... 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).
Glory be to the
Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost, as it is now, was in the
beginning, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.
In my distress I cried to the Lord. He heard me.
Deliver my soul, Lord, from lying lips, from a deceitful tongue.
What shall be given to you? What shall be done to you, false tongue? Sharp arrows of the Mighty, with coals of
juniper.
Woe is me, I sojourn in Meshech, I dwell in
the tents of Kedar! My soul has long dwelled
with him who hates peace. I [am for] peace. But when I speak, they [are] for war.[3]
[1] Psalms
of Ascent are thought to be the Psalms that pilgrims sang ascending the roads
from Jericho to Jerusalem; or that priests sang as they ascended the steps
going into the temple.
The psalmist is distressed by two things, but he is confident
of Yahweh’s patience in listening to his prayers, as also we should be likewise
patient. Sometimes it seems that answers
will never come; but we must remember that the Universe runs on Yahweh’s time
schedule, not on our schedule. Yahweh’s
answers are cosmic events.
Every believer will be confronted by liars, treacherous
friends, and the temptation to lie himself.
The psalmist prays that the instruments of healing, sharp arrows and red
hot juniper coals be applied to the lips and tongue so that their speech would
be healed of lying, deceit, and other spoken malice.
Augustine suggests that Meshech indicates distant, and Kedar
indicates darkness. The jury will be out
on this until we have a chance to probe further. However, no doubt remains about the rest of
the psalmist’s meaning. War has got to
go. We are well past the time when men
should have abolished war. Soon we will
be unable conduct war, except for the spiritual war of prayer, which is always
crying out for peace, mercy, faith, hope, and love.
On Augustine, Psalm 120, see http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/1801120.htm
[2] Or
Ascents: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Song_of_Ascents
[3] If you have been blessed or helped by any of these meditations in
Psalms, please repost, share, or use any of them as you wish.
These meditations are not controlled by
Creative Commons or other licenses, such as: copyright, CC, BY, SA, NC, or ND. They are designed and intended for your free
participation. They were freely
received, and are freely given. No other
permission is required for their use.
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