Lament and Prayer in Affliction
89. Prayer for the Fulfillment of God’s Promises to David
90. God’s Eternity and Man’s Frailty
91. Security under God’s Protection
92. Raise of God’s Just Government of Mankind
93. The Glory of the Lord’s Kingdom
94. A Warning to Israel’s Oppressors
95. A Call to Praise and Obedience
96. The Glories of the Lord the King of the Universe
97. The Divine King, the Just Judge of All
98. The Lord, the Victorious King and Just Judge
99. The Lord the Holy King
100. Processional Hymn
101. Norm of Life for Rulers
102. Prayer in Time of Distress
103. Praise of Divine Goodness
104. Praise of God the Creator
105. God’s Fidelity to His Promise
106. Israel’s Confession of Sin
107. God the Savior of Men in Distress
108. Prayer for Victory
109. Prayer against a Slanderous Enemy
110. The Messiah: King, Priest and Conqueror
111. Praise of God for His Goodness
112. The Blessings of the Just Man
113. Praise of the Lord for His Care of the Lowly
114. The Lord’s Wonders of the Exodus
115. The Greatness and Goodness of the True God
116. Thanksgiving to God for Help in Need
117. Doxology of All the Nations
118. Hymn of Thanksgiving to the Savior of Israel
119. Praise of God’s Law
120. A Complaint Against Treacherous Tongues
121. The Lord Our Guardian
122. The Pilgrim’s Greetings to Jerusalem
123. Israel’s Prayer in Persecution
124. The Lord the Rescuer of His People
125. The Lord the Protector of Israel
126. The People’s Prayer for Full Restoration
127. The Need of God’s Blessing: His Gift of Sons
128. The Happy Home of the Just Man
129. Prayer for the Overthrow of Israel’s Foes
130. Prayer for Pardon and Mercy
131. Humble Trust in God
132. The Pact between David and the Lord
133. The Benefits of Brotherly Concord
134. Exhortation to the Night Watch to Bless the Lord
135. Praise of God, the Lord and Benefactor of Israel
136. Hymn of Thanksgiving for the Everlasting Kindness of the Lord
137. The Exile’s Remembrance of Sion
138. Hymns of a Grateful Heart
139. The All-knowing and Every-present God
140. Prayer for Deliverance from the Snares of the Wicked
141. Prayer of a Just Man To Be Saved from Wickedness
142. Prayer of a Prisoner in Dire Straits
143. Prayer of a Penitent in Distress
144. Prayer for Victory and Prosperity
145. The Greatness and Goodness of God
146. Trust in God Alone
147. Sion’s Grateful Praise to her Bountiful Lord
148. Hymn of All Creation to the Almighty Creator
149. Invitation to Glorify the Lord with Song and Sword
150. Final Doxology with Full Orchestra
All right, take a deep breath and think about it. Pious people who used to memorize (or at least read daily) the 150 psalms engaged in prayerful contemplation of all of these topics. The original substitution of saying 150 recitations of a single prayer, the Our Father, is an acknowledgment of the devotion of the psalms, but it never was a substitute for the actual content of the full prayerful experience of the entire Book of Psalms. Therefore those who argue that the saying of the Rosary with the three sets of five mysteries are on very shaky ground in their judgment that the “adding” of additional “mysteries” actually takes the pious “farther from the tradition.” The tradition was never a comprehensive substitute for the saying of psalms; it was an acknowledgment of the holiness of the existence of 150 psalms. So compare the topics that comprise the entire set of 150 psalms to the topics that are prayerfully thought of by comtemplating the original three sets of five mysteries:
1. The Annunciation
2. The Visitation
3. The Nativity
4. The Presentation
5. The Finding in the Temple
6. Agony in the Garden
7. Scourging at the Pillar
8. Crowning with Thorns
9. Carrying of the Cross
10. The Crucifixion
11. The Resurrection
12. The Ascension
13. Descent of the Holy Spirit
14. Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary
15. Crowning of the Blessed Virgin Mary
To argue that the three sets of original five mysteries has a tradition for “covering” the previous tradition of memorizing the 150 psalms is like saying that the fourteen Stations of the Cross “covers” everything that is in the Bible.
So the introduction by Pope John Paul II of the five Luminous Mysteries is actually a very reasonable and frankly inspired addition of meditative content that brings one closer-not farther-to the contents of the 150 psalms. If you study the list of topics of the psalms it becomes obvious that in theory one could be very fruitful to develop more, not less, sets of five Mysteries. I’m not saying to do that, obviously, but I am saying that one has to actually study the content of the psalms themselves and think about the glory of prayerful fruitfulness that the pious would have derived from their memorization and regular recitation in order to render a well informed opinion regarding whether “adding” Mysteries is a stepping away from “tradition.”
Thus the addition of the Luminous (Glorious) Mysteries adds these topics to the prayerful recitation and contemplation of the rosary:
16. The Resurrection
17. The Ascension
18. The Descent of the Holy Spirit
19. The Assumption
20. The Coronation of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Do you see what I mean? The rosary needs to be understood exactly as what it is, and not forced and distorted in its application to what some cite as tradition. There is no way that repetition of the Lord’s Prayer, for example, was a content based substitute for the psalms. It was a devotional substitute for the psalms, but obviously as in any part of the Bible based prayer, there is no substitute for reading the Bible except actually reading that section of the Bible. The linkage of the original three sets of mysteries to the prior tradition of the memorization of the psalms was a profound and authentic inspiration of linkage and purpose. Thus one must recognize that Pope John Paul II in the fullness of his grace of understanding was definitely “on the right track” when he introduced the Luminous Mysteries. And if you see what I mean when you scan the list of the topics of the psalms, you could easily think of, as I do now, further sets of Mysteries that our current Pope or a future Pope could fairly suggest. These Mysteries would involve miracles, teachings and defeat of demonic forces as performed by Jesus and witnessed by Mary and the Apostles. Again, I am not saying that this is a “must do,” since obviously it is not. But I am counseling that those who criticize the introduction of the Luminous Mysteries based on them taking it “farther away” from the “tradition” of referencing the psalms based purely on a number count is obviously missing the entire content of the Book of Psalms! If you argue for closer linkage to the tradition of the “substituting” for the memorization of the Psalms, you are actually arguing for more, not fewer, topics for prayerful and fruitful meditation in the Mysteries of the Rosary.
I hope that you find this helpful. Kindly remember that our Popes do know what they are doing when it comes to being inspired in the right directions by the Holy Spirit. The Popes are tremendous Bible scholars and they do not as a rule miss any Biblical or traditional implication when they make decisions such as this one. Just because they do not explicitly mention every aspect of their thinking this does not mean that they are acting contrary to the Bible or tradition in any way and have not thought through and also prayed regarding changes and new elements that they introduce!
