... 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,
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.
Holy God, Holy Mighty, Holy
Immortal, have mercy on us (three times).
David’s [Psalm] of praise.
I will extol You, my God, O king. I will bless Your name forever and ever. I will bless You every day. I will praise Your name forever and ever.
One generation shall praise Your works to
another, shall declare Your mighty acts.
I will speak of the glorious honor of Your majesty, of Your wondrous
works. [People] shall speak of the might of Your terrifying acts. I will declare Your greatness. They shall abundantly utter the memory of Your
great goodness, shall sing of Your righteousness.
The Lord [is] gracious, full of compassion, slow
to anger, and of great mercy. The Lord [is] good to all. His tender mercies [are] over all His works.2
All Your works shall praise You, Lord. Your saints shall bless You. They shall speak of the Glory of Your
kingdom, talk of Your power: to make known to the sons of men His mighty acts,
the glorious majesty of His kingdom.
Your kingdom [is] an everlasting kingdom. Your
dominion [is] throughout all
generations.2
The Lord upholds all
who fall, raises all [the] bowed
down. The eyes of all wait on You. You give them their food in due season. You open Your hand, to satisfy the desire of
every living thing.[3]
The Lord [is] righteous in all His ways, holy in
all His works. The Lord [is] near all those who
call on Him, all who call on Him in truth.
He will fulfill the desire of those who fear Him. He also will hear their cry, and will save
them.2
The Lord preserves
all those who love Him. All the wicked
will He destroy.2
________
If you have been
blessed or helped by any of these meditations in Psalms, please repost or share
all of them.
[1] It
appears that David has written this Psalm for a soloist and two choirs: perhaps
for the priest or cantor with the men and the women. Each stanza consists of a call or promise to
praise, followed by a response containing the words of praise, which we have
set apart by indention. As the stanzas
progress the number of participants increases until a crescendo is reached that
envelopes all creation, “all flesh” is more than all mankind. The last stanza reverse the order beginning
with the response and ending with the call.
This chiasm adds emphasis to the central message of Psalm 145, which is
overwhelmingly a Psalm of praise, calling all to worship.
In the first stanza the soloist, priest, or cantor promises to
extol, bless, and praise God, his king, and God’s name. The three words, extol, bless, and praise,
are synonyms, but their variety enhances, enriches, increases, and sweetens the
fervor of the praise that follows: this functions like an adjective. The response is simple enough, a first choir
sings antiphonally, Yahweh is great. The
call and response together proclaim that God is really, really, really, great. God is so great that He is unsearchable. This does not mean that God should not be
searched for. The believer should be
ceaselessly inquiring into the nature of His beautiful face. This should be the believer’s chief
delight. However, that beauty is so
immense, so infinite that it can never be exhausted. We must take sober warning. This is not a quest for words about God. This is a quest for God Himself. God has done everything to make relationship with
Him possible, even the crucifixion of His Son.
We respond by believing, hoping, and loving Him.
The second stanza is fugal, a second choir joins the soloist
with “One generation….”
The soloist laces in his call, “I will….” The choir, “shall speak….” The soloist, “I will….” The nature of the promise is greater, as
well: God’s works (creation, providence, and salvation), mighty acts, Glorious honor,
majesty, wondrousness, might, and terrifying greatness are all in view. These are not mere figures of speech, these
are concrete realities; David saw and spoke regularly with the visible Presence
of God’s Glory. Since, we today, cannot
see God’s Glory, it is a veiled mystery to us, but we see God’s plan more
clearly. God’s plan was more of a
mystery to David, but he saw God’s Glory quite clearly. The vitality of iconography is clearly in
view. The choir and soloist vow to
praise, declare, speak, utter, and sing.
The responding song is more elaborate, sung by the first choir: Yahweh is gracious, compassionate, patient, merciful, good, and tender in
everything He does.
In the third stanza the second choir sings
representing “all Your works … the saints” in praise. Yahweh’s great work,
perhaps His greatest, is the sainthood of all believers. The task of the saints is to make Yahweh’s kingdom, power, might, and Glorious majesty known by all mankind,
“make known to the sons of men.” The
first choir responds simply, noting the eternal nature of Yahweh’s
kingdom and the universality of His dominion.
The second choir hymns of Yahweh’s
salvation in the fourth stanza, “[He] upholds all who
fall,” and providence. Yahweh
feeds “every living thing” with the “bread of heaven”, with “angel’s food”. There is far more scope to this food than
mere physical sustenance, it is also the spiritual power to do Yahweh’s
will. “My meat is to do the will of Him
Who sent Me (John 4:31-38).” The first
choir serenades us with the fact that this great salvation is Yahweh’s
righteousness in action. God’s standard
of justice is forgiveness. Our task is
to call sincerely, to cry out to Yahweh.
The prayer of the righteous is more of thanksgiving than of
request. In faith, they see what God has
done, and respond in confidence, gratitude, and praise.
The last stanza opens with the first choir singing the
response. “Yahweh preserves
all those who love Him.” Love is
contrasted with wickedness, rather than hate; destruction is contrasted with
preservation. In many ways this is self-destruction:
the wicked were invited as fervently and frequently as anyone else. People are not lifted up to heaven, because
they refuse to be lifted up to heaven. The
soloist concludes with a final promise of praise, and a universal call for all
flesh to join in. We cannot imagine
animals refusing this call; yet, men and angels do….
[2]
Not one of these sentences is apophatic. All of them are cataphatic.
Think about that. Alas, scholasticism
has too much infected the churches.
David’s prayer is straightforward and easily understood by all
believers, even children. Excessive
philosophical contortions only serve to confuse, rather than enlighten. The scholastics, in both east and west,
invite us to words about God. David
invites us to God Himself.
[3] By
now we have come to realize that the progression of this Psalm is approximately
the same as that of the Lord’s prayer.
[4] The
profound reason for this progression from one to all is simple enough. The purpose of worship is to draw creation
toward God, and lift that creation up to God: thus, as believers worship God,
their act of worship invites and lifts unbelieving mankind to believe. Since even animals suffer under the fall,
they too are lifted up. Therefore
worship must be fervent and involve the labor of all believers everywhere. A first corollary of this is that worship
itself is the core of any great work of evangelism: for why should pagan man
come to believe anything that the evangelist doesn’t really believe
himself. A second corollary of this is
that the death of faith occurs at the head of the churches, not in the pews. Unbelievers leading worship is a lethal
weapon of Satan.
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