According to the 19th Kathisma
Trisagion according to Our Father:
Same troparia, tone 7: Thanks, I glorify Thee, my God, for Thou hast given repentance to all sinners. Savior, do not disgrace me, when you come to judge the whole world, the shameful deeds of the one who has done.
Glory: Immeasurable to You, having sinned and immeasurable torment, I await, my God, be generous and save me.
And now: I now resort to the multitude of Your mercy: resolve the chains, O Theotokos, of my sins.
Lord, have mercy (40) and prayer:
Master Christ God, Who healed my passions with Your Passion and healed my ulcers with Your ulcers, grant to me, who have sinned much against You, tears of tenderness, dissolve my body from the smell of Your life-giving Body, and delight my soul with Your Honest Blood from sorrow, with which I was given a drink by the enemy. . Raise my mind to You, which has been drawn down below, and lift me from the abyss of destruction, as I am not the imam of repentance, not the imam of tenderness, not the imam of comforting tears, leading children to their inheritance. My mind has been darkened by worldly passions, I cannot look to You in illness, I cannot warm myself with tears, even love for You, but, Master Lord Jesus Christ, Treasure of the Good, grant me complete repentance, and a heart laboring to seek Yours, grant me grace Yours, and renew in me the eyes of Your image. Forsaken Thee, do not forsake me, go out to seek me, lead me to Thy pasture, and number me among the sheep of Thy chosen flock, educate me with them from the grain of Thy Divine mysteries, through the prayers of Thy Most Pure Mother and all Thy saints, amen.
We read the Psalter. Psalms 134-135
Audio |
Conversation with Archpriest Alexy Ladygin about the Psalter.
We continue to study the Psalter, and today we will talk about the 134th and 135th psalms. They are of great importance not only for our home singing, but are also constantly used in liturgical singing - these psalms are combined during the polyeleos.
The 134th Psalm has the pre-writing: Alleluia, 134.
Praise the name of the Lord, praise, servants of the Lord. “Alleluia” is translated as “praise the Lord.” The psalmist David calls on everyone to glorify the Lord for all His great benefits that He does to the entire human race. But he especially calls for praise those who consider themselves servants of the Lord, faithful, who serve Him, stand only on the path of this service and improve in glorifying the Lord.
Standing in the temple of the Lord, in the courts of the house of our God. The Psalmist indicates a special place where we should glorify the Lord - in the temple of the Lord, in the courtyards of the house of our God. Church prayer is of particular importance. We have more than once explained the words of the Psalmist, who indicates the place of special prayer where the Lord hears us - it is no coincidence that the Lord says: ... where two or three are gathered in My name, there I am in the midst of them. The Lord lives in the temple, the Old Testament Scripture testifies to this, and the holy fathers say that the Lord chose the temple for His home, where His Bloodless Sacrifice is performed, therefore, special prayer, of course, must be performed in the temple: there we must glorify and glorify the name of God and thank the Lord for the great unceasing benefits that He does to each of us.
Praise the Lord, for the Lord is good: sing to His name, for it is good. The Lord is truly the Giver of all good things that happen to us. He always gives us good, being the Head of goodness and kindness: there is no evil from God, moreover, God, by His Providence, directs all evil to good. The Lord does a lot for each of us, sometimes even when we don’t ask Him, He still participates in our lives and helps us. And when we send our requests to God, the Lord fulfills them. Some say: “Everything is good in my life: I have a job, the children don’t get sick, there is prosperity, and there is peace in the family.” But we must not forget that all this is given to us from God: if the Lord does not help us with His grace, does not cover us, then nothing good will happen in our lives. The Lord constantly gives great mercy to everyone, constantly does good, and for this good we need to thank God.
For the Lord has chosen Jacob as His own, Israel as His own. And so as not to be unfounded, here the Psalmist speaks of the benefits that the Lord specifically showed directly to Israel and His chosen people. Firstly, He gave him a true ministry - not pagan, not to worship idols, but to serve the True God, and then he cares about this people, as he did not care about any other living on this earth: He chooses this people, distinguishes them from others , gives him true worship of God - communication not with soulless idols, but with the True God, Who (if you live a spiritual life) fills you, gives you light in this life. And the Lord not only gives you spiritual benefits, but, if we look closely at the Old Testament, He arranges the life of the Old Testament man: He punishes him, has mercy and protects him upon repentance, gives judgment for certain actions. But the Lord also judges those who cause evil to this people. And here the Psalmist not only calls to praise the name of the Lord, but says that we are obliged to the Lord, for He takes care of us, shows love to everyone: He gives us so many good things in this life that we simply have no right not to glorify the name of God.
Further, the entire psalm will be devoted to the fact that the Psalmist will present some evidence of how the Lord helped the chosen people - he will show the people as a whole, and if the people as a whole receive, it means that each person receives good, fortune, peace, God's guidance, guarantee and deliverance, since we find ourselves members of this society or this chosen people. When we talk about the chosen people, we must always remember that there is Ancient Israel, and there is New Israel - there is a Christian Church, there is a Christian society, there are Christian states. In our own lives, too, in parallel, we can trace these great blessings and mercies that the Lord shows to our people, including punishing them, and exalting them through repentance, and again bringing them into a difficult state, but not giving offense to other peoples; The Lord constantly emphasizes that He is with us, but at the same time deprives us of some blessings - not because He wants to punish us, but seeing that we do not value what we have: we do not value it, which means the Lord is greater than this does not give. The Holy Fathers say this: there is nothing worse than doing good to an ungrateful person. If our modern society is not grateful to God, then it gets what it gets. And if we can be grateful to the Lord for His great benefits, then, of course, the Lord will return the benefits to us and will rejoice with us in our calm, measured and contented life.
As I have known that the Great Lord is great, and our Lord is above all gods - that is, “I do not call you to empty praise - I have experienced the great mercy of God and His constant care for me: I had a difficult path and many trials, many enemies, but I defeated them all with the help of God, for the Lord became my Intercessor and protected me, brought me out of all difficult situations.” Why should we believe David? He says: I have known it. And what, the Lord does not benefit another person? Of course, it does good, but we always turn to the example of the lives of the saints - they especially felt this benefit, and most importantly, they accepted it with gratitude to God, without attributing anything to themselves. They clearly put everything in its place: where, when the Lord helped. It’s not that “I was lucky,” as we say, or: “we found good people,” or: “that’s how the circumstances turned out,” or Globa predicted a good astrological forecast for us that day. Of course not. Everything is from the Lord. The saints see this, feel it, and directly point to it. Therefore David says: For I have known. What did you know? For the Lord is great, and our Lord is above all gods - our Lord is great, He is real and He is above all gods: there is no god that is higher than our God. And those whom you worship, pagan gods, are soulless idols, demons who have taken on this image. There is no one higher than our God and we must serve the True God, the Creator of Heaven and earth.
And then the Psalmist continues this thought: Whatever the Lord willed, do in heaven and on earth, in the seas and in all the abysses - whatever the Lord willed, He did in Heaven and on earth. We see the heavenly bodies, we see what the Lord has created on earth - what joy, wisdom, and power there is in this! How everything is interconnected - and beautiful, wonderful laws are embedded in this life, in this nature: there is nothing meaningless and chaotic, and we get to know this world by getting to know God and the laws that the Lord has put into this life. If it were chaotic, no science would be able to develop; it would begin and end immediately: it would be impossible to know what follows what, from what, why and how it occurs, from what it follows and what it comes to. But the great mind of God is embedded in nature, and it has laws, it has order. That is why science is developing - it cognizes the Divine world and the nature that the Lord gave to man. In the seas and in all the abysses. The seas also have a special, beautiful world: fauna, fish, plants, and corals. Everything is so amazing and beautiful that when you get into the sea, you look and think: “Lord, what beauty! How pleasing to the eye!” And there is its own life, its own laws - everything develops not chaotically, but according to the laws put into this world by the Lord. And in all the abysses. The psalmist speaks about the deeps, about the earth, but what is under the earth? In those days, the Psalmist did not yet know that there was oil, gas, various natural resources that today form the economy - the Lord also took care of our crazy age, where there will be such material and technological progress that it would be interesting for people to live in our time inquisitive mind and scientific achievements.
Raising clouds from the last of the earth, creating lightning into rain, driving winds from Your treasures - also great depth! How can one not see the Wisdom of God when from the bowels of the earth, from the last lands (the last lands, as the holy fathers say, are water sources, seas, oceans that surround the earth) water rises to the sky, forming clouds, then water flows out of the clouds irrigating and filling the whole earth with coolness and water. One cannot help but admire how lightning flashes and thunder occurs before the rain. We still don’t know how lightning, which cuts out fire but does not dry up the clouds, and clouds that do not cover the lightning and do not extinguish this fire are combined: we can tell all this, but we don’t know how and why this happens. We can describe the laws of nature, we can tell where the wind comes from; where, however, we don’t know, but how it comes from, we can describe - we can say about the Atlantic wind or that some kind of cyclone is coming, but where all this comes from and why exactly it happens, we cannot say: all this is from treasures The Lord takes His own, because He commands the winds. If we cannot stop the wind, we cannot redirect the cyclones, then the Lord - please: when He preached on earth, He stopped the wind with one Divine word, tamed the storms, because it’s all in the hands of God - everything is in the treasury of God Himself, our Father Heavenly. And for this we should praise and glorify Him.
What else should we glorify God for? The Psalmist further says: Who shall smite the firstborn of Egypt, from man to beast. Send signs and wonders among you, Egypt, against Pharaoh and all his servants. How can one not thank the Lord if the Lord leads all the people out of Egyptian captivity, and look how wonderfully He does this: He struck down the firstborn of Egypt, punished the Egyptians with various executions, from Pharaoh to slave, so that the Israeli people could come out of Egyptian captivity. And today the Lord delivers us from this Pharaoh - the enemy of the human race, a demon who wants to cause us great evil, wants to keep us all in slavery, but the Lord still takes care of each of us.
Smite many tongues and smite mighty kings. After the Babylonian captivity, many nations met on the way, and various strong kings, and the Lord struck everyone - he gave strength to the people of Israel that he defeated them, although the people experienced great difficulties and walked through the desert, unable to arm their army or feed it to the full. But the Lord gives strength to this people, and they overcome. Whom?
The Psalmist further writes about this: Zion king of the Amorites, and Og king of Bashan, and all the kingdom of Canaan. The king of the Amorites had a huge army, was very rich and strong, and not everyone could compare with him. Og, the king of Bashan, was literally a giant, he was strong, strong, he slept on a metal, iron bed, that is, he was so strong that they were afraid to fight him. The Lord gave victory to Israel over these kings, although the forces were not equal, and their wealth and capabilities were not there, and the strength of the army was not such, but the Lord gave the opportunity to defeat them, for God was with them, and these kings fought without God.
And he gave the land their inheritance, an inheritance for Israel for his people. Everyone was struck down, including the entire kingdom of Canaan. The Kingdom of Canaan was within Palestine and they were defeated. Different kingdoms lived with their own nationalities, but the Lord allowed them to be defeated, and He gave the entire land that He promised, the Promised Land, to the Israeli people.
Lord, Your name endures forever, and Your memory endures forever. How can I not glorify You, Lord? You care about our people, You gave our people such a victory! We have seen the fulfillment of Your words: Your words are truth. How can you not remember this forever and ever? You have to be the most ungrateful person if you forget about all this. If you forget to worship You, forget to glorify You, what is the meaning of life on earth? David turns today to each of us - each of us must say together with David: Lord, Your name is forever and Your memory forever and ever - we will never, Lord, forget Your mercy, which You have shown to all of us and to all generations human.
Because the Lord will judge His people, and He will pray for His servants - the Lord will judge His people, and when they repent, He will forgive them and give mercy. But He will also judge the enemies who will harm the people chosen by the Lord - both the people of Israel and the people of the New Israel - Christians.
Idol the tongue of silver and gold, the works of human hands. Here the Psalmist reminds us that all idols made of gold and silver are the work of human hands, but not such our Christian images, says John Chrysostom: our Christian images of saints lead us to the Prototype - we glorify those who glorified the Lord, we glorify those who showed his true life. These are not idols that did not exist, a human invention. Our images are raised to the Prototype, and he talks about his service, about the holiness to which they strived. At the same time, silver and gold can now be an idol - our material life can snatch us away from the Lord. If we are not pagans, neo-pagans, then we must be careful, especially warn children, so that they do not fall into this heresy: material life becomes for some a religion - the service of all life and the purpose of life. The Psalmist also tells us about this. How can we serve idols?
They have lips and do not speak; they have eyes and do not see; they have ears and do not hear; for there is spirit in their mouth. The psalmist seems to rebuke: who do you serve? Do you serve those who have neither ears nor eyes, who have no spirit in themselves, soulless creatures that you yourself have invented?
Let those who create, I and all who hope in her, be like them - he says: “You hope in them, serve them, and you will be like them - just as soulless, insane, inhuman, you will become the same inanimate creatures: whoever serves whom, from that and is gaining. When we serve idols, we acquire this rigidity, callousness, and soullessness. Just as our ancestors were cruel, they destroyed everyone and everything, and for them there were no laws, no principles, so it is here: if a person serves idols, then that is what he becomes. When you serve Christ, you are inspired by the Spirit of Christ and the love of Christ, because our God is Love.
House of Israel, bless the Lord; house of Aaron, bless the Lord; house of Levi, bless the Lord. Ye who fear the Lord, bless the Lord. He called on everyone to bless the Lord - priests, Levites, deacons who served in the church, and ordinary people who feared the Lord: everyone bless the Lord, because everyone blesses according to his position. One blessing is priestly and another blessing is human, but he calls on everyone, all people, all classes without exception, to thank the Lord for His constant blessings.
Blessed be the Lord of Zion, who dwelleth in Jerusalem. Why from Zion? The ancient Jews believed that God lives only in Zion and only in Jerusalem. In fact, we know that God is everywhere and everywhere, and we can worship Him, thank and glorify Him in every place. But above all - in the courtyards of the house of our God: in the temple of the Lord, where the Lord indicated a place for our prayer and where He Himself will be present with us and help us in our needs and in our needs.
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Psalm 135 is similar to Psalm 134. It also begins with amazing words of glorification of God. That is why we sing in polyeleos, combining these two psalms. This psalm also calls us to glorify the Lord and thank Him.
Confess to the Lord that He is good, for His mercy endures forever. Confess to the God of gods, for His mercy endures forever. Each line, each verse of this psalm ends with exactly the same words: as His mercy endures forever - for the Lord does good towards the human race, He always does mercy and condescension for us, and calls for you and me to be like that. Why in every line: for His mercy endures forever? God never gets tired, say the holy fathers. We can get sick, become poor, and not have a penny to our name to do some kind of mercy, to do good, but God does this incessantly. Therefore, this psalm is connected with the previous psalm by the same thought, and almost the same words are spoken here by the Psalmist.
Confess to the Lord of lords, for His mercy endures forever. Great is the One who performed miracles, for His mercy endures forever. To Him who created the heavens with His understanding, for His mercy endures forever. Who established the earth on the waters, for His mercy endures forever. Great is the One who created the light, for His mercy endures forever. The sun is in the daylight, for His mercy endures forever. The moon and stars in the region of the night, for His mercy endures forever. We return again to the fact that the Psalmist sees the mercy of God in the fact that He so wisely created this whole world - so he arranged the day and night, gave the luminary and filled the luminary with what was necessary so that the sun would turn its rays downward. “Where should the rays be directed?” - you ask. Light a torch or a candle: where does the fire go? The fire always goes up. And the fiery sun directs its rays down, illuminating the earth. You see how amazingly and providentially the Lord works...
He who smote Egypt with its firstborn, for His mercy endures forever. And he who brought Israel out from among them, for His mercy endures forever. With a strong hand and a high muscle, for His mercy endures forever. He divided the Red Sea into divisions, for His mercy endures forever. Again the Psalmist says: look at the mercy of God, in what a wonderful way He brought Israel out... Here the Psalmist repeats what he said in the previous psalm: bless the Lord, because the Lord shows great benefits to the entire human race. Next are the same listings as in the previous psalm:
And He brought Israel through the midst of it, for His mercy endures forever. And he who shook Pharaoh and his strength in the Red Sea, for His mercy endures forever. He who led His people in the wilderness, for His mercy endures forever. He who has smitten the kings is great, for His mercy endures forever. And he that slew mighty kings, for his mercy endureth for ever: Zion, king of the Amorites, for his mercy endureth for ever. And Og, king of Bashansk, for His mercy endures forever. And to him who gave the land their inheritance, for His mercy endures forever. A treasure unto Israel His servant, for His mercy endureth forever. For in our humility we will remember the Lord, for His mercy endures forever. And He delivered us from our enemies, for His mercy endures forever. The Psalmist adds amazing words in this psalm that in our humility: The Lord has mercy not because of our righteousness, but because in humility they endured their sorrows. The Lord saw how they endured this punishment with humility, and for this He gave them His mercy.
Give food to all flesh, for His mercy endures forever. Indeed, the Lord gives food to every person. Here we can expand and say not only about the chosen people, but also about all people in general: the Lord gives food not only to the chosen people, but also to everyone living on earth. Not only for the righteous, but also for sinners. Not only to humans, but to the entire animal world. And the Lord does not leave anyone with His mercy and His love. It rains on everyone, and the sun shines on everyone. And no reasons of our earthly nature can interfere with this great love of our Lord.
Confess to the Heavenly God, for His mercy endures forever. The psalm ends with these wonderful words: Heavenly God. The psalmist shows that our God is not an idol living on earth, but God who is in Heaven, who through Christ makes His heavenly things an inheritance for each of us: the Lord ascended to Heaven to prepare there, with the Heavenly Father, for each of us. us monasteries. This is why we must thank and glorify God: while He lives in Heaven, He does not forget about man living on earth.
Recorded by Nina Kirsanova
