Собеседование 21 на псалом 101

Ps.101:1. The prayer of the poor when he becomes discouraged and pours out his prayer before the Lord. 1. This psalm contains a prophecy about the disasters of the Jewish people in Babylon and about their return from there; at the same time, he predicts the calling of the pagans and their salvation; it is also suitable for any person depressed by some misfortune and begging for divine help. A beggar here is someone who needs divine care; he can be compared with the blessed one in the words: “blessed are the poor in spirit” (Matthew 5:3). Of course, everyone devoted to God, being poor in worldly things, but rich before God, is depressed by sorrow, or “despondent” - according to Symmachus, at the sight of the vices and destruction of many; this was the case, for example, with the one who said: “there are no merciful people on earth, there are none upright among people” (Mic.7:2), and with the one who said: “there is none who does good” (Ps.13:1). "God! Hear my prayer and let my cry come to You” (Ps. 101:2). Prayer means turning to God and calling for help, and a cry is a request for something that the needy person wants to receive for himself. This means that he says: I fall before You, Master, accept my prayer and extend your hand to me, who asks for Your help. Symmachus translates “cry” with the word “crying.” “Do not turn Your face away from me” (Ps. 101:3). God turns His face away from some of those who pray to Him for many reasons: either when they ask for something that is not appropriate for God to give, but it is useful for them to receive, or when they ask for something useful, but it would be untimely for them to receive what God finds it necessary to give. And it also happens that they ask for something that leads to sin. But the saint, turning to God with prayer, says: I will not ask You for anything that would make You turn your face away from me. I pray not that I will not endure sorrows - this is impossible - but that sorrows will not suppress me and that hope will be given to me as a consolation; then, enduring sorrows, I will even boast about them. “When I grieve, incline Your ear to me;... [when] I call... You, I will quickly hear me” (Ps. 101:3). And these words of the psalm indicate that it constitutes a prophecy about the future, and not an image of the past. Since during the reign of the divine David the Jewish people enjoyed great prosperity and glory, then - with their presence - the prophet rightfully raises a prayer and asks about divine intercession for the future, as soon as the opportunity presents itself. “For my days are gone like smoke, and my bones are dry like dry wood” (Ps. 101:4). Here, according to his characteristic custom, he represents future misfortunes as having already occurred, and says that the time of his life, like smoke, has passed without benefit and his body has dried up, as if scorched by the action of fire. This is how Aquila interpreted it: “and my bones became brittle as if burned.” “I am cut down like grass, and my heart is withered, so that I forgot to eat my bread” (Ps. 102:5). Like hay, I withered and lost my former color. “Because of my loud moaning, my flesh clung to my bones” (Ps. 101:6). I lost my desire for all food and completely lost my former well-being; from grief my body is exhausted and exhausted, so that my skin fits bare bones. “I became like a desert bird, ... became like a crow at night on the ruins of a house. I did not sleep and was like a lonely bird on the roof” (Ps. 102:7-8). Through many comparisons, he tries to more fully depict misfortune: by choosing each of the birds mentioned, he indicates timidity and the absence of an intercessor, because the sparrow is deprived of sleep from fear, and the night raven, avoiding inhabited houses, stays empty and abandoned. "Dive" Symmachus translated: "ruins". So the rest of the birds live in empty places. “Every day my enemies and those who praised me swore by me” (Ps. 102:9). I have become a laughing stock to my enemies; now I serve as an oath for those who once envied me and were surprised; now they swear by my misfortunes: may I not suffer what so and so suffered. “For I ate ashes like bread, and mixed my drink with tears” (Ps. 101:10). 2. This is what he said in the seventy-ninth psalm: “You will feed us with bread of tears and... water us with tears in... measure” (Ps. 79:6). By this he signifies the excessiveness of grief, because if already at the time of eating food he was suppressed by grief, then he was hardly free from it at another time. These, he says, I am overwhelmed by these disasters, because You, Lord, have turned Your wrath against me. “Because of Your anger and Your fury, for You..., having lifted me up, cast me down” (Ps. 101:11). Both the people and the church were glorified by the cooperation and will of God, and as exalted as they were, they fell so much when the people were taken into captivity, and the church along with Jerusalem was devastated; here the law was in force, and here subordinate service to God was performed, which was a shadow of future blessings - but all this passed away. He also says this about himself: having raised me to the envy of others, You suddenly brought me down. This figurative expression - "overthrown" - is taken from when they lift something up and then smash it on the floor. “My days have slipped away like a shadow, and I have dried up like hay” (Ps. 101:12). I am at the very end of my life and am like a shadow, bowing down and already completely passing; I am drying up like hay, calling upon myself the hands of the reapers. “But You, Lord, endure forever... and Your memory endures forever and ever” (Ps. 101:13). People, due to their malice, fluctuate between arrogance and humiliation and never know constancy. And You, having nothing transitory in You, are unshakable and unchangeable, and Your promises are strong; and not only for the present generation, he says, they are such, but also for others, as it is said: “and... His righteousness will be proclaimed to the people who are to be born, whom the Lord has created” (Ps. 22:32), and: “let it be written about this... generation for the next generation” (Ps. 101:19). The memory of your promises will be preserved and You can easily give us relief in present disasters. Therefore, I am confident I say that You will restore Zion. This exactly means: “You, the lice who have risen, will spoil Zion... for the time has come to spoil it, for the time has come (for this)” (Ps. 101:14). Ease, he says, our misfortunes, because the time of mercy has come. This hints at the end of the seventy-year sentence. So the wondrous Daniel, having calculated the time of captivity, says a prayer (Dan.9) with the same thoughts as those expressed by the prophet Zechariah, who said: “Lord Almighty! How long will You not have mercy on Jerusalem? (Zechariah 1:12) This corresponds to the words of the spiritual song: “for time will spare him, for the time has come.” I think that these words also contain a prophecy about the appearance of God himself to people - the Word, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, as the future reason for the restoration of Zion. But, hearing this, do not understand the city on earth, do not think that the earthly Jerusalem is indicated here, but attribute this to the renewal of life according to piety. The time here is understood to be the one about which the Lord, through Isaiah, says: “at an acceptable time I heard You” (Is. 49:8). And about the fact that this time was fulfilled with the coming of the Savior, Paul writes: “now is the acceptable time” (2 Cor. 6:2). “For Thy servants have loved its stones, and have compassion for its dust” (Ps. 101:15). “For like the stones in a crown they will shine in His land,” the prophets said (Zech.9:16, cf. Jer.4:1). Yes, and Peter says: “all of you, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house, a holy priesthood” (1 Peter 2:5). This is what he calls those who take part in the creation of the Church of God. By close unity and mutual agreement, like-mindedness and unanimity, establishing themselves in one mind and one faith, they create one church in God. It is these stones that “thy servants have loved,” of course, the prophets. They, foreseeing by the Holy Spirit the future dispensation throughout the entire universe of the new Zion, approved the stones that were to be brought for construction from all nations, and accepted them with pleasure. As for the dust, we can say that the “dust” of our spiritual Zion turns out to be people who really live on earth, but consider themselves among the stones of the building; then the prophet expresses regret for the Jews, who even to this day consider their earthly worship of God to be true, and therefore justify the name of earthly dust. They are worthy of pity and mercy, says the prophet. Therefore, he predicts that the servants of God will take pity on them, but that they will favor the stones of the new building. Or does the prophet consider those who believed in Christ after His resurrection to be stones, and the holy apostles to be slaves, through whom those who believed in our Lord Jesus Christ were saved. “And the nations will fear the name of the Lord, and all the kings of the earth and Your glory” (Ps. 101:16). The reason for this will be the preaching that went out from Zion throughout the entire universe. Well, he said: “They will be afraid,” because at that time the peoples did not have this fear, which is why the Lord said to the apostles: “Go, teach all nations” (Matthew 28:19). But “all the kings of the earth” will also fear, and not just any, but “all.” And the righteous are called the support of kings, because they set themselves up as kings, or better said, they are installed as kings over what is from God, in order to reign over passions and preserve the royal image (given to man). “For the Lord will build Zion and appear in... His glory” (Ps. 101:17). Since those ignorant of the divine economy attributed the captivity of the Jews and the desolation of Jerusalem to the weakness of their God, he rightly calls the restoration of Jerusalem the glory of God, in the sense that with the restoration of Zion everyone will see everyone in the former glory of God. On the other hand, when the Lord appeared among the twelve apostles, then, of course, He appeared in His glory with signs of His suffering, because He said to Thomas: “Put your finger here and see My hands” (John 20:27), and so on, i.e., the prophet calls His suffering glory, because with it He conquered the universe. You can also understand the words differently: “The Lord will build Zion,” namely this way: God the Word, having become flesh and dwelling in us, created the Church, in the spiritual sense called Zion. “He will appear in... His glory” precisely when, during His dwelling in us, we will see “His glory, the glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). “He respected the prayer of the humble and did not reject their prayers” (Ps. 101:18). 3. He did not despise them, he says; as captives and slaves, but accepted their prayer and granted them deliverance. He calls those humble in spirit about whom the Lord says: “But this is who I will look to: the humble and contrite in spirit and the one who trembles at My word?” (Isa.66:2) This refers to the apostles. Or, perhaps, prayer and supplication here mean the very ones about which the inscription of this psalm speaks: “the prayer of the poor,” and: “and he pours out his supplication before the Lord,” and for the sake of which the Lord will recreate Zion and fulfill everything that they asked. “Let it be written about this... the generation that follows, and the future people will praise the Lord” (Ps. 101:19). The prayer contained in the psalm and the prophetic promise for the pagans, as if imprinted on a pillar, were given to the Jews so that they would preserve them for the new people and for the time of Christ, when nations were created by faith, about which blessed Paul says: “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation” (2 Cor. 5:17). And the divine David himself in the twenty-first psalm said: “The Lord will proclaim the generation that is to come, and His righteousness will be proclaimed to the people who are to be born, whom the Lord has created” (Ps. 21:31-32). In Christ the two, the people of tongues and of circumcision, are created into one new man. Creation here means change, but not creation, as in the words: “Create in me a clean heart” (Ps. 50:12), and: “The Lord made me the beginning of His way, before His creatures from time immemorial” (Prov. 8:22). However, the speaking person was not simply created, but as the beginning of God’s ways in His works; and to be created as the beginning of something means (already) a state, and not (just) change. So, the people created in this way will praise the Lord, having come to the knowledge of the one God. If the psalmist had in mind creation, he would not have said: “create,” but “created,” because you can live during change, but during creation there is no life yet. Thus, the people, taught both the old and the new, offer up a fitting song to God the Savior. “For the Lord came down... from... His Holy height, the Lord looked down from heaven and down to earth" (Ps. 101:20). To come down (bend down) from a height is said about the Savior during the incarnation. Then He, being above, appeared below, and this position is characteristic of those who bend down, He bent down in order to look at the earth, that is, to visit it. Being an incorporeal and spiritual being, and even higher than that, the Lord is not placed anywhere and is not limited to a place, but by His power extends to all creation. “He was in the world, and the world was made through Him” (John 1:10). He is credited with being in the best parts of the world, not in the sense of space, but in the sense of His presence in His ineffable power. For example: “he who dwells in heaven” (Ps. 2:4), or: “Our Father who art in heaven.” Matthew 6:9). So, being in this sense in heaven, but also present on earth by providence, He looked down to earth - “to hear the groans of the prisoners, to bind the sons of the slain, so that they might proclaim the name of the Lord in Zion and His praise in Jerusalem” (Ps. 101:21-22). Here he shows us the reason for the calling of the pagans. This reason is the appearance of the Savior, during which He bowed the heavens. And who are the bound, if not those on whom the demon who hates goodness has imposed the bonds of sins? The sons of those who were killed will be the descendants of the pagans, because their fathers died in their sins. Even then they were devoted to idolatry and were all bound by sinful bonds; Predicting their conversion, Isaiah told God “they will come to you and be yours; they will follow you, they will come in chains and prostrate themselves before you, and they will beg you, saying, “You have only God, and there is no other God” (Is. 45:14). Beginning in Zion, the gospel spread throughout the whole earth. “Out of Zion will come the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. And He will judge the nations, and rebuke many nations” (Isa. 2:3-4). “When the nations and the king gather together and... serve the Lord. He said to Him when he was in his (full) strength: Tell me the shortening of my days. Do not snatch me away in half my days. In the generation of generations are Your years” (Ps. 102:23–25). “In His (full) strength” refers to His coming to earth, when He came to bind the mighty. (The Prophet) wanted to know whether his life would continue until those days when the Only Begotten Son should appear on earth, because (he says) at the present time, when I prophesy and foresee what is about to happen, it seems to me that my days (continue) on a par with God’s; I can only see for myself the fulfillment of what I prophesy; if I achieve this, I will consider my life perfect. If my desire does not come true, then I am like those who untimely leave life in the middle of their days. And it seems to me that in view of these very words of the prophets, our Lord said: “Many prophets and righteous people wanted to see what you see, but did not see, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear” (Matthew 13:17). "Thy years are in the generation of generations." Again he turns his speech to the Lord. The years of His carnal life for all generations are a model of a life perfect in the full sense, which is why Paul, wanting to indicate what should be considered perfection, said: “until we all come into the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the full stature of Christ” (Eph. 4:13). “In the beginning You [Lord] founded the earth and the works of Your hands the heavens. They will perish,... But you remain, and they all... will wear out like clothing, and you will wear them like clothing, and they will change” (Ps. 101:26-27). 4. This expression - “in the beginning” - can refute the opinion of those who say that the earth is the beginning of everything, that everything came from it, since there was nothing of it before. Meanwhile, it turns out that it is not a beginning, but its foundations have some kind of conceivable beginning. The Lord spoke to Job about Himself as the Founders of the earth: “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?” ( Job 38:4 ). Although the Lord founded the earth, through whom everything came into being, it is also said about the Father: “The Lord founded the earth with wisdom” (Prov. 3:19). And what was said about God: “he hung the earth on nothing” (Job 26:7) shows that it occupies a place in the very middle of everything. “And they all... will wear out like clothing, and you will put them on like clothing and they will be changed.” Everything visible will grow old and, like clothing, will fall into disrepair. You will change and renew everything and make imperishable from the corruptible. This is what the divine apostle said: “that the creation itself will be freed from the slavery of corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God” (Rom. 8:21). “But You are the same, and Your years will not fail” (Ps. 101:28). So, You change the creation as you wish. Master, and You Yourself have an unchanging and higher nature of change. In the Epistle to the Hebrews (Heb. 1:10-12), the divine apostle pointed out this as a property of the Son. But, of course, through the Son we also see the Father, since He does, then the Son does exactly the same, and in both the same nature is known. We know the one action of the Trinity. “The sons of Your servants will dwell, and their descendants will be corrected forever” (Ps. 101:29). Instead of “will be corrected,” Symmachus put “will remain.” This means that, freed from slavery, they will settle in Jerusalem and their seed will remain forever. “The sons of Your servants” must be understood not only in the carnal sense, but also in the sense of education and assimilation of the true order of life, because in this very sense some are called sons of the prophets, i.e. as if they descended from the prophets in their prophetic ability. Their seed (offspring) turned out to be those who benefited from them. About the same seed the divine apostle says: “until the time of the coming of the seed to which the promise relates” (Gal. 3:19), and: “The promises were given to Abraham and to his seed. It is not said, “And to your descendants, as if they were many,” but as if they were one, “And to your seed, which is Christ” (Gal. 3:16). This seed will endure forever. United with the Word of God, it has endless existence and gives life to believers, according to the word of the Lord Himself: “whoever eats My Flesh and drinks My Blood has eternal life” (John 6:54), in Christ our Lord Himself, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. Creations attributed to St. John Chrysostom and in the Patrology of Min, classified as Spuria The paragraphs in the text were arranged by us. – Editorial staff of “ABC of Faith” You might be interested in: