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.
The Lord reigns. Let the people tremble. He sits [between]
the Cherubim. Let the earth be moved. The Lord [is] great in Zion. He [is]
high above all the people. Let them
praise Your great and terrifying name. It
[is] holy. The king’s Strength also loves judgment. You establish equity. You execute judgment and righteousness in
Jacob.
Exalt the Lord our God. Worship at His footstool. He [is]
holy.
Moses and Aaron [are] among His priests. Samuel [is]
among those who call on His name. They
called on the Lord, and He answered them. He spoke
to them in the cloudy pillar. They kept His
testimonies, and the ordinance He gave them.
You answered them, O Lord our God. You were a God that forgave them, though You took
vengeance on their inventions.
Exalt the Lord our God. Worship at His holy hill: for the Lord our God [is] holy.
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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]
This Psalm of exaltation is distinguished by its repeated chorus: something
that is rather rare in Psalms. “Exalt the Lord our God. Worship at His footstool. He [is]
holy.”
The reasons for exaltation can be overlooked:
obviously, God reigns, is great, is high, is terrifying, is holy. Equally obvious: the people tremble, the
earth moves. Not so obvious, God “sits [between] the Cherubim.” We read this without considering that the
covering on the Ark of the Covenant is called the Mercy Seat; it is the visible
representation of God’s Throne; His flaming smoking Glorious presence sits
there; and the Israelites expected to direct their prayer to this visible
concrete reality. Moreover, the Ark of
the Covenant is God’s sedan chair, the icon of a bigger reality (2 Kings
2:11-12; 2 Kings 13:14; Ezekiel 1; 10).
This seat is vacant from 586 BC to 33 AD, when it is suddenly reoccupied
(Acts 2:30-36). When we come to
communion we receive gifts distributed from this seat, by the hands of Jesus. It is this Presence, Jesus, Who is the king’s
Strength. The psalmist is not evaluating
the merits of human virtues.
After the chorus, the second stanza is
begun. Not so obvious, Moses, Aaron, and
Samuel are notable because they are the ones chosen and permitted to enter into
this Presence and maintain a face-to-face conversation, which we call (extraordinary)
Inspiration, and which results in the publication of that conversation that we
know as the Bible. These men were
exceptional in their obedience to the requirements of this conversation. Those who failed in this obedience were either
destroyed on the spot, or excluded from the Presence. The minor peccadilloes of these and others
are called inventions, which are also destroyed. It is an interesting fact of faith that many
of the things we have built and treasure, our inventions, infractions we
consider minor, monuments we consider major, are reprehensible in the sight of
God, and doomed for destruction.
God is Holy.
He is separate from our inventions.
Our inventions cannot survive in His presence. Neither can we survive in His presence if we
persist in rebellion. Obedience through
grace brings access to God’s Holiness.
