Таинственное объяснение 99-го псалма

“Shout to God, all the earth” (Ps. 99:1). Here man is called earth. This name was given to man by his Creator Himself, God. God said to Adam: “You are earth” (Gen. 3:19). Although I am animated, I am the earth: I am animated by a dead soul. During earthly life, a dead soul is buried in the earth, that is, it is imprisoned in a passionate body, as in a prison, as in chains, and enslaved to it; upon separation from the body, it descends into the bowels of the earth. For salvation, revival is necessary. In order for the earth to come to life and cry out to God, it needs to first destroy the disunity caused in it by the fall, it needs to unite it with itself and in itself. Only “the whole earth” can cry out to God: only the whole human being, reunited with itself and within itself, guided by a mind that is not plundered and unshaken in prayer by alien thoughts, can rush with all its strength to God; only all the bones can turn with the living word of true prayer to God; all the bones are called in Scripture all the constituent parts of man, collected and recreated by the Lord, united into one with each other, united together with the Lord (Ps. 34:10). Then a person will understand from the inner experience that has taken place in his soul that he has come to life spiritually, that until then he was in captivity, in chains, in death. From this blessed experience, the Monk Ephraim said: “Your grace has increased upon me, O Lord, quenched my hunger and my thirst, enlightened my darkened mind, gathered my wandering thoughts, filled my heart. Now I worship, fall, pray and beg You, confessing my weakness: for the sake of Your love for mankind, weaken the waves of Your grace in me and save it for me, so that you can give it to me again on the terrible day (Your second coming or on the day of my death). Do not be angry with me, Lover of Humanity! I cannot stand being without her, and therefore, having rejected all doubt, I turn to You in prayer. Your grace has increased in me beyond measure, and my tongue has become weak, not having the means to express it; my mind was perplexed, unable to bear its multitude of waves. The image and radiance of the blessed Father! Tame its waves in me now, because it is burning my limbs and heart, tame it here so that you can give it there again. Save me, Master, and make me worthy of Your kingdom. Do not remember my iniquities; be angry at the boldness of my prayer. Grant me what I ask, and dwell in me as in a monastery (John 14:23), with Your blessed Father, on the day of Your appearance (John 14:21). Christ! Grant me my prayer, because You alone are the giver of life. Hide my iniquities from my friends! Accept these my tears! Let my cry appear before You!” 333 (Ps. 38:14): God’s ascetic cries out: weaken the waves of Your grace within me.” Word 29, ch. 8. The young monk Zacharia came to a state similar to that described here, who was given the special, tangible grace of the Holy Spirit for his humility. See Memorable Tales and Alphabetical Patericon. Saint John Climacus says: “The fire that descends into the heart restores prayer. When she rises and ascends to heaven, then the descent of fire into the upper room of the soul takes place.” Word 27, ch. 45. For spiritual warmth, see the Word on the Jesus Prayer (Ascetic Experiences, Volume II). This warmth is different at its beginning and different in its unattainable fullness. This speech is the speech of one spiritually intoxicated with the mercy of God: it is an exclamation. “Work for the Lord in joy, and come before Him with joy” (Ps. 99:2). As long as prayer is plundered by alien thoughts, as long as the feat of prayer is accomplished with difficulty, with sorrow, with coercion and self-violence, the one praying is not allowed before the face of God. When prayer begins to be pronounced from the whole being, then its feat is filled with spiritual pleasure. This pleasure draws the ascetic to the feat, encourages him, strengthens him, keeps him in the feat, the feat of prayer becomes the most important, unceasing only feat of the ascetic. In unspeakable joy, workers of unceasing prayer enter in spirit before the invisible face of God and stand before the face of God. They stand before this Person because the alien thoughts and dreams that formed the impenetrable veil have been taken away. There is no obstruction to vision! But God, inexplicably visible by the purity of the heart, remains invisible: “No one has seen God anywhere” (John 1:18; Matt. 5:8) due to the infinite subtlety and spirituality of His being. The perfection of God's being is the reason for inaccessibility (1 Tim. 6:16) 334 (see. explanation of John Chrysostom. Ascetic experiences, vol. II, p. 751.) It is not only to be seen by creatures, but also to be comprehended: it is “darkness under His feet,” it is “darkness laid as a cover” with which God is covered. “Bow down the heavens, and God descended and ascended upon the Cherubim and flew: you flew on the wing of the wind” (Ps. 17:10–12). The bowing of the heavens and the descent from them is here called God’s diminishment of His greatness, His adaptation to the properties of creatures, according to His omnipotence and ineffable goodness. He, as it were, diminishes, descends from the height of His perfection in order to make His all-holy action perceptible to the Cherubim and to those people who, like the Cherubim, turn out to be capable of bearing God. The action of the Spirit of God is likened to the movement of the wind or movement on the wings of the wind to show that this action is immaterial, completely spiritual. Joy and gladness are characteristic of a soul that has felt revival, that has felt deliverance from the captivity in which sin and fallen spirits held it, that has felt the overshadowing of Divine grace, that has felt that through the action of this grace it has been presented to the face of God, elevated to the immaculate and blessed service of God. Joy and gladness are so strong that the Holy Spirit invites the one who feels them to exclaim. How can one not exclaim with joy when one is freed, revived, given wings, and ascended from earth to heaven? Exclamation belongs to the human spirit. It is strong, but spiritual: flesh and blood do not and cannot have part in it. Their unauthorized action is eliminated: they act in subordination to the active grace of God, serve as instruments in true achievement and no longer drag a person into incorrect states and actions. “Be assured that the Lord is our God: He made us, and not we: we are His people, and the sheep of His pasture” (Ps. 99:3). He who prays an unclean prayer has a dead concept of God, as an unknown and invisible God. When, having freed himself from theft and captivity of thoughts, he is admitted before the invisible face of God, then he comes to know God with a living, experienced knowledge. He knows God as God 335 . Then a person, turning his mind’s gaze to himself, sees himself as a creature, and not as an original being, as people deceptively imagine themselves to be, being in darkness and self-delusion; then he sets himself in the relationship to God in which His creation should be, recognizing himself as obligated to reverently submit to the will of God and diligently fulfill it. The pasture of God is His will, revealed to His sheep in the Holy Scriptures and revealed in His incomprehensible destinies. “Enter into His gates in confession, into His courts in singing: confess to Him, praise His name” (Ps. 99:4). The means to gain access to the face of God is humility. Humility is the gate of God, the gate to the courts of God, to the palace and church of God not made by hands, to the church of the heart, in which God is established through the sacrament of baptism. The Gate of God belongs to God alone. They are His gates; they are opened exclusively by the finger of God. Before their opening, confession is granted, a heartfelt confession, a confession with all the soul. Confession is an act of humility. Confession is a person’s expression of his consciousness before God. This consciousness appears when our eyes are opened to ourselves from the touch of grace on the eyes of the soul, and the mind shakes off the blindness that had hitherto darkened it and deprived it of correct, godly self-view. We confess, we confess from the fullness of conviction, from the fullness of conviction with which the Creed is pronounced and confessed, that we are fallen beings, burdened with both that sinfulness that belongs to the entire human race, and that that belongs to each of us in particular. We give glory to the justice of God, who cast out our criminal race from paradise to earth, doomed all humanity to labor and suffering, punishing each person with private executions for his private sins. Following confession is a non-vague prayer. She is a gift from God. By the right hand of this gift, the one praying is received from the environment of surrounding and captivating entertainment, and is presented, beyond any entertainment, to the face of God in the church of God not made by hands. From perfect humility and from perfect submission to the will of God, the purest, holy prayer is born. It cannot be born otherwise and from other works: just as it is natural for grapes to be born on one vine, not on any other tree. This prayer is called singing, because the prayer of the spirit is a holy, mysterious song with which God is glorified. The great Paul said: “Be filled with the Spirit, speaking to yourself in psalms and songs and spiritual songs, making melody and singing in your hearts to the Lord” (Eph. 5:18–19). “Enlighten my mental eyes, open my lips, to learn from Your words, and to understand Your commandments, and to do Your will, and to sing to You in confession of my heart, and to glorify Your all-holy name!” 336 “For the Lord is good, His mercy endures forever, and His truth endures forever” (Ps. 99:5). By knowledge and confession of God's justice, by justification of God's destinies (Ps. 18:10) 337. the ascetic of prayer enters into the knowledge of the infinite goodness of God, inseparable from His justice. In the union of God’s goodness with His justice, His all-holy truth appears: “mercy and truth were met, righteousness and peace were embraced” (Ps. 84:11). From the feeling of God’s goodness, spiritual sweetness flows into the prayer of the one praying with pure prayer, plunging the human spirit into the abyss of humility, and at the same time lifting it from earth to heaven. Such a man of prayer is also the most solitary man of silence. This silent person remains unceasingly with God according to the action of God in him, outside the world, outside thoughts about the transitory, outside of sympathy for the transitory. The heart, revived by its feeling for God and for everything that belongs to God, dies for the world, dies for everything that is hostile to God and that is alien to God. In this death there is life, and in this destruction there is salvation. Amen. Word 58, according to the Slavic translation. Saint John the Climacus refers to these words of St. Ephraim the Syrian in his Ladder: “Who, before the future glory, was vouchsafed such dispassion as the holy Syrian was vouchsafed? David, glorious in the prophets, says to the Lord: “Loose me, that I may rest.” “In the world the living is unapproachable” St. Mark the Ascetic. On the Spiritual Law, chapters 13 and 14. “The destinies of the Lord are true, justified together” You might be interested in: