Беседа 23 на псалом 112 72

Ps.112:1. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord, O youths, praise the name of the Lord. What difficulty does glorifying the Lord present for us? – You can praise God silently. – The Psalmist’s commandment to praise “the name of the Lord” and the prophecy about its fulfillment in the Christian Church. – Where is perfect praise to the Lord performed? – An image for the Jews of divine omnipresence and omnipotence in the fate of people and the changing laws of nature: “he who makes the barren woman a mother in the house” (Ps. 112:9). 1. The Scriptures often speak of this praise, because it is no small matter, but constitutes a certain sacrifice and offering acceptable to God. “The sacrifice of praise,” says the Psalmist, will glorify Me” (Ps. 49:23), and again: “I will praise the name of my God with a song, I will magnify Him with praise. And (this) will please God more than a young calf with growing horns and hooves” (Ps. 68:31, 32). And in many places the sacred books command praise, and those who are saved offer it instead of great gratitude. But what difficulty, would you say, does it contain? For whom, even among the most ordinary people, is it not easy to do this - to praise God? If you look carefully, you will see both the work of this matter and the benefits from it. Firstly, such singing is required of the righteous; a person needs to correct his life in advance, and then offer songs to God, because “praise is unpleasant in the mouth of a sinner” (Sir.15:9). Secondly, one must praise not only in words, but also in deeds, and God especially desires such praise, such glory: “Let your light so shine,” He says, “before men, so that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:16). This is how the cherubim glorify Him. Therefore, the prophet, having heard the mysterious song, said in contrition: “And I said: Woe is me! I'm dead! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people also of unclean lips” (Isaiah 6:5). Therefore, the Psalmist, commanding to offer praise, begins from the highest powers and says: “Praise the Lord from heaven, praise Him in the highest (villages)” (Ps. 149:1). Therefore, one must be an angel and then praise God. Let us not consider this praise to be an unimportant matter, but let our life exalt it before our lips, and let our behavior exhort it before our tongue. Then we can praise God in silence, and when we cry out we will perform a harmonious song with life. However, the psalm teaches us not only this, but also that we should all be in harmony and form a united choir. This is not said to one or two, but to a whole people. How Christ, leading us to harmony and love, commanded us to perform common prayer, and from the whole Church, as if from one person, he says: “Our Father who art in heaven! Hallowed be Thy name; Thy kingdom come; Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven; Give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen" (Matthew 6:9-13), constantly using the plural and commanding everyone, even if he prayed alone, at least together with others, to pray for his brothers, so the prophet calls on everyone in general to agree in prayer and says: “praise the name of the Lord.” What does this addition of a name mean? It especially expresses the speaker's disposition; but it also points to something else. For what exactly? So that His name is glorified through us, so that it is clearly praised through our lives. It is praiseworthy by its very essence; but God wants this praise to shine in our way of life. And to make sure of this, listen to the following. “Let the name of the Lord be blessed,” the prophet continues, “blessed from now on and forever” (Ps. 113:2). What are you saying? Isn't it blessed, even if you don't pray? Do you see that he is not talking about the blessing that is inherent in God and essentially belongs to Him, but about the one that is given to Him by people? Paul speaks about this blessing in the words: “glorify God both in your body and in your soul, which are God’s” (1 Cor. 6:20). God is high, great and glorious in Himself, but He becomes so among people when those who serve Him display such a life that all who see them bless the Lord. Christ commanded us to always say in prayer: “hallowed be thy name,” i.e. may he be glorified through our lives. Just as it is blasphemed by our vicious life, so it is glorified, blessed, and sanctified by our virtuous life. The meaning of His words is as follows: deign us to always lead a virtuous life, so that Your name may be blessed through us. “From the east of the sun to the west, glorious is the name of the Lord” (Ps. 113:3). Do you see how he begins a new life and reveals the high dignity of the (Christ) Church? “Glorious” is no longer in Palestine, not in Judea, but throughout the entire universe. And when did this come true, if not when our Church began to flourish? In ancient times it was not only not glorified in Palestine, but was also blasphemed by the Jews who lived there. “And constantly,” says the prophet, “every day My name is dishonored” (Is. 52:5). And now it is famous throughout the universe. Expressing this, another prophet says: “He will destroy all the gods of the earth, and He will be worshiped, every one from his place, by all the islands of the nations” (Zeph. 2:11), and another: “An offering from your hands is not pleasing to Me. For from the east of the sun to the west my name will be great among the nations, and in every place they will offer incense to my name, a pure sacrifice; My name will be great among the nations, says the Lord” (Mal. 1:10, 11). 2. Do you see how God rejected and stopped the Jewish ministry and proclaimed and spread the life and ministry of our Church throughout the entire universe? The prophet who said this lived after returning from the Babylonian captivity, and at that time he preached, so that the Jews would not say that he was announcing the destruction and captivity of Babylon. This is announced by the angel (Malachi) when the captivity has already ended and the Jews have returned to their former social life, predicting the destruction that happened under Vespasian and Titus, after which there will be no change in disastrous circumstances, since they were already followed by the affairs of our Church. That is why the prophet says: “My name will be great among the nations” (Mal. 1:11), i.e. blessed, glorified by their life, as it is said here: “glorious is the name of the Lord.” “The Lord is high above all nations, his glory is higher than the heavens” (Ps. 112:4). Do you see again that nations accept His service, and not one, not two, or three, but all who live in the universe? What is clearer than this prophecy? Why is the Lord “high above all nations”? Is it because we magnify Him without adding height to Him? No, but because in teaching, worship, worship and everything else, we do not represent anything humiliating for Him, like the Jews, but everything is much better and more sublime. Such is the very life of the Church; As much as the sky is higher than the earth, so much is this life higher than the ancient one. That is why he says: “The Lord is high above all nations.” While we magnify God through service, we also know that this is condescension on His part, because, although our service is higher than the ancient one, it is nevertheless lower than His dignity. Paul, showing the difference between the knowledge that exists now and that which is to come in the future life, says: “When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I thought as a child, I reasoned as a child; but when he became a man, he left behind his childishness” (1 Cor. 13:11), and again: “we know in part, and we prophesy in part; Now we see through a glass darkly, but then face to face” (1 Cor. 13:9, 12). By this he expresses that present knowledge is as distant from the future as a baby is from a man who has reached adulthood. “His glory is higher than the heavens.” Having spoken about praising and magnifying God through human life and having taught us to magnify God in this way, to praise and exalt in this way, the prophet encourages us to even greater virtue, showing us where such praise is especially performed. Where? In heaven. There is His glory. The angels especially glorify Him, glorifying not only by their own nature, but also through the obedience of the people whom they serve, zealously promoting the fulfillment of His desires and commandments. That is why the prophet says: “mighty in strength, doing His word” (Ps. 103:20). And in the Gospel, Christ commanded to pray like this: “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10), i.e. just as the angels sanctify His name, shunning all vice and zealous for virtue, so may we also be worthy to sanctify Him. The prophet expresses this here: “His glory is higher than the heavens.” So, do not look only at the creatures visible on earth and at the harmony of the sky, but ascend with your mind from the sensory to the spiritual, to the beauty of the creatures there and to the brightness of the life there, and then you will know how “His glory is higher than the heavens.” “Who is like the Lord our God, who lives on high, who looks upon the humble in heaven and on earth” (Ps. 112:5–6)? How sublime these words seem to be! But if you imagine about whom they are said, then they will be very insufficient. And here, as I said, one should not stop at words, but ascend in thought. In fact, how can he who fills heaven and earth, who is omnipresent, live in heaven and who said: “Am I God only near, says the Lord, and not God far away?” (Jer.23:23), who measured “the waters with his handful and measured the heavens with a span...; sits above the circle of the earth" (Is. 40:12, 22)? But since the prophet spoke to the Jews, he uses such expressions, little by little elevating their souls, inspiring and gradually exciting their minds. That is why he did not simply say: “he who lives on high and looks upon the humble; but he said first: who is like the Lord our God, and then added: he who lives on high and looks upon the humble”; He said the first to show why he says the last, namely, because of the weakness of the Jews, who were prone to idolatry and worshiped gods confined in certain places and churches. That is why he makes some comparison between them, although God is incomparably superior to everyone, adapting his speech to the weakness of his listeners, as I said before and will not stop saying often. He was not concerned about how to say something worthy of the glory of God, but how what was said would be understandable to the listeners. Therefore, little by little he elevates them, however, he does not stop at lower concepts, but again opens up other, higher ones. Having said: “living on high and looking at the humble, he again raises his speech to the highest and says: in heaven and on earth, expressing that God is everywhere, both here and here. He does not look at the earth from afar, as if enclosed in heaven, but as omnipresent and co-inherent in everything. 3. Do you see how little by little he inspires the minds of his listeners? Thus, having raised the listener from the earth and directed him to heaven, positioning him again to reflect on higher objects, he then moves on to another proof of the power of God and says: “He who raises up the poor from the earth and lifts up the needy from the pit” (Ps. 113:7). And to elevate the insignificant is a matter of great and ineffable power. In other places it is said, on the contrary, that God humbles the high, for example: “He strengthens the destroyer against the mighty, and the destroyer enters into the stronghold” (Am. 5:9). And here it is said that He can exalt even the little ones. This is the general meaning of the speech. If anyone wants to understand it in a figurative sense, he will see that it was fulfilled on the pagans, and he will also see it on us - people living after the coming of Christ. What is poorer than our nature? However, Christ exalted her, took her up to heaven along with our firstfruits, and seated her on the throne of the Father. “And he lifteth up the wretched from the dungeon, to make him sit with the princes, with the princes of his people” (Ps. 112:7-8). Here he calls decay and the frequent changeability that results from it “disgusting”, suggesting that for God everything is easy and convenient. Then he moves on to another, most important subject. Which one? To the fact that God can not only change circumstances and replace shortcomings with perfection, but change the laws of nature itself, making a barren woman a mother. “He who settles,” he says, “into the house of a barren mother who rejoices over her children” (Ps. 113:9). This happened to Anna and to many others. Do you see how perfect, how complete this chant is? The Prophet said how the correction of the universe would be accomplished, how Judaism would cease, how the new life of the Church would shine forth, how sacrifice would be made everywhere; then, wanting to make his words reliable even for rude people, he confirmed his speech about the future with what had already happened. The meaning of his words is as follows: do not doubt, man, that there will be such a change that God will bring the rejected nations into the greatest glory. Do you not see how this is fulfilled daily, how the humble are exalted and sit with princes? Do you not see how damaged nature is corrected, the barren are made mothers? Something similar happened with the Church: she was barren, but became the mother of many children. That is why Isaiah says: “Rejoice, O barren, unbearing one; shout and shout, you who have not suffered from childbirth; because she who is abandoned has many more children than she who has a husband” (Is. 54:1), foreshadowing what was about to happen to the Church. Thus, here the prophet finished his speech, proving the reliability of the prophecy both by the events that had already happened and by the greatness of God. Whatever pleases God is easily accomplished. He can change nature, elevate the humble, and correct morals. So, knowing all this, let us do what is due on our part, and we will be worthy of all glory, we will ascend to an indescribable height, receiving help from God, to whom be glory and dominion, to the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, now and ever, and to the ages of ages. Amen. The psalms in the text are translated by P. Yungerov - Editorial office of the ABC of Faith You might be interested in: