The Example of David

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David, humility, Psalm 130(131), Psalm 50(51), repentance, St. Hilary

St. Hilary, having shown that the great and wonderful things mentioned in Psalm 130(131) are the things men see as glorious (and therefore would cause us to lift up our eyes from God to see them), he paints for us an example of someone who does not walk amid things great and wonderful which are above us:

For David, prophet and king as he was, once was humble and despised and unworthy to sit at his father’s table; but he found favour with God, he was anointed to be king, he was inspired to prophesy. His kingdom did not make him haughty, he was not moved by hatreds: he loved those that persecuted him, he paid honour to his dead enemies, he spared his incestuous and murderous children. In his capacity of sovereign he was despised, in that of father he was wounded, in that of prophet he was afflicted; yet he did not call for vengeance as a prophet might, nor exact punishment as a father, nor requite insults as a sovereign. And so he did not walk amid things great and wonderful which were above him.

David, though he was a prophet and a king, (like all of us) once fell into great sin. He desired Bathsheba, who was married. He committed adultery and then murder to cover up his sin. The son that resulted from this lust died as an infant. David, seeing the fruit of his error repented as is recorded in Psalm 50(51). It was this repentance and humility in which God found favor.

Learning his lesson, David continued to avoid the great and wonderful things of men. Though he was despised, persecuted and wounded he refused to use his power as king, prophet and father to take his vengeance. To take that road would have been to seek the glory of man — the trappings of power that come with being a king, prophet and father. Rather, he kept his eyes upon the Lord and the humility that was given him through his repentance.

All of us, throughout our lives, are given power over others. We are afforded the opportunity to exercise that power for our own gratification and glorification. That path, however, lifts our eyes to the great and wonderful things of man. David once took that path. It did not bring him greatness, but rather tragedy. David is considered to be great because of his humility, his ability to keep his eyes upon God and avoid the path that seeks the glory of man. This greatness is open to all of us through the repentance and humility of David.

Great and Wonderful Things

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Psalm 130(131), St. Hilary

Having demonstrated that our eyes should not be lifted up away from God to things of the world of men, St. Hilary begins to examine the second verse of Pslam 130(131):

Then follows: ‘Neither have I walked amid great things, nor amid wonderful things that are above me.’ It is most dangerous to walk amid mean things, and not to linger amid wonderful things. God’s utterances are great; He Himself is wonderful in the highest: how then can the psalmist pride himself as on a good work for not walking amid great and wonderful things? It is the addition of the words, ‘which are above me,’ that shews that the walking is not amid those things which men commonly regard as great and wonderful.

If God is above us all and is great and wonderful, why does the psalmist exhort himself (and us) not to walk among great things or amid wonderful things that are above us? In light of the first verse, which warns us not to lift up our eyes from God to earthly things, St. Hilary sees a similar pattern in this verse. The phrase, “which are above me” is to be understood in the same way that “Neither have mine eyes been lifted up.”

There is a poetic convention within Hebrew that sees an idea restated twice. This is not only a poetic device, but also a tool with which to help clarify what the two statements are saying. Thus, it is perfectly acceptable for St. Hilary to read the phrase “which is above me” in light of lifting up the eyes to ungodly things.

In other words, the great and wonderful things that are above (and therefore would draw us to lift up our eyes) are not heavenly things, but rather those things which men consider to be great and wonderful. It emphasizes the choice we have to make on a daily basis between the Kingdom of God and the world. Which do we seek, which do we look upon with fondness, which glory do we desire, which do we consider great and wonderful? We cannot walk in a way that seeks both. We must choose the glory of God and His Kingdom or the glory man.

Exegesis

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exegesis, Holy Spirit, Psalm 130(131), St. Hilary

Having established that Psalm 130(131) is about humility, St. Hilary analyzes the second half of the first verse:

‘Neither have Mine eyes been lifted up.’ The strict sense of the Greek here conveys a different meaning; οὐδὲ ἐμετεωρίσθησαν οἱ ὀφθαλμοί μου, that is, have not been lifted up from one object to look on another. Yet the eyes must be lifted up in obedience to the Prophet’s words: ‘Lift up your eyes and see who hath displayed all these things (Isaiah 40:26).’ And the Lord says in the gospel: ‘Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields, that they are white unto harvest (John 4:35).’ The eyes, then, are to be lifted up: not, however, to transfer their gaze elsewhere, but to remain fixed once for all upon that to which they have been raised.

For me, it is gratifying to see St. Hilary doing something that I love to do — go to the Greek to get a nuance that isn’t there in the translation I am working with. Whereas I work with English, St. Hilary is operating with Latin. It not only goes to show that the Septuagint translation of the OT was the “go to” version of the OT that the ancient church used, but that the Holy Spirit has and does work with and through translations.

This latter statement, however, does come with caveat. When reading a translation (especially with our favorite version), it is quite possible to fall into the trap of eisegesis — reading into a text, or allowing our own preconceptions and prejudices to cloud our understanding of the text. Such a path is antithetical to what St. Hilary is speaking to with the first verse of Psalm 130(131).

Our eyes always need to be lifted up to God, thus we need to see what the text has to say about God, not what we want it to say about Him. From an Orthodox perspective, the safest path to determining whether or not we are understanding a text from Scripture in a proper way is to go to the Orthodox Church and see what she says about the text in question. This is because we believe that the Holy Spirit leads the Orthodox Church where she needs to go. As St. James declares after the Council of Jerusalem in the book of Acts (15:28), “It seems good to the Holy Spirit and to us…”

There are several ways for us to see how the Orthodox Church understands Scripture:

• The context in which the Orthodox Church reads a particular text. This could be in light of a saint’s life, or a feast of the Theotokos or a feast of the Lord. The Orthodox Church also juxtaposes an Epistle reading, a Gospel reading and (usually) Psalm verses on these feasts. All of these factors speak to each other about what a particular text means.
• The hymnody of the Orthodox Church is replete with Scriptural quotations and references. The hymns are a poetic interpretation of these Scriptural passages.
• The New Testament itself interprets the OT all the time. On the Sunday after Theophany, for example, we will read Matthew 4:12-17 where the Evangelist tells us that Christ dwelling in Capernaum fulfills Isaiah 9:1, 2.
• The Fathers of the Church recognized as saints. They, of course, wrestle with Scripture all the time (as is evidenced by this series of blog posts). This, however, also must come with a caveat. The Fathers are human, and so have their own prejudices and weaknesses. Therefore, no Father can be read in isolation of other Fathers nor should we elevate one Father above all others. In this way, we can balance out their weaknesses with the strengths of others.

Armed with these tools, it is much easier to keep our eyes lifted to God when we read Scripture.

Humility

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humility, Psalm 130(131), St. Hilary

St. Hilary begins his analysis of Psalm 130(131):

This Psalm, a short one, which demands an analytical rather than a homiletical treatment, teaches us the lesson of humility and meekness. Now, as we have in a great number of other places spoken about humility, there is no need to repeat the same things here. Of course we are bound to bear in mind in how great need our faith stands of humility when we hear the Prophet thus speaking of it as equivalent to the performance of the highest works: ‘O Lord, my heart is not exalted. For a troubled heart is the noblest sacrifice in the eyes of God.’ The heart, therefore, must not be lifted up by prosperity, but humbly kept within the bounds of meekness through the fear of God.

St. Hilary couldn’t be more clear: this Psalm is about humility. Note how important this characteristic is in the Christian life by the fact that St. Hilary does not feel the need to preach about what humility is — it has been spoken of so many times in other places that to speak of it here would be an unnecessary repetition (oh, what a luxury to be able to preach that!).

In these days of reality television, YouTube fame, and the idea that one can count their friends via social media like Facebook and Twitter, this is an interesting contrast and a reminder at how much we as Americans have not only forgotten this Christian virtue, but have actively turned our back on it.

Note how highly both St. Hilary and the Prophet value humility: it is the noblest sacrifice in the eyes of God. Notice also the framework within which we need to understand ourselves and why we must strive for humility: the fear of God.

Once again, we need to properly understand the word “fear.” We have seen the wonders of God and acknowledge that His power and love lay far beyond our grasp. Think for a moment of a beautiful sunset and the scenery that accompanies it (personally, this includes the foothills of the Rocky Mountains and strings of clouds that turn bright orange and purple). There is no human hand that can arrange that reality. This scene is made possible by the will of God alone. He is the one who created it. Period.

Fearing God means being in awe of that beauty, properly acknowledging God’s role in its existence and honoring Him for all that He has given to us. As it says in Proverbs 9:10, the beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord. When we acknowledge His role in our life and all that surrounds us, it is easy to see the folly of reality television, YouTube fame, as well as Facebook and Twitter friendship. All of them grasp at human glory. When seen in comparison to the glory of God, they truly add up to nothing. When God is truly a focus in our life, humility is a necessary outcome.

Psalm 130(131)

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Psalm 130(131), St. Hilary

Before we go to St. Hilary’s Homily on Psalm 130(131), I want to provide several different translations of the Psalm. As I did with Psalm 1, I will proceed with five translations:

• Septuagint (LXX) [with a very literal English translation] — when the OT is quoted in the NT, they do so from the Septuagint, which was (and is) the Greek Translation of the OT the Church used (uses).
• Revised Standard Version (RSV) — according to Archbishop Demetrius, this is the most solid English translation available.
• New King James (NKJ) — this is the Archbishop’s second choice (and if memory serves), he finds that it is better for reading because it is more lyrical.
• New International Version (NIV) — this is the most widely read English translation of the Bible.
• New Jerusalem Bible (NJB) — this is the translation I most often read for myself. I highly recommend its annotated version, because the notations are very solid and enlightening.

As I have noted before, the numbering of the Psalms in the Septuagint (LXX) is different than the Mesoretic (which forms the basis of almost all modern English translations). It is conventional to list the Mesoretic number in parenthesis after the LXX number (as I have in the title of this post).

Verse One

LXX

᾿ῼδὴ τῶν ἀναβαθμῶν. – ΚΥΡΙΕ, οὐχ ὑψώθη ἡ καρδία μου, οὐδὲ ἐμετεωρίσθησαν οἱ ὀφθαλμοί μου, οὐδὲ ἐπορεύθην ἐν μεγάλοις, οὐδὲ ἐν θαυμασίοις ὑπὲρ ἐμέ

[Ode (song) of the flight of stairs (from the Temple to the Tower Antonia) — O Lord, not is lifted up (exalted) my heart, nor are anxious my eyes,  nor do I proceed in greatness, nor in wonderfulness above myself].

RSV

O Lord, my heart is not lifted up, my eyes are not raised too high; I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvelous for me.

NKJ

Lord, my heart is not haughty, Nor my eyes lofty. Neither do I concern myself with great matters, Nor with things too profound for me.

NIV

My heart is not proud, Lord, my eyes are not haughty; I do not concern myself with great matters or things too wonderful for me.

NJB

[Song of Ascents] Yahweh, my heart is not haughty, I do not set my sights too high. I have taken no part in great affairs, in wonders beyond my scope.

Verse Two

LXX

εἰ μὴ ἐταπεινοφρόνουν, ἀλλὰ ὕψωσα τὴν ψυχήν μου ὡς τὸ ἀπογεγαλακτισμένον ἐπὶ τὴν μητέρα αὐτοῦ, ὡς ἀνταποδώσεις ἐπὶ τὴν ψυχήν μου.

[if not I be humbleminded, but lifted up (exalted) my soul, how has it weaned from its mother, how is there a reward for my soul?]

RSV

But I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a child quieted at its mother’s breast; like a child that is quieted is my soul.

NKJ

Surely I have calmed and quieted my soul, Like a weaned child with his mother; Like a weaned child is my soul within me.

NIV

But I have calmed and quieted myself, I am like a weaned child with its mother; like a weaned child I am content.

NJB

No, I hold myself in quiet and silence, like a little child in its mother’s arms, like a little child, so I keep myself.

Verse Three

LXX

ἐλπισάτω ᾿Ισραὴλ ἐπὶ τὸν Κύριον, ἀπὸ τοῦ νῦν καὶ ἕως τοῦ αἰῶνος.

[hopes Israel in the Lord, from now until the age(s of ages)]

RSV

O Israel, hope in the Lord from this time forth and for evermore.

NKJ

O Israel, hope in the Lord From this time forth and forever.

NIV

Israel, put your hope in the Lord both now and forevermore.

NJB

Let Israel hope in Yahweh henceforth and for ever.

Christ is Born!

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Christmas

O my soul, magnify her who is greater in honor and in glory than the armies of heaven.

I see here a strange and paradoxical mystery. For, behold, the grotto is heaven; cherubic throne is the Virgin; the manger a grand space in which Christ our God the uncontainable reclined as a babe; Whom in extolling do we magnify. — Ode IX of the First Canon of Christmas

Some Finals Thoughts and a New Beginning

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Psalm 1, Psalms, St. Athanasius, St. Hilary

This is the fourth year that I have posted everyday on the writings of one of the Fathers for the 40 days of the Nativity Fast. This is the first year that I really enjoyed myself. Not that I found Sts. Leo the Great, Gregory Palamas or Ambrose of Milan any less enlightening than St. Hilary of Poitiers, but, rather, I believe I have found a format that best suits me for doing a project like this. Going through every paragraph of St. Hilary’s Homily on the First Psalm and analyzing it made the discipline of writing every day less of a chore than my past attempts at this. Rather, it was something I was able to look forward to.

In addition, St. Hilary was enlightening, challenging and not a little surprising. His exegesis on judgement was not something I expected, but was a fresh (ironic word, I know, for something written almost 1600 years ago) and encouraging vision of Judgement Seat. Not to mention, he is on solid Scriptural ground when he makes his point.

The other dramatic interpretation that St. Hilary makes (and one I find very useful) is his insistence that the speaker of the Psalm is the Prophet and the person he is speaking to is us. The image of the blessed and happy man meditating upon the Law day and night contrasted with both the ungodly and the sinner is an excellent introduction to the Psalms.

Indeed, it is an encouragement for those of us who are sinners. For, what better way to introduce ourselves to the Law and the path of righteousness than by reading the Psaltery? I reiterate, according to the Orthodox Christian monastic rule, the entire Psaltery is read every week and during Great Lent it is read twice a week.

This repetition brings familiarity. And since, as St. Athanasius in his Letter to Marcellinus points out, the Psaltery has everything else that we find in the rest of Scripture: History, God’s commands and Prophecy. In addition (and this is not the first or last time I will use this quote), Athanasius states:

among all the books, the Psalter has certainly a very special grace, a choiceness of quality well worthy to be pondered; for, besides the characteristics which it shares with [other parts of Scripture], it has this peculiar marvel of its own, that within it are represented and portrayed in all their great variety the movements of the human soul. It is like a picture, in which you see yourself portrayed, and seeing, may understand and consequently form yourself upon the pattern given.

In other words, it is very easy to see ourselves, our current situation and our emotions all within the Psaltery and within the framework of the rest of Scripture.

Thus, the Psaltery is one of our main tools when it comes to helping us meditate upon the Law day and night by making our entire life a prayer. If we constantly refer and compare our life to the Psalms, into which we can see ourselves, our situation and our emotional state, we are meditating upon the Law day and night. We step onto the path to become that blessed and happy man.

To that end, I will continue with this format and with St. Hilary, who has left us with homilies on Psalm 53(54) and Psalm 130 (131), although I will ease up on the pace. I realize this is the same promise I made last year (and failed to keep); however, I have found that this format is very easy for me to keep up with. Therefore, I feel confident that there will be at least one new post per week from me over the course of the next year.

I will begin with Psalm 130(131). It is one of the shorter Psalms in the Psaltery and therefore won’t overwhelm anyone (especially me). Besides, Psalm 53(54) is a good meditation for approaching Great Lent. Since we are about to embark upon a season of celebration, it felt out of place.

So, pray for me, pray that St. Hilary intercedes and may we all have a blessed Christmas. Amen.

Conclusion

Tags

Christmas, Eucharist, Image and Likeness, Psalm 1, St. Hilary, Worship

St. Hilary concludes his Homily on the First Psalm:

God certainly was not ignorant of the faith of Abraham, which He had already reckoned to him for righteousness when he believed about the birth of Isaac: but now because he had given a signal instance of his fear in offering his son, he is at last known, approved, rendered worthy of being not unknown. It is in this way then that God both knows and knows not—Adam the sinner is not known, and Abraham the faithful is known, is worthy, that is, of being known by God Who surely knows all things. The way of the righteous, therefore, who are not to be judged is known by God: and this is why sinners, who are to be judged, are set far from their counsel; while the ungodly shall not rise again to judgment, because their way has perished, and they have already been judged by Him Who said: ‘The Father judgeth no man, but hath given all judgment unto the Son’ (John 5:22), our Lord Jesus Christ, Who is blessed for ever and ever. Amen.

St. Hilary’s use of the verb to know in terms of Abraham demonstrates that he is playing with various forms of the word and that this translation has been forced to strictly use the verb as to know in order to have it make any sense in English. God knew of Abraham prior to the incident in Genesis 22. God had made promises to Abraham. Having been the recipient of a promise, however, does not make one righteous. All we need do is look upon the history of the Hebrews to see how often God’s chosen people failed at being a righteous people. God knew (recognized) Abraham’s righteousness when the angel had to stay Abraham’s hand.

St. Hilary’s choice for examples here is interesting. Adam as the sinner recalls his role within creation — to tend and expand the garden. Abraham as the righteous is willing to sacrifice his son for the sake of the nations. Our Lord, God and Savior is both the Last Adam — He who fulfills Adam’s original purpose — and is the Son who is sacrificed for the salvation of the nations.

For those of us who are sinners and are on the path to having to face the judgement seat, the reality that Christ is the Last Adam, the Sacrificial Lamb and the Judge offers some amount of hope. It clearly demonstrates that it is not God’s intention to doom His creation to destruction, but rather that we be fulfilled in Him and that He is willing to go to the extreme of the humiliation and death of the Cross for each and every one of us, who (to continue to play with the verb to know) He knew of as God when He marched to Golgotha. If this were a worldly court of Law, Christ would have to recuse Himself because of a conflict of interest.

Indeed, Christ has given us every tool that we need in order to come out of the darkness and seek the path of righteousness. Everything that the Church offers — prayer, fasting, almsgiving, worship, sacrament, liturgy, the cloud of witnesses and (especially) His Body and His Blood — are ways for us to strive for the recognition by God as righteous. As indicated by the huge number of saints revealed to us, this recognition is far from impossible. Indeed, the miracles worked through the saints reveal that it is possible even while we still walk this earth in our fallen form.

However, as St. Hilary has striven to prove, it all comes down to us and our free will. This is a path that we must choose. As the Feast of the Nativity quickly approaches, we have an opportunity to step onto this path by putting away the pressures of the world to make this Great Feast about us, the presents we give, how many presents we receive and how awesome our feast day table is. Instead, let us all focus upon the meal that God has laid out upon His table and the great pains that He went through in order to give it to us.

Let us approach in awe as God, the Creator of all things, is held in the arms of a Virgin Girl named Mary; that through the reordering of all things she is His mother the Theotokos; and that when we approach and partake of this Great Feast set upon God’s Table — His Body and His Blood — that we, too, can not only be embraced by the Virgin Maid as the Body of Christ, but by the Father as His children. Amen.

Sacrifice

Tags

Abraham, Adam, Faith, Psalm 1, Sin, St. Hilary

St. Hilary continues to play with and illustrate the verb to know:

Now God shews clearly in the cases of Adam and Abraham that He does not know sinners, but does know believers. For it was said to Adam when he had sinned: ‘Adam, where art thou?’ (Gen 3:9). Not because God knew not that the man whom He still had in the garden was there still, but to shew, by his being asked where he was, that he was unworthy of God’s knowledge by the fact of having sinned. But Abraham, after being for a long time unknown—the word of God came to him when he was seventy years of age—was, upon his proving himself faithful to the Lord, admitted to intimacy with God by the following act of high condescension: ‘Now I know that thou fearest the Lord thy God, and for My sake thou hast not spared thy dearly loved son’ (Gen 22:12).

To reiterate, the verb to know that St. Hilary is quoting from 1 Corinthians 14:37-38 is ἐπιγινωσκέτω which is more accurately translated as let him recognize. Thus, when He asks Adam where He is, it is not due to the fact that He does not know where He is, but rather that He no longer recognizes Him as a righteous man. Adam, having sinned, moved away from God — thus, God frames the question in terms of location.

In contrast, God knows (recognizes) in Abraham a truly deep faith because (like Himself) He is willing to sacrifice his only-begotten son by Sarah. It would be good also to examine here the verb to fear. At its root in Hebrew is the verb to tremble with a connotation of to feel reverence or to hold in respect.

In Greek, the root of the word terror is τέρας, which means monster; however, like the Hebrew, there is a connotation of wonder. The presence of the τέρας is always accompanied by an act of power, to which one has a sense of wonder and awe.

Thus, the fear that Abraham displays by being willing to sacrifice his son is born of a deep respect and honor of God, by whom Abraham is awed and is filled with wonder. Also implied is a great deal of trust. What God asks of him makes little sense, because Isaac has been promised to be the seed through which Abraham will father the nations and yet God asks for Isaac’s life.

Abraham so trusts, so honors and so respects God that he does not stay his hand until the intervention of an angel. What God does not allow Abraham do to — sacrifice his only-begotten for the sake of the nations — God Himself does in and through His Only-Begotten Son — our Lord, God and Savior Jesus Christ. Thus, God recognizes in Abraham righteousness — a willingness to sacrifice for the salvation of the world.

Recognition

Tags

judgement, Psalm 1, St. Hilary

St. Hilary now applies the comparison of Psalm 1:6 and 1 Corinthians 14:37-38 to the righteous:

Thus he shews that those are known of God who know the things of God: they are to come to be known when they know, that is, when they attain to the honour of being known through the merit of their known godliness, in order that the knowledge may be seen to be a growth on the part of him who is known, and not a growth on the part of one who knows not.

In others words (remembering our analysis of the word know from yesterday), the righteous spend their life becoming intimately familiar with God and His ways (they know God). As such, they can recognize God as He acts throughout His creation and His will for His creation. As such, (again, using the criteria of judgement chosen by the righteous) God will recognize them as righteous. Judgement, therefore will not to be necessary and they will attain the honor and glory set aside for them by God.