Psalms for the 26th Day119: 105-176 — 97-176 (Hebrew)
נ (Nún)
Now Your Word is a lamp to my feet,
a light on my path.
I have sworn to observe, I shall maintain
Your righteous rulings.
Yahweh, though my suffering is acute,
revive me as Your Word has guaranteed.
Yahweh, accept the homage that I offer,
teach me Your rulings.
I would lay down my life at any moment,
I have never yet forgotten Your Law.
The wicked have tried to trap me,
but I have never yet veered from Your precepts.
Your decrees are my eternal heritage,
they are the joy of my heart.
I devote myself to obeying Your statutes—
compensation enough for ever!
The Hebrew discipline of daily psalm reading starts the reading for the 26th day at verse 97, at the letter Mém…
מ (Mém)
Meditating all day on Your Law
how I have come to love it!
By Your commandment, ever mine,
how much wiser You have made me than my enemies!
How much subtler than my teachers,
through my meditating on Your decrees!
How much more perceptive than the elders,
as a result of my respecting Your precepts!
I refrain my feet from every evil path,
the better to observe Your Word.
I do not turn aside from Your rulings,
since You Yourself teach me these.
Your promise, how sweet to my palate!
Sweeter than honey to my mouth!
Your precepts endow me with perception;
I hate all deceptive paths.
Meeting again the verses of the psalm for the 26th day is always, for me, like running into a faithful and comforting friend at the end of a long and arduous day of struggle. He holds me closely to him for a moment, then looks me in the eyes and says, ‘Don't worry! That day is over. The new one is here, when we can serve the God of heaven together and joyfully keep His commandments! You are Home!’It is fitting that the psalm for the 26th day falls on Thursday this month, the day of Christ's holy eucharist, His giving thanks to the Father, and by the mercy of Christ our God, I too give thanks, for I am home, in His Word, where I want to live, and where He lights up my path.
The psalm of this day is so precious! Listen to this, just one more stanza, starting with verse 129, at the letter Pé…
פ (Pé)
Your decrees are so wonderful
my soul cannot but respect them.
As Your Word unfolds, it gives light,
and the simple understand.
I open my mouth, panting
eagerly for Your commandments.
Turn to me, please, pity me,
as You should those who love Your name.
Direct my steps as You have promised,
let evil win no power over me.
Rescue me from human oppression;
I will observe Your precepts.
Treat Your servant kindly,
teach me Your statutes.
My eyes stream with tears,
because others disregard Your Law.
As anyone who prays the psalms will have noticed, much of their content forms the basis of Orthodox liturgical chant. The familiar doxology at the conclusion of the orthros (dawn) service includes a whole series of psalm verses after the original text of the ancient hymn Δόξα σοι τω δείξαντι το φως (Glory to Thee who hast shown us the Light), and among them is the thrice-chanted verse from Psalm 119, "Blessed are You, O Lord, teach me Your statutes" (Psalm 119:12), in Greek, Ευλογητός ει Κύριε, δίδαξον με τα δικαιώματα σου (Evloghitós ei Kýrie, dhídhaxon me ta dhikaiómata su), and in Hebrew (omitting the Hebrew script), Barúkh attá Adonáy, lammedéyni hhukéykha. This hymn is so deeply engraved in my consciousness that I often wake up in the morning singing it.
Glory to You who have shown us the Light!
By the way, the full text of the doxology in transliterated Greek with an English translation is hymn #38 in my booklet Singing the Work of the People, which can be downloaded by clicking HERE.
2 comments:
The photograph at the bottom of the post appears to be that of an Orthodox Church. But, do I see pews and windows? And, the windows are what make the photo strikingly beautiful? This photo, in a way, would seem to illustrate the above post, "Just to Make Sure." It is the 'wrongness' of this photo that makes it lovely! Or, am I wrong that Orthodox churchs usually do not have windows?
Oh my gosh! Aunt Melanie, Sister, wherever did you get the notion that Orthodox churches don't have windows?
One of my most favorite memories as well as experiences during worship is opening my eyes at a crucial point in the Divine Liturgy to find shafts of purple, rose and blue sunlight penetrating and permeating the incense as it rises in the sanctuary, just as in the photo midway in the post, showing a presbyter censing the temple.
And the light pouring in on the assembly of standing worshippers in the last photo, that too is very typical, almost as it is in my local church, even to having pews or benches. By the general layout of the temple in the photo, I would say this is a Slavic Orthodox church. If I remember the source, I believe it is in Serbia.
Yes, Orthodox churches, though we call ikons ‘windows into heaven,’ also have windows, even stained glass pictorial ones. I have never been in an above-ground Orthodox church or chapel that did not have windows. Only those carved out of caves, or, as in the case of a new mission, which was in a remodeled underground strip mall parking garage, only those might not have windows.
Though the windows are typically slits due to Byzantine architecture being Romanesque rather than Gothic, they still can let in a lot of light, especially those mystical looking shafts (which allude to the presence and participation of the ‘bodiless powers’).
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