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.
To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David, when Nathan the
prophet came to him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba.
Have mercy on me, O God, according to Your
lovingkindness. According to the abundance
of Your tender mercies, blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, Cleanse
me from my sin: for I acknowledge my transgressions. My sin [is]
ever before me. Against You, You only,
have I sinned, and done evil in Your sight: so that You might be justified when
You speak, [and] be clear when You judge.
Behold, I was born in iniquity. In sin my mother conceived me. Behold, You desire truth in the inward parts.
In the hidden [part] You shall make me know wisdom.
Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean.
Wash me, and I shall be whiter than
snow. Make me hear joy and gladness; [so that] the bones You have broken may
rejoice. Hide Your face from my sins, Blot
out all my iniquities. Create in me a
clean heart, O God. Renew a right spirit
within me. Cast me not away from Your
presence. Take not Your Holy Spirit from
me. Restore to me the joy of Your
salvation. Uphold me [with Your] Free Spirit.
[Then]
will I teach transgressors Your ways. Sinners
shall be converted to You. Deliver me
from blood, O God, God of my salvation. My
tongue shall sing aloud of Your righteousness.
Lord, open my lips. My mouth
shall show forth Your praise: for You desire not sacrifice: or I would give [it]. You delight not in burnt offering.
The sacrifices of
God [are] a broken spirit. A broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will
not despise. Do good in Your good
pleasure to Zion. Build the walls of
Jerusalem. Then shall You be pleased
with the sacrifices of righteousness, with burnt offering and whole burnt
offering. Then shall they offer bulls on
Your altar.
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or helped by any of these meditations in Psalms, please repost or share all of
them.
[1]
How ordinary that we find remorse for our sins and guilt after we sin. We are not very skilled at praying or thinking
ahead about the consequences of our actions, or we might not do them. Had we started with, “Dear God, Is this a
good thing for me to do,” we might not have landed in such a morass of
trouble. Alas, we did not pray before we
took action; we did not seek the Holy Ghost ahead of time; so now we must seek
cleansing. David begins his first
paragraph with a plea for mercy and ends with an apology.
David is not blaming his mother for his sins in the second
paragraph. He confesses that at or even
before conception he is actively sinning.
In the mystery of sinfulness, we see that David was already an active
participant in sin in Adam, for three thousand years or more. It is this mystery of brokenness which must
be forgiven, healed, and made right.
Now David returns to the subject of his cleansing. “Hyssop” forces us to think of the
Crucifixion. The gifts of a clean heart,
a right spirit, and the Holy Ghost, come only from Christ’s death and
resurrection, and from Pentecost. In the
mystery of prophecy, David sees far into the future. Indeed, David’s vision may be nearly blind,
but he asks for things that are yet to come.
David understands that the outcome of such great forgiveness
is that he shall become a voice for God, a voice that will lead many to
salvation: for if an adulterer, murderer, thief, false witness, and coveter can
be forgiven; then anybody can be forgiven, except those who hate forgiveness.
David concludes with the observation that the foundation of
all human sacrifice to God is brokenness and contrition, without which no
sacrifice, bloody, burned, or otherwise makes any sense. In the final analysis, we have only one thing
to give to God that is truly our own: namely, our own sin (teachings of Fr.
Basil).
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