Собеседование 45 на псалом 99

Ps.99:1. Psalm David in confession. Although this psalm is devoid of an inscription, nevertheless, this does not give the right to consider it not to belong to the prophet David. Perhaps the prophet did not sing it in the church and did not pass it on to other psalmists, which is why he left it without a name. By confession here we must understand thanksgiving, because this latter is the purpose of this prophecy. This is why Aquila translates: “for thanksgiving,” Symmachus: “for blessing,” and the fifth edition: “for praise.” “Shout to God, all the earth! Work for the Lord with joy, come before Him with joy” (Ps. 99:1-2). And in this prophecy one notices great accuracy and consistency if one examines it carefully. The prophet invites the whole earth to exclaim, as if we had defeated a common enemy; then, when we learned that God is the author of victory, the prophet commands us to work for Him in joy, just as Paul says: let us all rejoice, pray without ceasing, give thanks in everything (1 Thess. 5:16-18), knowing to whom and for what we work, from what slavery we were freed and to what we were called, how easy the yoke we received instead of the heavy one. “Enter before Him joyfully,” i.e. with joy. The prophet does not mean the joy here. Just as the joy of children seems ridiculous to mature men, because they rejoice and admire worthless things, so the joy of sinners seems reprehensible to the righteous, because they rejoice in stolen and plundered wealth and other similar things, which cannot be rejoiced at when we must appear before the terrible Judge; on the contrary, we should rejoice when we are robbed and slandered, because with such joy we can appear before the face of God, as the words of the Lord testify to this: “Blessed are you when they revile you and persecute you and slander you in every way unrighteously for My sake. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven” (Matthew 5:11–12). “Know that the Lord is our God, He created us, and not we, but we are His people and sheep for His life" (Ps. 99:3). Do you see how the Removed Spirit stops all heretical lips? Since some heretics, wanting to divide the Trinity and humiliate the dignity of the Only Begotten, refer to the fact that in the Holy Scripture He is called the Lord, and the Father is called God, they invent non-existent difference between the Lord and God, and to their destruction they turn the apostolic saying into blasphemy: “we have one God the Father, from whom are all things, and we are to Him, and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we through Him” (1 Cor. 8:6), and they say that the Son, as the Lord, is less than the Father, since it is not called God, and that this name should not be applied to Him in accordance with further apostolic saying: “But not everyone has such knowledge” (1 Cor. 8:7), then the prophet, wanting to stop their idle talk, says: “... know that the Lord is our God,” so that they no longer dare to separate either the Lord from God, or the Son from the Father. “He created us, not we.” We do not exist by ourselves, as some think, but “we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works,” as Paul says (Eph. 2:10); must, therefore, recognize a certain Creator. “We are His people and sheep for His life.” “Enter His gates with confession, into His courts with songs, confess to Him, praise His name" (Ps. 99:4). Whose sheep we are, learn from the words of the Only Begotten: “My sheep obey My voice” (John 10:27). We are His “people,” as He told us about this through the mouth of the prophet: “And you will be My people, and I will be your God” ( Ezek.36:28). So He is Lord and God; both are called the Son, as is the Father. The prophet invites you to enter into His gates “with confession,” and into the courtyards “with hymns.” First, therefore, one must bring confession, and after that one must sing. Just as the doors close the courtyards, and no one can find himself inside the courtyard unless he enters through the door, so we, too, before we confess, cannot chant, because we need a pure heart and lips, free from sinful filth, if we want please God through the sacrifice of our songs. “Confess to Him, praise His name.” Again the prophet puts confession before praise, wishing to impress upon us more clearly what was said in the preceding verse. The prophet commands Him to confess as God, and to praise His name, which is the Savior, since this latter is the reason for our salvation, as testified by Peter and John, who told the Jews: “For there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). Quite rightly, in view of this, the psalmist added: “For the Lord is good, His mercy endures forever, and His truth endures forever” (Ps. 99:5). His truth, having appeared in the present generation, will also appear in the future, when He will reward everyone according to their deeds. And this undeniable and untrue truth is that Christ is “Lord, His mercy endures forever,” because as Christ, i.e. as merciful and philanthropic, He bestows His mercy in this life, so that we, if through carelessness and fall into error, turn to Him out of His philanthropy. 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: