Six Psalms. Psalms 3 and 37

Contents of the Six Psalms Psalm 3 1. The one praying realizes the extremity of his situation 2. The one praying expresses his strong trust in God and rests in Him 3. The one praying expresses the desires of his heart, or pours out his prayer Interpretation of Psalm 37 1. The sinner’s horror before God in a feeling of anger (vv. 2-4). 2. The sinner’s awareness of his wretched condition. Art. 4–8. 3. The sinner’s repentant feelings are his pain about his bitter condition. 4. The sinner's vision of his helplessness, v. 12–15. 5. The sinner's ascent to trustworthiness, and establishment therein, v. 16–18. 6. Firm intention - having confessed the sin, make amends for it. 7. Concluding prayer of the repentant - vv. 20-23. The Six Psalms consist of the following six psalms: 3rd, 37th, 62nd, 87th, 102nd and 142nd. They are read at the beginning of Matins, following the proclamation of the doxology of the Most Holy Trinity. In their content, they are filled with tenderness and dispose to repentance, depicting the state of a sinner who sees his sinfulness and wants to be cleansed of sins and to belong to the Lord, in spite of the numerous enemies who surround him and put obstacles in the way of the emergence in us of all good dispositions and undertakings. - When reading them in the church, the candles are extinguished, except for a few. The gloominess, on the one hand, helps to reflect on what is being read, on the other, it reminds us of the gloominess of the sinful state depicted by the psalms, and of the fact that external lightness does not suit a sinner. – Arranging this reading this way, St. The Church wants to incite us to deepen ourselves, so that, having entered into ourselves, we enter into a conversation with the merciful Lord, who does not want the death of the sinner, but our most necessary task - the salvation of the soul, through introducing it into a relationship due to Him, our Savior, broken by sin. Therefore, in the Charter (Chapter 9) it is written: “When the Six Psalms are spoken, then it is appropriate to listen with attention: for the psalms are filled with repentance and tenderness. The verb of these psalms is with reverence and fear of God, as if invisibly speaking to the Lord himself and praying for our sins.” Attentive prayer books in the church fulfill this rule more or less, and, delving into the meaning of the verses, with their help they enter the realm of spiritual objects, through the contemplation of which they nourish in themselves the spirit of repentance, tenderness and reverence before God. This brief interpretation of the psalms included in the Six Psalms is offered as a guide to them. We say - as a benefit; because it in no way can and should not replace one’s own reflection, but only help him, partly by expanding his horizons, partly by guiding him in the direction of thoughts, partly by raising questions that irritate the energy of the mind. Interpretation should not put fetters on one’s own reflection. It only determines the meaning of the verses; but what anyone can think up on its basis for his own edification, it does not and cannot enter into this. – And one verse can give another a reason to generate so many thoughts that there will be a whole volume of them. We make this note then to say that we do not consider the Six Psalms to be completely examined in our interpretation, but we are only making a beginning for it. Oh St. Scripture can never be said to be completely examined. In all its parts it is the inexhaustible spring of St. edification, which, however, must be torn out of him, like a precious metal, from the bowels of the earth, by hardworking deepening through the power of divine words. With all this, however, this interpretation will not be left without applications; only they will not be so abundant that they can exhaust everything and satisfy everyone. What is missing can be filled by those who love to test the Scriptures, believing that they indicate the way to eternal living, and that only they can make us wise for salvation (2 Tim. 3:15). Assuming that readers do not always have the Psalter at hand, we place the text of each psalm in Slavic and Russian, translated from Greek by 70 interpreters of the text. Testimonies of famous interpreters are attached in places, such as: Athanasius the Great, Theodoret the Blessed, Basil the Great, St. Chrysostom, Blessed Augustine, Euthymius Zigabene, Anthimus, Patriarch of Jerusalem, Archbishop Irenaeus. But the entire interpretation is for the most part borrowed from the same sources, or compiled according to their instructions, although this is not indicated everywhere. The Psalm was composed by the Prophet and King David during the rebellion of Absalom. In order to better understand the flow of thoughts of the psalm, those who know the circumstance about which the inscription speaks, let them remember it, and for those who do not know, a short story about it is attached here (2 Samuel 15 et al.). When King David, having fallen into great sins, on the occasion of taking Bathsheba as his wife, brought great repentance to the Lord; then the Lord, speaking to him through the prophet Nathan forgiveness for those sins, at the same time announced to him that he would, however, be subjected to temporary punishments, as a cleansing penance, and that these punishments would come to him from his own family, since his sins were against the family. Troubles of this kind soon began. Absalom, for offending his sister Tamar, killed his elder brother Ammon and fled to his maternal grandfather, the king of Gedsur. Three years later, David allowed him to return to his fatherland, as long as he did not show his face, and two years later he allowed this too. After this, Absalom immediately began his intrigues against him, intending to overthrow him from the throne and quickly take his place. To this end, first of all, he began to curry favor with all those who came to Jerusalem on their business from different tribes of the kingdom; sitting at the very gates of the city, he received them kindly and revealed justice in their affairs - and thus good news about him was spread everywhere. In this way, he managed to almost instill in everyone the desire that he would finally be their king instead of David. Believing that the minds were thus already quite prepared, he asked his father to leave for Hebron, as if to fulfill a vow; and meanwhile he sent his minions everywhere so that when they heard the sound of the trumpet, they would publicize everywhere that Absalom had been made king in Hebron. They did so at the appointed hour, and the people flocked to Hebron from all sides. Seeing with Absalom two hundred men of Jerusalem, who came with him at his invitation, but not knowing about his evil intentions, and Ahithophel, David's first adviser, they assumed that he was already a king - and the crowd grew quickly. They told David that the hearts of the men of Israel were with Absolom; and he, abandoned by everyone, not seeing the opportunity to suppress the uprising now, or to defend himself in Jerusalem, decided: let's run; there is no salvation for us here. “They fled,” and all Jerusalem wept with a great voice as those who fled crossed and crossed the Kidron stream. The high priests and Levites wanted to follow with the Ark of the Covenant. But the king said to Zadok the high priest: “Return the ark of God to the city. If I find grace in the eyes of the Lord, He will return me and let me see him and his beauty again. If he says: I no longer favor you; Behold, I am, and let him do what is good for us in his sight. Better return, and having learned, you and Abiathar the priest, how things will go in Jerusalem, tell me through your sons; I will wait for this news in deserted Araboth.” They returned; and David began to climb the Mount of Olives, weeping, with his head covered and his feet bare. And all those who were with him walked with their heads covered and wept. They told the king that Ahithophel was with Absalom, and he cried out to the Lord: destroy the advice of Ahithophel, O Lord my God! So they reached Ross - the top of the Mount of Olives, from behind which it will no longer be possible to see Jerusalem and Zion. Here St. The king bowed to the Lord God, who dwelt in the tabernacle, from which He had listened to his prayers so many times. “Wasn’t this the moment when God heeded the king’s humble prayer and decided to destroy the council of Ahithophel and save him?” At least at this time, the king, for his part, did everything he could do in those circumstances. Hushai, his friend, a man of great weight, wanted to go with him; but the king persuaded him to go to Jerusalem, and there, with his advice, destroy the council of Ahithophel, and inform him about this through the sons of the high priest, as already ordered. Hushai went to Jerusalem; and David and his men directed their path further, to the already designated deserted place. They had already passed through the land of the tribe of Judah and passed by Bahurim, a village of the tribe of Benjamin. Then someone from the family of Saul, named Shimei, came out and began to curse David, saying: “Be gone, be gone, man of blood! The Lord, with all his blood, restore the house of Saul to you, and give the kingdom into the hands of your son Absalom. And now you are in extreme trouble.” Those who were with David asked permission to remove his head. But David, humbled before the Lord, said: Leave him; let him curse. If the Lord commanded to curse David; then who dared to say: why are you doing this? Leave him alone. Perhaps the Lord will look upon my humility and give me back good things instead of his oath this day.” So they left him and went their own way; and he walked along the outskirts of the mountain and threw stones and sand at David and those who were with him, continuing to slander and curse. They finally arrived at the designated place in the desert, tired, and rested there. Meanwhile, Absalom entered Jerusalem and held advice on what to do. Ahithophel suggested that they immediately pursue the king, saying that the weary are easy to overcome. But Hushai upset this council, which certainly could have been crowned with success, by assuring that now David and those with him were extremely irritated, like lions, and that they could no longer be dealt with. Let it be better that all Israel from Dan to Beersheba be gathered together, like the sand at the end of the sea in multitude; then we will overtake them wherever they are, and we will not leave a single one alive. They all said: the advice of Hushai is better than the advice of Ahithophel. After this, things took a turn favorable for David. He pulled himself together. A battle took place that ended in the defeat of the rebel army and the death of Absalom. This is the circumstance that gave rise to the composition of the third psalm. That this was definitely the case is evident from the fact that this psalm clearly reflects the various features of this event. History says that the heart of the children of Israel was with Absalom, crowd after crowd was attached to him; and in the psalm it is sung: why have we multiplied the cold? There Shimei reviled David in the thought that he would never recover: and in the psalm his enemies say: there is no salvation for him in his God. There the king, returning the high priests with the ark, expressed his complete devotion to the will of God; in the psalm, devotion is also obvious in the words: You, O Lord, are my intercessor. It says that David worshiped the Lord on the top of the Mount of Olives; and in the psalm it is sung: I have cried out to the Lord. But what is especially important is the spirit with which St. was filled. David during his flight from Absalom is exactly the same as the one that the psalm breathes. This is the spirit of humble submission to God, surrendering oneself into His hands, and strong trust in His help and intercession. When exactly did this psalm song pour out from the soul of the Prophet David? On the morning of the next day, after leaving Jerusalem: for he said: I slept and fell, and arose, in that confidence that the Lord would intercede for me. – Having already bowed to God on the top of Olivet, David, one might believe, received a heartfelt certificate of God’s help. Then, throughout the entire journey, as we see, he was in a prayerful mood. In the evening, of course, he prayed even more intensely and, thereby strengthening his confidence in God’s protection and intercession, in a feeling of complete security, he lay down and slept peacefully. Waking up in the morning in the same feelings, he sang a song to God, in which, expressing the extremity of his situation and his complete trust in the Lord, he asked him to fulfill in action what He had placed in his heart as a confirmation: rise up, Lord, save me, my God! The entire structure of the psalm can therefore be briefly expressed by the following provisions: 1. I'm in extreme trouble. – 2, 3. 2. My only hope is in you, Lord. – 4 – 7. 3. Save me. – 8, 9. Here's a more detailed summary of it! 1. The Prophet defines the extremity of his position: a) Many enemies - v. 2. b) Their cruelty - v. 3, they get cold, they rebel, they say... 2) That God is the only hope for the Prophet is: aa) Expressing in words, art. 4. bb) Showing by deed, art. 5. b) And then he completely calms down in the Lord, proving this: aa) complete peace of mind, despite the turmoil all around - v. 6...I fell asleep... bb) And fearlessness before enemies, v. 7. I will not be afraid because... 3. Turning to God with a prayer for salvation, - a) he puts this prayer in short but powerful words - v. 8. Rise Lord... aa) previous experiences of God’s help, in the same 8th century. Because You struck... bb) That general truth that salvation and blessing are from the Lord. This last also serves as the conclusion of the psalm. Those who reflect on this psalm must, however, keep in mind that historically it refers to St. Prophet David, and in relation to anyone who is struggling with passions and demons, and oppressed by external sorrows and troubles (Gregory Niss. in Euph. Zigab.). He teaches that we should not despair and lose heart, no matter how great our sins or troubles, imitating St. David, who did not lose hope, although everyone almost around him said that there was no salvation for him in his God. In this regard, the psalm opens the path to the Lord for the repentant sinner; for the enemy usually, having noticed the first movements of repentance in someone, strikes him with thoughts of despair, suggesting that God will not have mercy on him - and there is no longer any salvation for him. Destroying this first barrier on the path of the sinner’s return to the Lord, this psalm ranks decently in the first place in the Six Psalms. 1. The person praying is aware of the extremity of his situation Ps.3:2. Lord, why have you multiplied the cold? Many people rise up against me. Seeing that almost all of Israel followed in the footsteps of Absalom, St. David is amazed how suddenly, in such a number, faces were revealed who were hostile to him, even from the circle of close and trusted persons; whereas he did not expect any trouble and rested calmly in a feeling of complete security. They increased in number and strength, cunning and skill. Here are Ahithophel, the heads of the 12 tribes, the captains of thousands and other members. Cold ones, from Greek. causing sorrow, striking painfully to the very heart: from Heb., oppressing, like an enemy oppressing a city surrounded by him, or a winepress oppressing berries. It is clear what a burden this uprising placed on David’s soul. Many people are rebelling, rebelling, indignant. It would be even more bearable if strangers rose up, or their own blood, their own people - those who for a day were in subjection and obedience, now fell away and are arming themselves against him. City after City, knee after knee, cling to Absalom, like one wave chasing another. St. says all this. The prophet, in order to show the consciousness of his helplessness, and thereby move God’s mercy to speedy help, suggesting that on the one hand the glory of God will be more obvious when those abandoned and humiliated by everyone are restored, on the other hand, shame and disgrace of the villains who rely on their multitude and their strength, as a lesson and warning to others. This extreme position of St. David is an image of extremes, in which all those who are zealous for pleasing God often find themselves. For all those who want to live godly in Christ Jesus are persecuted, according to the word of the Apostle (2 Tim. 3:12), and wage a great and terrible struggle with enemies visible and invisible. There Satan, like a roaring lion, goes about devouring the seeker (1 Pet. 5:8), and then transforms himself into an angel of light to deceive, if possible, even the elect (2 Cor. 11:14). Here the dirty trickster of the flesh does dirty tricks, rebelling against the spirit and trying to overcome it (2 Cor. 12:7). Sometimes people who have lost the fear of God either speak sarcastically or annoy people with deeds. “Sometimes all of them, as if broken loose, attack the poor worker at once and crowd in like clouds. The demons, having gained access to the soul, approach one after another and each strikes with their own arrow; passions, mental and physical, irritated, rise up with their demands and each pulls to its side; and people raise their alarm for no other reason than because they don’t like them. All of them are allowed to rebel, and they multiply, chill and oppress. Seeing this, the cheerful guardian of his and God’s ways cannot help but cry out to his everlasting and only helper: Lord, why have you multiplied all this? - This is allowed so that the warrior does not fall asleep, thinking that the enemies have already been trampled upon in the end, and so that, fighting against opposition, external and internal, he multiplies his crowns: for the lightness of our sorrow makes us the burden of eternal glory (2 Cor. 4:17); (Anf. Patr. Hierus.). So you shouldn’t indulge in oversights for a minute. Despite the fact that now everything is calm, one minute - a storm will arise, and the waves will rise with menacing force. Ps.3:3. Many people say to my soul: there is no salvation for him in his God. It is sad that our own people rebelled, but what is most painful to my heart is that they say that there is no salvation for me in You, my Lord. - This is not said by internal thoughts that inspire despair as an enemy; for St. David did not lose hope even for a minute, but those who rebelled against him, who, seeing his misfortune, thought and said that he had been abandoned by God. – My soul says the same as me, with Heb. appropriate about Me too. They tell me to my face how Semey did it and probably others did. They talk about me among themselves, inspiring each other with hope for the success of the uprising. “Now God has departed from him, they said, 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” (Chrysostom). “He said it to my soul, and not to me, to show that those words pierced his soul, not only touched his ear, but went into his very heart.” As in another place, praying to God: the words of my soul: I am your salvation (Ps. 34:3), he wanted those words to cheer up his entire inner self: this is how he wants to express here that the words of his enemies struck his soul with deep sorrow (Theodoret). He expressed the painful feelings of his heart about such speeches in other psalms, for example. 41:4. My tears were my bread day and night, always saying to me every day, where is your God? (Ps. 41:4) Why did the indignant say so? Perhaps simply out of insane gloating, because, mocking the Lord hanging on the cross, the Jews shouted: trust in the Lord. He always assured that God was his helper and protector and would not let him be offended. Let's see how he gets better now that no one is with him. They relied on their strength and multitude, but they did not expect God to show special help to the persecuted king, based on his sins, with which he so angered God. - And they were deceived. For they saw sins, but did not see repentance (Athan. Vel.). David’s heart changed, and God’s determination about him also changed. “That is why we should not pronounce judgment on our brothers even if their sins are obvious; for we do not know what is happening in their hearts. Whereas, according to our judgment, they deserve not to know what heavenly punishment, with their repentance and contrition of heart, perhaps they have already changed God’s wrath to mercy. Therefore, it is more fitting for us to never treat anyone with such speeches, no matter how bad and harmful and unrighteous his actions may be. Who can know the judgments of God?! More instructive for us is the example of St. David. From all sides they shouted to him: there is no salvation for you in God; but did he hesitate at all? Have you doubted God’s providence for yourself even for a minute?! “This is how one should keep it for oneself and for anyone in trouble, and especially for one who repents.” For usually, when leading demons into sin, they instill in them: God loves mankind, so that, covering his danger, he smoothes the path to it, and after sin, he puts in thoughts of despair, saying: God is indefatigably just, there is no forgiveness for you, you are an outcast, so that, having become hardened, he finally surrenders to sin (Nikita Stif. in Zigab.). For those who have begun to realize the need to return to God, these speeches that renounce God are deadly. Why does the Prophet Jeremiah pray: do not cause me to be alienated, my hope is You in the day of cruelty (Jer. 17:17). 2. The person praying expresses his strong trust in God and rests in Him. Ps.3:4. But you, Lord, are my protector, my glory, and lift up my head. The Holy Prophet contrasts the bitter words of ill-wishers with his strong hope in God, hoping to use it to bow Him down—by the very act of disgracing the arrogant reproach of his enemies. You, Lord, are the intercessor, a shield that encloses and protects from everywhere, and is impenetrable to arrows. This is God’s protection from enemies visible and invisible, mental and physical. Only faith and hope can act as this shield. Let the enemies cry: there is no salvation; David, having repented, again took possession of his shield. By sin he offended God, but by repentance he again regained His mercy. His heart feels it; why does he confess: You, Lord, are my protector, are not only a common trustee and intercessor, but also my shield, protection, fence around me. Let the enemy crowds press in from all sides, let them direct their arrows at him; By faith, David sees around himself a fence built by God, impenetrable and insurmountable. You are my glory, the subject of my glory and praise. I boast about you. Enemies boast of numbers, cunning, weapons. My praise is You alone, my Lord. This is what he confesses in other psalms: in the Lord my soul will boast (Ps. 33:3). In God is my salvation and my glory (Ps. 61:8). So the Apostle teaches: let him boast in the Lord (2 Cor. 10:17). Or - You are my glory, - my glory comes from You, and not from people. I seek it from You, and not from people. You give, You keep it, You have raised me to a glorious state and clothed me with great honor. What is from You, you will not allow people to take away, contrary to Your will. And lift up my head, - You lift up my head with deliverance from troubles and sorrows that make my head droop, or with inner peace of the heart, by filling me with hope and inspiring me with courage. The ascension of the head is a sign of joy and gladness after sorrow and lamentation. It's not so much troubles that make you hang your head, but hopelessness. Having surrendered to the will of God, and having felt His intercession, the king holds his head raised, in a feeling of strength coming from God. Thus, having been cleansed by repentance, he began to have a completely different attitude towards God than people thought. Even if he is now defenseless from the outside, God is his protection; let the kingdom be taken, God be the glory; even though he had bowed his head (he walked through Olivet with his head covered), God raised his head with the hope of deliverance from trouble. - Everything outside was upset; but inside he has an indestructible fortress. Of course, at first there was some embarrassment. But St. The king soon gained control of himself; and we see how he calmly manages everything, even as he leaves the city, how he treats both his well-wishers and his ill-wishers reasonably. Let us remember his words spoken to the high priests, and those he spoke on the occasion of Shimei’s attacks. This is where the greatness of his soul was revealed, standing above all the accidents of life. He believed in hope more than hope, having long since learned to expect everything from the One God and to place his lot in His hands. This is a lesson for us to always stand as if on a solid stone, on the confession of God’s providence and care. Many confess this, having been confirmed in it by the experiences of their lives; let others confess it by faith. – This is the most comforting truth for suffering humanity! - Those who, with their writings, upset faith in it, deprive people of a faithful refuge in sorrow, and are therefore enemies of humanity, murderers. All suicides should be attributed to them as causes. The souls of all those who take their own lives due to the loss of hope through their evil speeches and writings will be collected from them. The repentant sinner especially needs this hope and confidence in the ready mercy of God. How does the enemy know how to burn the soul with these bleak words: there is no salvation?! - But take heart, repentant one! God gave you the feeling of repentance that you carry in your heart; Therefore, He wants to accept you, and has already stretched out His hand to you. Drive away the enemy with his despair, and hasten to God with the hope of mercy. Remember that for us sinners the Son of God was crucified on the cross, and the handwriting of our sins was torn to pieces on him, and do not doubt for a minute that forgiveness is ready for you. Take the very fact that you repent as proof that the Lord is already lifting up your head, drooping under the weight of sins. Ps.3:5. With my voice I cried to the Lord, and He heard me from His holy mountain. And before it happened more than once that he cried out, and the Lord heard him. It happened, he says in another place, when I praised I called on the Lord and was saved from my enemies (Ps. 17:4). “But here he’s talking about what happened now.” “Having opened the confession of his hope to the Lord, he now turns to us and tells how he prayed and was heard” (Athan. Vel.). - When is this? - Either then, as he bowed to God on the top of Olivet, or in the evening, when we arrived in the desert. But all the time he, apparently, was in a prayerful mood. Having poured out fervent prayers to God, he received confirmation that he would be delivered, and spent a peaceful night, confident that God was his intercessor. This is what he calls hearing. With a voice... I cried out - means excessive sighing, a strong prayerful movement of the heart. The feeling of the heart is usually expressed in words. And we must remember that it is not the sound voice that reaches the sky, but the cry of the heart. Why bliss. Augustine says: he cried out not with an oral voice, but with the voice of the heart, which is silent for people, but for God makes a cry that goes through the heavens. The Lord Himself commanded us to cry out with this voice when He ordered us to pray in a locked cage: which means, in the recesses of the heart. - And it cannot be said that, praying with this voice, someone prayed not so loudly, only because his prayer is not accompanied by an external sound. For those who prayed silently in their hearts were also attested to as crying out to God. The strong aspiration of the heart towards God is the voice, the appeal, the cry to God.” The same thought is expressed in another way by Athanasius the Great: “by voice should be understood the mental petition of the mind to God. He is not talking about verbal crying, but about prayer uttered with the mind.” “For,” adds blessed Theodoret, “to Moses, although he was silent with his lips, this is what the God of all said: Why are you crying to Me? calling silence a cry, due to fervent mental prayer. Under the holy mountain, from which the king was heard, of course, Zion, where stood the tabernacle with the ark of the covenant, from which God gave answers. In the psalms, Mount Zion is often remembered as the mountain of God, precisely because of this advantage, that on it stood the tabernacle with the ark of the covenant, where God was pleased to show his special presence. For sensual Israel - and one might say for man in general, clothed in flesh - such sensory confirmation of the nearness of God is necessary, that He is in His midst. God arranged it that way. – But here this expression has a figurative meaning. For the ark of the covenant of St. David was sent back to Jerusalem, and was thus removed from the place where God gave his answers. Here, of course, is heaven itself, which the Apostle Paul calls Mount Zion (Heb. 12:22); like St. himself The prophet in other places says about himself that when he prays, his eyes are stretched out to him who lives in heaven, and that when God hears his prayer, he hears his saint from heaven (Ps. 4:4). “From the mountain, that means from heaven, from where God listens to those who pray” - (Athan. Vel.). – Why should hearing mean not a verbal answer, but an internal confirmation, lower from above, that there will be help and intercession. He lifted up his prayer to the immaterial throne of God, an unlimited place; - then there was no obstacle to immediately receiving this certificate. For the Lord is near to all who call on Him (Ps. 144:18). And now, as then and always, God hears everyone who prays with a contrite heart and with the hopeful aspiration of the soul. Just pray relentlessly. Do not stop praying until you receive proof of hearing. If God does not hear us, it is either because we are not praying very diligently, or because we do not have patience in prayer and soon stop it. The heat of prayer can shorten the period of hearing; sometimes the duration can make up for the incompleteness of the heat of prayer. When is there one and the other that cannot be asked from God, according to the word of the Lord, who said: whatever you ask in My name will be done for you? Ps.3:6. I fell asleep and fell asleep, and arose, as if the Lord would intercede for me. This is the fruit of hopeful prayer addressed to God! – As a result of tranquility in God, there is complete peace of mind. I, he says, surrounded by so many enemies, helpless, abandoned by everyone, fell asleep, in Greek, went to bed, and fell asleep and slept peacefully. There were no worries; the serenity of the soul did not drive away sleep. He who has anxiety in his soul is overcome by sleep. He sits, then stands, then walks, then looks here and there. – He had such complete confirmation of God’s help! - Vostakh, awakened. I slept a lot and woke up full of sleep. So true is God’s promise to the righteous: if you sleep, you will sleep sweetly (Proverbs 3:24). It's always like that. The consequence of placing complete trust in the Lord is perfect peace of soul in the midst of great extremes. An example of this is the Lord calmly sleeping on a ship, when the ship is being hit by waves and everyone is in fear. Such are all who are with the Lord and with whom the Lord is. The source of such serenity is courageous love for the Lord, unshaken by waves of external troubles, inaccessible to internal turmoil and enemy arrows. She rests in the almighty arms of God, warmed by His love, strengthened and revived. With such love there is incoherence with nothing earthly, detachment from everything. Why changes and shocks from this side do not reach the heart and do not disturb it. Ps.3:7. I will not be afraid of those people around who attack me. Strengthened by hope and feeling the protection of God, he expresses his courage. He seems to say: “If You are with me, then this is enough to scatter many darkness for me.” Having received the certificate, he boldly says: I will not be afraid. This is a conclusion from experience and means a constantly established mood of the spirit. In case of unexpected troubles of the first onslaught of fear, strong trust in God is not alien; but it soon gives way to their returning presence of spirit and, with the reign of hope, completely disappears. For those without hope, on the contrary, the initial fear grows and grows until it leads to complete loss of spirit and despair. “I will not be afraid because of those, - a certain number instead of an indefinite one,” he wants to say, “from the excessive number of rebels - around the attackers, building regiments, preparing ambushes - who are acting hostilely against me from everywhere, and are seeking all means for my destruction. This courage is not feigned. For he dared not rely on his own strength, but relying on the undoubted help of Almighty God. Righteous David always breathed such courage, and expressed it more than once in his God-inspired songs, I will not fear what man will do to me: The Lord is my helper, and I will look upon my enemies (Ps. 118:6–7). Lord... my Savior, whom shall I fear? The Lord is the protector of my life, from whom shall I fear? Even if an army rises up against me, my heart will not fear: even if it rises up against me to fight, I will trust in Him (Ps. 26:1, 3). Learn from here the fearlessness with which you should confront mental enemies. There are definitely not countless darknesses of them. And alone, according to St. Maxim at Zigaben - they attack from the front, enticing them with the lures of happiness and earthly blessings, others strike from behind, desecrating the soul with the memory and lust of former pleasures; others fight on the right, urging us to take on excessive feats, so that, having lifted us up with vanity, they would then cast us into the abyss of falling; others hurt from the left, inclining to obvious and known sins. – He who has acquired Divine help is not afraid of these hordes. And they, seeing this cover of God on him, only shot arrows at him from afar. – Try to maintain this cover with unquenchable zeal for pleasing God and with an everlasting humble and painful fall towards the Lord in the heart, and the courage of the spirit will not depart from you, and with courage all the hordes of demons will flee from you: for against the courageous they themselves are terrible. (Let anyone who wishes to read about this in the word of St. Anthony the Great, which is placed in his life, written by St. Athanasius the Great). 3. The person praying expresses the desires of his heart, or pours out his prayer Ps.3:8. Arise, Lord, save me, my God; for thou hast struck all our enemies in vain; thou hast crushed the teeth of sinners. Having pointed out the multitude and cruelty of his enemies, having confessed his strong trust in God, and as a result of this, the complete calm and fearlessness of his enemies in him, he now proclaims the prayer: rise again... save! It’s like this: what You have assured me of my hope, now fulfill it in deed. Save me from my enemies, just as before you always crushed and shamed all those who were hostile to me in vain. Although he had strong hope, he completely calmed down in God; but does not omit prayers. Hope is the basis of prayer, not a substitute for it. Otherwise, it will seem as if the creature, trusting, arrogates to itself the right, as if it were due, to expect from God’s providence, as if in some way it commands it. - Hopes; but since God’s destinies are hidden, he prays: speed up to help! Resurrect, arise. God, having arranged everything and set it in motion like a clock, rested from his work. In order to show someone special help, He comes from this Divine peace, and this is the prayer of the Prophet! Move to help and salvation. In this sense, during the raising of the tabernacle of the ark, during the forty-year wandering, they usually proclaimed: Arise, Lord, and let your enemies be scattered (Num. 10:34). – Or he calls God’s peace God’s long-suffering (Zigab.) When the evils of people multiply, but God does not admonish them; it seems as if He is sleeping, at peace. Why does the suffering person pray: arise; write off all this, Lord? (Ps. 43:24). “Moved by hope, I rise to prayer; But you, being aroused by my prayer of hope, move against my enemies” (Anf. Jerusalem). God will arise, and all enemies will crumble and all troubles will pass away. For You have struck down all those who were at enmity with me in vain. Since You have hitherto defeated all my enemies, no matter how many there have been, since the time of my anointing to the kingdom; then from here I take confidence for the present case. Those who are at war in vain are those who are at war in vain, unfairly. Blessed Theodoret writes: “As You have repeatedly punished for untruth those who had an unjust enmity towards me, both fellow tribesmen and foreigners, both the Israelites and the Amalekites, and even Saul himself; so be it now, grant me salvation.” - In Hebrews, instead of in vain it is now read in the jaw, so it will be: you have struck all my enemies in the jaw. A blow to the jaw is both painful and shameful. Thought: struck with shame. – The tone of thought expressed by 70 interpreters is more consistent with the flow of speech. You crushed the teeth of sinners. – The sinners here are the same, fighting in vain or unrighteously. Enemies of St. David was a people who feared God. Their rebellion against him was because he adhered to rules they did not like; was of a spirit contrary to them. He is a representative of good principles; they are evil. The evil spirit that was active in Saul now rebelled in Absalom and his followers. “In words: teeth... crushed, means: deprived them of their strength, took away from them all the means to harm me. The image of the expression is borrowed from animals, which, if they lack teeth, are not at all dangerous and are easily overcome” (Theodorit). With this reminder of previous deliverances he inspires himself, but before God he testifies to humility, showing that he is not asking for anything extraordinary, but for what God has usually almost always provided him with. - Let us learn from this both bold hope and humble expectation when it will be pleasing to the Lord to show us his help. The Lord has his own clock. When the hour of His uprising strikes, we cannot know why we must wait complacently, without losing patience in the labors of prayer. The hour of God’s help, one might say, always strikes when, on the one hand, the constancy and patience of the faithful are fully revealed, and on the other, the malice and unrepentance of their enemies. “Wait with patience, and persevere in hope and prayer.” Ps.3:9. Salvation is the Lord's, and Your blessing is upon Your people. He continues the prayer, reinforcing it by exposing his faith in the general truth that salvation, if it happens, comes only from the Lord: the Lord’s is salvation. This is a kind of praise together, usually concluding prayers, similar to the one that, in the Apocalypse, the elders offered to God sitting on the throne (Rev. 7:10). To them all the glory of salvation is attributed to God, and not to the wisdom and strength of man. For human salvation is vain (Ps. 59:13). The Lord's salvation does not exclude human means; but it means that without it all these means are nothing. The Lord arranges everything and gives progress and success to human efforts. Without it, all our methods lead to nothing; whereas, if He favors, then salvation is arranged, no one knows how, and then, how everything collapses around. What a great consolation for those abandoned by everyone! And upon Your people is Your blessing. While drinking tea and asking for salvation from the Lord, he at the same time wants God’s blessing to rest on his people. It is clear that the one praying is a king, and that he did not share his heart with the people involved in confusion and misfortune by Absalom and his minions. Such is the heart of meek David! Instead of punishing the people, he asks for blessings. From afar, the Forefather imitates Christ the Lord, who was from his seed, who from the cross prayed for the remission of sins of those who crucified Him and mocked Him. – This final word about the blessing of the people casts a gratifying light into the depths of the soul of St. A king who loves the people in God and does not share his fate with them. He did not say: on my people: but on your people; He does not present himself as a ruler, but as a steward, guardian, and shepherd of God’s property (Ps. 17:50). - Was it not in your mind to say humbly: not for my sake, but for the sake of Your people, save me; for he is in danger of great trouble if its management passes into the hands of those who rebel against me? The psalm ends with a prayerful confession that in God is the source of salvation and blessing. The beginning is in faith. Faith gives birth to hope. Trust with faith gives birth to prayer, which brings comfort to the heart and blessing to life. Let us pray that the spirit of hope moving in this psalm becomes our constant spirit. 1. The horror of the sinner before God in a feeling of anger (vv. 2-4). Ps.37:2. God! Let not Thy wrath reprove me, nor punish me with Thy wrath. Having heard from the lips of Nathan the prophet the definition of God about himself, St. David felt the threat of God's judgment. He was struck by God's disfavor, and anger weighed heavily on him. And so he cries out: reprove and punish, but not with rage and anger. “He begs to be brought to reason, as is characteristic of a doctor, and not a judge, and to heal not strongly, but with easily effective medicine.” (Theodorite). The fact that I have lost Your favor and am under anger is more unbearable for me than any punishment. Return to me this feeling of Your non-rejection from me and your non-rejection of me. What is said here about the aversion of internal punishments that fall directly on the conscience and heart is evident from the fact that the prophet desires external punishments, like penance for sins, and has expressed every readiness for them (v. Ps. 37:18). This expresses the usual course of the sinner’s emergence from sinful sleep. And every sinner, having come to the consciousness of his sinfulness, first feels the wrath of God - it seems to him that now the truth of God is ready to strike him. And so he cries out: Lord, do not strike! “He also feels like he’s been sentenced to eternal torment.” Why, turning to God in repentance, does he pray that he would not be handed over to the terrible judgment and punishment there, but punished and pardoned here? “It will be said to those standing on the left side: “Depart from Me into eternal fire” (Matthew 25:41). Fearing this most terrible punishment, he asks and prays: Lord, do not reprove me with Your wrath... Let me not be among those to whom You say: Depart from Me into eternal fire. In this life, punish and correct.” (Augustine). “Rage and anger” are unambiguous words. "Rage" means intense irritation, when the heart boils, like water boiling and foaming. This expression is always used when God, in human form, appears to be extremely irritated (see 2 Chronicles 29). And “anger” means the same thing. The difference between them is that in the first the irritation resides within itself, while in this it is revealed externally and is expressed through actions. In different ways, “convict” and “punish” are similar. They reprove, revealing the unrighteousness and sinfulness of the matter, they punish - they admonish, showing how one should have acted and how one should correct oneself. If we are talking about jurisdiction and punishment, then the first means the disclosure of guilt and the verdict, and the second the execution of the sentence by action, or actual punishment. Reproof can be in word (Ps. 141:5) or deed (Ps. 104:14) - when circumstances are arranged in such a way that sin becomes visible to everyone and the sinner is put to shame. The constant accuser of the sinner is conscience, especially enlightened by the revealed law; on the other hand, sin is not always hidden, but is revealed in the state of the soul and body, and in the external position. The latter is built by itself, and sometimes God deliberately arranges external reproof in order to reason with the sinner and prompt him to repentance. This verse is not the proposal of the entire psalm, but the beginning of the sinner’s movement along the path of turning to God. From here thoughts come, clinging to one another until they stop at the decision: I repent, I won’t; - just help. Ps.37:3. As Thy arrows have struck me, and Thou hast strengthened Thy hand upon me. "Arrows of unzosh" pierced. Just as arrows, piercing the body and remaining in it, cause constant, unbearable pain, increasing with slight movement: so the blows of Your anger pierce my heart every minute and torment it. They strike and burn like lightning, moment after moment. I am like a man exposed to the horrors of a terrible, thunderous and lightning storm. (Lightning is called arrows in Ps. 76:18, 143:6). “You have established your hand”... you put it heavily and hold it on me. This is the same as in another place: “Your hand is heavy on me” (Ps. 31:4). The “Hand” here is the punitive power of God’s truth, acceptable to the conscience. That’s why conscience weighs down like a punishment. The Holy Prophet depicts not what is outside, but what is happening inside him. The fear of God through conscience pierces the heart with accusations like arrows. These pains of the heart, from the feeling of God’s wrath, have nothing pleasing, they torment like arrows stuck in a living body. These arrows are different terrifying thoughts. Whatever a sinner remembers about God is an arrow to him. Whether goodness, justice, omnipresence, promises, threats or threats come to his mind, all that, having been accepted by the conscience, amazes and burns. Since there is no excuse, the expectation is affirmed: lightning is about to fall and strike. And there is judgment and eternal torment. - (Zigaben, Anthimus of Jerusalem). As soon as the sinner comes to his senses, all these thoughts come upon him, and produce excruciating pain in the soul, increasing from joylessness - from the fact that the sky has darkened and not a single bright ray of hope comes from there. – This condition is painful and oppressive like a heavy hand. All from the feeling of God’s wrath, which has not yet been weakened by the hope of pardon. This is how a sinner stands before the Lord - horrified, but does not run away from Him, and does not offer any justification, but only reveals that it is very painful and difficult for him. This kind of state is not superfluous in the production of repentance. It is the door to the future. Having been burned here, it will be softer afterwards, just as unburnt wire is soft and flexible. Here the torment of hell is experienced in the heart. God allows one to endure this, so that afterward the determination not to succumb to sin will be stronger, so that having suffered so much for sins, a person will not later be greedy for them. Ps.37:4. There is no healing in my flesh from the face of Your wrath. “No healing” means no health, and in such a way that you can’t even think of a cure. The word of the prophet Isaiah is similar: from head to toe there is no integrity (Is. 1:6). He wants to say that the forces, organs, juices - everything has been damaged, is not in proper form - in accordance with the previous one: the arrows went through and upset; the hand reached down and erased. “In the flesh,” or in the body only, which has compassion for the soul, or rather, in the whole being: both soul and body hurt. The reason is the wrath of God, God's indignation for insulting Him, and His disgust and rejection. “On behalf of anger”, feels that anger is inherent as a destructive force. Zigaben interprets - “in the face of anger” - from the threats and disasters uttered by the Prophet Nathan. “Imagination of Your wrath,” adds Rev. Irenaeus, which always revolves before my mental eyes, amazes me and exhausts me sensitively.” Anthimus and Patr have the same thoughts. Jerusalem: “Having brought to mind your anger against sinners, I tremble, and from this one memory my whole being relaxes.” Ill health, exhaustion, and fading must be a direct consequence of God's displeasure and disgust. As in God's favor and blessing there is life; so in His displeasure and disgust there is death. “Being in His good will,” says St. in another place. David (Ps. 29:6); so that as soon as He turns away His face, everything comes into confusion and disappears (Ps. 103:29). 2. The sinner’s awareness of his wretched condition. Art. 4–8. Ps.37:4. There is no peace in my bones from the face of my sin. In the second hemistich of the 4th art. St. The prophet proceeds to depict his wretched sinful state. “There is no,” he says, “peace in the bones,” peace—peace, as it were: in the very marrow of my bones I feel unbearable pain, and this deprives me of peace—or peace—harmony, harmony. Bones are often understood in the psalms (Ps. 6:3, 30:11, 50:10) in the meaning of the fundamentals of bodily composition, and more in the meaning of the powers of the entire human being. The words: “there is no peace in the bones” therefore give the idea that the internal forces from sin came into discord, fell apart, and began to act one against the other. - “There is no more firmness and well-being of soul and body” (Zigaben) - And this is on behalf of sins. Sins have entered into the composition and act destructively, upsetting everything. “The strength of my soul has failed, and this is because of sins.” (Athanasius the Great). “The image of sin that does not leave my memory does not leave me with peace and quiet, but confuses my bones, that is, my thoughts” (Anthimus) “The bones of conscience butt and spread anxiety and enmity throughout my entire being.” (Zigaben). Flesh and bones are the entire composition, the entire being of a person. The sinner suffers, because of sin, from above from the wrath of God, from below - from sin itself. The wrath of God stops the blessing, hence the influx of life-giving forces; and here sin itself acts like a consuming hell. From this, good does not come, but evil grows. And “there is no integrity” - in the first respect; for God's favor is necessary for the fullness of our life; “there is no peace” in the second - there is decomposition, a breakdown of forces: enmity begins between the body and the spirit, the heart against the mind, the passions against the conscience, and so on. Sin is evil not only because it attracts wrath from without from God; but also because there is poisonous evil in itself. The absence of peace is the direct fruit of sin in us. Ps.37:5. For my iniquities have exceeded my head, for a heavy burden has weighed down upon me. The second reason for the bitterness of the sinful state is the multitude of sins and their burden. - A multitude of sins in the words: “my iniquities have exceeded my head.” The quantity is determined here either by a heap of sand, so high that it became higher than the head, “or” by a collection of water in which the sinner plunged with his head, “or” by the number of hairs on the head, in the thought that there are more sins than hairs, as in another psalm: “my sins have multiplied more than the hair of my head” (Ps. 59:13). – Sin does not come alone. Just as every concept has a circle of related concepts, which it attracts every time it comes to mind: so, on the active side, every sin has its own circle of sinful feelings and deeds related to it, which it always gathers around. Sin with Bathsheba - one has gathered so many sins around oneself! – Adultery, murder, deception, temptation, etc. Before the appearance of the prophet Nathan, it is not visible, however, that St. David was aware of his sin. Having realized it, he was horrified; for it was great and linked with many other sins. “And this happens to every sinner.” “He keeps sinning and sinning, as if there was nothing particularly bad behind him.” When he later sees his sinfulness, his behavior will reveal itself to him in a completely different form. Every step you take, you will see sin; your whole life will seem full of lewdness and waywardness. And then he begins to grieve: “My sins have multiplied more than the height of the head, I have sunk deep into the mire of sin (Ps. 68:3). To the awareness of the number of sins in the repentant comes the consciousness and feeling of their severity. Like a heavy burden, they weigh down, he says, they crush both in numbers and in their own greatness, from which he then adds: “slush,” so heavy that he bends. This may be a metaphor, but it expresses the matter very accurately. To burden, oppress, press is in the nature of sins. Everything rises up and oppresses the sinner; for he comes into discord with all that exists, abiding in the will of God. When all creatures act according to the will of God, he alone emerges from this will. All of them are hostile and act on him, and crush, like wheels, a third-party thing caught among them. A sinner walks as if weighed down by something; only it does not occur to him to attribute this state to sin as the cause, as long as he enjoys sin. Feeling that this sin is so burdensome gives him repentance for the first time. It revives the conscience and shows it where the oppression comes from; but this vision does not alleviate, but increases the burden tenfold (Athanasius the Great). And it is these who labor in repentance and feel burdened that the Lord calls to Himself to give them rest (Zigaben). - And indeed, until the sinner ascends to the hope of pardon and receives permission and confirmation of forgiveness, like a mountain on the soul; and then it becomes easy, like someone who throws off a heavy burden. What mercy - the Sacrament of repentance! Ps.37:6. My wounds have grown stale and rotten because of my madness. “The wounds of my soul, which came from the kindled arrows of the evil one, stank and rotted. This comparison shows the damage and corruption of the soul” (Zigaben). Where did this come from? Because he did not quickly come to his senses and did not rush to correct the evil. “From the time of adultery until the revelation of the prophet Nathan, David was slow to repent and heal the wounds of his soul with repentance. Sinful ulcers have grown and festered due to such a long period of non-healing” (Irenaeus). First he said that there are many sins, then that they are heavy, now he says that they are wounds, cut deep, entered inside and act destructively (Zigaben). The multitude of sins only indicates the number of special deeds; but repetition of the same things forms sinful habits, inclinations, passions. They are festering wounds of souls and... – A sin that is quickly abandoned is like a scratch or a splinter that is immediately taken out, and a sin that is loved and often repeated is like a splinter that is abandoned, which festeres and turns into a malignant abscess. A spiritual wound is formed - a vice, a passion, a bad inclination, which is also revealed externally, in behavior, and is visible to everyone, just as the bad smell from a wound is felt by everyone on the outside. – And this is the third reason for the bitterness of the sinful state! How wounds and pain cause and hinder action; Thus, inclinations and passions, with constant demands, torment, and, contrary to good undertakings, do not allow free action. It’s like when you’re wounded you can’t even move; So even from sinful inclinations nothing good can be done. The sinner seems to be bound, as if in bonds, and, moreover, painful ones that have eaten into his body. "From the face of my madness". Because of my lack of understanding and negligence about the salvation of my soul, I was subjected to such troubles. I did not weigh the gravity of sin and did not make any effort to avoid it, and now I suffer; like a madman who, playing with a snake or scorpion, gets wounded, from which he then suffers and suffers. “If the soul had not fallen into foolishness, it would not have suffered the wounds of sin” (Athanasius the Great). And what is the point of putting yourself in such a state?! - and yet he delivers! – At that time, when sin attracts, the mind moves back with its sanity. The heart combined with sin comes forward and commands. The mind obeys, inventing means to satisfy evil desires. He is a slave here, not a king in his head. And it turns out to be a crazy course of action. While he acts in this darkness, the sinner is not aware of it. But when he comes to his senses, he clearly sees how stupid and senseless everything was done. Only someone with a darkened mind can act like this. It even seems that the sinner here is not the doer, but the done: it seems to him that he is doing things with his mind, but in reality someone else comes up and teaches him evil, or invents evil with his mind. Ps.37:7. I suffered and sloshed to the end, walking around complaining all day. The fourth reason for the bitterness of the sinful state is loss of strength and spirit. The sinner walks with his head hanging, like one killed. “Postradah” - from Greek. became poor, became unhappy, bitter, overworked and exhausted, working for passions (Zigaben). The image is of a sinner, as in the prophet Isaiah: “my loins are filled with weakness” (Is. 21:34). There is no energy left, I don’t want to do anything; all enterprises, especially on the good path, are abandoned. When sins begin to predominate, then one after another the good habits of pleasing God, brotherly love and abstinence are abandoned. Then my thoughts don’t even come here. This area becomes completely forgotten, and the ability to act in this order is lost, and the concepts of those orders completely fall out of the head, or are distorted. “And sloshed”, he became bent over, like a sick person who, weakened by illness, walks with his head bowed and bent over. “Until the end” – until the last opportunity. So sinful habits bent me and chained me to carnal pleasures, as if someone bent his head and reached to the ground. “What does it mean to be a slob? - asks Blessed Augustine, - and answers: not to have the strength to straighten up." – This is a direct consequence of addiction to earthly things and enslavement of the flesh. “Such a person does not direct his mind to the heavenly, but spends his life in vanities. However, he is not satisfied with anything (James 4:2); and therefore only torments and torments himself.” (Anfim). “I walked around lamenting all day.” “All day” - not one day, but every day, the same as incessantly. “Lamenting”, from Greek. gloomy, with a gloomy face, in a gloomy mood. “Walking”, walked here and there, not finding a place. “Whoever is defiled by the sin of lust, he suffers and is bowed down from remorse, from the fear of God, shame and disgrace, so that he cannot even raise his eyes to heaven. Not tolerating his gnawing and wounding conscience, he walks around every day embarrassed and sad; for what joy does it bring to a man who is marred by sin when he begins to feel his sin.” (Iriney Pskovsky). While sin still delights, a person sins cheerfully. But then the feelings become duller, all that remains is fatigue from the exhaustion of strength spent in the pursuit of sinful pleasures. He walks with his head hanging and not seeing anything pleasant. Meanwhile, however, he complains, but cannot help himself: habits have become strongly attached, and there is no strength to lag behind them, but there is no joy in satisfying them either (Athanasius the Great). Blessed Theodoret paraphrases this passage as follows: “The heavy burden of sins made me bowed; What saddens me is the unreasonable enslavement to passions. Why, deprived of all joy, I constantly grieve, worry and find no change in my sorrowful situation.” Ps.37:8. For my body is filled with reproaches, and there is no healing for my flesh. There is a reason for everything previous - the number of sins, wounds and relaxation. - What is all this for? Because I filled one part with reproach, I dishonored it, betraying it to low lust. “And there’s not a whole place in me for everything.” "Lyadvia", from Greek. loins, from Heb. lower abdomen. Blessed Theodoret writes: “By the word lardvia, actually, loins, we mean lust, because in the loins there are buds in which desire is naturally aroused. Why does he say: the cause of these disasters was that I turned my lust not to what it should be, but to lust.” Zigabenus: “instead of loins, Symmachus has the lower abdomen. Both signify the part in which carnal lust operates. He says: through lust, this part was filled with reproach from the devil. He abused her, stirring up inappropriate and illegal movements of carnal impurity.” By “offense” here we mean moral outrage. Every person should be a slave of truth, and this is his honor. When they make him a slave of unrighteousness, they dishonor him. The Prophet says: I made this part a slave to sin and disgraced it. He doesn’t understand that everyone saw this shame, but his conscience pointed it out to him. By flesh here we mean the entire composition of a person - both soul and body, which suffer from sin, and it is prodigal sins that seem to be only bodily sins, but they exhaust and upset not only the body, but no less the soul. (Basily the Great at Zigaben). The sinned king was already languishing from sin, but still did not seem to see where the languor came from. When the prophet had already come and denounced him; It was only then that he saw what it all meant. One part, he says, I filled with reproach, and behold, all, in all parts, I am sick, I have become like a sick person, not a single part is whole. - And every sinner is like that. It doesn’t seem to occur to him that the main reason for his unkind state is sin, which he works towards. And he sees that it is bad, and he continues to sin, and thereby intensifies the badness, just as someone who drinks salt water only inflames thirst. Finally, somehow he comes to the realization that all the trouble is from sin: the priest will say, the sermon will explain, the Gospel and the Apostle will guide him, a conversation with someone will open his eyes, or the Guardian Angel will take a moment in the darkness of the night to put good thoughts into his heart. Then only he sees... that's why! Ladvia was filled with reproaches, and I was all sick. Those. I work for such and such sin, and it causes me evil, which I endure both in soul and in body. 3. The sinner’s repentant feelings are his pain about his bitter condition. But seeing one’s bitter position in sin is not yet repentance, and is not so valuable that it could attract pardon. It gains value when it is joined by sorrowful feelings about sins and pain in the heart of the repentant. - Why, having depicted what sin can lead to, St. the prophet now shows how to lament about this. Ps.37:9. I would become embittered and humbled to death, roaring from the sighing of my heart. He saw that there was something bad about him, but he had no idea what it was from. The prophet Nathan opened his eyes. - St. says now. David: and so, when this was revealed before my eyes, I could not help but indulge in crushing feelings of pain over my sins. “I was embittered”, from Greek. angry, annoyed. On whom, on your own evil tyranny, on your own madness. How could you afford such baseness?! - “Humbled”... He humiliated himself, considered himself an insignificant, unreasonable, empty person, whereas before there was no measure of self-confidence. "Roaring with sighs". My heart was filled with feelings of remorse, shame, fear, regret - that I had offended God, that I had humiliated myself, and that I had entered a state in which everything was bad and joyless - and it burst open with sighs, which, from internal torment, turned into the roars of a lion. “I am ashamed, a person gifted with reason, to be subject to such bestial movements. For this reason, I groan because of the cruel torment of my conscience and cannot restrain my sighs from the painful illnesses of my heart.” (Irenaeus, Theodoret, Athanasius). How sincere this was can be seen from how, after the accuser left, he, having sprinkled ashes on his head, indulged in lamentation, hungering, thirsting, reclining on the ground and similar, imposing penitential strictures on himself (Zigaben). Ps.37:10. Lord, all my desire is before You, and my sighing is not hidden from You. Some painful feelings about sins are deadly when the energy of active forces does not develop underneath them to get out of the bitter state. The beginnings of this awakening of forces are the desire for the best, in the hope that it is not impossible to achieve it. St. David remembers here that, after such crushing feelings of repentance, good desires arose in him. Does not indicate which ones; but of course, they were all such as were appropriate to have in his position - to have him, who had come to the feeling of his extremity in sin and was lamenting about it - namely, the desire to stop sinning and quickly change his life and improve, and the desire for a pure, conscientious and God-fearing life, which he now sighs for as a lost paradise. - But all this is of little value, as long as a person remains alone with himself, grieves, withdrawn into himself, and sighs of himself for something better. At the same time, his hope to achieve the best cannot be strong, and because of this, even his very desires for the best cannot help but relax. Both receive strength and strength as soon as they ascend to God, like sacrifice and prayer. Then a blessing blows from above and revives inner deadness. - Which is what St. is doing now. Singer. “Lord, all my desire is before You.” You know everything: there is no need to say and calculate. You, better than me, know all of my sins, passions, frustration, as well as the desire to be freed from sins, to be healed from the wounds of conscience, to ease a painful heart. He calls God himself as a witness to how unbearable his sinful state is to him, and how he wants to get rid of everything. But he does not have the strength, like someone imprisoned, he sighs for freedom, but does not see the means to free himself. - “And my sighing is not hidden from You.” Like someone who has something before their eyes, so all my desires and sighs are before You. Everything is open before You. You know how sick I am. I am not indifferent to my bitter fate in sin, I am not ignorant; but I have no strength. “Shows for whom he sighs. To the One who tests the heart and knows what the spirit desires. You, Lord, alone see the desire mine, which consists in nothing else than to deliver me from destructive lust, and so that I can live in complete peace. This desire of mine, this inner sighing is not hidden from You (Irenaeus of Pskov). So he attaches faith to grief, and by faith he relates with it to the Lord. That's what everyone should do. For only then will healing come from above. By faith the sorrowful sinner approaches the Lord, and the Lord accepts him for healing. “Everything is before You.” - Now he no longer hides himself, and does not hide from the omniscience of God, but openly confesses what is in him. Sincerity before the Lord is the germ of a good mood and the germ of the fruits of the reborn fear of God. Crookedness before God himself is the beginning of a fall: it is also contemporary with the weakening of the fear of God. When, on the contrary, conscientiousness begins before oneself and before God, this is a guarantee of quick self-correction. And while it is in force, serviceability does not come later. “Every desire is before You,” that is, every present desire, or all desires. Consequently, these desires were such that it was not a shame to appear before the Lord with them - they were all aimed at correcting life and pleasing Him. This is the state of Mary at the feet of the Savior, or a sinner who washed His feet with tears and anointed Him with myrrh, and for this received remission of sins. “It is a great thing before God to have every desire. This means that they are worthy of God's sight. Lust that leads to obscene deeds is despicable before God; desires striving for virtue are under His favor” (St. Cyril in Zigaben). St. Basil the Great puts the following speech into the mouth of the prophet: “When I was a lust of evil, my desires were not before You. Now, when I humble myself and repent, and I desire Your healing, my desires are before You” (in Zigaben). “That’s why everything went badly because desires were not presented before the face of the Lord, but because the sinner hid with them in God’s oblivion. On the contrary, all good begins when the sinner begins to place himself before God. When he begins to hold himself in his consciousness before the face of the Lord, then, like the rising sun, it awakens in him the dormant seeds of good, which develop into good desires, and then into the fruits of good deeds. Ps.37:11. My heart is confused, my strength has left me, and the light of my eyes, and that one is not with me. The meaning of the words is clear, but what does it express? – Expresses: “Or” the power of grief over one’s poor condition, which was so great that “the heart was confused,” the strength weakened and the light of the eyes dimmed, as if like this: You know my sighs. This is what it has come to! This is what grief torments! “Or” the power of internal disorder through sin - as it were: after all, there is something to grieve about! the heart is in confusion - there is no sense of peace, strength has departed - moral strength, the light of the mind has dimmed - concepts have been eclipsed. There is something to mourn when I am completely destroyed: my whole soul, in all its strength, is struck by sin and upset. The first thought of Blessed Theodoret. The Prophet says, as it were: “You see, Master, my sobs and tears, you see how confused I am, lost my strength, deprived of the usual light, and in the middle of the day I remain as if in darkness. And this means both excessive grief, due to which the light seems to him not to be light, and abandonment without Divine care, which is rightly called the light of the eyes.” And in Zigaben: “The heart is troubled” - from the convictions of conscience and the spirit of repentance; “leave the force” - from the suffering to which you have been subjected; Because of the tears that are poured out, the light of the eyes has weakened, and they do not see clearly.” Irenaeus’ second thought: “The heart is troubled” means internal warfare that comes from the rebellion of the lower part against the higher, that is, flesh against spirit; “Leave strength”: in this battle such weakness is born that a person reluctantly feels evil wishes and cries out with the Apostle: “Even though I want to, I do not find it to do good” (Rom. 7:18); “There is no light for the eyes”: from the same battle will be born not only weakness of will, but also darkness in the mind, by which we judge things not as they are in themselves, but as they appear to us, in the hours of our evil mood, like those suffering from fire, who consider sweet to be bitter, and bitter to be sweet.” At St. Kirill: “As long as the mind is not captivated by terrible sweets, there is peace and silence in it; the pure light of sobriety shines in him before God, because of the peace of God, protecting the thoughts and heart. When the heart inclines toward indecent lusts, then Satan fulfills its turmoil and multiplies evil thoughts in it.” (quoted by Zigaben.). According to Basil the Great: “those who live regularly have a vigorous spirit, but their flesh is weak; For those overcome by sin, the flesh raises its head, and the soul becomes weak. When, he says, I sinned, my mental power became confused.” (ibid.). Both thoughts are appropriate. Grief presupposes the consciousness of the bad in oneself, the consciousness of the bad develops grief and reveals its sincerity. Before this he turned to the Lord, expressing his good desires; now indicates what bad state he is in in order to attract help. All three verses - 9, 10, 11 - contain one thing - an influx of repentance in its different turns. It is clear that under the influence of God’s grace, everything inside has decomposed, the fortress of sin has been broken. But at the same time, amid the confusion, the seeds of a new good life, desire and sighing are planted, just as in a seemingly rotten seed, amid the fermentation of its elements, the rudiments of a new plant are formed. 4. The sinner's vision of his helplessness, v. 12–15. Verses 12–15 present a new, seemingly unexpected, turn of thought. In relation to St. to the prophet David they may have historical significance; But for us, their application to the repentant is much more important - what they express during the conversion of the sinner and the formation in him of the determination to leave sin. – When good desires begin to arise under repentant feelings, then, if they progress unhindered, they should immediately conclude with the rejection of sin and the choice of a virtuous life, what is expressed in article 19: I repent; I have sinned, I will not. - But since the enemy does not sleep, seeing that he is finally coming close to being spat upon by the sinner, he, for his part, erects mountains of obstacles to the pronouncement of that final decision, both outside and inside (v. Ps. 37:13); so this decision will not come until all the erected obstacles are removed. The latter are overcome by trust (v. Ps. 37:16). And it has already become stronger in the soul (v. Ps. 37:17, 18), giving her the courage to finally say: I will not (v. Ps. 37:19). In this predominantly direction, we will discuss the indicated verses. Ps.37:12. My friends and my sincere ones are coming closer to me and stasha, and my neighbors are far away from me stasha. “You are approaching me right now,” they began to oppose, but neither speech of consolation nor any movement to help was visible. Or they are afraid to touch his spiritual wounds, or they are perplexed at what could be said or done, or they consider his fate sealed: there is no need to worry, it is better to leave him to his own devices. “Nearest and farthest stasha.” Here an even more sorrowful thought emerges: they are afraid to approach a leper, so disgusting were his sinful wounds. They recoiled because of extreme sinfulness. lost respect, location, attention. Everyone seemed to have decided: stay with your sins as you wish. The Prophet describes what became of him in his external situation due to sin. Indicates the alienation of everyone from him, even those close to him. It may be that something similar actually happened after his sin with Bathsheba. From experience, it is clear that fornication definitely attracts disrespect and contempt, among one’s own wife, children, and relatives. What wonder if the same happened to David. Now, in repentant feelings, he remembers all this, but before he either did not notice it or did not pay attention. From history, the only thing that can be pointed out about those close to him standing at a distance is how, after the death of the one born from Bathsheba, everyone in the distance was whispering among themselves, but they were afraid to come up and talk about it (2 Samuel 12:13). A repentant heart could see something reproachful in this too. This goes “or” to every repentant sinner in the sense that he, having reconsidered with sorrow the devastation caused by sins in the soul, then turns to the disruption of external good relationships by sin: for not a single obvious sinner can have them good. Only lovers of sin are on good terms with lovers of sin, but honest lovers of goodwill shun them. A person who repents may regret all this, and from this he may draw new motivation to improve his life as soon as possible. - But, more fully, what the prophet said about himself can go to the repentant sinner in the sense that when he begins to repent, none of his own can give him any help in this matter. Here, none of the people are helpers. They stand around and can be amazed, and that’s all. And they don’t understand what’s going on with him. They see him with his head bowed and lamenting, but none of the people are able to go inside and restore his place there. - Why, while repenting, can he and St. David to say: because of grief, the heart is in confusion, the strength is weakened, the light of the eyes has dimmed, but there is no help from anywhere; they all stand at a distance, they can’t do anything: “my father and my mother have abandoned me” (Ps. 26:10) With these words, the Holy Fathers transfer our thoughts to another world. So Basil the Great says: “friends and sincere are good Angels, servants of God, rejoicing in the salvation of people. These friends, who had previously rejoiced in the deeds of David, during the time of sin retreated from him and turned away; although they didn’t completely leave, but stood at a distance. When they stood at a distance, some others, he says, came forward to commit sin in me, they broke in with violence and mocked my soul” (in Zigaben). Athanasius the Great has a similar thought: “the angels who helped him abandoned him for his sin. For St. forces are removed during temptation, or for testing, or for punishing the tempted.” The attitude of good and evil angels towards us can be imagined as follows: when a person sins and loves sin with his heart, the Angel moves away and only watches from afar to see if it is possible to bring some sense into the sinner. Until a person is inclined to sin, the Angel does not allow demons to approach him; but as soon as he bows down, the demon gains control over the soul, and the Angel departs. For everything comes from freedom. Before bowing down, the Angel says to the demon: go away; you see, he doesn’t want yours; and as he bows down, the demon says to the angel: go away; you see, he willingly gives himself over to me, don’t interfere; give him freedom. Freedom decides everything. Demons, having received entry into the soul, opened by freedom, begin to tyrannize in it, and teach it all kinds of evil; they divert her from good intentions, and support her with sinful ones, and lead her into various enterprises, all for the sake of sin, in order to entangle her more and more in sin, in the hope of keeping her in it forever (Zigaben). They cover everything internal with fog, and a person acts at that time without a clear consciousness of the meaning, but as he is led. But this, which happens invisibly in the soul of every sinner while he is in sin, is only hinted at here by St. Prophet. This is not the main thing in his mind. He wants to imagine what angels and demons are doing at a time when a person comes to a sense of his sinfulness, and when good desires begin to take root in his soul in the presence of the Lord. The angels then stand around: they do not enter; for the decision to give up sin has not yet occurred within, but only thoughts about it have been conceived and occupy the soul. They stand benevolently to the fighter, and from afar helping him with sympathy and gestures. And the demons? They then crowd around with anxiety, and wanting to keep the sinner in evil, they instill in him various thoughts in order to break up the good beginning intentions to leave sin. Ps.37:13. And I am in need of those who seek my soul, and those who seek evil against me, the verb is vain, and I have been taught by the flatterers all day long. “And I am in need,” they pushed their way to me with effort; “seeking my soul”, hostile plans for my life are components, managing to stop my life; “Seeking evil to me” - carefully looking for all the ways and means of doing evil to me. “The verb is vain,” they were looking for a way to make my happiness vain, to ruin me, “or” they made plans and nurtured vain, empty, impossible hopes; “And I taught the flatterers all day long,” they talked about intrigues, plans for my destruction, slander, and the like, they talked among themselves tirelessly - all they had to do was interpret, as if they could come up with something harmful for me. There may be a story here. When his friends stood at a distance near the lamenting David, not knowing how to help him or how to console him, and with compassion awaiting the outcome of the struggle taking place in it: then, probably, his enemies were plotting their own. A terrible word from the face of God through Nathan the prophet could revive the hopes of Saul’s secretly hidden followers. They now perked up and began to wonder whether, in the current circumstances, it was God’s arrangement for their restoration. Other enemies could have made plans. This was not hidden from David: either he guessed it, or others said it, or he somehow heard it himself. Despite this, however, he did not do anything, as if he had not heard, leaving it to the Lord himself to judge them, as after the oaths of Shimei. Who are these enemies in relation to the penitent? “The world can be an enemy here.” Before he was a friend, now he becomes an enemy. Everyone knows that since a moral change does not occur suddenly, how much hindrance to the conversion of a sinner is made by worldly speech, customs and orders into which he is intertwined while living in sins! But the worst enemies of the convert are demons. Usually, after the retreat of the angels, the sinner is overwhelmed by demons and begin to fulfill their desires in him, turning him into a beast of burden. They give chase, and he runs in their direction, not seeing whose will he is fulfilling. When he awakens from sleep, this dark side also becomes clear to him. It becomes clear that although the urge to sin is felt in him, it is not his essence, but the demonic, and that by satisfying it, he does not satisfy himself, but the demons, and torments himself. This discovery strengthens the hostility to sin and inflames the desire to be freed from it, indicating in this freedom from the yoke of hated demons. Having reached such thoughts, he says to himself: this is who I serve! I don't want to be their slave anymore. Perhaps this rejection of dark forces is the beginning of a decision for good, just as in baptism the renunciation of Satan will be followed by union with Christ. “But when the sinner’s repentance takes this turn, then the enemies, who perhaps have not paid attention to it before (I’ve already thought about it more than once, and all to no avail), take their measures. Crowds gather around (Athanasius, Anfim), and begin to instill in him various fears and fears, talking vainly, setting up nets: where are you going - to the unknown? Everything there is invisible, intangible, but you’ve already experienced everything about us, you know the taste. Besides, if you set out to change your life, you will need to change your relationships: friends will become enemies and will be erased; You’ll lose your position and you won’t be able to live. I’ve already started – how many times? “You come back again,” and with shame. But then, perhaps, you will no longer find such a situation as you have now. So isn't it better not to start? – These suggestions crowd in abundance in the head of someone turning from sin and pass through to the heart. Others hear such speeches; others have them buzzing in their ears. The struggle here is for life and death. But the grace of God, helping the repentant sinner, teaches him to reject such suggestions, and he, having overcome them, brings out of the struggle thoughts and feelings that are opposite to those suggested, which then enter into the structure of his determination or into the points of the covenant with God, which is placed in this heart. It is true that until these counter-thoughts and counter-feelings overcome in the heart, there is no end to the internal struggle to break the will; on the contrary, as soon as they are formed - namely, readiness for all kinds of hardships, for reproach from the world, for persecution, torment and even death - the struggle is immediately over. Take courage, brother, and may your heart be strong! When such dispositions and readiness arise and become stronger, the decision to leave sin will immediately occur; The enemies, amazed, scatter, and the angels - the comforters - approach with joy. Everything that happens here is St. The prophet later remembers before the Lord in v. 17, 18 and 19. Ps.37:14–15. As if I were deaf and did not hear, and because I was dumb and did not open my mouth. And it was as if man did not hear and did not have reproof in his mouth. “As if he were deaf,” or in fact he did not notice the intrigues, plans and speeches, out of kindness and gullibility, or he armed himself with such patience that even when he heard, he seemed not to hear. The last one is closer (Zigaben). “Don’t open your mouth,” he didn’t contradict, didn’t say anything in order to protect himself and to reason with those. Perhaps he was afraid to irritate the villainy by crossing him, but by giving him freedom, he hoped that it would soon be exhausted and would dissipate on its own, without encountering resistance or stubbornness. “And like a man do not hear,” he repeats the same thing with small shades to show how great his patience was. “Unable to reprove”, as if he had nothing with which to convict those. Although he could, if he had given freedom to his tongue, expose the intrigues and expose the lies of his enemies; but did not take advantage of this right. The Holy Prophet wants to say: our own people have retreated; enemies are evil. I was deaf and dumb, I did not move, I gave the enemies freedom to act, putting my fate in the hands of God. In the course of repentance, this expresses a decisive disregard for demonic suggestions. Spirits buzz in the sinner's ears with various insurances; but the truly penitent does not heed them. Whatever the Lord pleases, he says within himself, let it be. His commandments; His and protection for those who do them! - And not only now does he not listen, but he decides not to listen to them in the future, having learned that the creation of sins is pleasing to demons, and torment for himself. Before, whatever the demons suggested, he listened to everything and did everything. Now it’s as if he doesn’t hear, no matter how hard they try to break his good thoughts and resolves. Not included in the dispute; for this is not reliable: you will not be able to negotiate with them, but rather you will get confused in differences of opinion. Therefore, the common St. Fathers' advice: don't listen to what they suggest. With one turn you will put an end to all disputes; turn away, don't pay attention. The same law applies to the world and its attempts to keep the penitent in its power. It's better not to argue. You are like this, and I am like this. Argument will irritate the memories and is more likely to shake one’s resolve than to strengthen it. It is better to break all ties at once. 5. The sinner's ascent to trustworthiness, and establishment therein, v. 16–18. Ps.37:16. For in You, O Lord, I have trusted, You will hear, O Lord my God. Hitherto he had described the extremity of his situation; now he shows what he stood on when everything both outside and inside was upset. “For in Thee, O Lord, have I trusted.” This is where the fortress is! Abandoned by everyone, not having the strength to resist my enemies, I surrendered my fate into Your hands and became calm. “You will hear,” You hear my desires and sighs, as well as the evil speeches of enemies, and, I am sure, you will not leave me: sincerely turning to you and crying out, you will hear and reward them according to their property (Athanasius, Zigaben). “You will hear their blasphemies and give them their due, or you will hear the groans of the reviled and suffering; and protect me; for although I am silent with my lips, I cry out strongly to You in my heart for help and intercession. Here it happened that the Lord later promised through the prophet Jeremiah, saying: “Vengeance is mine; I will repay” (Jer. 50:15; Heb. 10:30), and what the apostle inspired to those in distress. Do not avenge yourselves, but give room to anger (Rom. 12:19). How this applies to the external circumstances of the Prophet David and everyone who suffers is obvious. In the course of repentance, there is a turn to inner determination to change life. Deciding to leave sins, the sinner must break all ties and break all hitherto established orders of life. Meanwhile, he cannot help but see that the enemies are strong, but he himself is powerless, and there is no help from anyone. In such a situation, his determination is unthinkable if he does not find a solid point of support for himself somewhere. He finds it in God the Savior, to whom he cries: in You I trust; You will hear! – You are my Creator! You cannot leave the poor creature in the hands of enemies to its ultimate destruction! You are my Redeemer! You will not let the lost sheep perish, but you will take it as your shoulder and bring it to Your Father. – He does not enter into the fight against enemies himself, but leaves overcoming them to the Lord. St. John Kolov depicts this state as follows: “I, he says, look like a man sitting under a tree, who, seeing the approach of animals and not hoping to defeat them, jumps up into the tree and escapes from trouble; i.e. Knowing that I do not have the strength to overcome my enemies, I resort to God through prayer and am saved” (Memorable Tales, p. 123, vol. II). This is exactly what happens in the soul of a sinner, at the moment of overcoming sin, when the enemies of salvation inspire vain and flattering thoughts. He does not answer them with his counter-efforts, but places everything on the Lord. – Places it on the Lord, therefore, perceives the hope that anger will be turned into mercy, that he will be accepted by the Lord and delivered from enemies. – This trust began immediately as soon as the evil of sinfulness was revealed, and streams of repentant feelings flowed - for they all happened before the face of the Lord. Then good desires and sighs were revived; and behind this came the rejection of evil suggestions and, consequently, aversion from everything ungodly. Along this ladder, hope ascended to the top of strength. Then it said in my heart: You will hear! Help is coming! – And – the decision, – with God’s help, undoubted, – leaving sin, to devote oneself to goodness to please God, – took place. This is a moment of first importance! Se is the point of departure for new life and activity. In Art. 17 and 18 show what grounds the repentant sinner’s hope in God. It is established with him, firstly, on the confidence that it cannot be that God will allow his enemies to rejoice - v. Ps.37:17 - and, secondly, by expressing one’s readiness for all suffering and hardships, just to stay on the path pleasing to God, v. Ps.37:18. - These are those contradictions that, with the silence of the lips, in prayerful appeal to God, were formed in the fight against the flattering and vain suggestions of enemies, in defiance of them. “They inspired: if you don’t resist, you’ll be ours again; and he came to the certainty that God would not allow them to rejoice over him, both as the Creator, and even more so as the Redeemer. They raised fears about the troubles awaiting him ahead, but he decided against it: even if I die, I will not sin again. Ps.37:17. As if I were dead, but never will my enemies rejoice: and never will my feet move, but your speech will come upon me. “It’s like crazy,” I said in my heart, I came to a deep conviction: it’s impossible for my enemies to rejoice over me. With strong trust in God, I carry this feeling in my heart that my enemies will not be allowed to laugh at me again. Expresses undoubted confidence in God's help and God's intercession. “So,” he says, “they will not rejoice,” even if they had previously, “every time my feet moved, that is, when I slipped on the path and stumbled, - I deviated into crossroads and deviated from the commandments of God, - “they spoke against me,” - they reproached me and reviled me for weakness, and they exalted themselves, they laughed at my mistake, and they boasted about their cunning; - although they are used to rejoicing at my falls, now, I hope, the Lord will not allow this. This is not arrogance, but strong confidence in God, the defender of a just cause, which is always His cause. The enemies will not rejoice; for it is not possible for them to overcome God Himself. He seems to say this: I believe, Lord, that You will not allow my enemies to have the upper hand over me; for they are not only mine, but also Your enemies - you will not allow them to be famous for the sake of Your name. I am Your creature, and I came to them by accident due to my foolishness. By ruining me, they tried to annoy You. They also speak against You, Lord, saying: look how much You have done for him, but he abandoned You, and he works for us. - From now on, You will not allow them, Lord, to laugh so much at Your boundless goodness towards Your weak creation. Ps.37:18. As if I am ready for wounds, and my illness is before me. “For wounds” - for scourges, for all kinds of blows, hardships, suffering. “I’ll take the disease out,” - the feeling of contrition for sin quickly sank deeply, it’s always with me, it doesn’t go away. - He says, as it were: I’m ready for anything; let everything fall upon me, just to be forgiven, to leave behind sin, and to persevere in goodness. God, the patron of all good, is pleased to accept this decision of mine and will not leave me (Theodoret, Athanasius). “The consciousness and feeling of my sinfulness, which strikes my soul with such pain, will always be before me, humble and guard me. I offer this heart disease to the merciful Lord as a sacrifice, in the confidence that God will not despise a contrite and humble heart. This mood is the strongest evidence of the sincerity of repentance and the reliability of the decision to change one’s life. 6. Firm intention - having confessed the sin, make amends for it. Ps.37:19. For I will proclaim my iniquity and take care of my sin. Это решение – вследствие всего испытанного кающимся грешником, с той минуты, как в страхе и трепете, стал он пред лицем Господа; непосредственно же оно последует за возрождением крепкого упования на помилование, заступление и помощь Божию. The feeling of one’s moral impotence nips such determination in the bud; but when the confidence of ready help from above is established in the soul, and she feels the movement: “If God is against us, who can be against us” (Rom. 8:31) - then, and only then, having confessed the sin, does she dare to make a vow not to bless him anymore. “I will proclaim my iniquity,” I will not hide it, I sincerely confess my sins, and the fact that I am worthy of any punishment for them. “I will become my own accuser” (Athanasius). “I myself will divulge my sin in order to testify to everyone that I do not approve of it, I turn away from it, I am disgusted by it” (Zigaben). And not only will I do this, but even after confession I will not give in to carelessness, but will make every effort to be correct. “I will take care of my sin” - I will try to make amends for it, wean myself from it, and correct myself; I will not be negligent, I will take care diligently. This is what every repentant promises in confession to God, who does not want the sinner to die: I have sinned, I will not. “Do not indulge in carelessness after confessing a sin,” says the blessed one. Augustine. «Так возвещай беззаконие свое, чтоб пещись и о грехе своем – Что значит: пещись о грехе? The same as taking care of a wound. Если б ты сказал: попекусь о ране моей, что другое разумелось бы, как: попекусь, чтоб она зажила? – Так и пещись о грехе значит иметь постоянную ревностную заботу о том, чтоб загладить и изгладить его. Попекусь о грехе,-буду делать все, что должно делать к очищению от него души моей» Нерадение о грехе грех на грех прилагает, а попечение о нем пресекает его и привычку к нему искореняет, – в заповедях Божиих утверждает, и нравственно добрый характер укрепляет. Это тоже, что и Апостол заповедует, – со страхом и трепетом содевать свое спасение ( Флп. 2:12 ), быть ревнителем добрых дел ( Тит. 2:14 ). For a person who has repented, such a disposition should rule his entire life. Repentance is not a moment, but a matter of a lifetime. 7. Concluding prayer of the repentant - vv. 20-23. The work of repentance and turning the sinner to God is over; the vow is spoken. All that remains is to start living differently according to the will of God. - But how many times has this been done, and the falls were repeated. From what? Because he himself is weak, and his enemies are strong and cunning. So he is in a hurry to protect himself for the future with help from above. I will no longer insult You, just drive away your enemies. They are strong and cunning, and they know how to deal with me. As soon as I am left alone, they will immediately cast me again into the abyss of sin. Don't leave me. So St. Athanasius: “Although I am not insensitive to sin, on the contrary, I constantly care about it; however, I cannot help but see that my enemies are stronger than me. Why do I beg You, Lord, do not leave me, but rather hasten to help.” This is the final prayer of the penitent. He struggles with fear of enemies and trust in God. He fully relies on God, but cannot rely on himself. Enemies can destroy his good thoughts and intentions, and weaken and undermine his very hope, which alone is his strength. Here he cries out: there are so many such insidious enemies! Don't leave, come to help. For in You alone. all salvation is mine. Ps.37:20. My enemies live, and have become stronger than me, and those who hate me without truth have multiplied; Ps.37:21. Those who repay my evil, rewarding the slander of me, persecute the goodness. In relation to external circumstances, St. David, there are features here that are justified by history. His “enemies” - the party of the House of Saul and other dissatisfied ones - “live”, are alive, have not left the stage. It is not clear that they were “stronger” than him, but they could become stronger than him if they were left to act as they planned. However, St. David could speak like this now, applying himself to the thoughts and feelings of his enemies; at that time, perhaps, they really considered themselves stronger than him. “Multiplying” ... No wonder: the party of ill-willed people grew, “hating him without truth” - unjustly, without reasons on his part, out of sheer envy and the desire for all sorts of evil against him. “They repay evil,” they had not yet repaid, but in the intention, it’s true, everything was ready to cover David with all sorts of misfortunes. "Obolgahu" ... St. David was exalted by God Himself, by his special election, when he was still young. The House of Saul fell because it was rejected by God for Saul's sins. “The same enemies—saw in all this only the machinations of ambition and the success of human cunning.” “I persecute kindness,” I tried hard to show goodwill and show every kind of mercy to my enemies, but they interpreted this crookedly, and, understanding my condescension as weakness, they were not afraid to speak bad things about me and plot evil against me. In relation to repentance, the enemies who plan and do such things are spirits of wickedness in high places. The sinner foresees how they, always evil, will now rise up even more furiously and in even greater numbers against him. My enemies, he says, live, have become stronger, and have multiplied. And indeed, now they are becoming even more evil than they were before, gathering all their hordes around the repentant, sitting on all his paths in order to waylay him, setting up all sorts of snares for him both outside and inside, in thoughts, feelings, meetings, in everyday affairs and external relations. While the repentant has not yet strengthened himself in goodness, temptations are more powerful. The enemies know this and intensify their attacks. There is no limit to their hatred. They all roar like lions at the one who rejected them. Not only do they act directly themselves, but also through people obedient to them, or more so through the latter. Everyone around the repentant, they kiss him, instilling unkind thoughts about him - as if he is a hypocrite, has other goals, and not the salvation of the soul, etc. - And it happens that through this they manage to cause troubles, which, if mistaken, can cause considerable harm, if not completely upset. Here they also organize retribution of evil for good. The one who repents begins to do every good thing to his neighbors according to his strength. Enemies manage to turn this good into evil for the doer. Those to whom it is made are instilled with crooked concepts about it; and in any case they themselves are incited to cause trouble for their benefactors. This can have a very ruinous effect on a beginner. - This is what awaits the repentant at first! Where can I resist!? Why did I see through all such machinations of the enemy, St. The Prophet himself prays and encourages everyone to pray: Ps.37:22. Do not leave me, O Lord my God, do not depart from Me: Ps.37:23. Come to my help, O Lord of my salvation. "Don't leave me." They left their own, he himself is weak, and here are the enemies. Who should I resort to? Only Your intercession, O Lord, will save. Do not abandon me to the will of enemies and their villainous plans. - “Don’t back down..”. Be with me with favor, assistance, protection from enemies. “Come to my help,” - look carefully when I need help! Don't miss a minute; for I am so weak that I can fall in an instant. "Lord of my salvation"! You are my only Savior, giver, source and reason for my salvation. - Every time evil enemies approach and surround me, and are ready to again cast me, weak, into sin, stretch out Your hand and hold back the falling one, turn back the enemies and scatter them. This is how the powerless repentant finally calms down in the bosom of God’s all-caring goodness, just as a child hides from the gaze of strangers on his mother’s breast. So he finally sets out on his work fully armed with God’s help and heavenly protection, attracted by faith and appropriated by repentance. Strong in the battles of the Lord, he now says in his heart: I can do everything in the strengthening Lord - and no longer does the difficulty of deeds and exploits, nor the steepness of external circumstances frighten or disturb his firm steps on the chosen and vow-bound path.