How easy it is to read the entire Psalter every day.
How easy it is to read the entire Psalter every day.
Today I will tell you how I have long been using a wonderful tool for spiritual life and prayer in the form of a short pocket Psalter of St. Augustine. He composed it for his righteous mother Monica, taking individual words or entire phrases from all 150 psalms of Scripture. In her old age, she could no longer read the complete Psalter. From my own experience, I will say that the state of mind becomes blessed during such reading, and watch this video about the benefits of this method.
I am posting here the audio version of this Psalter and the text. And for your convenience, at the bottom of the page there is this short Psalter for download.
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Blessed Augustine's mother Monica labored vigorously for her salvation until she was very old. Among her ascetic rules, by the way, was this: to read the Psalter every day.
Seeing his mother in years, already elderly, but not abandoning her great deeds, her loving and grateful son, Blessed Augustine, to facilitate his mother’s feat of reading the entire Psalter every day, took the trouble to shorten it into the following prayer and gave it to the elderly ascetic for daily reading instead of the Psalter .
Saint Demetrius of Rostov, collecting materials for compiling his Chetya Menaion, found this prayer of Blessed Augustine in the manuscripts. This prayer greatly pleased the saint of God, the compiler of the lives of the saints. He sent it to his friend Stefan Yavorsky, Metropolitan of Ryazan. Metropolitan Stephen, having read and, where necessary, corrected this prayer, sent it to Saint Demetrius with the inscription: “Announce this prayer to all the faithful who want honor for the benefit of the soul.”
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Brief Psalter of St. Augustine.
“Lord God Almighty, King of eternal glory! You know that only that person is blessed who, despising the path of sinners, meditates on the law of Your commandments day and night.
Teach me, a sinner, to serve You faithfully with all my heart, with fear and trembling, and hear my voice, humbly calling on You; So, mercifully hear my words and in Your wrath do not leave me in error, lest the ancient enemy, like a lion, snatch away my soul when there is no deliverer and saver.
But You, Lord, for Your name is majestic in heaven and throughout all the earth, turn my enemy back, so that he may stumble and perish before You, so that he cannot catch my soul in fiery nets, and brimstone and the scorching wind do not destroy me.
For the sake of the suffering of the poor and the sighing of the poor, arise, look and hear me, Lord, because You are the advice of the poor and his hope. Grant me, my God, to act blamelessly and do righteousness, so that the grace of Your mercy may be part of my inheritance.
Guard me like the apple of your eye; Cover me in the shadow of Your wings, for You are my fortress, my stronghold and my refuge. Cleanse me from secret (sins) and restrain Your servant from intentional ones, O Lord. Send me help from the Sanctuary and fulfill the desire of my heart. Save me from the mouth of the lion and guide me on the paths of Your righteousness, so that I can ascend Your mountain and stand in Your holy place, with innocent hands and a pure heart.
Do not remember the sins of my youth and my crimes. Do not destroy my soul with sinners and do not betray me to the mercy of my enemies; but graciously hear the voice of my prayer, and listen to him who calls upon the glory of Your holy name, and have mercy on me.
Hear, Lord, so that, trusting in You, I will not be ashamed forever, and forgive me my crimes. May Your mercy be upon me, O Lord, since I trust in You, and deliver me from all my dangers; say to my soul: “I am your salvation.” Since I am at rest in the shadow of Your wings, fulfill the desire of my heart and hasten to help me, O Lord, God of my salvation.
Tell me, Lord, (when) my end is and what is the number of my days, so that I may know what my age is. Hear, O Lord, my cry, and bring me out of the terrible ditch, out of the muddy swamp, and set my feet on the rock, and establish my feet.
In the day of trouble, deliver me, O Lord, so that I may enter the house of God with a voice of joy, for You are the God of my strength. Do not turn my steps away from Your path, so that I may love righteousness and hate iniquity.
Be my refuge and strength, for You are the great King over all the earth. Our leader forever and ever, deliver my soul from the power of the underworld when you accept me. When You come to judge Your people, have mercy on me, O God, according to Your great mercy, and do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.
Turn away, O Merciful Master, at that hour Thy face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me, so that I, like a green olive tree, may be received into the house of God in the holy oil and rejoice there with Jacob and rejoice with Israel. Save me in Your name and judge me in Your power. Do not hide from my prayer, but have mercy on me.
Send Thy mercy and Thy truth from heaven, and put to shame those who seek to devour me; break their teeth in their mouth and break the jaws of lions. You are my God, who has mercy on me, save me with Your right hand, and I will hide under the shelter of Your wings when You reward everyone according to his deeds. My soul thirsts for You, protect me from the plans of the insidious.
When all flesh comes to You, do not turn Your mercy away from me, but illuminate me with Your face. God for us is God for salvation; Make my path prosperous, O God, lest the abyss swallow me up, lest the abyss of its mouth close over me.
Be my help, Lord, do not hesitate, because in You, Lord, I trust; May I never be ashamed. When You judge Your people and those who move away from You will perish, let me not be oppressed and put to shame: for You are a righteous Judge, You humiliate one and exalt another - You are terrible, and who can stand before You?
You are a God who works miracles. Just as You fed Your people with bread in the desert and gave them what they desired, so may Your goodness satisfy me, who am hungry, and may Your mercies meet me.
Bread of tears and the bitterness of sadness came during the time of sorrow and produce sweet honey from the rock in order to receive inner delight for me. God, who considers (the affairs of) the righteous and the sinners, the Most High above all the earth, hear my prayer, have mercy on me and bless me, Lawmaker; forgive my iniquity, and cover all my sins, and save Your servant, my God, who trusts in You.
God, who established His Church on the holy mountains, incline Your ear to my prayer. Let Your hand be with me, so that I do not return to corruption; But deliver me from the snare of the fowler and from the pestilence that destroys at midday, so that I, being planted in the house of the Lord, may flourish like the date palm and grow tall like the cedar of Lebanon for many days. Be my protection and stronghold of my refuge, O my God, great King over all gods.
When You judge the world according to righteousness and the nations according to Your truth, may I enjoy the eternal light that shines on the righteous, and joy with the upright in heart, may Your right hand and Your holy arm save me.
Thou who sittest upon the cherubim, cause me to walk before Thy face with a shout, in the integrity of my heart in the midst of my house. May a corrupt heart depart from me, but may my eyes be directed toward Thy faithful saints, and may I live with them, walking in the way of integrity, when, in judgment, Thou shalt uproot from Thy city all those who practice iniquity.
God! Hear my prayer, and let my cry come to You. Do not hide Your face from me; incline Your ear to me on the day of my sorrow. Be merciful to me in all my affairs, deliver my life from the grave, fill my desire with good things.
He who looks down on the earth and it shakes, who brought forth His people in joy and His chosen ones in joy, help me to maintain judgment and do righteousness at all times; lead me out of darkness and the shadow of death, so that with a ready heart I will glorify and sing praises to You.
Do with me a sign for salvation for the sake of Your name: for Your mercy is good, so that in the splendor of holiness, in the council of the righteous and in the assembly, my righteousness will remain forever and my horn will exalt in glory. And when You command the poor me to rise from the dust and lift up the poor from the dirt, I will bless You from now on and forever and will walk before Your face in the land of the living. Loosen my bonds, for great is Thy mercy.
When I cry to You in cramped conditions, Lord, hear me, (giving me) space. Show me, Lord, that I may live and adhere to the paths of Your statutes to the end. Give me understanding, and I will keep Your law, and keep it with all my heart. I am lost like a lost sheep; having sought, deliver my soul.
Guard my going out and my coming in, so that my feet may be at the gates of Your Jerusalem. To Thee I lift up my soul and my eyes, O Thou who dwellest in heaven: deliver my soul from the snare of them that snare, that I may not stretch out my hands to iniquity. May my mouth be full of joy and my tongue full of singing. Do not leave me in shame and bless me from Zion, so that I may see the prosperity of Jerusalem; Let all who hate Zion be put to shame.
Let Your ears be attentive to the voice of Your servant’s prayer, O Lord. Let not my heart be puffed up and my eyes not be lifted up, but let me remain humble until I find a place for the Lord, a dwelling place for the God of Jacob. Where You have commanded blessing and life forever, there I will lift up my hands to the sanctuary and bless You, who will judge His people and have mercy on His servants.
God of gods and Lord of lords, I weep and worship before Your holy temple; test me and know my heart; test me and find out my thoughts and guide me on the eternal path. Keep me, O Lord, from the hands of the wicked, save me from oppressors.
Let my prayer be directed like incense before You, Lord. Bring my soul out of prison, so that I may glorify Your name, O Lord. Hear me, O Lord, according to Your truth and do not enter into judgment with Your servant.
Hear me quickly, O Lord, may my spirit not faint, for You are my God, my Mercy, my Refuge and my Savior. You are great and praiseworthy, and Your greatness has no end. Raise the bowed, loose the prisoner, open the eyes of the blind, O Lord, Creator of Jerusalem.
When Thou hast strengthened the ropes of Thy gates, may I dwell within with Thy sons. How the angels and all Your armies in the kingdom of heaven praise You; so I, rejoicing with them with glory in the assembly of the saints, may I praise and glorify with thunderous cymbals Your holy, glorious and reigning name throughout the endless centuries of ages.
Amen"
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"Blessed is the man"
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Since ancient times, the Orthodox Church has had great respect for the poetic heritage of the king of ancient Israel and the prophet David. There are 150 psalms in the Bible, combined into a book called the Psalter. Not all psalms were written by David, but other authors clearly focused on the king and prophet. The Psalter is used daily in Orthodox worship. The first psalm, named after the initial words, “Blessed is the man,” is regularly heard in churches. Priest Anthony Borisov talks about its contents.
The psalm “Blessed is the man” is at the very beginning of the Psalter. This, however, does not mean that this is the first work written by King David. The numbering of psalms is arbitrary. Most likely, “Blessed is the man” ended up at the beginning of the Psalter due to the call that this psalm contains. “Blessed is the man” tells us about the lifestyle of a person who strives to be with God. King David writes:
“Blessed (happy) is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, and does not stand in the way of sinners, and does not sit in the seat of the wicked, but his will is in the law of the Lord, and he meditates on His law day and night!”
King David himself tried to live this way. During his life there were sinful falls, but the heart of the Israeli ruler and prophet was always turned to God. Therefore, the Lord gave him the opportunity not only to wisely rule the country, but to become an ancestor in the flesh of the Savior of the world, Jesus Christ. The words he wrote came true on the prophet himself:
“And man will be like a tree planted by streams of water, which brings forth its fruit in its season, and whose leaf does not wither; and in everything he does, he will succeed.”
Further, the author of the psalm warns that sin deprives us of such a peaceful and happy existence, turns life into emptiness and torment. David warns those tempted by sin:
“Not so - the wicked, not so: but they are like dust swept away by the wind from the face of the earth. Therefore the wicked will not stand in judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous. For the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.”
Subsequently, Christian theologians often used this image, created by the prophet David, the image of two paths - the path of the righteous and the path of the sinner. The first gives a person true happiness, the second path deprives him of this happiness, and with it abolishes the meaning of life.
The psalm “Blessed is the man” is heard on Saturday evenings in every Orthodox church. Here it is necessary to take into account the following feature. The church day begins in the evening - accordingly, Sunday worship begins on Saturday evening. “Blessed is the man” turned out to be the first hymn of the service in honor of the Resurrection of Christ not by chance. After all, it is the Savior who can give us real bliss - spiritual happiness. In return, He expects from us a righteous life, which the prophet David speaks about in his psalm. Now let’s listen to the chant “Blessed is the Man” performed by the choir of the St. Elizabeth’s Monastery in Minsk.
Psalm 1
The first words of this psalm are preceded by the inscription: Psalm to David
.
This inscription means that the composition of this first psalm was attributed to David, the king of the Jews and prophet of God. An addition was made to this inscription in the “Teaching Psalter”: not inscribed among Jews
. These last words mean that in the Hebrew Bible this psalm has no inscription. The first psalm depicts the blissful state of the righteous in contrast to the disastrous state of the wicked - this, according to St. Fathers, the reason that this psalm is placed first, as if at the head of all other psalms, is because beatitude is the foundation and beginning of the teaching about the moral life of people, and it is communicated only to righteous people, that is, those who willingly fulfill the law of the Lord.
Ps.1:1 Blessed is the man 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 the destroyers.
The compiler of the psalm, speaking about the bliss of the husband, seems to forget or remain silent about the wife or woman. But this expression of the psalmist should not be understood to mean that it speaks only of one half of the human race, the male; but the word “husband” must be taken as the word “man,” because the bliss of the righteous, as well as the destruction of the wicked, is equally assimilated in the Word of God by both half of the human race. And our Lord Jesus Christ, teaching His Divine teaching about the beatitudes, did not attribute it to one half of humanity, but assimilated it to everyone in general, saying: blessed are the poor in spirit, blessed are the weeping, blessed are the meek
and so on.
And the psalmists in other psalms express their thoughts and feelings in a similar way when they say: “Blessed are those who are blameless in their ways, who walk in the law of the Lord”
(Ps. 119, etc.).
By the council of the wicked
, according to the teachings of St.
Athanasius, “one can call it a meeting, or gathering, of wicked people” [3, p. 40]; and according to St. Basil the Great, the advice of the wicked
- wicked thoughts from which wicked deeds begin [4, p.
13–14]. Don’t go, don’t stop, don’t sit down
- these words express both the present and the past tense equally, and mean: whoever hasn’t gone, doesn’t walk and doesn’t stop. So, blessed is he who does not share the thoughts and feelings of wicked people and maintains purity of thoughts; and if he is drawn into evil, he does not stand in it, does not become rigid; Blessed is he who does not participate in the meetings of the destroyers of faith and morals, who abstains from agreement and complicity with the wicked.
Ps.1:2 But his will is in the law of the Lord, and in his law he learns day and night.
After the death of Moses, “the servant of the Lord,” the prophet and leader of the Jews, the Lord appeared to Joshua, “the servant of Moses,” and expressed His will to him in the following expressions: “Be strong and take courage, and let not the book of the law of God depart from your mouth, and study in it day and night, then you will prosper in all your ways and deeds.”
(see Josh. 1:7–8). The unwavering fulfillment of this will of God is the piety of a believer and the bliss associated with it. Thus, the psalmist in the 2nd verse of the first psalm expresses the blessedness of the pious with the sayings of the Lord God Himself.
Ps.1:3 And it shall be like a tree planted by the rising waters, which shall yield its fruit in its season, and its leaf shall not fall off, and all that he does shall prosper.
The words of this verse also bear an almost literal resemblance to the words of God spoken through the prophet Jeremiah, who denounced the wickedness of the Jews. In the 17th chapter of his prophecies, Jeremiah compares the fate of a pious man who trusts in the Lord God with the fate of the wicked, and about the first of them he says: “Blessed is the man who
(who)
trusts in the Lord, and will be like a tree planted by the waters, and will take root for good; he will not be afraid when the heat
(heat, drought) comes,
and the stem will be green on him, and in times of lack of rain he will not be afraid and will not cease produce fruit"
(Jer. 17:7-8).
The sayings of verse 3 from the first psalm were repeated and somewhat modified by the prophet Jeremiah, since the latter lived and prophesied much later than the compiler of the first psalm, David. What is remarkable here is how well the sacred writers knew the Word of God, spoken through the prophets, despite the fact that in their time there were no printed books of the Word of God, and handwritten scrolls of it were very rare. Why is it that such knowledge of the Word of God is not visible among people today, despite the fact that achieving this knowledge in the present time is much easier and more convenient? Is it because people nowadays prefer to follow the advice of the wicked
and abide
in the ways of sinners
? And doesn’t this serve as a clear sign that today’s people, who boast even of the title of true Christians, place piety and blessedness not in the knowledge of the Word of God and not in the daily study of the Lord’s law, but in something else?!
Ps.1:4 Not like wickedness, not like this, but like dust, which the wind sweeps away from the face of the earth.
Yes, the wicked are wrong
as godly people, who succeed in everything they undertake and do;
because they do everything with the hope of God's help. Just as moisture always pours onto the roots of a tree planted near water sources, and it always turns green and bears abundant fruit, so the grace of God is poured onto the works and activities of a pious person, and these works are always successful. But the deeds of the wicked
are deprived of God’s gracious assistance and therefore,
like dust swept up by the wind from the face of the earth
, these deeds are destroyed and do not bear fruit and do not have any beneficial consequences.
Because the wicked do not know God and refuse to seek and know Him. They, like the Egyptian Pharaoh, responded to Moses and Aaron’s proposal to let God’s people go into the wilderness, answering: “Who is the Lord that I should obey His voice and let Israel go?
“I do not know the Lord” (Ex. 5:2).
They, through the long-suffering of God, often enjoy all the blessings of this world; and meanwhile, as it is written in the book of Job, they say to God: “Get away from us, we do not want to know Your ways!
What is the Almighty, that we should serve Him? and what is the use of resorting to Him?” (Job 21:14–15). Being atheists, they live in sin and indulge in all vices, all shameful passions (Rom. 1:24-32). Being themselves evil and foolish, they persecute believers (John 16:23).
Ps.1:5 For this reason the wicked will not rise again for judgment, nor the sinner for the council of the righteous.
Translated from Hebrew: The wicked will not stand in judgment
, will not stand because they are like the dust of the earth, are not confirmed by faith in Christ and are already condemned, according to the word of the Savior Himself:
“Whoever does not have faith will be condemned”
(Mark 16:16).
Therefore, in the words of the psalm: The wicked will not be resurrected for judgment
- there is no contradiction with the words of the Holy Gospel:
“all who are in the tombs will hear the voice of the Son of God, and they who have done good will come out to the resurrection of life: and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of judgment”
(John 5 :28–29).
So, everyone will be resurrected, only the wicked will not stand in judgment together with the righteous (Matthew 25:32), but will be condemned
, but the righteous and pious after the resurrection will follow into the Kingdom of God, or - which is the same thing -
into eternal life
, as the Savior Himself says:
“Amen, amen, I say to you, that if you listen to My word and believe in him who sent Me, you will have eternal life, and will not come into judgment, but will pass from death to life”
(John 5:24).
Ps.1:6 For the Lord knows the way of the righteous, and the way of the wicked will perish.
This means that the Omniscient and Righteous Judge knows
.
He knows everything even before the trial and therefore has no need for either evidence or denunciation. By path
we usually mean not the road we walk on, but all our deeds, thoughts and intentions, and therefore the final words of the psalm:
the path of the wicked will perish
mean that the deeds, plans, intrigues of the wicked, and with them they themselves
will perish
.
So, blessed are all those who seek
Lord God with all their hearts (Ps. 119:2, 33:11), who delight in the law of God and meditate on it
day and night
(Ps. 11:1, 1:2), who listen to the Word of God and act on it (James 1:22–25; Luke 11:28).
Blessed are all those upon whom, on the day of judgment, the blessing of the Heavenly Father will extend, spoken through the mouth of the Son of God: “Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world”
(Matthew 25:34). But “what sorrow will fill the heart of a sinner at that hour when the Judge Christ sits on His terrible throne, all generations will appear before Him and all the secrets of the heart will be revealed! Terrible is the judgment, terrible is the Judge, terrible is this hour!.. Blessed is the one whom Your goodness will cover then, O Lord!” (Psalter of St. Ephraim the Syrian).
