Блажен муж 1

The inspired Divine singer sings and strikes the sonorous strings. When the noise of the world deafened me, I could not listen to it. Now, in the silence of solitude, I begin to listen to the mysterious singer. Both his sounds and his song seem to become clearer to me. It’s as if a new ability is opening up in me, the ability to listen to him and the ability to understand him. I hear in his sounds a new feeling, in his words a new meaning, wondrous, wondrous, like God’s wisdom. Saul! Stop raging: let the evil spirit depart from you... Saint David sings, strums his harmonious harp. I call my mind Saul, troubled and indignant by the thoughts emanating from the ruler of the world. He - my mind - was appointed by God at the establishment of the kingdom of Israel - at creation, and then at the redemption of man - as a king, ruler of soul and body; by disobedience to God, violation of God's commandments, violation of unity with God, he deprived himself of dignity and grace. Mental and physical forces are not submissive to him; he himself is under the influence of an evil spirit. Saint David sings and speaks the words of Heaven. And the sounds of his psalms are heavenly sounds! Subject of the chant: the bliss of man. Brethren, let us listen to the Divine teaching set forth in the Divine hymn. Let's listen to the verbs, listen to the sounds with which the verbs are spoken, with which the Sky thunders towards us. O you who seek happiness, who pursue pleasure, who thirst for pleasure! Come: listen to the sacred song, listen to the saving teachings. How long will you wander, scour valleys and mountains, impassable deserts and wilds? How long will you torment yourself with incessant and vain labor, not crowned with any fruits, any lasting acquisitions? Incline your humble ear: listen to what the Holy Spirit says through the mouth of David about human bliss, which all people strive for and hunger for. May everything around me be silent! And within me, let my very thoughts be silent! Let the heart be silent! May reverent attention alone live and act! May holy impressions and thoughts enter the soul through him! David was a king and did not say that the throne of kings is the throne of human bliss. David was a commander and hero, from his youth to old age he argued with foreigners in bloody battles, he fought so many battles, won so many victories, he moved the borders of his kingdom to the banks of the Euphrates from the banks of the Jordan and did not say that in the glory of the victorious and conqueror is the bliss of man. David collected countless wealth, gathered it with his sword. Gold lay in his storerooms like copper, and silver was thrown into them like cast iron. But David did not say that wealth is the bliss of man. David had all earthly consolations, but in none of them did he recognize human bliss. When David was a boy, when his occupation was to tend the sheep of his father Jesse: suddenly, at the command of God, the prophet Samuel comes and with holy oil anoints a poor shepherd as king of the people of Israel. David did not call the hour of his anointing to the kingdom the hour of bliss. David spent his childhood days in the wild desert. There his muscles began to feel the valor of the muscles of a hero: without weapons, with only his hands, he rushed at the lion and the bear, strangled the lion and the bear. There his soul began to move, to be filled with heavenly inspiration. The hands that crushed the lion and the bear formed a psalter, touched the strings, tense and brought into harmony by the action of the Spirit: harmonic, delightful, spiritual, rational sounds were released. Far, far, through time, through centuries and millennia, these sounds rushed, were repeated and repeated in countless voices, glorified the name of David to all ends of the earth, throughout all centuries of its Christian life. David did not call a deserted life, a life full of wonderful deeds, wonderful inspiration, the bliss of man. “Blessed is the man,” he sings, in whatever place, in whatever rank, in whatever condition and rank this man may be, “who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, and does not stand in the path of sinners, and does not sit in the seats of destroyers” (Ps. 1:1). “Blessed is the man” who is kept from sin, who reflects sin from himself, in whatever form, in whatever vestment sin appears to him: whether it appears in a lawless act, whether it appears in a thought that advises lawlessness, or in a feeling that brings pleasure, sinful intoxication. If with such strong courage a weak wife repels sin from herself, then she too is “blessed is the man” sung by David. The participants in this bliss, the participants in manhood in Christ, are youths and children who firmly resist sin. There is no partiality with a just God. “Blessed is the man,” whose whole will is in the Law of God (Ps. 1:2). Blessed is the heart that has matured in the knowledge of the will of God, that has seen “that the Lord is good” (Ps. 33:9), that has acquired this vision by tasting the commandments of the Lord, that has united its will with the will of the Lord. Such a heart: husband. Blessed is the heart kindled by Divine jealousy! Blessed is the heart that burns with an insatiable desire for the will of God! Blessed is the heart that sweetly and unbearably suffers with love for God! Such a heart: a place, a village, a palace, a throne of bliss!.. From early morning an eagle sits on the top of a high cliff, its sparkling eyes greedily seeking prey, then it rises into the blue sky, swims, spreading wide wings, in vast spaces, looking for prey. When he sees her, he descends on her like an arrow, lightning, rises with her with another arrow, and disappears. He fed his chicks, and again on his guard: on a rock or in the sky. Such is a heart infected with the ulcer of unhealed love for the commandments of God! And in this love there is bliss. In the commandments there is more than one act: in them the spiritual mind is hidden and through them the spiritual mind is revealed: “I understood from Your commandments,” says the Prophet: “I sought you with all my heart... The path of Your commandments flowed, when You enlarged my heart! silver!.. I have loved Your commandments more than gold and topaz!.. I have hidden Your words in my heart, so that I will not sin against You!.. I will rejoice in Your words, for I have found much gain!.. Lead me on the path of Your commandments, for I have desired it” (Ps. 119:104, 10, 32, 47, 72, 127, 11, 162, 35). The sun rises: people hurry to their work. Everyone has their own goal, their own intention. As the soul is in the body, so is the purpose and intention in every human activity. One works and cares to acquire perishable treasures; the other - to give yourself abundant pleasure; another - to acquire earthly, vain glory; finally, another says, thinks that his actions are aimed at state and public benefit. The confidant of the Law of God in all exercises, in all his deeds has the goal of pleasing God. The world turns for him into the book of the Lord’s commandments. He reads this book through deeds, behavior, life. The more his heart reads this book, the more it is enlightened by spiritual intelligence, the more it warms up to flow along the path of piety and virtue. It acquires the fiery wings of faith, begins to trample on every hostile fear, is carried across every abyss, and dares to undertake every good undertaking. Blessed is such a heart! Such a heart: “blessed is the man.” Night comes with its shadows, with the pale light that the night lamps of the sky emit, gathering people from the surface of the earth into their tents, into their shelters. In these shelters there is boredom, emptiness of the soul; they try to drown out their torment with crazy entertainment; idleness, depravity of morals are given over to noisy amusements, and the vessels of the church of God - mind, heart, body - are used by Belshazzar for criminal use. The slave of the earth, the slave of the temporary cares of life, having barely escaped from the worries in which he was drowned during the day, prepares in the silence of the night new worries for the next day; both his days and his nights, his whole life is a victim of vanity and decay. A humble lamp glows in front of the holy icons, pouring languid light into the bed of the righteous. And he with his care, with his incessant, consuming care. He brings to the table the memory of his daily activities, compares it with the tablets on which the will of God revealed to man is inscribed - with Scripture; shortcomings in one’s actions, thoughts, and movements of the heart are healed by repentance, washed away by tears; to renew and strengthen his exploits, he asks Heaven for new strength, new light. A gracious light, a supernatural power descends from God into the soul that brings prayers with a painful feeling of poverty, weakness, and human convenience. So “the day vomits out the days, and the mind proclaims the night of the night” (Ps. 18:3). Such a life is unceasing success, continuous gains, eternal gains. He who lives like this: “blessed is the man.” And this man will be “like a tree planted by the rising waters” (Ps. 1:3). Such a tree is not afraid of the scorching rays of the sun, nor is it afraid of drought: its roots are always saturated with moisture; they do not wait for rain, they never suffer a lack of food, that lack from which trees growing in mountainous and dry places often get sick, often wither, and die. Like a tree growing at a height, open to the influences of the winds and the sun, occasionally drinking the heavenly rain, occasionally refreshed by the dew of heaven, is a person disposed to piety, but leading an inattentive, absent-minded life, little and superficially engaged in the study of the Law of God. Sometimes he too is refreshed with the dew of tenderness; sometimes a life-giving tearful rain of repentance falls on his withered soul; sometimes both his mind and heart are excited by a movement towards God; but this state does not exist, cannot be permanent, even long-lasting. Religious thoughts and sensations, when they are not enlightened by a clear and complete knowledge of the will of God, have no certainty, no solidity, and therefore have no power and life. He who studies the Law of God day and night is like a tree planted “by the waters that come out.” Cool, fresh waters continually gush at its very roots; his mind and heart - these roots of man - are constantly immersed in the law of God, drinking in the holy law of God; pure, full of strength, streams of eternal life incessantly boil for him. These waters, this power, this life: the Holy Spirit, dwelling in the Holy and Holy Scriptures, dwelling in the commandments of the Gospel. He who constantly delves into Scripture studies it in humility of spirit, asking God for understanding through prayer; whoever directs all his deeds, all the hidden movements of his soul according to the Gospel commandments, will certainly become a partaker of the Holy Spirit living in them. “I am a partaker,” the Holy Spirit announced about Himself, “to all those who fear You and keep Your commandments” (Ps. 119:63) 2. Studying God's Law requires patience. This study is the acquisition of your soul: “in your patience,” commands the Lord, “gain your souls” (Luke 21:19). This is the science of sciences! This is heavenly science! This is science communicated to man by God! Its paths are completely separate from those ordinary paths followed by earthly sciences, human sciences, sciences born by our fallen mind from its own light, for our state in the fall. Human sciences boast, inflate the mind, realize, grow the human self! Divine science is revealed to a soul that has been prepared, erased, angled by self-sacrifice, as if deprived of its originality due to its humility, made into a mirror that does not have any form of its own, capable for this reason of receiving and reflecting Divine marks. Divine science - the Wisdom of God, the Word of God. The son of Sirach says about her: “Your sons have exalted your wisdom, and stands for those who seek her. He who loves loves life, and those who wake up to it will be filled with joy; hold on to it, he will inherit glory, and wherever he enters, the Lord will bless him; those who serve her will serve the Holy One, and the Lord loves those who love her; listen to her, judge to have tongues, and heed her to dwell in hope.” Such is Divine Science! Such is the wisdom of God! She is a revelation of God! There is God in her! Access to it is by humility! Access to it is by rejecting your mind! It is inaccessible to the human mind! He is rejected by her, recognized as madness! And he, her impudent, proud enemy, blasphemously recognizes her as foolishness, is seduced by her because she appeared to people on the cross, and illuminates them from the cross. Access to it is a matter of selflessness! Access to it is by crucifixion! Access to it is by faith! The son of Sirach continues: “If you believe, you will inherit” (Sir. 4:12–17). True, God-pleasing faith, in which there is no flattery or deception, consists in fulfilling the commandments of the Gospel, in diligently and constantly planting them in one’s soul, in the struggle with the mind, with ungodly sensations, movements of the heart and body. And the mind, heart, and body of fallen man are hostile to the Law of God. The fallen mind does not accept the mind of God; a fallen heart resists the will of God; the body itself, having undergone corruption, acquired its own separate will, given to it by the Fall, which abundantly imparted to man the deadly knowledge of good and evil. Our path to the wisdom of God is narrow and sorrowful! Holy faith leads us to it, trampling and crushing the opposition of the mind, heart, and body of the fallen. Patience is needed here! What is needed here is firmness, constancy, and long-suffering! “In your patience ye will gain your souls.” Whoever wants to bear spiritual fruit, let him persevere in a long war against sin, filled with various upheavals and troubles! Only he can see the fruit of the Spirit on the tree of his soul who cherishes this fruit, holy, tender, with much and courageous patience! Let's listen, let's listen to the Wise One! “Wisdom,” he says, “walks obstinately with him”—his disciple—“in the first place, but fear and fear will instill nan. And he will torment him in his punishment: until his soul has faith, and he will tempt him in his justification. And again he will return straight to him, and will rejoice him: and he will reveal to him his secrets” (Sir. 4, 18-21). Days, months, years pass, “its time” comes, the time known to God, “who hath appointed times and years in His power” (Acts 1:7), and “the tree planted by the waters that issue forth” bears its fruit. This fruit is a clear communion of the Holy Spirit, promised by the Son of God to all who truly believe in Him. Brilliant, marvelous is the fruit of the Spirit! Changes the whole person! The Holy Scriptures are transferred from the book to the soul; are inscribed with an invisible finger on its tablets - on the mind and heart - the word of God and the will of God, the Word and the Spirit. The promise of the Son of God is fulfilled over such a person: “rivers of living water will flow out of his belly. This is what we say about Dus, who believers want to receive in His name” (John 7:38-39), explains the word of the Savior, His beloved disciple, the confidant of Wisdom and the Theology given by Her. The very “leaf” of such a tree “will not fall away” (Ps. 1:3). Leaf, according to the teachings of the Fathers, are bodily feats: and they receive their price, incorruption and life, upon renewal, rebirth of the soul by the Holy Spirit. The will of such a person merges with the will of God: he desires one thing pleasing to God, fulfills only the will of God. That is why he has God as an assistant in all his endeavors, “and everything he does will prosper” (Ps. 1:3). Not such a likeness for the wicked! Inspired David does not compare them to trees or anything else that has properties or signs of life! Another, different comparison for them! “Not like this, wickedness, not like this,” sings the royal Prophet, “but like dust, which the wind sweeps away from the face of the earth” (Ps. 1:4). Wicked ones! You are lifeless dust, raised by a stormy whirlwind - the noisy bustle of the world - from the face of the earth, spinning in the air, carried by a thick cloud that obscures the sun and all nature. Don't look at that cloud! Do not believe the deceit of your eyes! For them, empty dust, insignificant dust, falsely appears as a cloud. Close your eyes for a minute, and a cloud of dust will fly by, carried by the strong, instantaneous breath of the whirlwind, without damaging your vision. In a minute you will open your eyes and look - where is the vast cloud? You look for his trace, and there is no cloud, there is no trace after him, there is no sign of his existence. With a menacing song and menacing sounds, David continues to pronounce a menacing, fatal decree against the wicked. “For this reason the wicked will not rise again for judgment, lower than the sinner for the council of the righteous” (Ps. 1:5). There is no participation for the wicked “in the first resurrection” (Apoc. 20), which Saint John described in the Apocalypse, in the spiritual resurrection that takes place during earthly life, when the omnipotent Spirit touches the soul and renews it into rebirth. The soul is resurrected, comes to life into Divine life. Her mind and heart are enlightened and become partakers of the spiritual mind. “Spiritual intelligence is the feeling of the immortal belly” 3, according to the definition of Spiritual Bearers. This very mind is a sign of resurrection. So, on the contrary, carnal wisdom is the invisible death of the soul (Rom. 8:6). Spiritual intelligence is the work of the Holy Spirit. He sees sin, sees the passions in himself and others, sees his soul and the souls of others, sees the snares of the ruler of the world, casts down every thought that is placed on the mind of Christ, repels sin from himself, no matter in what modification it approaches: because the spiritual mind is the kingdom, the light of the Holy Spirit in the mind and heart. “The wicked shall not rise again” for spiritual reasoning! This reasoning is the “advice” of the “righteous” alone, their property. It is inaccessible, incomprehensible to the wicked and sinners. It is the vision of God, and only “those who are pure in heart will see God” (Matthew 5:8). The way of the wicked is hateful to God, so alien and abominable to Him that Scripture presents God as turning away from it, as if he did not know it. On the contrary, the path of righteousness is so pleasing to God that Scripture says about it: “The Lord knows the way of the righteous” (Ps. 1:6). And indeed, He alone knows this path! - Blessed path! You lead to God! You are hidden in the infinite God! Your beginning is God, and your end is God! You are infinite, just like God is infinite. The path of the wicked has a limit, has a woeful limit! This edge is on the edge of a deep, dark abyss, an eternal repository of eternal death. And he, the path of the wicked, will “perish” forever in this terrible abyss, having led first to it and destroyed in it all those who followed him. “The Lord knows the way of the righteous, and the way of the wicked will perish” (Ps. 1:6). “Blessed is the man who does not follow the counsel of the wicked,” and is not carried away by their way of thinking, their moral rules, their behavior, “but in the law of the Lord is all his will.” This is how the heavenly, wonderful Singer sings: a desert dweller listened to his holy inspired song. 1847. Nikolaevsky Babaevsky Monastery This is how this verse is explained by St. Pimen the Great, see Patericon of Skitsky. St. Isaac the Syrian. Word 38. You might be interested in: