Беседа 25 на псалом 114 77

Ps.114:1. Hallelujah. I rejoice that the Lord hears the voice of my prayer. Not everyone rejoices when God listens to him, giving him something truly useful. – The Lord is always ready to give us help if we call on Him as we should. – The psalmist asks for one thing - to keep his soul unharmed and teaches not to despair, but also not to indulge in carelessness. – The highest type of divine Providence is about children. – There is no need to look for a safe life. - “Return, my soul, to your rest” (Ps. 114:7). For those who lived virtuously, death is a transition to true life, filled with pure blessings. 1. Who, you say, doesn’t like to be listened to? Many are worldly people. They do not want to be heard in what is useful for them, but ask for what is useless for them, and then, when their request is fulfilled, they grieve and murmur. What is useful is what God recognizes and finds useful for us - whether you call hunger, or illness, or something else similar. What God recognizes as useful and gives to us is truly useful. So, listen to what He said to Paul: “My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Cor. 12:9). Persecution, tribulation, and oppression were useful to him. Hearing that this was beneficial for him, the apostle said: “Therefore I take comfort in weaknesses, in insults, in needs, in persecutions, in oppressions for Christ’s sake, for when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Cor. 12:10). So, not everyone can rejoice when God listens to him, giving him something useful. Many desire useless things and are consoled by it; and the prophet is not so, but what? He loved that God listened to him, giving him what was useful. “That He inclined His ear to me. Therefore in my days I will call upon (Him)” (Ps. 114:2). Again, in human expressions, it means a wave of God. He also expresses something else with these words, namely he says: I am not worthy of being heard, but He himself condescended to me. “Therefore in my days I will call (Him).” What does it mean: “in my days”? Having been heard, he says, I will not retreat, I will not become careless, but all my days I will do this work. “Mortal illnesses have seized me, the torments of hell have befallen me, I have found sorrow and torment, and I have called on the name of the Lord” (Ps. 114:3-4). Do you see a strong weapon? Do you see the consolation that destroys all sorrow? Do you see a soul burning with love for the Lord? The meaning of his words is as follows: to get rid of the evils around me, it is enough for me to call on God. Why do we often call and not get rid of disasters? Because we do not call as we should call. And what God is always ready to give, listen to how He himself says in the Gospel: “Is there a man among you who, when his son asks him for bread, would give him a stone? and when he asks for a fish, would you give him a snake? If you, therefore, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask Him” (Matthew 7:9-11). Do you see how His goodness is when ours turns out to be wickedness in comparison? If this is our Lord, then we will always resort to Him and call on Him alone as our helper, and we will find Him ready to save us. If those who are shipwrecked and carried on boards, calling on people who are far away, immediately dispose them to love humanity, although they have nothing in common with them, but became known to them only because of the misfortune that happened, then how much more will God, who loves mankind and is essentially good, deliver those who are in misfortune, if only they want to resort to Him and sincerely call on Him, abandoning human hopes. Therefore, when you are exposed to some unexpected disaster, do not lose heart, but immediately rise up and resort to a serene haven, indestructible protection, to the help of God. He allowed you to suffer disaster so that you would call on Him. But many then especially fall and lose their former piety, while they should have done the opposite. He loves us very much; That’s why He allows us to undergo sorrows, so that we sincerely cleave to Him. Just as mothers, frightening disobedient children with various monsters, force them to resort to their bowels, and do this not in order to upset them, but in order to tie them to themselves, so God, always wanting to tie us to Himself, as He who loves greatly, or more than anyone who loves, allows you to fall into such needs that you constantly practice prayer, constantly call on Him and, leaving everything else, think about German “Lord, deliver my soul! The Lord is merciful and righteous, and our God is merciful” (Ps. 114:4-5). Another translator (Symmachus) says: “I pray. Lord, destroy my soul" (άξιω δη ... έξελου). Third (Aquila): "O Lord, save my soul" (περίσωον). Do you see a wise soul? Do you see how he, having abandoned everything worldly, asks only one thing, that his soul remain unharmed and not suffer anything harmful to it? Indeed, when the soul is in good condition, then everything else will come by itself; and when it is not in good condition, then any other prosperity will not bring us any benefit. Therefore, we must do and say so that she will be saved. Christ also points to this when he says: “Be wise as serpents” (Matthew 10:16). Just as a serpent exposes its entire body just to save its head, so you need to leave everything else to save your soul. Neither poverty, nor illness, nor the most important of all disasters, death, can harm the one subjected to it when the soul is saved; just as you will not receive anything good from life itself when the soul has become corrupted and perished. That is why the prophet, abandoning everything else, speaks only about the soul and asks that it be subjected to a less severe judgment and spared from unbearable punishments. “The Lord is merciful and righteous, and our God is merciful.” Do you see how he teaches the listener not to despair and not to indulge in carelessness? He seems to be saying this: do not despair, because the Lord is merciful; but do not be careless, for He is righteous. Thus, he both warns against carelessness and destroys despair, on both sides arranging for our salvation. 2. Further, indicating God’s readiness to have mercy, the prophet adds: “and our God has mercy.” He said well: “Our God,” in contrast to the gods he mentioned before. Those tend to stab, kill, be irreconcilably hostile, but He has mercy, forgives and always delivers from dangers: this especially, by the way, proves that they are demons and destroyers, and He is the provider, protector and true God. “The Lord protects babies. I humbled myself, and He saved me” (Ps. 114:6). Here the prophet points to the highest form of His providence. Having said: “The Lord is merciful and righteous..., he has mercy,” he shows the action of His greatest love for mankind. Which? In relation to babies. We have a mind that teaches us to beware of one thing and choose another, to prevent threatening disasters and alleviate those that befall us - we have already acquired the strength, we know the ways; and children are deprived of all this and are defenseless; but God’s providence is always awake over them, and if they were not constantly under His protection, they would all perish. The baby would have been killed by the serpent while still in swaddling clothes, and by the poultry and many of the reptiles living in the houses. Neither the nurse, nor the mother, nor anyone else could have completely sufficient care for them if they were left without a higher providence. However, some think that this refers to embryos that have not yet left the mother’s womb. “I humbled myself, and He saved me.” He did not say: He did not allow them to be exposed to dangers, but: He saved them after they had befallen them. Having spoken about the providence of God in general, the prophet speaks about it in relation to his own person, as he usually proves with both general and specific examples. So, do not seek a life that is completely safe; it's not good for you. If it was not useful for the prophets, then much less for you. And that it really was not useful, listen to how he says: “It is good for me that You have humbled me, so that I may learn Your justifications” (Ps. 119:71). Here twofold gratitude is expressed: for the fact that God allowed him to be exposed to danger, and for the fact that he did not abandon the person in danger. Both are types of good deeds, and the first is no less than the second, but, if I say something surprising, even more, because the latter delivers from danger, and the first makes the soul more wise. “Return, my soul, to your rest, for the Lord has done good to you, for he has delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, and my feet from stumbling. I will be pleasing to the Lord in the land of the living” (Ps. 114:7-9). In a historical sense, these words mean some wondrous deliverance, tranquility and liberation; and if we take them in a figurative sense, then deliverance here can mean departure from this life and indicate this tranquility. Indeed, death is liberation from all unexpected disasters, and the one who died with good hope is no longer subject to uncertainty, but is safe. Although death occurred from sin, God turned it for our good. That is why He did not limit himself only to it, but made life itself difficult, so that you would know that He would not have allowed the first if He could not, by His wisdom, turn it to our greatest benefit. Having said: “In the day that you eat of it, you will surely die” (Gen. 2:17), He did not limit himself to this punishment, which consisted in the words: “You are dust and to dust you will return” (Gen. 3:19), but also declares something else: “In the sweat of your face you will eat bread; in sorrow you will be fed from it all the days of your life; she will bring forth thorns and thistles for you”; and he says to his wife: “I will multiply your sorrow in your pregnancy; in sickness you will give birth to children” (Gen. 3:16–19). The first was not enough to reason with them. And thus, we see that many are corrected. Death, befalling people, makes them insensitive; and these disasters make the living better. If death seems terrible, then the reason for this is the weakness of people. And that fear really comes from weakness, listen to Paul, who asked for death and rejoiced in it: “I have a desire, he said, to be resolved and to be with Christ, because this is incomparably better; and again: I rejoice in this too and will rejoice” (Phil. 1:18, 23); but he was burdened by the opposite: “we groan within ourselves,” he said, “waiting for adoption, the redemption of our body” (Rom. 8:23); and again: “while we are in this hut, we groan under the burden” (2 Cor. 5:4). 3. Do you see what a blessing is wisdom? What others consider worthy of tears, he desires; and what others seem worthy of joy and gladness, he sighs about. Indeed, isn’t it worthy of sighing to be in a foreign country, far from one’s own fatherland? And isn’t it worthy of joy to soon return to a quiet haven, to reach a heavenly dwelling, where there is no illness, no sorrow, no sighing? But, you say, is this possible for me, a sinner? Now, do you see that it is not death that causes sorrow, but a bad conscience? Therefore, stop sinning, and death will be desirable for you. “My eyes are full of tears.” This is rightly said; there is no sadness, no despondency, no crying. "And my feet do not stumble." This is more important than the first. What? The fact that we are delivered not only from sorrow, but also from intrigues and deception. The one who has died with good deeds stands on the stone, has reached the pier, has avoided all obstacles, is free from all fear and confusion - he who departs from here in this way is in constant peace. “I will be pleasing to the Lord in the land of the living.” Another translator (unknown translator, see Orig. Ex.) says: “with the Lord” (έμπροσθεν). Third (unknown, see Orig. Ex.): “I will walk” (έμπεριπατήσω). Paul expresses the same thing when he says: “We will be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord” (1 Thessalonians 4:17). The prophet said well: “in the land of the living”; that life is true life, alien to death, filled with pure blessings. “When,” says the apostle, “he has abolished all rule and all authority and power, the last enemy will be destroyed—death” (1 Cor. 15:24, 26). When all this is abolished, then there will be nothing left, no worries, no labors; everything will be joy, everything will be peace, everything will be love, everything will be calm, everything will be joy, everything will be true, sincere and firm; then there will be no shortcomings, no anger, no sorrow, no covetousness, no sensuality, no poverty, no wealth, no dishonor, and nothing else like that. Let us also strive for this life and do everything for it. Therefore, in prayer we are commanded to say: “Thy kingdom come” (Matthew 6:10), so that we always imagine that day. Whoever is imbued with this love and is nourished by the hope of these blessings is not crushed by any of the real disasters, is not indignant by any of the local sorrows. Just as those going to the royal city are not delayed by anything on the way, neither meadows, nor gardens, nor abysses, nor deserts, but, not paying attention to all this, have only one thing in mind - the fatherland awaiting them, so the one who daily imagines the heavenly city and has love for it will not consider anything difficult to be difficult, and nothing pleasant and glorious - pleasant and glorious. What am I saying: it won't count? He won't even see it, having a different vision, such as Paul commanded. saying: “When we look not at what is seen, but at what is unseen: for what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal” (2 Cor. 4:18). Do you see how he depicted the same path in different words? So, let us strive for those blessings in order to achieve them and enjoy eternal life, which may we all be worthy of, by the grace and love of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be glory and dominion, now and ever, and unto 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: