Salutation
... in the name of the Father, and
of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.
Amen. Through the prayers of our
holy Fathers, Lord Jesus Christ our God, have mercy on us and save us. Amen. Glory
to You, our God, Glory to You.
O Heavenly King: Prayer to the Holy
Ghost
O
Heavenly King, the Comforter, the Spirit of truth, You are everywhere and fill
all things, Treasury of blessings, and Giver of life: come and abide in us, and
cleanse us from every impurity, and save our souls, O Good One.
Not to us, Lord, not to us,
but to Your name give Glory, for Your mercy, [and] for Your truth’s sake. Why
should the heathen say, “Where [is]
now their God?” But our God [is] in the heavens. He has done what He has pleased.
Their idols [are] silver and gold, the work of men’s hands. They have mouths, but they speak not. Eyes have they, but they see not. They have ears, but they hear not. Noses have they, but they smell not. They have hands, but they handle not. Feet have they, but they walk not. Neither speak they, through their throat. Those who make them are like them. [So is]
everyone that trusts in them.
O Israel, trust in the Lord. He [is] their help and their shield.
O house of Aaron, trust in the Lord. He [is]
their help and their shield. You who
fear the Lord, trust in the Lord. He [is]
their help and their shield.
The Lord has been
mindful of us. He will bless [us]. He will bless the house of Israel. He will bless the house of Aaron. He will bless those who fear the Lord, small and great. The Lord shall increase you more and more, you and your children. You [are]
blessed of the Lord, Who made heaven and earth.
The heavens, the heavens [are] the Lord’s. But the earth has He given to the children of
men. The dead praise not the Lord, nor any that go down to silence.
But we will bless the Lord from this
time forth and forever.
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If you have been
blessed or helped by any of these meditations in Psalms, please repost or share
all of them.
[1]
God and man both work, but all the Glory belongs to Yahweh: for it is God who
strengthens, empowers, teaches, and leads.
Without God’s eternal support, man is blind and helpless. The heathen, however, cling to the illusion that
their works are their own. Since their
works are great, while Israel’s are small, they fancy the conceit that God is
like their idols, and they do not understand.
Lest we miss the point the psalmist lampoons idolatry and idolaters
in no uncertain terms: they are the height of foolishness. Nevertheless, idolatry is why “we wrestle not
against flesh and blood (Ephesians 6).”
What the psalmist does not tell us is that behind every idol, is the
horrifying reality of demonism.
All who would call themselves God’s children: Israelites,
Aaron’s family, God fearers are to trust exclusively in Yahweh. We suspect that Aaron’s name is singled out
because there is a special Satanic intensity of temptation to idolatry directed
at the priesthood: if the priesthood can be subverted, the rest of the faithful
will flounder.
Know this, the psalmist says, Yahweh is always with us in the fullness
of His power. He has created us, and He
loves us. It only depends of Yahweh’s
work, never ours. We are simply
reflectors of His love.
In God’s administration territories are delegated to
individuals: the earth is man’s delegated responsibility. That Satan is cast down and called the god of
this world, indicates his humiliation, not his exaltation. Satan accuses, destroys, obstructs, tempts;
but man is still in charge: Satan is just something else that man must cope
with. Thus, when Perfect Man comes, He
first wrestles with Satan in the wilderness (Matthew 4; Luke 4). There are two very different kinds of dead in
the Psalms: the dead, dead who are completely dead, cannot praise, and can only
be silent; and the resurrected dead, who are completely living, waiting for
their bodies to awake, can only praise, and can only sing with angels. These latter, bless Yahweh eternally.
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