Псалом 21

“On the intercession of the morning” - (according to the Slavic text) the inscription, understood in the literal sense, indicates the pleading content of the psalm about the “morning”, possibly first aid. This inscription is also understood in the sense of indicating the time of the liturgical performance - in the morning, to which the Hebrew also responds. the inscription is “at the appearance of dawn.” (There is a translation - “about the morning deer”, i.e., the motive of the vocal performance should be similar to the motive of the song beginning with the words “morning doe”). David portrays his situation as hopeless: he becomes the subject of ridicule and is in humiliation (Ps. 22:3-9); his enemies are numerous and strong (Ps. 21:13–14); they are “evil,” wicked, but David is lonely (Ps. 21:22), so he considers his death inevitable and foresees how he will be executed by crucifixion (Ps. 21:17–19). In this psalm, David nowhere speaks of his guilt before God, and therefore his suffering, despite its undeservedness, is especially difficult. Such a hopeless situation for David dates back to the time of Saul, when he was surrounded on one side by mountains and on the other by desert, and Saul with an army was coming towards him. It was in the Mahon desert. David's death seemed inevitable, but a rumor about an attack at that time on the southern borders of the Philistine state (1 Sam. 23:24–28) prompted Saul to come to the defense of the state, which saved David. My God! Why have you left me? (2–3). I will still call on You (4–6). I am in contempt among the people: everyone mocks me (7–10). My hope is only in You, my Creator, to whom I have been attached since childhood. Do not move away from me, but protect me from enemies who are ready to crucify me, abandoned by everyone (11–23). I bless You, Lord, for your protection. Let all who seek Him praise Him! His name will become great among all nations and will be sung throughout the whole world (24–32). Ps.21:2. My God! My God! [listen to me] why have you forsaken me? The words of my cry are far from saving me. David points out the hopelessness of his situation in this case. According to human understanding and the consistent course of events, David’s death seemed inevitable, why did he have states when he saw himself completely abandoned by God, as a result of which he cried out: “Why have you forsaken me?” This state of near despair did not last long. David goes on to say that “such words,” words of “cry” close to despair, are sinful, since they show wavering faith in a person; As a result of this discovered lack of faith in God, man does not deserve the salvation for which he prays to God. Ps.21:3. My God! I cry during the day, and You do not listen to me, at night, and there is no peace for me. Ps.21:4. But You, O Holy One, live among the praises of Israel. Ps.21:5. Our fathers trusted in You; they trusted, and You delivered them; Ps.21:6. They cried to You and were saved; They trusted in You and did not remain in shame. But this state of lack of faith, as we said, was an expression of a temporary loss of spirit from the difficult conditions in which David was placed. He condemns himself for this cowardice and then prays to God: I will call on you day and night, that is, constantly; I do this, although I do not immediately see Your help (“You do not listen to me”) and I do not consider such constant and apparently fruitless prayer to be unnecessary and unreasonable. What convinces me of this, firstly, is that “You, the Holy One, live among the praises of Israel,” i.e., You are holy, and therefore you are the patron and protector of holiness, righteousness, innocence, in general, for which You are constantly rewarded with praises from Israel. As a Saint, You will not leave the innocent me without protection. The meaning of these words is that David justifies the vigilance of his prayer to God and faith in His protection by the undeservedness of real disasters and His justice, which will not allow the death of the righteous; secondly, historical facts from the life of Jews. people: when the latter cried out to God in distress, He provided them with His protection. The history of the Jews is replete with such facts. The words of v. 2, expressing in David the feeling of being abandoned by God, were literally subsequently repeated by Jesus Christ on the cross (Matthew 27:46; Mark 15:34). Just as David further expressed complete faith in God and, therefore, devotion to His will, so Jesus Christ revealed the same submission on the cross to the will of the Father when He said: “Father! into your hands I commend My spirit” (Luke 23:46). Ps.21:7. I am a worm, not a man, reproached by people and contempted by the people. Ps.21:8. Everyone who sees me curses at me, saying with their lips, nodding their heads: Ps.21:9. “he trusted in the Lord; let him deliver him, let him save him, if he pleases him.” In all subsequent contents up to Art. 24. David portrays the severity of his situation. They mock him as an opponent of the king; he is defenseless and weak, like a worm that can be easily crushed. But David’s helplessness not only does not evoke a natural feeling of compassion in anyone, but even causes mockery of his faith in God. David was subjected to the same humiliation as Christ when, hanging on the cross and turning to God, he uttered his dying cry: “Either, Or! Lama Savakhvani? , to which those around him responded with incredulous and mocking curiosity (Matthew 27:41–50). Ps.21:10. But You brought me out of the womb, You placed hope in me at my mother’s breasts. Ps.21:11. I was left to You from the womb; From my mother’s womb You are my God. The words of these verses explain why the Lord is the only source of hope and hope for David. “You brought me out of the womb,” that is, I was born according to Your special favor; I owed my birth, the beginning of life to You; “You placed hope in me at my mother’s breasts” - I was raised by my mother in affection for You. Probably, David’s mother, when she was still feeding him with her breast, spoke to him about God and, together with his mother’s milk, he accepted high concepts about Him, reverence and devotion to Him. The more ancient a person’s certain attachments are, the deeper and stronger they are; embedded in David from childhood and strengthened in him by subsequent facts of his life, they became the indestructible heritage of his spiritual life and consciousness. Ps.21:12. Do not move away from me, for sorrow is close, but there is no helper. Ps.21:13. Many bulls surrounded me; the fat Bashanites surrounded me, Ps.21:14. They opened their mouth against me like a lion, hungry and roaring. Ps.21:15. I was poured out like water; all my bones crumbled; my heart became like wax, melting in the midst of my insides. Ps.21:16. My strength has dried up like a shard; my tongue clung to my throat, and You brought me to the dust of death. God's help is more necessary for David the closer and more formidable the danger. David has no defender anywhere, but his enemies are as numerous and as secure in their well-being as the bulls of Bashan are numerous and well-fed, at the same time they are also formidable towards him, like lions for ordinary animals. Vasan had rich pastures, and therefore the predominant occupation of its inhabitants was cattle breeding, especially a lot of cattle. David’s strength was exhausted and disappeared, like water spilled on dry ground is swallowed up without a trace; “the bones in him,” as the harder part of the human body, and therefore a symbol of his strength, crumbled, i.e., persistent persecution on the part of Saul, forcing David to constantly flee, exhausted the latter so much that he no longer found the strength to continue this flight. “His heart” melted like “wax”, he lost courage at the sight of the hopelessness of his situation, like a figure made of wax turns into a shapeless mass from the action of fire; his strength was gone, like water dries up in a meager vessel when a potter burns it; his “tongue... stuck to his larynx,” which is an indicator of the depletion of his strength. His situation is so hopeless that he considers himself already on the edge of the grave (in the “finger of death”). Ps.21:17. For dogs have surrounded me, a crowd of evil ones has surrounded me, they have pierced my hands and my feet. Ps.21:18. One could count all my bones; and they look and make a spectacle out of me; Ps.21:19. They divide my garments among themselves and cast lots for my clothing. David calls his enemies “dogs” and “a crowd of evil ones,” indicating both their large number and their moral insignificance. They are crafty, false, unable to act in the name of any higher ideal and truth, but in the name of personal gain, leaning in the direction of strength and benefit; they also deserve contempt as "dogs", dogs which were considered by the Jews to be despised animals. David's danger is so great, and, apparently, his death is so inevitable that he already imagines the picture of his execution. He, as a state criminal who attempted royal power, as an enemy of the sovereign, should be subjected to the most cruel and shameful execution by crucifixion. David already sees blood flowing from his wound; on his body, due to the stretching of his muscles, the bones stood out especially clearly, so that they could be counted. Although this suffering from muscle strain was terrible in duration and pain associated with it, his enemies looked at his suffering with disdain, without sympathy. Everything he was wearing, his dress, was divided into equal parts; “They cast lots for my clothes,” probably about the outer garment, about the tunic, which was not sewn, but woven whole and made of thinner material. The suffering depicted by David in the entire content of the psalm, especially in these verses, was fulfilled with all completeness and accuracy in Christ, as evidenced by all the evangelists (Matthew 27:35; Mark 15:24; Luke 23:34; John 19:24). What David experienced in his imagination, what was the property of his thought, found complete, outwardly factual expression in the actual suffering of the Messiah. Ps.21:20. But You, Lord, do not move away from me; my strength! hasten to my aid; Ps.21:21. deliver my soul from the sword and my lonely from the dogs; Ps.21:22. save me from the mouth of the lion and from the horns of the unicorns; when you hear, deliver me. Ps.21:23. I will proclaim Your name to my brothers, in the midst of the congregation I will praise You. In view of the inevitability of such a fate, if enemies captured David, the latter prays to God for salvation: “save” “my lonely” soul “from the dogs,” that is, deliver me, lonely, from enemies; “from the horns of unicorns” - from the horns of a unicorn, rhinoceros, with which David figuratively depicts the strength and cruelty of his enemies. For his salvation, David promises to sing to God “in the midst of the meeting,” that is, publicly, in poetic songs, he will praise God as the only protector of every suffering righteous person. From 24 Art. the content of the psalm changes: previously it was mournful and petitionary, but now it is grateful and laudatory. One might think that the second part of the psalm was written by David at the end of the persecution. Ps.21:24. Those who fear the Lord! praise Him. All the seed of Jacob! glorify Him. Let all the seed of Israel revere Him, Ps.21:25. for He did not despise or neglect the sorrow of the sufferer, did not hide His face from him, but heard him when he called to Him. In view of the extraordinary nature of disasters and salvation from them, David invites him to praise God and all Jews for the fact that the Lord heard the prayer of a “suffering” person, insignificant and weak in strength. Ps.21:26. In You is my praise in the great congregation; I will pay my vows to those who fear Him. “In You is my praise in the great congregation.” The protection that the Lord gave to David is a source of praise from God before the people's assembly. This is David’s fulfillment of the vow that he made in a moment of danger (23). Ps.21:27. Let the poor eat and be satisfied; let those who seek Him praise the Lord; May your hearts live forever! David’s salvation serves as evidence that all the poor will find protection in God: He will give them what they need for life, He will always nourish them, so we need to reverence and honor Him. In this verse, St. The fathers see an indication of the sacrament of the Eucharist because here eating some kind of meal from God has eternal life as its consequence, which ordinary food cannot have. By meal, therefore, we do not mean ordinary food or a meal, but the partaking of the Body and Blood of Christ, which gives eternal life to the one who partakes worthily. Ps.21:28. All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the Lord, and all the tribes of the heathen will bow before You, Ps.21:29. For the kingdom is the Lord's, and He is Ruler over the nations. Ps.21:30. All the rich lands will eat and worship; All who go down into the dust and cannot save their lives will bow before Him. Ps.21:31. [My] descendants will serve Him, and will be called the Lord's forever: Ps.21:32. they will come and proclaim His truth to the people who are born, what the Lord has done. David speaks of turning to God of the whole world: all nations will remember the help that the Lord provided to his righteous and will worship Him as the one, true God, which is as it should be, since the whole earth and all nations belong only to the Lord; recognition of this inalienable right of His by the pagan peoples is only a matter of time. David even paints a picture of all nations turning to God. When “all the fat lands”, all the mighty on earth - the rulers of nations will worship Him: all mortals “who go down into the dust” will worship Him, they will revere Him, to whom I, says David, live with my soul, bound with my whole being. My descendants will serve the Lord. By offspring we cannot mean the ordinary descendants of David, who were not always faithful to God, but the seed that came from him according to the Divine promise, i.e., the Messiah. The favors shown to David by God will be preserved in the memory of subsequent generations of people; each of them will glorify God and proclaim the deeds that He has done among people, protecting the righteous and punishing the wicked. This prediction of David has already come true and will come true: his songs, as well as the history of the life of the Jews and all their sacred books in general, have been and will always be read by people, thereby passing on knowledge from generation to generation about the great deeds of God. In the first part of the psalm we have already seen that everything that David experienced during the persecution from Saul found a complete and exact repetition and expression in the life of the Messiah Christ, and therefore this part should be called representative. In the second part of the psalm, David paints a picture of a universal appeal to God of all peoples. This last became possible only from the Messianic times, when the preaching of the teachings of Christ spread among all countries and peoples. As a prediction in word about future events of the messianic period, this part of the psalm is prophetic. You might be interested in: