Psalter with interpretations by A.P. Lopukhin Psalm 37

Psalm 37

Lord, do not reprove me with Your wrath; do not punish me with Your wrath. As Thy arrows have struck me, and Thou hast strengthened Thy hand upon me. There is no healing in my flesh from the face of Your wrath, there is no peace in my bones from the face of my sin. For my iniquities have exceeded my head, for a heavy burden is heavy upon me. My wounds have grown stale and rotten because of my madness. I suffered and sloshed to the end, walking around complaining all day. For my body is filled with reproach, and there is no healing in my flesh. I would become embittered and humbled to death, roaring from the sighing of my heart. Lord, before You all my desire and my sighing are not hidden from You. My heart is confused, my strength has left me, and the light of my eyes has left me, and that one is not with me. My friends and my sincere ones have come close to me and stasha, and my neighbors are far away from me, stasha and needy, seeking my soul, and seeking evil to me, vain words and flattering ones all day long. As if I were deaf and did not hear, and because I was dumb and did not open my mouth. And as a man he would not hear, nor would he have reproach in his mouth. For in You, O Lord, I have trusted; You will hear, O Lord my God. As if he said: “Let my enemies never make me happy; and never can my feet move, but you speak against me.” As if I am ready for wounds, and my illness is before me. For I will proclaim my iniquity and take care of my sin. My enemies live and have become stronger than me, and those who hate me without truth have multiplied. Those who repay me evil with a cart of good have slandered me, driving away goodness. Do not forsake me, O Lord my God, do not depart from me. Come to my help, O Lord of my salvation.

Psalm 6 chapter 2 verse

When you hear the words: rage and anger, in relation to God, understand by them nothing human: these are words of condescension. The Divine is alien to all such things; It is said this way in order to bring the subject closer to the understanding of cruder people. So we, when we talk with barbarians, use their language; or when we speak to a baby, we babble like him, even if we ourselves were wise men, condescending to his youth. And what wonder if we do this in words when we do the same in deeds, biting hands and showing an appearance of anger in order to correct a child? In exactly the same way, God used similar expressions to influence more rude people. When he spoke, he cared not about his own dignity, but about the benefit of those listening. In another place, suggesting that anger is not characteristic of Him, He said: “ But do they grieve Me? says the Lord; not themselves to their shame?

"(19 But do they grieve Me? says the Lord; do they not grieve themselves to their own shame? Jeremiah 7:19)?
Would you really like Him, talking with the Jews, to say that He is not angry and does not hate the evil, since hatred is a passion, that He does not look at human affairs, since vision is characteristic of bodies, that He does not hear? , so hearing also belongs to the flesh? But from here another ungodly doctrine would be derived, that everything happens without Providence. By avoiding such expressions about God, many would then be completely ignorant of the existence of God; and if they did not know this, then everything would perish. When the doctrine of God was introduced in this form, its correction soon followed. He who is convinced that there is a God, although he has an inappropriate concept of Him and believes in Him something sensual, will eventually become convinced that there is nothing of the kind in God. And whoever is convinced that God does not provide, that He does not care about existing things, that He does not exist, what benefit will he receive from dispassionate expressions? That is why God, having first talked with them in this way and instilled in them the concept of His existence, then little by little purified them, leading them to the true teaching, speaking sublime things about Himself, and mentioning His dispassion. So another prophet says: (God) “ does not become weary or faint
” (28 Do you not know? Have you not heard that the eternal Lord God, who made the ends of the earth, does not become weary or faint? His understanding is unsearchable. Isa. 40: 28).
And the same prophet who said that God is angry, further, wanting to convey that the Divinity is impassive, adds: “ But do they grieve Me, or not themselves
?” (19 But do they grieve Me? says the Lord; do they not grieve themselves? your shame? Jeremiah 7:19)?
And the one who said that God dwells in the temple himself says later: “ For I am God, and not a man;
The Holy One is in your midst; I will not enter the city " (9 I will not do it according to the fury of My wrath, I will not destroy Ephraim, for I am God and not man; the Holy One is among you; I will not enter the city. Hos. 11:9), i.e. I will not limited by space.
If He did not refute all this, then with the spoken words He made it clear to the most prudent that He who is free from the most ordinary passions, without which it is impossible to live, is even more free from others. That is why the prophet says: “ You are like an astonished man.
” (9 Why are You like an astonished man, like a mighty man, not having the power to save? And yet You, O Lord, are among us, and Your name is called over us; do not forsake us .Jer. 14:9)?
And often he talks about the impassivity of God. Thus, here too, if you hear about anger, do not understand passion. Indeed, if people devoted to wisdom abstain as much as possible from anger, then how much more is the Being unchangeable and incorruptible, ineffable and incomprehensible. Don’t you see that doctors, when cutting off or cauterizing, do it not out of anger, but for the purpose of correction, not because they are angry with the sick, but out of compassion for them and to save them from illness? So, when the prophet said: “ Do not rebuke me in Your wrath
,” he said the following: do not punish me for my sins, do not take revenge on me for my iniquities.
*** Let's look at the beginning of the psalm itself. " God!
Do not rebuke me in Your wrath, and do not punish me in Your wrath .”
I know, Lord, that a terrible and terrible judgment awaits me in the face of the angels and all creation, (when) the Judge will sit on a terrible and exalted throne and will reveal and reveal all the sins I have committed, I know, and I do not dare to bring You, Lord, on behalf of my many sins. , my confession. My sin is greater than what can be left to me, I have sinned before You more gravely than any man, I have insulted Your name beyond measure, I have lived more dissolutely than the prodigal (son), I owe You more than the one who owed a thousand talents. An evil enemy robbed me worse than a tax collector; a murderer and a robber killed me worse than a robber. I have surpassed the harlot in fornication, I have sunk deeper than the Ninevites in sin without repentance, I have sinned more evilly than the Canaanite woman. “ My iniquities have gone beyond my head, like a heavy burden weighing me down.
I have suffered and bent to the end ” (5 for my iniquities have gone beyond my head, like a heavy burden weighed down on me, Ps. 37:5, 7).
I have insulted Your holy name, I have disobeyed Your commandments, I have squandered Your wealth evilly, I have squandered Your treasure badly. The pledge given by You, I lived with Your enemies; I have not kept the voice of Your commandments; the garment with which You clothed me You have defiled; I extinguished the lamp You prepared for me through my negligence; my face, which You enlightened, I have darkened with my sins; My eyes, to which You gave light, I have become blind again; my lips, which You sanctified, I have again profaned. And I know that You will still expose what I have done; I won’t hide from this anywhere, but in any case I will be exposed. But, “ Lord!
Do not rebuke me in Your wrath .”
(I do not say: do not rebuke me). This is impossible, but: “ Do not rebuke me in Your wrath
.”
Only You, the only Lover of Humanity, can grant me this (indulgence). You Yourself know exactly all my secret failures, but “ do not rebuke me in Your wrath
.”
Do not announce them, do not reveal them before all angels and people to my shame. " God!
Do not rebuke me in Your wrath .”
If no one can bear the wrath of a mortal king, then what kind of creature can withstand the wrath of God? “ And do not punish me in Your anger
.”
I'm not asking: don't punish. I will bear admonition and punishment, but while admonishing me, let me not “ punish me in Thy anger
.”
I know that the thief asked and received forgiveness from You. I know that the harlot fell to You with all her soul and received forgiveness. I know that the publican wept before You from the depths of his heart, and was justified. But I'm not like them. I do not have enough tears, I do not have true confession, I do not have groaning from the depths of my heart, I do not have a pure soul, I do not have unhypocritical fasting, I do not have love for my brother, I do not have spiritual poverty, I do not have compassion to be worthy of compassion, I do not have chastity in the flesh, I do not have purity of thoughts, I do not have a will decent to God. Finally, with what face or by what right will I ask for forgiveness? Lord, more than once I promised You to repent, and I broke my promises. More than once I fell before You in church, and immediately, leaving there, I wallowed in sin. Many times you have shown mercy to me and I have been rejected. How long have you been patient and I have not turned? How many times have You raised me up and I fell again? How many times have You encouraged me and I have remained ungrateful to You? How many times have I been heard by You, but have not listened to You? How many times have You shown compassion to me, but I have not served You in any way? How much honor have You shown me, and I did not want to honor You? How many times have You called me as a Father to a sinner, lovingly accepting me as a son, and calling me like a child, opening your arms? To the fallen One You said to me: “ Arise, O sleeper
” (14 Therefore it is said: “Arise, O O sleeper, and rise from the dead, and Christ will give you light.” Eph. 5:14).
Come to Me, I will not persecute you, I will not punish you, I will not shame you, I will not curse my creation, I will not reject you, I will not harden My heart towards My child. I do not want to hate My image, which turned to Me, I do not want to reject the man whom I formed with My own hand, whom I created, whom I carried, for whom I humbled myself, for whom I shed my blood. How can I not accept him turning to Me and falling down? So, having an inexhaustible and boundless abyss of love for mankind and a sea of ​​long-suffering, “ do not rebuke me in Your wrath
,” Lord, “
and do not punish me in Your anger
,” but be patient with me more and more, do not rush to tear me out of this life immature, not hurry to cut me down like a barren fig tree, but, as a kind and humane owner, give me, along with everyone else, this summer for repentance, do not neglect to bear my negligence and do not take me away from here unprepared.
Do not take me without a wedding garment; do not expose your naked soul to shame at Your throne. Finally, do not take me, who has nothing to bring to You, but be patient with me, but be philanthropic, but show compassion to me, poor, careless, careless, pitiful, needy, prodigal, defiled, dissolute, ungrateful, heartless, insensitive, sad, mired, darkened and unrequited, unworthy of any love for mankind, unworthy of heaven, worthy of all reproach, hell and punishment. But, “ Lord!
Do not rebuke me in Your wrath, and do not punish me in Your anger. »

Source
Spuria. Psalm of David about the eighth day. The content is extremely close to the interpretation of St. Anastasia Sinaita (another edition of his creation?)