Беседа 1 на псалом 3

Ps.3:1–2. Psalm of David when he fled from Absalom his son. God! how my persecutors have multiplied! Many are rebelling against me 2. The meaning of the inscription: “A Psalm of David when he fled from Absalom his son.” – Why was David persecuted by Absalom? – What is the source of sin also serves as the scourge of punishment. – Most people make enemies at home because of their sins; confirmation of this by the example of David, the Israelites during the time of the Judges, Adam, Daniel and the prophet from Judah. – Exhortation – to destroy the source of evil is a sin. The death of Absalom and David's sorrow for those who are perishing. Kings erect victory statues in honor of victorious military leaders; Also, the leaders put up victorious images and pillars in honor of the charioteers and fighters, and make the substance inscription, as if with lips, to proclaim victory. Others express their praises to the winners in books and writings, wanting to show that in praising they themselves are stronger than those whom they praise. Orators and painters, carvers and sculptors, peoples and leaders, cities and villages, are surprised at the winners; but no one drew an image in honor of the one who ran and did not fight, as David (does) now, because it is said: “A psalm of David, when he fled from Absalom his son.” And when does a fugitive receive praise? When does an exile deserve an inscription? Fugitives are caught by announcing them in writing, rather than glorifying them with inscriptions. But find out, brother, the reason for such an inscription (psalm) and save your soul; may this story serve you to improve your life; Let this persecution of the righteous be a barrier for your mind. Find out why David was persecuted by Absalom, so that you, having established yourself on this, as if on a foundation, can be built up by the fear of God - because just as a building without a foundation is not strong, so writing, if you do not see its purpose, is of no use. Blessed David in this psalm had the goal of teaching a virtuous and chaste life, never doing evil and not despising the laws of God, so that the sinner would not suffer the same thing that he himself suffered. David fled from his son because he had strayed from purity; fled from his son because he violated a chaste marriage; ran away from his son because he ran away from the law of God, which says: “You shall not kill, you shall not commit adultery” (Ex. 20:13, 14). He brought a strange lamb into his house, killing its shepherd, and a lamb from his own house began to gore its shepherd; he brought war into someone else's house, and from his own house war rose up against him. This is not my speculation, but a saying of God; and where God explains, no one can contradict. And that his son really rebelled against David because he killed Uriah and took his wife, listen to God, who said to David through the prophet Nathan: “I anointed you king over Israel and I delivered you from the hand of Saul: and I gave you the house of your master..., and I gave you the house of Israel and Judah: and if this was not enough [for you], I would add even more to you. Why have you despised the word of the Lord by doing what is evil in His sight? You smote Uriah the Hittite with the sword; He took his wife to be his wife... Therefore the sword shall not depart from your house forever” (2 Samuel 12:7-10). You cut someone else's house with a sword, and I will prepare a sword against you in your house: “Behold, I will bring evil against you from your house,” not from somewhere outside, but “from your house” (2 Samuel 12:11). Where the source of sin comes from, hence the scourge of punishment. So, therefore, he fled from his son because he became a fugitive and an exile in relation to the commandment of God. "A Psalm of David when he fled from Absalom his son". It is better to show the cause of the war than to talk about the war itself, so that we, having seen the fall of the righteous, ourselves can warn ourselves against the fall and avoid such punishment. After all, many are still waging war in their homes: one encounters war from his wife, another is besieged by his son, another suffers trouble from his brother, another from a servant - and each is tormented, annoyed, fights, causes war and is struck by war; but no one thinks, reasoning within himself, that if he had not sowed sins, then thorns and thistles would not have grown in his house; if he had not planted sparks of sin, then his house would not have caught fire. And that domestic misfortunes are the fruits of sins and that God appoints his household as executors of punishment for a sinner, this is evidenced by the Divine Scripture, of which there is nothing more reliable. Is your wife waging war with you, greeting you at your entrance like a wild beast, sharpening her tongue like a sword? It is regrettable, of course, that the helper became an adversary; However, examine yourself, whether in your youth you plotted something against some woman, and now the woman’s insult is avenged by the woman and your own wife heals someone else’s wound. Although the actor herself does not know this, the doctor—God—knows. He acts on you with it, like iron, and just as iron does not know what it is doing, but the doctor who performs healing with iron knows, so here, although the wife who strikes and the husband who is struck do not know the reason for the defeat, but God, like a doctor, knows what is useful. And that an evil wife is a scourge for sins, Divine Scripture testifies to this; it says that an evil wife will be given to a sinful husband (cf. Sir.25; Sir.26). It will be given to him like a bitter medicine that destroys sinful juices. And that attacks from children are also punishments for sins, this is witnessed by David, persecuted by his son Absalom for an unlawful relationship, as the above words show. And that brothers are at enmity against brothers also for sins, the book of Judges testifies to this. When some of the tribe of Benjamin committed fornication with the traveler’s concubine and she, unable to bear the immense insult, died, eleven tribes began a war against one; but since the eleven tribes retreated from God and adulterously turned to idols, all eleven were defeated by one tribe, and, moreover, they were defeated by it alone many times, while they won only one victory over it - and brothers fought with brothers, because God destroyed the mediastinum of sin for their sins (Judges 19; Judges 20). When one tribe committed adultery with a woman, and eleven tribes committed adultery with idols, both were destroyed by God, as it is written: “You destroy everyone who turns away from You” (Ps. 72:27). Thus, brothers fought with brothers for sins. When brothers attack you, do not so much complain about them as look at yourself and carefully examine for what sins the brothers became your enemies. However, not everyone suffers attacks from their brothers for their sins. So Joseph suffered attacks from his brothers, but not at all for sins; and Job was subjected to his wife’s slander, but not at all for his sins. Most people make enemies at home because of their sins. It happens that friends turn into enemies because of their sins, and those who previously loved begin to hate and turn away, because God allows such hatred between them for reasons known to Him. So it is written about the Egyptians in Psalm one hundred and four: “He aroused hatred in their hearts against His people” (Ps. 104:25). But God would not have allowed hatred if their love had not been vicious before. For whom love has served to ruin, hatred becomes an incentive to virtue. And slaves and subordinates often rebelled against their masters for their sins. So, look, when Adam had not yet sinned, then the animals served and obeyed him, and he named them as his servants; and when he stained his face with sin, then the animals did not recognize him, and from slaves they became his enemies. And just as a domestic dog serves the one who feeds him, fears and trembles at him, and if he suddenly sees him with his face stained with soot or covered with someone else’s mask, then he rushes at him as if he were a stranger and tries to tear him to pieces, so it was with Adam: as long as he kept his face pure, created in the image of God, until then the animals obeyed him like slaves, and when he stained his face disobedience, they did not recognize him as a master and began to be at enmity against him as a stranger. Thus, the revolt of slaves is retribution for sins. Daniel was righteous, and the lions recognized his dominion; they saw him as having not tasted sin, and left him uninvolved in punishment (Dan.6:22). The lying prophet sinned, and a lion met him on the way and killed him (1 Kings 13:24); he stained himself with lies, and the lion did not recognize him. If the lion had seen in him a prophet like Daniel, he would have honored him; but he found a false prophet, and therefore attacked him as a stranger; the ruler lied - and the slave rejected his rule. But what am I saying about domestic misfortunes, if our very body, which is closest and dearest to us, - if it sometimes enmities against us when we sin, taking revenge on us with fevers and other illnesses and sufferings - if even the servile body punishes the ruling soul when it sins, not because it wants this, but because it is commanded to do so? This is evidenced by Christ, who said to the healed paralytic: “Behold, you are healed; Sin no more, lest anything worse happen to you” (John 5:14). So, having learned, brethren, that wars from households, relatives and slaves, and bodily illnesses are mostly due to sins, let us destroy the source of evil - sin. When the streams of passions do not flow, then the rivers of God's waters gladden the soul. David took a married wife as someone else’s kingdom (after all, for every husband a wife of one accord is a kingdom, and it is not so much the king who loves the purple and diadem as the husband loves the wife) - for this reason the son of his own wife rose up against him like a tyrant, intending to take the kingdom from his father. He took violence, and was himself subjected to violence; sinned secretly, and was convicted openly; wounded himself in secret, and in front of everyone he tested the doctor’s hand on himself, according to the word of God: “You did it in secret, but I will do it before all Israel and before the sun” (2 Samuel 12:12). However, Absalom’s anger did not reach its goal, and rightly so, so that the parricides would not accept his act as a rule of parricide; but, having served as an executor of punishment, he himself was killed as a condemned man. Just as in spectacles wild animals attack some, and are killed by others themselves, so Absalom, having attacked David, was killed by Joab (2 Sam. 18:14), and the one who had exalted himself before his father hung on a high tree; The one who rebelled against the root was restrained by the plant; a branch is entangled in the branches, which has broken off from the father's disposition; The one who tried to take possession of the parent’s head was held by the head; he hung like the fruit of a plant that wanted to destroy the culprit of his nature; he was struck in the heart and killed in the very place where he was planning the murder. Then one could see an amazing sight: riding on a hinny, he was held by the thick branches of a tree by his thick hair, and the branches held the tyrant’s hair, causing him pain in the very place where he wanted to wear his father’s diadem. Absalom could be seen hanging between heaven and earth. Heaven did not accept him - because if it rejected the first troublemaker - the devil, then how could it accept the second troublemaker? The earth turned away from him, not tolerating desecration at the feet of the parricide, because if it swallowed up Dathan, who spoke against Moses, if it opened its mouth against the one who opened its mouth for evil (Numbers 16), then how could it tear away the feet that rushed against the parent? So, while Absalom was hanging high on a tree, the commander Joab came up to him and plunged three arrows into the heart of the heartless one, and thus struck him in the very place where the seat of iniquity was. And when he was hanging high on a tree, David sang a beautiful funeral hymn to him: “I saw a terrible wicked man expanding like a rooted many-branched tree; but he passed, and now he is gone; I seek him and do not find him” (Ps. 36:35, 36). "A Psalm of David when he fled from Absalom his son". He ran away from his son not because he was afraid, but because he was afraid of killing him; he himself spared him as a son, but those who were with him would not have spared him as a troublemaker. That is why David, being persecuted by his son and reproached for him by Shimei (2 Samuel 16), himself generously endured everything; but since many were offended by him, those who were especially indignant along with Absalom rebelled against him, as if abandoned by Providence, and said: now David is abandoned, completely deprived of all help; now God has departed from him, as he once did from Saul; just as He then retreated from Saul and was with David, so now He retreated from David and turned to Absalom; we will rise up and attack him; there is no salvation for him in God - since they spoke such speeches, David, grieving more about this than about the daring actions of his son, asks God: “Lord! how my enemies have multiplied! Many are rebelling against me"? I am besieged by temptations, surrounded by streams of evil, the rain of disasters has fallen on me, rivers of enemies have come, the winds of evil spirits have blown, and have attacked my house, trying to separate my soul from You; but, established on the rock of faith, I do not fall, but crouch down to find out: “Lord! how my enemies have multiplied! Many are rebelling against me"? He who is from me is against me, but You are with me. My womb wages war against me, my people follow Absalom, my army takes up arms against me, my sheep have become wolves, lambs have become lions, lambs have become mad dogs, and rams have become eager oxen; but I do not grieve for myself, but mourn their death (I send my gratitude to You, the Savior, because glory and power are due to You now and ever and unto ages of ages. Amen). Translation by P. Yungerov – Editorial office of “ABC of Faith” You might be interested in: