... 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).
Indeed, do you speak righteousness by
silence? Do you judge uprightly, you
sons of Adam? Yes, in heart you work
wickedness. Throughout the land, you
weigh the violence of your hands.
The wicked are estranged from the womb. They go astray as soon as they are born,
speaking lies. Their poison [is] like the poison of a serpent. Like the deaf adder stops her ear: that will
not listen to the voice of charmers, charming ever so wisely.
Break their teeth, O God, in their mouth. Break out the great teeth of the young lions, Lord. Let them melt away like
water, flowing off. He bends his arrows,
let them be as cut in pieces. As a snail
melts, let [them] pass away: [like] the untimely birth of a woman, [that] they may not see the sun. Before your pots can feel the thorns, He
shall take them away as with a whirlwind, both living, and in fury.
The righteous shall rejoice when he sees
the vengeance. He shall wash his feet in
the blood of the wicked. So that a man
shall say, “Certainly, [there is] a
reward for the righteous. Certainly, He
is a God that judges in the earth.”
________
If you have been
blessed or helped by any of these meditations in Psalms, please repost or share
all of them.
[1] This
is another public hymn. Altaschith may
be the name of an ancient tune.
Avoiding trouble by acquiescence is not righteous, it is
corrupt. Silence does not conceal the
wickedness of the heart. Weighing
violence is a lost idiom; perhaps the idea is one of weighing the benefits of
one wicked and violent plan against another.
This Psalm is a warning to speak up, and take a stand against evil, or
suffer the consequences.
David’s judgment seems harsh: he observes wickedness, lying,
and lethal behavior in the very young. We
believe this connects with the following, so that he refers to baby vipers,
which are fully poisonous as soon as they hatch, and can deliver a painful or
even lethal bite when only the size of a worm.
This is satanic behavior. The
person who fails to stand up for right is as bad as a poisonous serpent, as bad
as the devil.
David mixes his illustrations rapidly, he asks God to extract
their teeth, whether they behave like snakes or like lions. He wants them to disappear like spilled
water. One bends bows, but twists
arrows. Twisting the arrow in the victim
brings death more quickly, and tears the flesh in pieces. Snails do not do well when exposed to the hot
sun. The premature baby is gone before
it can take its first breath or open its eyes.
Thorns kindle instantly, so the pot feels the heat rapidly: this is
faster than that. The whole emphasis of
the paragraph is that the wicked would be snatched from life swiftly and with
great violence. If David has demons in
view, we get his point: the sooner gone, the better. Let the wicked who acquiesce perish quickly,
because the harm they do is so secret, and will only continue.
The righteous rejoices over the wrath of God directed against
evil. The core of this cannot be about
evil men: for, “we wrestle not against flesh and blood (Ephesians 6:12).” However, when the sons of Adam are silent in
the presence of great wickedness, they support the work of Satan and his
minions, and they deserve to share the fate of Satan. Relief from the oppression of temptation and
sin will one-day bring us great joy. It
pays to stand up for the Truth. God
certainly honors the commitment.
[2] Do
not destroy or corrupt. The person who acquiesces
destroys and corrupts others. He may be more
dangerous to society than the evil criminal that he fails to oppose. Man up. Woman up. Don't be a coward.
No comments:
Post a Comment