Изъяснение псалма 114-го.

"Hallelujah" The son of the Seleuks, Antiochus, nicknamed Epiphanes, burdened the Jews with many all kinds of disasters, and led those who lived a scattered life to the fact that they transgressed God's law; and lovers of piety, who zealously fought for it, received crowns of victory. This courage of theirs is predicted in real sweet singing, and together the disasters that befell them and the help given to them by the God of all are described. Ps.114:1. I rejoice that the Lord heard my voice and my prayer. Ps.114:2. He has inclined His ear to me, and therefore I will call upon Him all my days. “I love that the Lord will hear the voice of my prayer.” “Incline Your ear to me.” The prophecy teaches them to say the following: the Divine is most pleasant for me, and serving God is more worthy than anything else; because He accepts my prayers and is worthy of His help. “And in my days I will call.” Therefore, throughout my entire life I will sing His songs and ask for His support. After this, the Prophet describes many sorrows. Ps.114:3. Mortal diseases have seized me, hellish torments have befallen me; I encountered cramped conditions and sorrow. “Having covered me with mortal illnesses, the troubles of hell have found me.” By “diseases” in the proper sense we mean diseases of the mother at birth. Therefore, in a figurative sense, hellish diseases are called disasters that lead to closeness to death itself. Therefore, the Prophet says that they are surrounded by many all kinds of dangers, as if being close to death itself, and reaching the very gates of hell. “I found sorrow and sickness: and I called on the name of the Lord.” But, having fallen into these dangers, I did not give myself over to peace and distraction, and did not choose other consolations in life for myself; but lamenting, he shed tears, and praying incessantly, he sought God’s help. Anyone can learn this more precisely from the history of the Maccabees; because the disciples of piety, having retired into the desert, tormented by hunger and thirst, begged God and received help from Him. Ps.114:4. Then I called on the name of the Lord: Lord! deliver my soul. "O Lord, deliver my soul." Tearfully praying, I said the following: protect, O Lord, and deliver our souls from surrounding evils. However, having learned through experience His great love for mankind, I knew as I prayed that I would receive what I asked for. For the Prophet added this too. “The Lord is merciful and righteous, and our God is merciful,” because he pours out streams of mercy on people. But He is also truthful, punishing offenders if they do not want to resort to repentance. The Prophet, having twice mentioned mercy, once mentions righteousness; because God’s love for mankind prevails over the determination of righteousness. Ps.114:5. The Lord is merciful and righteous and our God is merciful. "God bless the babies." For he takes so much care of all people that he even deigns to give every kind of care to infants. He not only cares about those who are born, but also those who are still hidden in the mother’s womb, immersed in fetid waters, imprisoned in a gloomy and dark place, watches over, saves, perfects, brings into the light, gives them sources of milk, delivers them from the evil intentions of demons, and, in short, accepts them under His fatherly providence. It was not without intention that the prophetic word mentioned this, but as a teaching that the God of all not only rewards the fruits of the righteous, but He Himself initiates with good deeds, creates those who do not exist, having created, cares for them when they reach perfect age, expects from them the fruits of righteousness, and then again rewards the good with good deeds. “Humble yourself and save me.” Symmachus translated it like this: I was exhausted, and You saved me. For if infants, who have not yet received knowledge of Him, enjoy such His care; much more does He grant salvation to those who sincerely call upon Him. Therefore, as soon as he saw that we were humbled by disasters, he made us worthy of His help. Ps.114:6. The Lord protects the simple-minded: I was exhausted, and He helped me. “Turn my soul to your rest, for the Lord is good to you.” They encourage themselves and encourage them to be courageous, pointing out the many blessings of God, and teaching themselves that even if they accept death for piety, they will return to a joyful and sorrowless life. For the Prophet called such a life “peace,” but he makes it clear in the following words: Ps.115:7. Return, my soul, to your rest, for the Lord has blessed you. Ps.114:8. You have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, and my feet from stumbling. “As if my soul was taken from death, my eyes from tears, and my nose from creeping.” “I will please the Lord in the land of the living.” “The land of the living” the Prophet calls not real life, in which there is crying, and lamentation, and illness, and death, and sins, and disasters, but a life free from all this, in which the acquisition of virtue is not difficult, the wealth of truth arrives without effort: because those who wish to collect it here with labor will multiply it there many times without labor. Therefore they offer a song of thanksgiving; because their eyes were freed from tears, their legs escaped the creeping life, their souls came to a state not to fall into sinful death; and they teach themselves to bravely endure the battles of sorrows and despise death; because death is followed by a sad life. You might be interested in: