Light from the Psalter 17: The Step of Safety, Sanctification, and the Holy Spirit

Psalms LXX 122-124 (MT 123-125); Eph. 6:10-17; 2 Peter 3:9; Romans 8:26-27

On our pilgrimage to the holy abode of God, as we prepare during Matins for the Divine Liturgy, we come to the second step of the climbing songs, based on Psalms 122-4 (MT 123-5). Like the Jewish pilgrims to Jerusalem of old, we remain sober in recognizing our need for God, and the difficulties we face; but, because we are approaching the mighty one, we are also hopeful, concentrating upon the safety that we have in God, and among His people, and recognizing that our progress depends upon the Holy Spirit.  The opening sentence of these songs of ascent places us with the women on the morning of mercy: “The women went to the tomb after thy Passion to anoint thy body, O Christ God, where they saw a vision of angels, and were astonished; for they heard them crying with a loud voice: The Lord is risen and hath granted the world Great Mercy.”

With the women, then, we proceed in our ascent with confidence, knowing that Jesus’ resurrection promises us all good things.  We are in a better place than the original Jewish pilgrims, for we have a greater hope than simply a physical city, radiant though Jerusalem was!

 The first antiphon is full of trust:

Behold, O Savior, toward heaven I raise the eyes of my heart to thee. Save me by thine illumination. O Christ, have mercy upon us guilty men who transgress against thee often and in every hour. Give us, before the end, the means of a repentance acceptable to thee.

In it we can hear echoes of the original Psalm, Psalm 122 (MT 123), with its lyrical expressions of our confidence in God:

To you I lift up my eyes, O you who are enthroned in the heavens!
Behold, as the eyes of servants look to the hand of their master,
as the eyes of a maidservant to the hand of her mistress,
so our eyes look to the LORD our God, till he has mercy upon us.

Have mercy upon us, O LORD, have mercy upon us,
for we have had more than enough of contempt.
Our soul has had more than enough of the scorn of those who are at ease,
of the contempt of the proud.

The ascent song, though, puts the emphasis upon our INTERNAL difficulties, rather than focusing on the scorn or contempt of others, as the psalm does.  We DO recite that part of the Psalm concerning human scorn in other services, notably in Vespers, and in the Pre-Sanctified Liturgy that we just celebrated this week. However, it would seem that this anabathmos (song of ascent) is leading us to think of our own failures and need of God rather than on external forces or person that may worry us.  As we approach the Divine Liturgy, we want our focus to be on those things of which we should personally repent, and need to recognize our own guilt before the Holy One.  But this recognition is meant to lift us up, not lead us to despair.  After all, we hear, throughout the Scriptures: “The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance” (2 Peter 3:9). The Lord is not slow: in the original Psalm, the servants, male and female, looked to the hand of their master or mistress, UNTIL he or she had mercy on them.  We, too, need to persist in prayer, but we know that it is our LORD’s delight to answer us, and that He is not busy occupied with other important matters.    For, as the closing sentence says after this song of ascent, Verily, sovereignty over creation, its sanctification, and its motion are of the Holy Spirit; for he is God, consubstantial with the Father and with the Word.  The presence of the Holy Spirit with us means that God is always immediate to us, always marking our needs, always ready to answer.  He is sovereign over the whole of creation, along with the Father and the Son, and brings about our sanctification and our actions for good.  By Him we are illumined, and by Him we are brought to continual repentance.  This is a gift, not only as we prepare for Divine Liturgy, but especially in these next 40 days of Great Lent.

The second Antiphon amplifies this immanent, dwelling-among-us presence of God, and also is capped with a sentence that appeals to the Holy Spirit, who establishes and preserves us in the communion of Holy Trinity: 

Except the Lord were in our midst, who could have been kept safe from the man-destroying enemy? Verily, my enemies roar like lions, O Savior. Deliver not thy servant to their teeth…. The Holy Spirit is the Element of life and honor, for as God he doth establish all creatures and preserve them in the Father and the Son.

Here, we detect clear echos of Psalm 123 (MT 124), a “psalm of David:”

If it had not been the LORD who was on our side—let Israel now say—
if it had not been the LORD who was on our side
when people rose up against us,
then they would have swallowed us up alive,
when their anger was kindled against us;
then the flood would have swept us away,
the torrent would have gone over us;
then over us would have gone the raging waters.

Blessed be the LORD, who has not given us as prey to their teeth!
We have escaped like a bird from the snare of the fowlers; 
the snare is broken, and we have escaped!

 Our help is in the name of the LORD, who made heaven and earth.

Like the ancient Israelites, our help is also in the LORD, the Creator of all, and we too have enemies that might swallow us alive.  We are not, however, like David, who fought lions and Goliath as a boy, and pagan armies as a man.  Instead, we are fortified against another “lion who roars” to seek his prey—the enemy of God, who would like to BE a god, Lucifer.   As 1 Peter 5:8 reminds us, “Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.”  The Devil and his minions, we know, are keen to derail any of us who climb the steps to God’s holy place.  We even have an icon of the ladder that depicts their attempt to pull us down:  but they are no match for the LORD himself, the true maker of heaven and earth, who always gives us the means of escape.  After all, He has loosed the chains that held humans in Hades, and opened the gates that we might escape the final judgment, so any temptation here on earth is an easy victory for Him, if we put our eyes in the right place—upwards, knowing that though He is on high, He is also in our midst to defend us.  As with Jesus, we can have confidence in another psalm, Psalm 120:3 (MT 121:3), which reminds us that God will not allow our feet to be moved, if we stand firmly upon His word.  There is a delicate balance between humility, knowing our need, and trust, knowing God’s strength—together, they can vanquish all the fiery darts of the enemy.

And we hear more about this enemy in the third Antiphon, which closes again with a direct reference to the illumining power of the Spirit:

They who put their trust in the Lord are like the holy mountain, for they are never shaken by the attacks of Belial. They put not forth their hands to evil…. The Holy Spirit is the Fount of all wisdom, for from Him cometh grace to the Apostles; the Martyrs by Him are crowned in their struggles, and the Prophets in foreknowledge look to Him.

This beautiful antiphon puts the words of Psalm 124 (MT 125) in terms that are particularly applicable for the Christian, reminding us that Satan is the usurper who would lead us away from King Jesus, to do evil things according to his will but that the Spirit is the One who gives strength, as he always has, to those persecuted by the Adversary— from the Apostles, through to the Martyrs.

The Psalter recognizes the security of Mount Zion, the place chosen by God, and the fortified city that could repel the enemies of God’s people.  As we hear it, we may picture our true enemies, the hosts of the Adversary, who are no match for the LORD:

Those who trust in the LORD are like Mount Zion,
which cannot be moved, but abides forever.
As the mountains surround Jerusalem,
so the LORD surrounds his people,
from this time forth and forevermore.
For the scepter of wickedness shall not rest on the land allotted to the righteous,
lest the righteous stretch out their hands to do wrong.
Do good, O LORD, to those who are good, and to those who are upright in their hearts!
But those who turn aside to their crooked ways the LORD will lead away with evildoers!

Peace be upon Israel!

It is indeed true that if a wicked governor or king takes over a land, then even the righteous are tempted to do wrong. This is true both in political matters, and in our own lives, where the scepter of wickedness could turn our hearts, or perhaps even a congregation, away from truth.  The defense against this is the LORD, who will lead away evildoers, both human and demonic, and bring us peace.  In our stepping up towards the Holy place of God, we can remember, when tempted, St. Paul’s assurance that “the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words” (Romans 8:26-7).  So it is that the Holy Spirit helps us, and will confirm us, along with the martyrs, with a crown of glory and honor, so long as we continue to look to God for our help.  The peace that is promised to us is both internal (within each of us), and corporate (within His people as a whole), because the Holy Spirit is among us.  We can think of ourselves both as enlivened by Him, and as fortified by Him, as the body of Christ, so that together we can continue climbing the steps that will prepare us for worship, both now in the Divine Liturgy, and in that Heavenly City that we can scarcely imagine.