Psalms 89 · The Lantern

A prayer of Moses, the man of God. O Lord, you have been our refuge from generation to generation.

The eighty-eighth psalm is prefaced with this title: The Understanding of Ethan the Ezrahite. Wherever "understanding" is placed first, what follows is mystical and obscure. Ethan is interpreted as "strong," or "robust"; and Ezrahite as "one helped," or "one who has obtained help." I say this because we are dealing with the literal history.

Understand, beloved, this Psalm, which I am about to explain, by the grace of God, of our hope in the Lord Jesus Christ, and be of good cheer, because He who promised, will fulfil all, as He has fulfilled much: for it is not our own merit, but His mercy, that gives us confidence in Him.

Orthodoxos: Listen now how the prophet praises God at the very beginning of the psalm. He saw with his prophetic eyes the future iniquity of his people and the captivity that was in consequence foredoomed; yet he praised his own Lord for unfailing promises.

Before the mountains became, or the land was formed along with the world: from ages past, even to all ages, you are God.

And, lest man be turned aside in humiliation, you have said: Be converted, O sons of men.

For a thousand years before your eyes are like the days of yesterday, which have passed by, and they are like a watch of the night,

which was held for nothing: so their years shall be.

And the heavens shall confess your wonders, O Lord. This is what is said in the eighteenth psalm: "The heavens declare the glory of God." According to the mystical understanding, he calls the apostles "heavens." For if it is said to the sinner, "Earth you are, and to earth you shall go," why should it not be said to the holy or righteous man, "Heaven you are, and to heaven you…

"O Lord, the very Heavens shall praise Thy wondrous works" [Psalm 89:5]. The Heavens will not praise their own merits, but Thy wondrous works, O Lord. For in every act of mercy on the lost, of justification of the unrighteous, what do we praise but the wondrous works of God? Thou praisest Him, because the dead have risen: praise Him yet more, because the lost are redeemed.

The heavens proclaim your wonders, that is, the marvels of the soul which they feel within them. Such experiences make faith most secure. When the soul considers the Most High in a manner that is most pious, true, and good, then it is lifted up by zeal and the rapture of love to the third heaven.

In the morning, he may pass away like grass; in the morning, he may flower and pass away. In the evening, he will fall, and harden, and become dry.

For, at your wrath, we have withered away, and we have been disturbed by your fury.

O such strictness toward the righteous! O such abundant forgiveness toward the sinner! He finds so many different means, without himself changing, to keep the righteous in check and forgive the sinner, by usefully dividing his rich goodness. And listen how. If he frightens the sinner who persists in sins, he brings him to desperation and to the exhaustion of hope.

..."God is very greatly to be feared in the counsel of the righteous, and to be had in dread of all them that are round about Him" [Psalm 89:7]. God is everywhere; who therefore are round about Him, who is everywhere? For if He has some round about Him, He is represented as finite on every side.

This counsel has been confirmed by the twelve Apostles and by the counsels of the Saints. If you want the testimony of the Saints concerning these counsels, seek Anthony, Paphnutius, and Macarius, who all resolved to observe these counsels. Seek the bishops Basil, Augustine, Martin, and Gregory; all were monks and resolved to observe the counsels and kept them.

You have placed our iniquities in your sight, our age in the illumination of your countenance.

For all our days have faded away, and at your wrath, we have fainted. Our years will be considered to be like a spider’s web.

The days of our years in them are seventy years. But in the powerful, they are eighty years, and more of these are with hardship and sorrow. For mildness has overwhelmed us, and we shall be corrected.

Who knows the power of your wrath? And, before fear, can your wrath

be numbered? So make known your right hand, along with men learned in heart, in wisdom.

Return, O Lord, how long? And may you be persuaded on behalf of your servants.

We were filled in the morning with your mercy, and we exulted and delighted all our days.

We have been rejoicing, because of the days in which you humbled us, because of the years in which we saw evils.

Look down upon your servants and upon their works, and direct their sons.

And may the splendor of the Lord our God be upon us. And so, direct the works of our hands over us; direct even the work of our hands.

Psalms89