Собеседование 33 на псалом 85

1. Do you see the virtue of prayer? The prophet gave up other psalms to Asaph and the sons of Korah to sing, and he himself sang the prayer to God, offering it not only on his own behalf, but on behalf of all people. “Lord, thine ear and hear me, for I... am poor and wretched” (Ps. 86:1). Every person whose face the prophet assumes here is poor and wretched. We are poor as a result of sin, and became poor through Adam, who left us, as it were, an inheritance of poverty. Therefore, the prophet prays to God to incline His ear, so that He would descend like a rich man to the poor, like a doctor to the sick. Why does he ask to come down? Because we often ask God for unworthy things; and He, like a doctor, honors the request to listen, but gives only what is useful for us. “Save my soul, for I am pleasing (to You); save Your servant, my God, who trusts in You” (Ps. 85:2). How can one who is poor and lacking in virtue be a saint? Since he admitted his poverty, it was through this recognition that he became a saint. Perhaps the prophet calls a person a saint because he had this dignity before the fall in paradise. “Save Thy servant, O my God, who trusteth in Thee.” The words of the prophet are capable of inclining God to mercy, because the Lord cannot in any case reject His servant who trusts in Him, but accepts his birth of hope, even if he has other shortcomings; The prophet points to his slavery, wanting to attract God to us, so that He would not leave His property. “Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I cry to You every day" (Ps. 85:3). Do you see how we can receive mercy? We must cry out to God every day, and not act in such a way as to either pray to Him with words, or anger Him with deeds, or appear in the church of God, or in the church of the wicked, about whom the same David said: “I hated the crowd of the wicked” (Ps. 25:5). “Make glad the soul of Thy servant, for I have ascended to Thee with my soul” (Ps. 85:4). I ask, he says, for joy from You, to whom I have lifted up my soul, having lifted it from the earth and elevated it with hope for divine blessings, so that they no longer strive for earthly things. So, you rejoice, because I don’t want human joy, as harmful and fleeting. “For You, O Lord, are good, and meek, and abundant in mercy to all who call on You” (Ps. 85:5). It was not in vain that I lifted up my soul to You, but because You, as a good one, are compassionate, like a meek one, you support those who fall, and, moreover, you show Your mercy not in one way, but in many and different ways: You have mercy through poverty, You have mercy through tears, You have mercy through virtues, You have mercy through faith, and not just some, but all who call on You. Those, therefore, who do not call on God cannot be pardoned. So, prayer serves as a weapon, a refuge, and a door of salvation for us. “Hear, O Lord, my prayer and attend to the voice of my supplication” (Ps. 85:6). “Hear”, i.e. consider her worthy of your hearing. “Listen to the voice,” show mercy to the one bringing the prayer, seeing how he burns with the passion of his soul and love for You (this means: “the voice of prayer”). Therefore, the prophet goes on to say: “In the day of my sorrow I cried out to You, for You heard me” (Ps. 85:7). While sorrows often kill prayer and lead a person to neglect it, he himself, he says, did not experience this; on the contrary, he cried out even stronger and louder, and this did not stem from despair, but from firm faith in prayer. Why? “For You heard me.” As he had already heard, he naturally did not faint in prayer, which is why he cried out. “There is none like You, O Lord, among the gods, and there is none (like) according to Your works” (Ps. 85:8). The prophet is not talking here about idols (“what has light and darkness in common?” - (2 Cor. 6:14), - or what comparison can there be between a lie and the truth?), but calls gods those to whom the word of God came, as Christ says in the Gospel, i.e. saints and God-bearing men. Of these, none can be compared with the Lord. Although He is related to them in the flesh, He is incomparable in divinity, or rather, in humanity, because none of them was born of a virgin, no one bore our sins, no one trampled death underfoot. So, no one can compare with him in His deeds. “All the nations whom You have made will come and worship You, O Lord, and glorify Your name” (Ps. 85:9). Where - in front of You? In the Jewish church? But neither the temple no longer exists, nor can the pagans, unless they are circumcised, worship in it. It is clear, therefore, that the prophet is speaking about Christ, whose face all pagans worship. Whoever worships in Bethlehem at the place of the cross and resurrection worships in the presence of the One who accomplished our salvation there. In the same way those who worship before the altar worship before His face, because here they see Him seated in every mystical sacrifice. “And they will glorify Your name.” Why? Because they served wood and stone and were taught and enslaved by demons. Listen to what the prophet says next: “For great are You, and You who do wonders, You, the One God” (Ps. 85:10). 2. So, the pagans glorify Christ because they recognized Him as great and unique, working miracles. In what way was this greatness and miracles revealed? The fact is that He destroyed the age-old delusion regarding idols, sending for this purpose not angels, not shaking the earth, not bringing down fire from heaven, but for this purpose using unlearned people, poor fishermen as servants. “Teach me, O Lord, in Thy way, and I will walk in Thy truth, that my heart may rejoice, fearing Thy name” (Ps. 85:11). The prophet before the gospel clearly speaks the words of the gospel, desiring to be led from path to path and to walk in the truth of Him who said: “I am the way and the truth and the life” (John 14:6). However, we must first be directed to the path of God and study its beginning, i.e. foundations, and then we can already walk in the truth, because the comprehension of the truth of existence is the end of the knowledge of God. “Let my heart rejoice, fearing Your name.” The prophet asks for good joy, good triumph in his prayer: to fear the name of God. Truly, from here comes true joy, which does not belong to the body, but to the heart and soul, which is in great closeness and affinity with God. That is why she puts fear of Him into joy, knowing what a high quality he has. “I confess to You, O Lord my God, with all my heart, and I will glorify Your name forever” (Ps. 85:12). So, before confessing sins, the prophet does not order to glorify God; he wants God to be glorified with clean lips, and they are cleansed when a person rejects sin with all his heart. True confession is to reject sin with all your soul, and, having once rejected it, choose it and never return to it. “For Thy mercy is great upon me, and Thou hast delivered my soul from the depths of hell" (Ps. 85:13). Therefore, he says, I dared to confess my sins, when I should have been afraid and ashamed, that Thy mercy is great towards me, that is, towards man; the one, therefore, who confesses his sin not only receives mercy and forgiveness, but we also expect a reward. Which one? Liberation of the soul “from the lowest hell,” i.e. from Gehenna and outer darkness, which is the place appointed for sinners. Hell is naturally called the underworld, since the one who has descended, as we said, can no longer come out of there. “O God, transgressors rose up against me, and a host of mighty men sought my souls, and did not present You before them” (Ps. 85:14). Indeed, he who offends his neighbor does not imagine God before his own eyes; if he had represented Him, he would not have offended, fearing the Judge, and would not have broken the law, endangering the memory of the Lawgiver. They do this not because of ignorance, but because of insolence, just as the thieves of the desert commit robberies not because they do not know about judges and courts, but because they do not think about them due to their madness and are not afraid. The prophet calls such people not only lawbreakers, but also “from the crowd of the mighty,” strengthened in wickedness, whom he condemns in another prophecy, saying: “Why do you boast in evil battle, O mighty?” (Ps. 51:3). Why did he call the rebels not only lawbreakers, but also sovereign in wickedness, i.e., as we said, strong? Because they were plotting not on the field, not on the house, not on clothes, not on the slave, but on the only and exclusive property of a person - his soul, wanting to put it to death. It is clear, therefore, that the prophet spoke about lawbreakers in the proper sense - demons strong in wickedness, which is why he opposed God to them as his defender. “But You, O Lord, my God, are generous and merciful, long-suffering, and abundantly merciful, and true. Look upon me and have mercy on me, grant Your strength to Your servant and save the son of Your servant” (Ps. 85:15-16). In vain, he says, they rebelled, because You, as God, will fight for Like one who is generous and merciful, you have compassion for those who are subject to evil machinations; like one who is long-suffering, you do not betray sinners into the hands of enemies; like one who is abundantly merciful, you have mercy not just once, but many times; like one who is true, you reject the one who commits offenses and saves the one who is offended. Therefore, “look after me,” since the wolf cannot seize a sheep, which is watched over by a shepherd. “Have mercy on me,” since I have no deeds with which I could turn Your hand to my defense; therefore, I ask, out of necessity, Your mercy, which is especially required by those under attack. “Give Thy strength to Thy servant and save the son of Thy servant.” As a man, the prophet recognizes himself as a servant and a slave who asks to receive power over the passions; and as the son of His handmaid, i.e. wisdom, he wants to be saved. Perhaps the prophet calls our nature a slave of God, because like a slave she obeys the will and commands of the Creator. The prophet is proud of the title of slave and son of a slave, and as an old slave, whose parents were slaves, he considers himself worthy to receive power from God, because such slaves are entrusted with the master's wealth without fear. Who this boy is, you can find out from what follows. “Do a sign for good with me...; let those who hate me see (him) and are ashamed (because) You, Lord, have not helped me and comforted me" (Ps. 85:17). He does not simply ask for a sign, but "for the good," that is, for the good of the human race. This is the sign that Isaiah told Ahaz to ask God for, saying: "Ask yourself a sign from the Lord your God." after which he said: “Behold, the virgin will conceive and give birth to a Son, and they will call His name Immanuel” (Is. 7:11, 14); this is the same sign about which the Lord Himself speaks: “An evil and adulterous generation seeks a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah; The Son of Man will be in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights" (Matthew 12:39-40). These signs put to shame all the demons who hate us. "And the angel of His presence saved them," as Isaiah says (Isaiah 63:9), but the Lord Himself, having been born of a Virgin and for our sake, became man; showing that death is only a dream. 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: