COMMUNING WITH OUR MERCIFUL AND ALL-LOVING GOD THROUGH THE SACRED PSALMS

My beloved brothers and sisters in Christ Our Only True Lord, God and Savior,

CHRIST IS IN OUR MIDST! HE WAS, IS, AND EVER SHALL BE.

COMMUNING WITH OUR MERCIFUL AND ALL-LOVING GOD THROUGH THE SACRED PSALMS

The Orthodox Christian appreciates the opportunity throughout the year, especially during holy Lent, to strengthen his/her commitment to our Lord, God and Savior Jesus Christ and to commune with Him directly through prayer and worship. The sacred Psalms have a unique power. For they are at once thoroughly human and utterly divine. The entire range of the human experience is voiced in the Book of Psalms in the Old Testament. Every virtue and weakness, every emotion and passion of our mortal race is explored and expressed in terms both frank and poignant. By the sake token, we receive the Psalms as God inspired, "God-breathed Scripture" (2 Timothy 3:16), inspired by the Holy Spirit and thus an aspect of the Divine self-revelation. This means that when one reads a Psalm in faith, one both speaks to God and listens to God simultaneously. Because of their unique universality and power, the Psalms constitute the prayer book par excellence of the Church.

Among the authors of the Psalms are David the king, the temple musicians, and Prophet Moses. The major theme — the songs of God’s people. Each Psalm has its own theme. The Psalms are of many types, including; (a) prophecies of the coming Messiah, (b) prayers for the king, (c) personal lamentations, (d) songs of praise, and (e) hymns for special feasts. The Psalms have become for the Church, as for ancient Israel, a book of prayer and praise. All find their fulfillment in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Not only do the Psalms predict specific events of our Lord Christ’s life, but in them He Himself intercedes for and with His people before the Father. The Psalms can also be seen as a dialogue between the Church, the body of Christ, and Christ her Head. Therefore, they make the most sense to us when they are prayed or chanted, not only read.

The Book of Psalms, or Psalter, is used in the Orthodox Church in three primary ways:
(a) In the daily cycle or prayers. The liturgical tradition appoints certain Psalms as "fixed" portions of the daily services. These will be pointed out in the notes throughout the text as Psalms for morning prayers, evening prayers, and prayers of the Hours. (b) In the weekly order of the morning and evening services (Orthros/Matins) and Vespers/Esperinos). When these are done in their entirety, as in the Monasteries, all the Psalms are chanted in the course of each week, starting at Saturday Vespers/Esperinos and concluding at Orthros/Matins the following Saturday. (c) In the observance of the Church year, the liturgical tradition selects particular Psalms or verses for special feasts or seasons as prophetic statements illustrating the work of our Lord Christ for us. For example, the Passion Song of Psalm 21 ("They pierced My hands and My feet") is used in our Church on Great and Holy Friday. Thus, using the Psalms is crucial to our understanding of the fullness of Christ’s Ministry to His people.

The purpose of the Psalms serve many functions. They (a) foretell coming events; (b)recall history; (c) frame laws for life; (d) reveal what must be done to obey God’s word; (e) are a treasury of good doctrine; and (f) helps overcome the passions that exercise dominion over our souls, through the power of poetic expression to capture and gradually transform our thoughts.

It is most prudent, therefore, to use the Psalms in faith and to be guided by them as the Chrstian believer draws near to the Almighty God and Creator.

Being both truly human and truly divine, the Psalms as a whole form and extraordinary verbal icon of the Person of Jesus Christ. In the Psalms we see His Passion predicted, we hear His life of prayer before the Father, we observe His victory over death in types and shadows. In the Psalms the Holy Apostles and Holy Fathers of the Church found an abundance of Christological teaching as they struggled to comprehend the incomprehensible act of Divine Incarnation. If the Book of Prophet Isaiah can justifiably be called "the Fifth Gospel," the Book of Psalms may with equal fitness be termed the "Sixth" Gospel.

My personal advice is for the Orthodox faithful to read at least a Psalm in the morning and a Psalm before sleeping at night. There are 151 Psalms which comprise the Book of Psalms. By using them daily along with your personal prayers you will be edified, inspired, and comforted. Your prayers will become more meaningful and your relationship with our Merciful Lord more profound. [Resources: The Orthodox Study Bible and Psalms and the Life of Faith]

Psalm 1

BLESSED is the man Who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly,
Nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the troublesome;
But his will is in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day
and night.
He shall be like a tree planted by streams of waters, that produces its
fruit in its season; and his leaf shall not wither, and whatever he does
shall prosper, not so are the ungodly, not so, but they are like the dust
the wind drives from the face of the earth. Therefore the ungodly shall
not rise in the judgment, nor sinners in the counsel of the righteous;
for the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the
ungodly shall perish.

A MOST BLESSED AND JOYFUL LENTEN SEASON TO ALL OF YOU!

___________
"Glory Be To GOD
For
All Things!"
+ Saint John Chrysostomos

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With sincere agape in His Divine and Glorious Diakonia (Ministry),
The sinner and unworthy servant of God
+ Father George