Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Christ is Risen!

Congratulations with the feast of the Resurrection of the Lord, as well as with the feastday of the Myrrh-bearing Women, Joseph of Arimathea, and Nicodemus the Pharisee!

Today, let’s briefly discuss the 103rd (104) psalm, one of the most beautiful and understandable psalms. In it the Holy Psalmist King David describes in highly poetic words the creation of the world and the wondrous providential care that the Lord has for His creation. Of course, when a person looks with attention on the God-created world, it is impossible not to be amazed not only by the beauty of nature, but also by the harmony which regulates the physical world. Nothing, not even the most complicated computer programs, can be compared to the beauty of God’s creation. Having noticed this, as David does in this psalm, it is impossible not to give glory to our God!

The 103rd (104) psalm is always sung or read at the beginning of Vespers. On Saturday evening and on the eves of great feastdays, in our parish, as is the case in most Russian parishes, only selected verses of this psalm are sung with two special refrains (“Blessed art Thou, O Lord” and “Wondrous are Thy works, O Lord”) separating the individual verses. We can note that very often during the divine services the psalms are sung with a refrain. In earlier times, the choir or the lead chanter would sing the verses of a psalm to an especially beautiful and complicated melody, while all the people would sing a refrain to a simple melody. This practice, although somewhat simplified, continues to be used in our time. Remember how on Pascha the priest says the verses of the 67th (68) psalm, “Let God arise…,” while the choir and all the people sing the refrain “Christ is risen…” When Vespers is conducted on weekdays during Great Lent, the 103rd (104) psalm is read in its entirety, without any refrains.

It is not by chance that Vespers begins with this psalm, for in it we read the following words: “He appointed the moon for seasons: the sun knoweth his going down. Thou makest darkness, and it is night’ (verses 19-20), “Man goeth forth unto his work and to his labour until the evening” (verse 23). Vespers and, as a consequence, the 103rd (104) psalm begin the daily cycle of divine services (remember that the Jews, as well as we Orthodox, begin our day not in the morning, but in the evening) and therefore it is perfectly logical that at the beginning of the liturgical day we praise God for the fact that He in the beginning created our world.

As the Prophet David himself wrote in the 103rd (104) psalm, people go out to work and struggle all day. Problems and temptations arise. We are distracted from that which is most important by thoughts of our earthly cares. This happens even on Saturday, when many people don’t go to work. Various household chores can be more tiring than our usual work and in the evening we still have to go to the evening church service. At such moments, let each of us remember the marvelous poetry about the creation of the world and God’s providence for the world which we read in the 103rd (104) psalm and be inspired to rise up for prayer and glorification of our wondrous Creator!

priest Alexis