1 Prayer of Moses, the man of God.
2 Lord! You are a refuge for us in generation and generation.
3 Before the mountains were born, and You formed the earth and the universe, and from time to time you are God.
4 You bring a person back to corruption and say: "Return, sons of men!"
5 For in Thy eyes a thousand years are like yesterday, when it is past, and how guards in the night.
6 you how you carry them away in a flood; they - how sleep is like a grass that grows in the morning, blooms and turns green in the morning, gets cut in the evening and dries up;
7 for we disappear from your anger, and from your anger we are in confusion.
8 Thou hast laid down our iniquities before Thee, and our secret before the light of Thy face.
9 All our days have passed in Thy anger; we are wasting our summers like sound.
10 days of our years - seventy years, and with a greater strength - eighty years; and their best time is labor and illness, for they pass quickly, and we fly.
11 Who knows the power of your anger, and your anger according to the measure of your fear?
12 Teach us to count our days in this way, that we may gain a wise heart.
13 Turn, Lord! How long? Have mercy on your servants.
14 Fill us early with Thy mercy, and we will rejoice and be glad all our days.
15 Make us happy in days, in which You amazed us over the years in which we have seen the disaster.
16 Let Thy work appear on Thy servants, and Thy glory on their sons;
17 And may the favor of the Lord our God be on us, and in the work of our hands help us, in the work of our hands help us.
IV. BOOK 4 (PSALMS 89 - 105)
Psalm 89: Death Knell
Let me use the power of my imagination to explain this psalm to you. The action takes place in the Sinai Desert. Years have passed since the scouts returned to Kadesh Barnea with their poor record. The people continue to wander in the desert, not coming anywhere. This is a useless movement.
Every morning a messenger arrives at Moses' tent with the latest news of the lost. This is news of deaths, deaths, deaths and deaths again. The most common news is obituaries, and the desert seems to be an ever-increasing graveyard. Every time people leave the camp, fresh graves are left behind.
On that day, Moses, the man of God, felt that his strength was exhausted. Exhausted with grief over the growing number of victims, he returned to his tent, fell on his face to the ground and poured out his soul in prayer to God.
89:1, 2 First, in the midst of the transience and temporality of existence, he finds comfort in the eternity of the Lord. Everything else goes away and disappears, but God is unchanged, He is a home and refuge for
His people. From eternity to eternity, He is God, "infinite, eternal and unchanging in His being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness and truth."
89:3, 4 The timelessness of God is sharply contrasted with the brevity of human life. It seems that God is constantly issuing a decree: "Return to dust!" - and an endless line of people is constantly moving towards the grave. For the One who is eternal, the original duration of human life - about a thousand years - is no more than yesterday's day or a watchman in the night.
89:5, 6 Even to Moses, human life seems short-lived, like a dream. You sleep, you see a dream, you wake up and do not realize that time flies. In other words, life is like grass - fresh and green in the morning, but withered and withered in the evening. Spurgeon said she was "seeded, matured, winnowed, threshed, and is no more."
89:7-10 Death is a consequence of the Fall, and Moses understands that what is happening in the wilderness happens according to the will of God. All the soldiers who were over twenty years old at the time of the exodus from Egypt will die and will not see Canaan. The sound of the funeral bell is a sign of God's displeasure with His people, who sided with the unbelieving scouts and did not go to Canaan, as Joshua and Caleb called. Their iniquities and secret sins are known to Him, they constantly grieve and irritate Him. As a result, the Israelites live under the shadow of the dark cloud of His wrath, and the stormy waters of His wrath are poured upon them. Some live their allotted time - seventy years, and some even eighty. Even so, their lives were hard. One disease followed another. The slightest work was hard for them. And soon their hearts stopped and they left this world.
89:11, 12 The man of God fears God's wrath and wrath. Who, he asks, can honor Him enough, thinking of the vastness of His anger? The thought of him prompts us to value every day of our life and obey Him always, so that it will be of eternal benefit.
89:13, 14 Moses prays that the Lord will turn to His people in mercy. Will His wrath burn forever? Will He not have compassion and fill them early with His mercy, so that they may live the rest of the days peacefully and happily?
89:15, 16 Further, Moses prays that Israel will have many years of joy ahead - and there will be no fewer of them than the years of calamity they have seen. They had already seen His power manifest in the works of judgment; now he asks the Lord to show the other side of His character and to perform works of grace.
89:17 Finally, the intercessor asks the Lord to look favorably upon His chosen people on earth and to make all their deeds fruitful: "In the work of our hands, help us."
Traditionally, Psalm 89 is often read at Christian funerals. And it is no coincidence, because he reminds us of the brevity of life and that there is no need to waste time in vain. But this psalm lacks the confidence and tranquility that believers found in the New Testament era. Christ brought us "life and immortality through the Good News." We know that death is a gain for us; it will allow us to be free from the body and be at home with the Lord. Therefore, the gloomy mood of Psalm 89 is supplanted by the joyful and triumphant hope of the believer in Christ. Death lost its sting, the grave was defeated. The believer can sing:
Death is defeated! Say it joyfully, be full of faith;
Where is the victory that the grave boasted now?
Jesus is alive! Your gates will no longer be bleak;
Jesus lives, He is mighty and mighty, He saves us.
1 Prayer of Moses, the man of God.
2 Lord! You are a refuge for us in generation and generation.
3 Before the mountains were born, and You formed the earth and the universe, and from time to time you are God.
4 You bring man back to corruption and say: Return, sons of men!
5 For a thousand years are before your eyes, as the day yesterday, when it is past, and as a watchman in the night.
6 You carry them away like a flood; they are like a dream, like grass that grows in the morning, blooms and turns green in the morning, is cut in the evening and dries up;
7 for we disappear from your anger, and from your anger we are in confusion.
8 Thou hast laid down our iniquities before Thee, and our secret before the light of Thy face.
9 All our days have passed in Thy anger; we are wasting our summers like sound.
10 days of our years - seventy years, and with a greater strength - eighty years; and their best time is labor and illness, for they pass quickly, and we fly.
11 Who knows the power of your anger, and your anger according to the measure of your fear?
12 Teach us to count our days in this way, that we may gain a wise heart.
13 Turn, Lord! How long? Have mercy on your servants.
14 Fill us early with Thy mercy, and we will rejoice and be glad all our days.
15 Make us glad for the days in which you struck us, for the years in which we saw the calamity.
16 Let Thy work appear on Thy servants, and Thy glory on their sons;
17 And may the favor of the Lord our God be on us, and in the work of our hands help us, in the work of our hands help us.
PSALM 90
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[Song of praise of David.]
1 Whoever dwells under the shelter of the Most High rests under the shadow of the Almighty,
2 says to the Lord: "My refuge and my protection, my God, in whom I trust!"
3 He will deliver you from the snare of the catcher, from the wicked plague,
4 He will overshadow you with His feathers, and under His wings you will be safe; shield and enclosure are His truth.
5 Thou shalt not fear the horrors in the night, the arrows that fly by day,
6 the plague that walks in the darkness, the plague that ravages at noon.
7 A thousand will fall at your side, and ten thousand at your right hand; but it won't come close to you:
8 Only you will look with your eyes and see the retribution of the wicked.
9 For you said, "The Lord is my hope"; You have chosen the Most High as your refuge;
10 evil will not befall you, and the plague will not come near your dwelling.
11 For he will command his angels concerning you, to guard you in all your ways:
12 They will carry you in their hands, so that your foot will not stumble over a stone.
13 You will step on the asp and the basilisk; you will trample the lion and the dragon.
14 “Because he loved Me, I will deliver him; I will protect him, because he has come to know my name.
15 He will call upon me, and I will answer him; with him I am in sorrow; I will deliver him and glorify him,
16 I will satisfy him with the length of days, and I will show him my salvation. "
PSALM 91
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1 Psalm. Song for the sabbath day.
2 It is good to praise the Lord and sing to your name, O Most High,
3 to declare thy mercy in the morning, and thy truth in the night,
4 on ten strings and a psalter, with a song on a harp.
5 For Thou hast made me glad, O Lord, with Thy creation; I delight in the works of Thy hands.
6 How great are your works, Lord! marvelously deep are your thoughts!
7 The foolish man does not know, and the ignorant does not understand it.
8 Whereas the wicked spring up like grass, and the workers of iniquity bloom to disappear forever,
9 You, Lord, are high forever!
10 For behold, your enemies, O Lord, behold, your enemies are perishing, and all that do iniquity are scattered;
11 But you lift up my horn like the horn of a unicorn, and I have been anointed with fresh oil.
12 And my eye beholds my enemies, and my ears hear of evildoers that rise up against me.
13 The righteous one blooms like a palm tree, rises like a cedar in Lebanon.
14 Planted in the house of the Lord, they blossom in the courts of our God;
15 they are fertile even in old age, juicy and fresh,
16 to proclaim that the Lord my rock is righteous, and there is no unrighteousness in him.
PSALM 92
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[Song of praise of David. On the day before Saturday, when the earth is inhabited.]
1 The Lord reigns; He is clothed with majesty, the Lord is clothed with might [and] girded: therefore the universe is solid, will not move.
2 Thy throne is established from time immemorial: You are from time immemorial.
3 The rivers lift up, O Lord, the rivers lift up their voice, the rivers lift up their waves.
4 But more than the sound of many waters, the mighty waves of the sea, the Lord is strong in the highest.
5 Thy testimonies are surely true. To Thy house, Lord, belongs holiness for long days.
PSALM 93
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[A psalm of David on the fourth day of the week.]
1 God of vengeance, Lord, God of vengeance, reveal yourself!
2 Arise, Judge of the earth, pay retribution to the proud.
3 How long, O Lord, the wicked, how long will the wicked triumph?
4 They spew out insolent speeches; all that do iniquity are magnified;
5 They trample thy people, O Lord; they oppress thy inheritance;
6 the widow and the stranger are killed, and the orphans are killed
7 and they say, "The Lord will not see, and God will not know Jacob."
8 Get your mind, mindless people! when will you be smart, ignorant?
9 Will not he who planted the ear hear? and the one who has formed the eye will not see?
10 He who admonishes the nations will not convict, - He who teaches man to understand?
11 The Lord knows the thoughts of men, that they are vain.
12 Blessed is the man whom thou admonish, O Lord, and instruct thy law,
13 to give him rest in times of trouble, until a pit is dug for the wicked!
14 For the Lord will not reject His people, nor will He forsake His inheritance.
15 For judgment will return to righteousness, and all that are upright in heart will follow.
16 Who will rise up for me against the evildoers? who will stand up for me against those who practice iniquity?
17 If the Lord had not been my helper, my soul would soon have dwelt in the land of silence.
18 When I said, “My foot is trembling,” Your mercy, Lord, sustained me.
19 When my afflictions are multiplied in my heart, thy comforts delight my soul.
20 Will the seat of destroyers be near you, who intend violence contrary to the law?
21 They rush in a crowd against the soul of the righteous and condemn innocent blood.
22 But the Lord is my protection, and my God is the rock of my refuge,
23 And he will bring their iniquity on them, and by their wickedness he will destroy them; the Lord our God will destroy them.
PSALM 94
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[Song of praise of David.]
1 Come, let us sing to the Lord, let us shout to God, the rock of our salvation;
2 Let us stand before him with thanksgiving, let us cry out to him in songs,
3 for the Lord is a great God and a great King over all gods.
4 In His hand are the depths of the earth, and the tops of the mountains are His;
5 The sea is his, and he made it, and his hands formed the dry land.
6 Come, let us worship and fall, let us kneel before the face of the Lord our Creator;
7 For he is our God, and we are the people of his flock, and the sheep of his hand. Oh, that you would now listen to His voice:
8 “Do not harden your heart, as in Meribah, as in the day of temptation in the wilderness,
9 where your fathers tempted me, tested me, and saw my work.
10 For forty years I was irritated by this generation, and I said: This is a people deluded in heart; they have not known my ways,
11 and therefore I have sworn in my anger that they will not enter into my rest. "
PSALM 95
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[Song of praise of David. To build a house.]
1 Sing a new song to the Lord; Sing to the Lord, all the earth;
2 Sing to the Lord, bless his name, proclaim his salvation from day to day;
3 proclaim His glory among the nations, His wonders among all nations.
4 For the Lord is great and praiseworthy; he is terrible more than all the gods.
5 For all the gods of the peoples are idols, but the Lord made the heavens.
6 Glory and majesty are before him, power and splendor in his sanctuary.
7 Give unto the Lord, ye peoples of the nations; give glory and honor to the Lord;
8 Give the Lord the glory of his name; bear gifts and go into his courts;
9 Worship the Lord in the splendor of the sanctuary. Tremble before Him, all the earth!
10 Tell the nations: The Lord reigns! therefore the universe is firm, it will not shake. He will judge the nations with truth.
11 May the heavens rejoice and the earth rejoice; let the sea rustle and what fills it;
12 Let the field rejoice, and all that is on it, and let all the trees of the oak rejoice.
13 before the face of the Lord; for he is coming, for he is coming to judge the earth. He will judge the universe according to righteousness, and the nations according to his truth.
PSALM 96
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[A psalm of David, when his land was built.]
1 The Lord reigns: let the earth rejoice; let the many islands have fun.
2 Cloud and darkness are around him; righteousness and judgment are the foundation of His throne.
3 Fire goes before him, and burns his enemies around him.
4 His lightnings illuminate the universe; the earth sees and trembles.
5 Mountains melt like wax at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the Lord of the whole earth.
6 The heavens declare His righteousness, and all the nations see His glory.
7 Let all be ashamed that serve idols, who boast of idols. Bow before Him, all gods.
8 Zion hears and rejoices, and the daughters of Judah rejoice because of thy judgments, O Lord.
9 For you, O Lord, are exalted above all the earth, exalted above all gods.
10 Lovers of the Lord, hate evil! He keeps the souls of His saints; He delivers them out of the hand of the wicked.
11 Light shines on the righteous, and gladness on the upright in heart.
12 Rejoice, you righteous ones, in the Lord and glorify the memory of His holiness.
PSALM 97
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Psalm [of David].
1 Sing a new song to the Lord, for He has performed miracles. His right hand and His holy arm brought Him victory.
2 The Lord has revealed His salvation, He has revealed His righteousness in the eyes of the nations.
3 He remembered his mercy [to Jacob] and his faithfulness to the house of Israel. All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.
4 Shout to the Lord, all the earth; triumph, be merry, and sing;
5 Sing to the Lord with the harp, with the harp, and with the voice of psalmics;
6 At the sound of trumpets and horns, triumph before the King.
7 Let the sea rustle and what fills it, the universe and those who dwell in it;
8 let the rivers clap their hands, let the mountains rejoice together
9 before the Lord, for he is coming to judge the earth. He will judge the universe rightly and the nations rightly.
PSALM 98
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[A psalm of David.]
1 The Lord reigns: let the nations tremble! He sits on the Cherubim: let the earth shake!
2 The Lord is great in Zion, and he is exalted above all nations.
3 May they glorify your great and terrible name: holy is it!
4 And the power of the king loves judgment. You have established justice; You have done judgment and righteousness in Jacob.
5 Exalt the Lord our God, and worship his footstool: holy is it!
6 Moses and Aaron between the priests and Samuel between those calling on his name cried out to the Lord, and he heeded them.
7 In a cloudy pillar he spoke to them; they kept His commandments and the ordinance that He gave them.
8 Lord our God! You listened to them; You were for them a God who forgives and punishes for their deeds.
9 Exalt the Lord our God, and worship on His holy mountain, for holy is the Lord our God.
PSALM 99
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[David's] psalm of praise.
1 Shout to the Lord, all the earth!
2 Serve the Lord with gladness; walk before Him with a shout!
3 Know that the Lord is God, that He created us, and we are His, His people and the sheep of His flock.
4 Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise. Praise Him, bless His name,
5 For the Lord is good: His mercy endures forever, and His truth to generations and generations.
Probably, each of us in childhood dreamed of a magic wand. How great it would be: he waved, and help arrived immediately. Our ancestors also dreamed of a lifesaver, whose lives were filled with dangers, illnesses and sorrows, oppression and suffering, perhaps much greater than those encountered in the lives of our contemporaries.
Now everything is much simpler, but not in the life of true Christians. The people of God are attacked by people, by evil spirits, waging war with the devil and his minions. Every believer clearly sees that, especially if he clearly professes his faith, he has to suffer a lot for it: in his everyday life, in his personal life, while traveling, at work, in society, etc. If he secretly confesses his faith, then demons put obstacles in other ways.
But Christ on the day of his ascension to heaven promised his disciples, who were worried that they were left alone: "I am with you all the days." And every true believer knows that He leaves no one who believes in Him and calls for help. One of the main "magic wands" of any Christian literally for any occasion is a treasure for his spiritual life, a collection of prayers and psalms - the Psalter.
What is the Psalter and Psalms
The Psalter is one of the main Christian books, although it was written long before the birth of Christ by several authors.
Traditionally, the creator of the Psalter is considered the Old Testament prophet and King David. Although he himself in his psalms mentions "my fingers made up the Psalter" - that is, he, being the author, recognizes himself and the compiler. However, in some psalms in the text of the book itself, other authors are specifically indicated: the first psalmist of David Asaph himself, the temple gatekeepers of the sons of Korach (Korach), etc. The best Jewish commentator Rashi counts ten authors for the Psalms, including Idifun, Abraham, Heman, Melchizedek, Adam, Asaph, Moses, sons of Korah.
In some editions Psalms to psalms p the author is also credited. In many psalms, traces of a much later time are clearly visible, something in which David lived: these are the times of the captivity of the Jews by the Babylonians and even later.
The Psalter is a collective spiritual work
Most likely, the Psalter was formed gradually, like any fruit of collective creativity. However, the authors are united by one thing: they are all people who had full communion with God, were righteous in His eyes and had the constant presence of God - the Holy Spirit. That is why each psalm is a joint creation of man and God. The Psalter combines the reflection of the difficulties, problems and feelings of a believer with the presence of God.
The souls of the holy people, the authors of the psalms, were pleasing to God and he sanctified them with His presence, accompanied and provided the help that they needed so much at that time. Each psalm is a symbiosis of human feelings and Divine sanctification. Since to each of them God revealed his destinies, showed his deeds. That is why everything that is described in them, and the way each author perceived what was happening around, is the truth.
The authors of the psalms were people of different origins - noble people with an excellent education corresponding to his time, and simple people. If David was a king and knew how to convert I am with the word, which is evident from his beautiful psalms, then with another author, Moses, everything is a little different.
Moses' contribution
As you know, Moses was "googly", that is, he did not know how to speak beautifully and fluently (despite the fact that he was brought up at court, not having a royal origin). That is why, when God called Him to serve, he several times persistently asked the Almighty to choose someone else for this, who would be able to beautifully and clearly tell people what is required of them. To which God even got angry with Moses, making it clear that he pleases him, and not another. And he gave Moses to help Aaron, his brother, who was eloquent, so that he would “translate” what people needed.
We mentioned above that the author of some of the psalms - and this is a poetic spiritual work, which was performed with a musical string instrument - was precisely Moses. The same tongue-tied unable to connect even a few words... His Psalm 89 is an example of spiritual and poetic creativity, in which historical events are also mentioned. Without inspiration from above, it is impossible to convey so briefly, clearly and accurately all your aspirations and praises to the Almighty, to present His deeds, to sing of His power and glory.
Psalm 89 by Moses
"Lord," the prophet exclaims, "we have had refuge from generation to generation." The Prophet testifies that he sees the works of God, they are open to him by the Holy Spirit. “All our days have passed in Your wrath; we lose our years, they disappear like sound. " The Prophet says that people greatly offended their Heavenly Father by believing not in Him, but in the wicked serpent, who seduced Eve to partake of the forbidden tree. Therefore, people on earth in those days, until the Savior came, lived in the wrath of God.
Further, the prophet says: "Our days are seventy years, and with a special strength - eighty, and at the same time their best time is in labors and experiences, in illnesses, and these best years pass quickly." And then the man of God draws a conclusion, which grows into a prayer request: "Teach us to spend our days in such a way that we can gain a wise heart."
This is how the Lord out of a tongue-tied person, with the touch of His Spirit, makes a poet and a man of prayer. Those who read and sang these words understood and felt a special, superhuman benefit for their souls and noticed that the Lord, when people spoke to Him with words from a psalm, especially quickly responded to them. After all, He Himself participated in their appearance.
The saints noticed this fact and began to resort to the Psalms, to the words of righteous people more and more often.
When the Psalter is read
It is no exaggeration to say that you can always read it. This collection contains such depth and wisdom of our predecessors, such a colossal experience of life on earth with God, that there is literally not a single topic to which the words of the psalms do not fit. Briefly, you can identify some situations when people resorted to the Psalms:
In a word - always. Some saints made notes to the psalms when and in what situation the Lord helped through prayer with this or that psalm, for example, "let the bolt open," "let the lost key be found."
The Lord is in a hurry to help even when a person calls out to him at least a line from a psalm. This is a proven fact: angry bosses soften or do not fulfill their formidable promises if a Christian prays to God with the words "Remember, God, David and all his meekness." Despite the fact that the name David may not be the name of the person praying, and he, to his shame, does not possess meekness, nevertheless the Lord remembers His man - King David - and helps the one who with his words asks for help, protection and mercy to yourself or loved ones.
What psalms to read under different circumstances
For each situation, its own psalm (or several) is suitable, which was realized by the holy people as most fully reflecting the situation or, according to their experience, especially helping under certain circumstances, even if the psalm does not outwardly reflect the problem that has arisen.
For example, they read:
Psalter for every need
There is such a service book in the Orthodox Church, which is called "Trebnik". This is a collection that contains a sequence of prayers to be read and actions that must be taken in order to praise worthily before God or ask for His action or constant presence. It includes:
However, a lot is not taken into account by the "Trebnik", and it was not created in order to foresee everything. At the same time, no one in the modern world dares to supplement it, adding his prayers, thereby placing himself on a par with the holy people who made up the course of worship and prayer to the Lord. However, there is no acute problem in this, since it was the Psalter that became the very addition.
Arseny of Cappadocia, "Psalms for different occasions"
The Monk Arseny turned to the psalms for blessing, when there was no specially compiled church rite for a special need. Saint Arsenius sorted all the psalms into several very extensive sections:
Each section contains psalms, which are more detailed in some specific cases.
Psalm 139
This psalm was written by the Old Testament righteous man David at a time of great sorrow because of the troubles that befell him. He was persecuted by his son Absalom, who wanted to kill his father. The young man was extremely persistent in his intention, which gave his father terrible grief. The content of the psalm is devoted almost entirely to enemies, who do not prejudice themselves in the means to achieve the rightful throne of David.
This psalm is both a prayer and a mourning to the Almighty. In it, the author conveys to God for judgment what intrigues against him are being built by yesterday's associates and friends and, and is horrified by the variety of their cunning. The interpretation of Psalm 139 says that most of all David was suppressed by the persistence with which the enemies pursued him: he reports that literally every day they did not give him rest.
The Psalmist asks the Creator to create in such a way that the lies from the mouth of the wicked fall on their own heads, and the name of the righteous would be justified.
Psalm 22: what they read for
Consider contemporary American films. An acute moment, the hero's life is in the balance, and he begins to cry: "The Lord is my shepherd, I will not need anything."
The beauty and poetry of the syllable, the imagery of the language, as well as the brevity of the presentation made this biblical text a true hit among filmmakers. Several verses from it sounded in many blockbusters, TV series:
- "Terminator",
- "Titanic",
- "Sin City"
- "X-Men",
- "Van Helsing",
- "The Book of Eli",
- "Mentalist" and many others. dr.
"The Lord is my shepherd ..." etc. is a more modern and less accurate translation of the work. In a more accurate translation, its beginning sounds like "The Lord feeds me, and he will not deprive me of anything."
The main idea of Psalm 22, regardless of its translation and the language in which to listen to it, remains as follows - the Heavenly Father protects and protects his children, directs their thoughts and life to spiritual development. Then this thought is revealed. The Almighty provides all His children with everything they need for life. The only misfortune is that they often do not notice this, take for granted the ability to live, to know God, to please their loved ones.
There is also an image of danger and death in the text, which pushes blockbuster heroes to pray at the most dangerous moments of their lives with these words. The author of the prayer is unshakably convinced that the Almighty will provide him with reliable protection, because He has all the strength and capabilities for this. Therefore, a believer experiences feelings of joy, hope, trusting in the One who holds everything in His hands.
Lord, you were a refuge for us in generation and generation. Before even the mountains did not exist and were created by the earth and the universe, and from time to time you are. Turn not a man into humility, and proclaim: turn around, sons of mankind. Like a thousand years before your eyes, Lord, like yesterday's day, like the past, and the night watch. The humiliations of their summer will be. Morning like grass will pass by, morning will flourish and pass away: in the evening it will fall away and grow hardened and wither away. Like disappeared by your anger, and by your rage are confused. Thou hast laid down our iniquity before Thee: our age is in the illumination of Thy face. As our whole days have become impoverished, and with Your anger disappeared, our summer will be like a spider. The days of our years, they are even seventy years old, if they are in power, they are eighty years old, and they multiply their work and illness: as if meekness came to us, and we will be punished. Who knows the power of Thy anger, and from Thy fear, Thy anger disappear? Tell Thy right hand taco, and bound in heart in wisdom. Turn, Lord, how long? And beseechfully awake for Thy servants. Be filled with Thy mercy in the morning, O Lord, and rejoice, and rejoice, rejoice in all our days, for days in goodness you have humbled us, years in goodness have seen evil. And look upon thy servants, and upon thy works, and instruct their sons. And wake the grace of the Lord our God on us, and correct the work of our hands on us, and correct the work of our hands.
This psalm belongs to Moses, the well-known leader and legislator of the Jewish people, as can be seen from the addition to this name of the epithet “the man of God,” predominantly adopted from ancient times by Moses (see Deut. 33: 1; Josh. 14: 6; Dan. 9, etc.). In this psalm, Moses, confessing at first the extraordinary greatness of God, further depicts the insignificance and sinfulness of man before Him, speaks of the well-deserved calamities experienced by the Jews and prays to God to be merciful to them. From the content of the psalm, we can conclude that it was written at the end of Moses' life, after forty years of wandering, before the Jews entered Palestine, when they had already been punished by God for their disbelief in Him.
You, Lord, are eternal and unchangeable: You existed before the formation of the mountains; generations of people change, thousands of years before You, like one day, but You are one and the same (1–6). We disappear from Your anger for our sins: our life is shortened (7-11). Teach us, O Lord, wisdom, have mercy and pour out Your favor on us (12-17).
Psalm 89: 2. God! You are a refuge for us in generation and generation.
“Refuge to generation and generation” - the Lord, since the time of Abraham's election, has always been supportive of the Jews, and since God alone is eternal, lasting and permanent protection can only be found in Him.
Psalm 89: 4. You return a person to corruption and say: "return, sons of men!"
Man before Him is a complete insignificance. The Lord "returns man to corruption" - according to the law of God, a man with death again returns to the land from which he was taken.
Psalm 89: 5. For before Thy eyes a thousand years are like yesterday, when it passed, and how guards in the night.
Psalm 89: 6. You how you carry them away in a flood; they - how sleep is like a grass that grows in the morning, blooms and turns green in the morning, gets cut in the evening and dries up;
The Lord is eternal, before Him a thousand years, like yesterday, that is, without a trace, and therefore imperceptibly disappeared moment; as a "guard in the night" (night guard), divided into three parts (shifts), which pass completely unnoticed for the sleeper. The years of human life are therefore insignificant before the eternity of God; human life can be compared to grass that appears in the morning and dries up in the evening. Human generations are being destroyed, they are carried away, as it were, from a flood.
Psalm 89: 7. for we disappear from your anger, and from your anger we are in turmoil.
Psalm 89: 8. You have laid our iniquities before You and our secret before the light of Your face.
Psalm 89: 9. All our days have passed in Your anger; we are wasting our summers like sound.
Psalm 89:10. The days of our years - seventy years, and with a greater strength - eighty years; and their best time is labor and illness, for they pass quickly, and we fly.
On behalf of the people, Moses confesses before God the sinfulness and deservedness of the calamities and hardships sent to them. The people perished from divine anger (probably, of course, here the death of the Jews during their forty-year wandering in the desert); because the Lord knows both all their deeds ("our iniquities before You"), so even thoughts and feelings ("our secret before the light of Your face" - our life is clear, open before You). The consequence of the sins of the Jews and the punishment for them from God was poverty, the fragility of their external well-being and a reduction in life expectancy. Their lives became impoverished and shortened; it has become as short-lived in comparison with the life of previous generations as the sound is short. Life expectancy is now determined by the 70s, the stronger survives to 80. But even this, the final time of human life, which should be the best time, since here a person should calmly enjoy the fruits of his previous working life, however, it is characterized by complete weakness, helplessness and disease ("work and illness").
Psalm 89:11. Who knows the power of your anger, and your anger according to the measure of your fear?
Psalm 89:12. Teach us to count our days in such a way that we may gain a wise heart.
The Jewish people aroused Divine wrath by their behavior earlier, and if they do not correct themselves now, then "who knows the power of Thy anger, and Thy wrath according to the measure of Thy fear?" Who can know how else your anger at him will manifest? Who can predict and calculate in advance the types of disasters? To avoid possible disasters in the future, Moses prays to God to teach “how to count the days” - to cherish the days of life in order to acquire piety and strengthen in wise and worthy following His commandments.
Psalm 89:13. Turn, Lord! How long? Have mercy on your servants.
Psalm 89:14. Fill us early with Thy mercy, and we will rejoice and be glad all our days.
Psalm 89:15. Cheer us up in days in which You amazed us over the years in which we have seen the disaster.
Now Moses prays to God to hear the prayer of the people for mercy, so that the Lord would fill their future life with his blessing instead of the calamities that they have experienced until now.
In divine services, this psalm is used at the 1st hour. Just as the entry into Palestine was the beginning of a new life for the Jews, so the rising of the sun begins a new day in a person's life: as then Moses prayed for weak Jews before God, so in the Orthodox divine service, the Church in his words prays to God for the well-being of the believer in the coming day, realizing weakness his powers in the dispensation of salvation.
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