Собеседование 18 на псалом 94

To the words: “Come, let us rejoice in the Lord” (Ps. 94:1) The sound of a trumpet awakens the warrior spirit and encourages them to fight the enemy, and the approach of a storm encourages sailors to leave the harbor and take the ship to the open sea. In a similar way, we were gathered to this spiritual festival by the solemn song of the hymnist David, which was heard to us today from his book. What is he saying? “Come, let us rejoice in the Lord, let us shout to God our Savior. Let us stand before Him in confession and shout to Him in psalms” (Ps. 94:1-2). This is what David says; here is a good call; this is spiritual food. “Come, let us rejoice in the Lord, let us shout to God our Savior. I will stand before Him in confession.” Oh, the Lord’s love for mankind! Oh, prophetic exhortation, calling us to repentance! Here you see the great love of the Lord, you hear the gratifying sermon of the prophet: it turns us all to repentance, calls us to piety and salvation. “Come, let us rejoice in the Lord.” The Lord commands, the prophet calls, and we must obey. Of course, he does not call us to a perishable feast that pleases our belly. This is how his sweet-voiced lyre calls us: “Come, let us rejoice in the Lord.” So, all of us, united by the bonds of love for him and accepting the yoke of obedience, will fall before the Lord, cleansed of the sins we have committed during the day. Only in the present life is repentance possible, while threats and judgment remain for the future. Listen to what the prophet himself says about this: “in... hell... who will I confess to You?” (Ps.6:6). So, let nothing hold us back, but let us pray to God with all our hearts. He readily listens to the prayers of those who ask Him; just don’t be lazy to ask Him. God is always ready to listen to you. You do not need to make long journeys or cross seas. Listen to what He says: “The kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:21). No expenses or expenses are required from you - just turn to Him with tears and you will immediately bend Him to mercy on you. Hezekiah never turned to the wall [saying: “Oh, Lord! Remember that I walked before You faithfully and with a heart devoted to You, and did what was right in Your sight. And Hezekiah wept greatly” (2 Kings 20:3), and the Lord continued his life], not to a stone wall, of course, he turned, but to a wall built by the teachings of the apostles and prophets. I mean that wall about which Paul boasted when he said: “A wise builder laid the foundation” (1 Cor. 3:10), - that wall into which the cornerstone was laid. I mean Christ [about whom the Scripture says: “the stone which the builders neglected, he became the head of the corner” (Ps. 117:22), - I mean the wall built of holy stones, about which the Scripture speaks], which (in it) is “like stones in a crown” (Zech. 9:16), - I mean that wall from which the church of God was created. What are you doing, Hezekiah? Why did you turn to the wall? [The Cornerstone, he says, I am looking for - the Cornerstone, which is Christ] Him I seek - the Giver of life and the Deliverer from death; I seek Him and turn to Him, and at the same time repenting, he acquired life for himself and rejected the sentence pronounced on him by God, and God added fifteen years to his life. And when the city was surrounded on all sides and besieged by enemies, an angel appeared. who fought against him, and destroyed countless hordes of Assyrians. Such is the power of repentance! “The angel of the Lord went,” it says, “and smote one hundred and eighty-five thousand in the camp of Assyria” (2 Kings 19:35). And God released their leader Sennacherib alive for no other reason, I think, than by calling him to repentance. It is precisely known that when God saw that he was not convinced by this and did not convert, but remained firm and irreconcilable in his malice, then through the hands of his two sons God put him to death. When he thought that he had already escaped the destructive death sent by God, returned to his homeland and was ready to enjoy the blessings of the world in safety, then his two sons, Adramelech and Sarasar, kill him and run away to the Ararat mountains. Do you see, beloved, what his confession brought to Hezekiah, and what evil his inertia in sin caused Sennacherib? Do you want me to show you another path of repentance and the door of confession? Imitate the repentance of the pagans: I mean specifically the Ninevites. They, having heard neither the gospel words, nor the preaching of the prophets, nor the gospel of the kingdom of heaven, nevertheless showed obedience to the prophet and - look - how they fall to God, how they propitiate Him, how they turn His anger into mercy for themselves, and how they rejected the sentence of God, how they softened His anger and disposed Him to love mankind, how they fenced off their city, which was on the edge of destruction, more reliably than any wall and made it stronger than adamant. What pleased God was not the royal crown and orb, but ashes and hair shirt; not the shine of scarlet, but rags; not a golden throne decorated with stones, but a confession (of sins). Oh, the power of sackcloth, surpassing and defeating the royal scarlet! Oh, the power of ashes, stronger than the royal crown and throne! After all, it was precisely at that very time when the king was wearing a crown and sitting on the throne in scarlet robe and with an orb, i.e. with a royal staff in his hands, and around him stood an army and a crowd of retinue - at this very time, perhaps, the prophet came to him, naked, his feet in the dust, his face in sweat, and uttered his words: “Forty more days and Nineveh will be destroyed” (John 3:4). What are you doing, O prophet? If the Spirit of God is truly in you, then why don’t you know the will of God, that He pronounced this sentence not wanting to destroy, but to call to repentance? Nothing more, he says, God told me except that “another forty days and Nineveh will be destroyed.” What are you doing, oh Jonah? Why don't you add any instructions to this? In fact, what did God say to Isaiah to convey to Israel? Nothing else except these words. What words? “Go and tell this people: You will hear with your ears and not understand, and with your eyes you will see and will not see” (Isaiah 6:9). Meanwhile, do you see what various instructions and teachings he admonishes them with, what convictions and admonitions and reproofs he offers them? Here, for example, is how he denounces: “An ox knows its owner, and a donkey knows its master’s manger; but Israel does not know [Me], My people do not understand” (Isa. 1:3). Here is his reproof. Listen to his admonition: “Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; remove your evil deeds from before my eyes; stop doing evil" (Isa. 1:16); or again: “If you are willing and obedient, you will eat the good things of the land” (Is. 1:19). And Isaiah tells them much more and certifies this by writing a whole book. He didn’t stop there either, but even brings witnesses at the beginning of his sermon: “Hear, O heavens, and listen, O earth, because the Lord speaks.” What does it “say”? Say it loud, Isaiah. “I raised and raised up sons, but they rebelled against Me” (Is. 1:2). But you, Jonah, did nothing of the kind, but announced destruction, saying: “Forty more days and Nineveh will be destroyed.” You didn’t tell them anything about God, you didn’t say: “because the Lord says,” like Isaiah, but you pronounce a cruel and inhumane sentence. However, the Ninevites, although they were not instructed in doctrine, did not hear the preaching of the prophets, did not receive the promise of gospel grace, (had) neither love for the kingdom of heaven, nor fear of punishment, but were distinguished by bestial character and cruel and inhuman morals - despite all this, having heard the sentence pronounced over them, they immediately turn to repentance, confessing the sins they have committed, and this is not even knowing whether they will receive forgiveness. Really, what did they say? “Who knows, maybe God will have mercy and turn away His burning anger from us, and we will not perish” (John 3:9). They could not take advantage of the example of others who would repent and be saved, they had no other Ninevites, and therefore they still doubt their salvation, but still repent. And immediately the king, throwing off his crown and scarlet robe, dresses himself in rags and sprinkles himself with ashes, and behind him the whole city - from the small to the great, and not only people, but also cattle, and bulls, and sheep. What are you doing, oh king? After all, people have sinned, so why do you force even cattle to fast? Why do you lay sackcloth and ashes on them? We, he answers, are burdened with many sins and are unworthy to beg God. With what face will we appear before Him and ask Him? That’s why we forced those innocent of sins to beg for us. Maybe someone has observed something similar between people? If someone insults one of the high-ranking officials, then those who did not take part in the insult ask for him to have his sin forgiven. That's what we do. We have sinned unpardonably, we are unworthy to ask for ourselves and to appease God; That’s why we forced the cattle, bulls and sheep, to fall to God and beg Him. Oh, the power of repentance! Oh, the power of confession (of sins)! Repentance protected the city, softening God's sentence. But the prophet does not yet believe in the salvation of the Ninevites; going out of the city, he sat waiting to see what would happen to the city: would the verdict or repentance prevail? Both seemed to lie in a cup or on a yoke of scales: on the one hand - condemnation, on the other - repentance. And repentance, having defeated death, saved the city. Then - I have to shorten the speech - Jonah was saddened that he should turn out to be a liar. And what did the all-wise God do with him then? He orders the sun to throw scorching rays on his head to such an extent that the heat of the sun has become unbearable for him. When he suffered from the heat and fell into despair, at night God commanded a pumpkin to grow in the morning and cast a shadow over Jonah’s head. On this occasion, I would be happy to ask a Jew a question like this: tell me, O Jew, who asks: how did a Virgin give birth without a husband, and how did she who gave birth remain a virgin? - Answer me first: how did the earth grow a pumpkin in one morning, and how in an instant the leaves of the pumpkin unfolded and were already giving shade to the prophet? Then I will tell you how a virgin gave birth and remained a virgin after birth? However, let’s not throw holy things to the dogs. Let the infidel Jews be cast out of our account! So, when the pumpkin provided shade to Jonah, “God arranged it so that the next day, at dawn, a worm gnawed at the plant, and it withered” (Jonah 4:7). Look, Jew, and curb your unbelief if God does something much more important. In one night it grew, and in one night it died (pumpkin). When the pumpkin dried up, Jonah was dissatisfied, upset, became despondent, from sadness about the pumpkin, and said: “It is better for me to die than to live” (Jonah 4:8). Turning to him, the all-wise God consoles him, saying: “Are you really so upset about the plant?” And Jonah said: “he was very sad, even to the point of death” (Jonah 4:9). To this God says to him: “You regret the plant that you did not work on and which you did not grow, which grew in one night and disappeared in the same night: Should I not feel sorry for Nineveh, the great city, in which there are more than one hundred and twenty thousand people, who, despite the multitude of inhabitants, do not know how to distinguish their right hand from their left, and a multitude of livestock?” ( Jonah 4:10–11 ). This is what He says: I love mankind and do not desire the destruction of the work of My hands, which I created with love. That is why I threatened destruction and death - not with the goal of killing, but with the goal of turning to repentance. For so many years I have been waiting for their conversion, and now that they have just converted, I must despise them? This is not characteristic of Me, Jonah. As a person, you want to condemn, but I, as God, want to show humanity. Glory to Thee, Lord, glory to Thee! What a wealth of philanthropy and pity You have! Those who were just under death sentence are now teachers of the universe - because their example serves as a guide for everyone, and, armed with their repentance, we will not suffer ruin. So let's not delay day after day. “Do not boast about tomorrow, because you do not know what that day will bring forth” (Prov. 27:1). “The day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night” (1 Thess. 5:2). So, “Come, let us rejoice in the Lord, let us shout to God our Savior. I will stand before Him in confession.” The end of our life is unknown, its duration is not indicated to us, its time is not assigned. But as soon as He who gave breath commands everything, our soul will immediately fly away from the body and leave it lifeless. Therefore, knowing the uncertainty of the end, we will all wait for the Bridegroom, and when He knocks on the door, we will go out to Him with lighted lamps, having oil with us, so that as soon as the cry is heard that “The Bridegroom is coming,” you will go out to meet Him: and may we not then find ourselves together with the five foolish virgins outside the bridal chamber! Let us not, beloved, indulge in sleep, but let us always have oil in our lamps, because at that hour it will be impossible to go and buy oil from merchants: here it is bought, but there it is only spent. And who are these merchants if not the poor? Give bread and you receive [the kingdom of heaven; give bread, and you receive] that “no eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no one has entered into the heart of man, the things that God has prepared for those who love Him” (1 Cor. 2:9). “Come, let us rejoice in the Lord, let us shout to God our Savior. I will stand before Him in confession” (Ps. 94:1–2), because “the night is past, and the day” of the unknown life “has drawn near” (Rom. 13:12). (May God grant) to all of us, who have been made light by light, to walk in the light of the glory of Christ our Savior, in our Lord himself, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. Creations attributed to St. John Chrysostom and in the Patrology of Min, classified as Spuria The paragraphs in the text were arranged by us. – Editorial staff of “ABC of Faith” You might be interested in: