The Book of Psalms serves Christians for many purposes. It is not only edifying, but also contains many prophecies about the coming of Jesus Christ into the world. Also, by carefully reading from it, we can learn a lot about the power and strength of God. Psalm 18 begins by describing the great deeds of the Lord who created the universe.
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Psalm 18 - text in Russian
| Finally, a psalm to David | For execution. Psalm of David. |
| 1 The heavens declare the glory of God, but the firmament declares the work of His hand. | 1 The heavens proclaim the glory of God, but the firmament proclaims the work of His hands. |
| 2 The day vomits out the days, and the mind proclaims the night of the night. | 2 Day speaks to day, and night speaks to night knowledge. |
| 3 Speech is not meaningless, it is lower than words, and their voices are not heard. | 3 There are no dialects or languages in which their voices are not heard. |
| 4 Their messages went out into all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world. Place Your village in the sun, | 4 Their voice went out into all the earth, and their speech to the ends of the world. He made His abode in the sun, |
| 5 And He, as the Bridegroom proceeds from His palace, will rejoice, as the Giant of the mother-in-law is the way. | 5 And it, like a bridegroom coming out of his bridal chamber, will rejoice like a giant as he runs his way. |
| 6 From the ends of the heavens His coming forth, and His meeting to the ends of the heavens, and there is nothing else that will be sheltered by His warmth. | 6 From the end of the heavens its rise is, and its descent is to the ends of the heavens, and no one can hide from its warmth. |
| 7 The law of the Lord is blameless, converting souls, the testimony of the Lord is sure, making children wise. | 7 The law of the Lord is blameless, converting souls, the testimony of the Lord is sure, making children wise; |
| 8 The righteousness of the Lord is right, gladdening the heart, the commandment of the Lord is bright, enlightening the eyes. | 8 The commandments of the Lord are right, making glad the heart, the commandment of the Lord is bright, enlightening the eyes; |
| 9 The fear of the Lord is pure, endure forever: the destinies of the Lord are true, justified together, | 9 The fear of the Lord is pure, enduring forever; the judgments of the Lord are true, righteous all together, |
| 10 more desirable than gold, and precious stones in abundance, and sweeter than honey and honeycomb. | 10 More desirable than gold and many precious stones, and sweeter than honey and honeycomb. |
| 11 For Thy servant will keep me; I will always keep him; the reward will be great. | 11 And behold, Your servant keeps them; in observing them there is much reward. |
| 12 Who understands the Fall? Cleanse me from my secrets, | 12 Who can understand sins? Cleanse me from my secret deeds |
| 13 And spare Thy servant from strangers, if they do not possess me, then I will be blameless and cleansed from great sin. | 13 And protect Your servant from strangers. If they do not take possession of me, then I will be blameless and cleansed from great sin. |
| 14 And the words of my mouth and the teaching of my heart will be pleasing before You, O Lord, my Helper and my Deliverer. | 14 And the words of my mouth and the care of my heart will always be pleasing to You, O Lord, my helper and my deliverer. |
Cleanse me from my secrets
1. By grace and the Divine gift of the Spirit, each of us obtains salvation; by faith and love, with the effort of free will, one can achieve the perfect measure of virtue, so that, as much by grace as by truth, one can inherit eternal life, as one being vouchsafed complete success not only by Divine power and grace without introducing one’s own labors, so again achieving the perfect measure of freedom and purity, not through one’s own diligence and strength without the assistance of God’s hand from above; because not yet
The Lord will build a house and preserve a city that labors in vain, and that labors and builds in vain.
(Ps. 127:1).
2. Question. What is the will of God, to the knowledge of which the Apostle calls and convinces each of us to ascend (Rom. 12:2)?
Answer. Complete cleansing from sin, liberation from shameful passions and acquisition of the highest virtue, that is, cleansing and sanctification of the heart, undoubtedly accomplished by the communion of the perfect and God's Spirit. For it is said: blessed are the pure in heart: for they will see God (Matthew 5:8); and: you too may be perfect, even as your heavenly Father is perfect. And it is also said: make my heart blameless in Your justifications, so that I will not be ashamed (Ps. 119:80); and again: then I will not be ashamed, even though I will always look upon all Your commandments. And also to the questioner: who will ascend the mountain of the Lord? - the answer is given: innocent in hand and pure in heart (Ps. 23:3-4), and this signifies the complete destruction of sin in both deed and thought.
3. The Holy Spirit, knowing how difficult it is to get rid of implicit and secret passions, and that they are, as it were, rooted in the soul, shows through David how cleansing from them should be accomplished. For it is said: cleanse me from my secrets (Ps. 18:13), that is, with the help of many prayers, faith and perfect aspiration to God, with the assistance of the Spirit, this can be accomplished by us; if, moreover, we strain our strength to do this, and guard our hearts with all care.
4. And blessed Moses, showing in images that the soul should not follow two thoughts, good and bad, but one good one, and that it is necessary to cultivate not two fruits, good and bad, but only good ones, thus says: do not harness your threshing floor dissimilar animals together, for example, a calf and a donkey; but harness those who are of the same kind, and thresh your harvest (Deut. 22:10), so that in the threshing floor of our hearts there will be work not of virtue and vice together, but of virtue alone. Clothes made from wave are not woven with linen; and also from flax with a wave. Do not cultivate two fruits on one piece of land. Do not bring together a foreign animal with a foreign animal, but mate like-kind with like-kind (Lev. 19:19). All this mysteriously makes it clear that, as has already been said, we should not cultivate both virtue and vice together, but give birth to only the fruits of virtue, and the soul should not be in communion with two spirits - with the Spirit of God and with the spirit of the world. For it is said: For this reason I was guided by all Your commandments, I hated every way of unrighteousness (Ps. 119:128).
5. It is not only from obvious sins, such as fornication, murder, theft, gluttony, condemnation, lies, love of money, covetousness and the like that a virgin soul must be pure, desiring to unite with God, but much more, as we said above, from secret sins, that is, from lust, vanity, man-pleasing, hypocrisy, covetousness, flattery, malice, hatred, unbelief, envy, pride, arrogance and other similar things. For the Lord, as Scripture says, places these secret sins of the soul on a par with outward sins. It is said: scatter the bones of people-pleasers (Ps. 53:6); and: the Lord abhors a man of blood and flattery (Ps. 5:7), which shows that God equally abhors both flattery and murder. And it is also said: those who speak peace with their neighbors, and so on (Ps. 27:3); and also: for in your heart you do iniquity on earth (Ps. 57:2); and: woe to you when people say good things to you, that is, when you have a desire to hear good things about yourself from people, and you are attached to fame and human praise. For is it possible for those who do good to completely hide themselves? Moreover, the Lord himself says: let your light shine before men (Matthew 5:16). However, as it has been said, try to do good for the glory of God, and not for the sake of your own glory, and not as those who love human praise; for the Lord called such unfaithful, saying: How can you believe, since you receive glory from one another, and do not seek the glory that comes from one God (John 5:44)?
Look how the Apostle commands us to do everything, even eat and drink, for the glory of God; for he says: whether you eat, or drink, or do anything else, do it for the glory of God (1 Cor. 10:31); and the divine John, putting hatred on a par with murder, says: if you hate your brother, you are a murderer (1 John 3:15).
6. Love covers everything, endures everything. Love no longer disappears (1 Cor. 13:7-8). The words: no longer means that those who received the above-mentioned gifts of the Spirit, but were not awarded the highest freedom from passions for the most complete and effective spiritual love, have not yet come to safety; but on the contrary, their cause is still in danger and under fear from evil spirits. This measure, according to the instructions of the Apostle, is no longer subject to fall and there is no other similar state; why the angelic language, and prophecy, and all knowledge, and the gifts of healing are nothing in comparison with love.
7. This Apostle pointed out the goal of perfection, so that everyone, recognizing himself as impoverished from so much wealth, with a burning and tense spirit, hastens to this final limit, and thus proceeds in the spiritual field until he reaches it, according to what was said: thus strive, that ye may comprehend (1 Cor. 9:24).
8. Understand that to renounce oneself means to devote oneself to brotherhood in everything, not to be led in anything by one’s own will, and not to be the master of anything except a single robe, so that a person, having become completely independent, can joyfully adhere to only what is prescribed to him , and behave like a slave with everyone, and even more so with superiors, obeying Christ who said: if he wants to be first and greatest in you, let him be a servant of all, and last, and a slave (Matthew 20:26-27), not seeking neither honor, nor glory, nor praise, not working in public, like a people-pleaser, but considering himself obligated to serve the brethren in everything in love and simplicity (Col. 3:22).
9. The superiors of the brotherhood, as assigned to a great cause, must overcome the machinations of counteracting malice, so that, through the passion of pride, ruling over the brothers as over subordinates, instead of doing great benefit, they do not harm themselves. On the contrary, as compassionate fathers, having dedicated themselves for God’s sake to serving the brotherhood both physically and spiritually, let them take care of the brothers and at all times take care of them, as children of God, where necessary, reprove them and, where necessary, console them, in order , under the pretext of humility and meekness, the monasteries did not fall into disarray, not observing the proper order between abbots and subordinates. In the secret of their minds, let the superiors consider themselves to be the unworthy slaves of all brothers, and like mentors to whom spiritual children are entrusted, with all complacency and with the fear of God, let them try to guide everyone to all that is good, but not knowing that the great, inalienable and every thing is being observed for them. labor exceeding reward.
10. Just as those who have taken upon themselves the responsibility of being mentors of young people, even sometimes of their own masters, for the education and decency of morals, do not find it difficult to strike them with all freedom: so the superiors, not out of passion of anger and arrogance, not avenging themselves, should punish brothers who need some kind of admonition, but with all kindness, for the purpose of spiritual benefit, bring them to correction.
11. Great zeal, and work, and care, and ascetic life lead us to the state of acquiring love for God, by the grace and gift of Christ imagined in us. After this commandment, it is not difficult to fulfill the second one - I mean the commandment to love one’s neighbor. Prefer the first to everything else, and try harder for this than for the other; in this case, the first will be followed by the second. If anyone, having neglected this great and first commandment, I mean the commandment of love for God, which is formed in us by our inner disposition, a good conscience, sound concepts about God, with the assistance of God’s help, only intends to devote himself to the second commandment, care for external service; then it will be impossible for him to fulfill this commandment sensibly and purely. For insidious malice, as soon as it sees that the mind is devoid of remembrance of God, love and desire for Him, or presents the commandments of God as difficult to fulfill and difficult, and arouses in the soul grumbling, sadness and complaints about serving the brothers, or deceives a person with conceit about his righteousness, and convinces one to consider oneself honorable, great and fully fulfilling the commandments.
12. When a person considers himself a keeper of the commandments; then he clearly sins and does not keep the commandments faithfully; because he pronounces judgment on himself, and does not wait for the Giver of true judgment. When the Spirit of God obeys our spirit, according to Paul’s saying (Rom. 8:16): then only we become truly worthy of Christ and children of God, and not when we justify ourselves in our own conceit. For it is said: Do not boast to yourself, this one is skilled, but the Lord praises him (2 Cor. 10:18). When it turns out that a person has neither the remembrance of God nor the fear of God, then there is a great need for him to love glory and to catch the praise of those whom he serves. And the Lord called such an infidel, as this has already been explained; for it is said: how can you believe, receiving glory from one another and not seeking glory from the one God (John 5:44)?
13. One can succeed in the love of God, as has been said, with great struggle and heaps of mind through holy meditations and unceasing care for all that is beautiful; because the enemy hinders our mind and does not allow it to be held in divine love by remembering everything beautiful, but deceives the feeling with earthly desires. Death and, so to speak, strangulation to the evil one, when it turns out that the mind remains undistracted in the love of God and in the remembrance of God. From here can flow sincere love for a brother, true simplicity; as well as meekness, humility, sincerity, kindness, prayer itself, and the entire adorned crown of virtues, through the one and only first commandment of love for God, accept perfection. Therefore, great struggle, secret and hidden labor, testing of thoughts, and teaching the exhausted feelings of our soul to reason about good and evil, strengthening the tired members of the soul, and reviving them with a careful aspiration of the mind towards God are required. For our mind, thus always clinging to God, according to Paul’s saying, becomes one spirit with the Lord.
14. Lovers of virtue must continually have this secret struggle and labor and meditation when they begin to fulfill every commandment, whether they pray, or serve, eat, or drink, so that whatever good is done is done for the glory of God, and not to our glory. Every fulfillment of the commandments will be convenient and easy for us when the love of God makes them easier and resolves all their difficulty.
15. All the effort, as has been explained, and the zeal of the enemy to come to the opportunity to distract the mind from the remembrance of God, from the fear of God and from the love of God, with earthly seductions and lures, turning him away from the truly good to the imaginary good .
16. The virtues are connected to one another and are supported by one another, like some kind of sacred chain in which one link hangs on the other. For example, prayer rests on love, love on joy, joy on meekness, meekness on humility, humility on service, service on hope, hope on faith, faith on obedience, obedience on simplicity; just as the vices that are contrary to them are connected one with another, for example, hatred with irritability, irritability with pride, pride with vanity, vanity with unbelief, unbelief with hard-heartedness, hard-heartedness with negligence, negligence with laziness, laziness with negligence, negligence with despondency, despondency with impatience, impatience with voluptuousness; and in the same way the other members of vice rest on one another.
17. It is desirable for the evil one to denigrate and defile every good deed, no matter what a person does, with an admixture of his seeds, such as vanity, conceit, and sometimes grumbling, or something like that, so that the good done is not done for the sake of God alone, or not with diligence. For it is written that Abel brought a sacrifice to God from the fat and from the firstborn sheep, and likewise Cain brought gifts, although from the fruits of the earth, but not from the firstborn; and therefore, God looked upon the sacrifices of Abel, but did not heed the gifts of Cain (Gen. 4:3-5). From this we can learn that something good can be done not well, such as: either carelessly, or carelessly, or for something else, and not for God; and from this it happens that even a good deed can be unpleasant to God.
Macarius the Great.
Second word. About spiritual perfection
1121. How to accustom yourself to obedience? In everyday affairs, you need to develop the following habit: to prefer your neighbor to any business. For example, if we are busy doing something, and we hear a neighbor’s request to help him with something, then we must immediately interrupt what we are doing and fulfill the neighbor’s request in order to calm him down.
1122. How to receive visitors? A person coming to you, especially for a spiritual purpose, should be received with affection and a cheerful appearance, and internally humble yourself and consider yourself inferior to him. It is good to send away a visitor with a gift, a treat needed for a neighbor, with sweets (for children), it is good to provide a neighbor with a divine book (in accordance with his spiritual needs and the degree of his development). We must avoid visitors who come to us for the purpose of entertainment, to take up our time. From them we receive spiritual harm and ruin through their chatter.
1123. Why is it so important to hide your good deeds? Because revealing them to people destroys them. Saint Theophan the Recluse writes: “As much as possible, hide your affairs in spiritual life, and do not reveal them either in your eyes, or in conversations, or in other relationships.”
1124. Is it possible to lie? One must resort to lying only in extreme cases (with temptations), and very rarely, as a dangerous medicine, and do this with fear and trembling, showing God both one’s will and necessity, and then the person will be forgiven .
1125. What to do when thoughts of envy come? Then you need to pray: “Cleanse me from my secrets and from strangers spare Thy servant” (St. Ambrose of Optina).
1126. Should I tell others what I told my confessor and confide my temptations to them? Don’t tell anyone what you talked about with the elder, and don’t confide your temptations to anyone except your spiritual father: you won’t get relief from stories, but you can help someone else cause harm; They will listen to you out of curiosity, and then they will be tempted, and they will condemn you too. In monasticism they write: the cell of the elder-confessor should be a grave for both.
1127. How to kiss icons correctly?
When kissing the holy icon of the Savior, one should kiss the feet; the Mother of God and the saints - the hand, and the Image of the Savior Not Made by Hands and the head of John the Baptist - in the hair.
1128. Is it important to sanctify food, drink and one’s premises? The air is sanctified by sprinkling holy water and prayer, food by sprinkling and blessing; everything is sanctified by the cross. It is very important to sanctify food. Food has a great influence on the state of our body and spirit. Having brought provisions from the market, before washing them with water, the hostess must wash them with the sign of the cross - to cleanse them of spiritual germs and bacilli. The sign of the cross can even destroy the power of poison. It is also important to sanctify not only food, but also your home, bed, and household.
1129. What should one do against pride? Against pride one should reproach oneself more often before the Lord and the one who is struggling should cry out from the depths: “Lord, Master and my God! Drive away the spirit of vanity and pride from me, and grant the spirit of humility to me, Your servant.”
1130. What should I do when a sinful desire is aroused in me from people or objects? I must not enter into communication with those objects that arouse violence in us, and not react to everything that tempts our freedom (we must move away).
Why read Psalm 18
Like other chapters of the Psalter, this one has an inscription. It talks about David - in this case, as the author. The exact time of writing cannot be determined, since the themes are not tied to specific biblical events. This is one of the most beautiful hymns praising God - the Creator and creator of the Law. He refers the reader to other books of the Old Testament:
- Verses 2 through 7 talk about the creation of the world described in Genesis.
- From verses 8 to 15, Christians can see an allusion to Divine Scripture. From it we learn about our responsibilities, about the commandments that we must observe.
According to Athanasius the Great, Psalm 18 contains the apostolic teaching about the Creator. After all, among the pagans, the celestial bodies - the sun, the moon, and the firmament itself - were deities. And here the prophet describes them as creations of the Lord, who praise Him by their very appearance.
You might be interested in:
| 1. Book of Genesis - Professor Pavel Aleksandrovich Yungerov |
| 2. Explanation of the sacred book of psalms - Song of Degrees, 120 - Archpriest Grigory Razumovsky |
| 3. Psalter of the Mother of God - St. Demetrius of Rostov |
| 4. Psalms of David. Spirit and Letter – Professor Sergei Sergeevich Averintsev |
| 5. Conversations on Psalms – Conversation 36 on Psalm 126 – St. John Chrysostom |
| 6. Explanatory Psalter – Psalm 2 – Euthymios Zigavinos (Zigaben) |
| 7. Interpretation of the Psalms - St. Athanasius the Great |
| 8. Ascetic experiences, part 1 – The attitude of a Christian to his passions – St. Ignatius (Brianchaninov) |
| 9. Guide to the study of the Holy Scriptures of the New Testament. Apostle – Council Epistles – Archbishop Averky (Taushev) |
| 10. New Testament (translation edited by Bishop Cassian) – Epistle of the Apostle Paul to the Romans – Bishop Cassian (Bezobrazov) |
Interpretation
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There are several semantic blocks in this chapter of the Psalter. Verses 2 through 7 show how observation of nature can lead to thoughts about God. His invisible hand is clearly visible throughout creation. Only fools believe that the Sun arose by chance, thanks to the chaotic movement of atoms. Everything in the universe must have a first cause for existence, and that is the Lord. Considering the structure of the universe, the sizes of celestial bodies, the periodicity of their movement, one can draw conclusions about the Creator.
- Psalm 34 - text;
- Look here Psalm 118 in Russian;
- Psalm 101 - text in Russian: .
Judging by the interpretations of the holy fathers, they see in this chapter of Holy Scripture hints of various qualities of God. The sizes of celestial bodies indicate His infinity. The brightness of the firmament indicates that the Creator is the source of light, of life itself. The height at which the stars are located is about power.
- Heaven is the dwelling place of God. The structure of the human body is such that it is directed upward, where its soul will go (compare with animals whose heads are directed towards the ground).
- The constant alternation of day and night refers us to Genesis: it describes not only the process of creation, but also the conclusion of a contract between God and Noah. After the Flood, people were given a promise that “day and night will not cease.” The Lord shows His mercy to man, because daylight helps to work, and the darkness of night helps to rest. The rhythm of life, established from the beginning of time, testifies to the wisdom and providence of the Creator.
- The sun (it is called the same in Russian and in the Church Slavonic translation of the Bible) is worthy of special mention. It was not for nothing that this luminary was previously endowed with the qualities of a deity. It gives vitality to everyone around, regardless of age and religious affiliation. At the same time, as Psalm 18 teaches, the celestial body around which the Earth revolves is a clear witness to the existence of the Creator.
All nations without exception can daily observe how God's laws are implemented on earth. They will no longer be able to say that they have not heard about the One Creator; they will no longer be able to justify themselves by the fact that no one spoke to them about the Gospel. After all, Almighty God turned even stones into witnesses of His power.
God's Laws in Psalm 18
Another theme begins in verse 8, where David begins to talk about how people can show their respect to the Creator, who wants them to keep His commandments. There are a lot of them in the Holy Scriptures. Through studying, repeating, and chanting lines from the Bible, a person is able to receive enormous spiritual benefits, comprehend the Creator, and become his true follower.
The author gives several definitions of the Law, which is:
- righteous;
- perfect;
- strengthening the spirit, cheering the heart, enlightening the vision;
- pure, existing forever.
Undoubtedly, the One who created him also possesses all these qualities. Fulfilling God's commands has a beneficial effect on a person's entire being, as Psalm 18 states. The law of God was given not for the sake of limitation, but as a means for restoring the perfection of human nature.
