Изъяснение псалма 94-го.

“The song of praise to David is not written in Hebrew.” King Josiah was very pious. Seeing that most of the people loved serving idols, he ordered to kill all the priests of idols, and to destroy the altars of idols to the ground; and even having excavated the coffins of the dead priests, he burned their bones on the most demonic altars. Then, having gathered all the people, he exhorts them to resort to repentance, to appease God and thereby avoid the threatening final destruction; because the prophetess Huldah foreshadowed terrible and grave disasters to all the people. Therefore, blessed David, seeing this from afar with prophetic eyes, wrote this psalm for the benefit of the Jews and for the teaching of all people. The psalm is offered as if on behalf of Josiah and the priests of God. Ps.94:1. Come, let us sing to the Lord, let us shout to [God], the rock of our salvation. “Come, let us rejoice in the Lord, let us shout to God our Savior.” The beginning is fitting for those who rejoice and rejoice over deliverance from wickedness. Together, it is said, let us send up a victorious song to God; because shouting is the cry of those who gain victory. The host of the pious defeated the horde of the wicked. Therefore, it is not without reason that they offer a victory song to God. Ps.94:2. Let us come before His face with praise, and let us shout to Him in songs. “Let us precede His face in confession, and let us shout to Him in psalms.” Let us repent before the time of punishment comes; and before the sentence is pronounced on us, let us appease the Master; Let us offer up due hymns to Him. Then the Prophet announces the victory of God and the victory over idols. Ps.94:3. For the Lord is the great God and the great King over all gods. “For God is a great Lord, and a great King throughout all the earth.” The power of our Lord is indescribable; He is the true God, the power over all belongs to Him, He denounces the false name of the so-called gods. Then the Prophet, as far as this is possible for human nature, shows signs of God’s power. Ps.94:4. The depths of the earth are in His hand, and the tops of the mountains are His. Ps.94:5. The sea is His, and He created it, and His hands formed the dry land. “For in His hand are all the ends of the earth, and the heights of the mountains are.” “For He is the sea, and He created Him, and His hands make dry land.” He is the Creator of all, the Lord of all, He controls everything; He holds the creation in His hand, with a word He created the wet essence and the dry land; The tops of the mountains belong to him, although demons convince foolish people a thousand times to erect churches there for them. Ps.94:6. Come, let us bow down and kneel before the face of the Lord, our Creator. “Come, let us worship and fall down before Him, and let us mourn before the Lord who made us.” Therefore, let us all flock to Him diligently, and let us give Him due honor, lamenting and shedding tears, and asking Him for mercy; because He is both our Creator and our Lord. History also shows that Josiah and the people, after reading Deuteronomy, shed tears. Ps.94:7. For He is our God, and we are the people of His pasture and the sheep of His hand. Oh, that you would listen to His voice today. Ps.94:8. “Do not harden your hearts as at Meribah, as in the day of temptation in the wilderness. Ps.94:9. Where your fathers tempted Me, tried Me, and saw My work. Ps.94:10. For forty years I was provoked by this generation, and I said, “This is a people who are deceived in heart; they have not known My ways. Ps.94:11. Therefore I swore in My wrath that they should not enter My rest.” “For He is our God, and we are the people of His pasture, and the sheep of His hand.” And by nature He is our Lord, and primarily our God; because He calls us His people, and takes care of us as His sheep. Then the Prophet threatens those who do not repent with punishment, frightening them with a reminder of their fathers, and trying to bring benefit by accusing them. “Today if you hear His voice,” “Do not harden your hearts as if you were angry.” since the Lord, in His love for mankind, despised your former wickedness; then, at least now, listen to His admonitions and the saving teaching He offers, and do not imitate the indecisive and stubborn disposition of the fathers. For the Prophet called their repeated arguments in the desert “anger.” So in another psalm he said: “How many grieved Him in the desert, angered Him in the waterless lands” (Psalm 77:40)? But the Prophet also showed their self-will; for he did not just say: do not be bitter, but “do not harden your hearts,” making it clear that you yourself made your hearts so. Then he reminds more clearly of the disobedience of his fathers. “After the days of temptation in the wilderness”: “Where your fathers tempted Me, you tempted Me, and saw My works,” “Four ten years.” because they did not want to enter the promised land, giving the excuse of unreasonable fear, and saying with fear that they themselves would be killed, and their children would become captives; then God arranged that they spent forty years in the desert until they died out. “That generation was indignant, and they said: they always err in heart.” Instead of: “indignant,” Aquila and Symmachus translated: I was dissatisfied; that is, for this I was disgusted with this generation, seeing their frivolity and fickleness of heart. “But they did not know My ways”: “For they swore in My wrath, if they entered into My rest.” They did not want to heed the threats uttered with an oath, they did not have the judgment to avert the threat by repentance; and therefore did not reach the land promised to the fathers. For the Prophet called this land “rest.” since, walking through the desert, they often changed places in advance of the tabernacle, in which, in their opinion, God dwelt, but in the land of promise they themselves stopped wandering, and the tabernacle was erected in the hallowed places; then the Prophet rightly called the land of promise rest. And he called God’s economy the ways of God. You might be interested in: