Friday, December 30, 2005

The Psalms of David -- Psalm 19

"May the LORD hearken to you..."

I'll just offer an outline of Fr. Patrick's dissection of this matins psalm in the Orthodox Church:
  • This psalm is a prayer of the Church to Christ Himself, an "Amen to the redemptive work of Christ."
  • "...the line that reads, 'All your sacrifices'...is the 'Amen' of the Church to the pouring out of the redemptive blood..."
  • "When we say, 'May He give you according to your heart's desire'...it is once again the 'Amen' of the Church to the prayer Christ makes for her benefit" (Jn. 17:20-4).
  • "When we say, 'May the LORD fulfill all your requests,' it is especially the 'Amen' of the Church to such petitions as (Luke 23:34; Jn. 17:11).
  • "When we say to Him, 'We shall exult in Your salvation'...thus does she (the Church) exult... (Rev. 5:9-10, 12)."
  • When the Prophet David (as well as Isaiah--31:1; 36:9) says that "some trust in chariots, and some in horses," Fr. Patrick notes that "Holy Scripture wil finally describe these horses as white and carrying a conqueror, as red and bearing a warrior, as black and transporting famine, as pale and ridden by Death" in an ultimate betrayal of those who put their trust in anyone other than God.
  • While our psalm states, in agreement with Heb. 7:25 and 9:12, that "Now I know that the LORD has saved His Christ," it also confesses, along with 1 Jn. 3:2, that "We shall be magnified" ultimately at some point in the future.

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