Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Congratulations with the feast of the Resurrection of the Lord, as well as with the day of the memory of the Righteous John of Kronstadt!

In the course of the last three weeks we discussed the three psalms which are read at the First Hour. Today let us focus our attention on the 16th (17) psalm, ‘Hear the right, O Lord, attend unto my cry,’ which is read at the beginning of the Third Hour (before Liturgy). Remember that the Roman or Byzantine third hour was the equivalent of about nine o’clock in the morning according to our time, or the beginning of the work day. The Holy Apostle Luke, in the second chapter of the Acts of the Holy Apostles, writes that the Holy Spirit descended on the disciples during the third hour of the day and therefore this event is the main theme of the Third Hour.

In the 16th psalm the Holy Prophet David earnestly prays that the Lord defend him against his foes. David very insistently emphasizes his purity and innocence with the following words: “Thou hast proved mine heart; thou hast visited me in the night; thou hast tried me, and shalt find nothing.” Because of this we can surmise that David wrote these words not as an old man, when his son rose up in revolt against him and when David composed many other psalms imploring divine help, but when he was still young and was being unjustly persecuted by King Saul (19th chapter of 1 Samuel).

The Holy Prophet David says that his enemies “are inclosed in their own fat” and prays that the Lord rescue him “from men of the world, which have their portion in this life, and whose belly thou fillest with thy hid treasure.” In other words, David notes that his opponents, despite the fact that they are sinning, live quite well according to material standards. This type of worldly comfort holds no appeal for the young David, who declares that he “will behold (God’s) face in righteousness; (he) shall be satisfied, when (he) awake(s), with (God’s) likeness.”

Of course, it is not enough for a Christian to study the historical context of a certain psalm or to glean form it only a moral or ethical lesson, for one must also seek in it words about Christ. Blessed Augustine, in his explanation of the 16th psalm, does just that. Truly the words about innocence quoted above are best suited not to a young David, but to Christ, for there is no person, except for the incarnate God, who is innocent in all things. The following words of the 16th psalm are these: “With their mouth they speak proudly. They have now compassed us in our steps: they have set their eyes bowing down to the earth; Like as a lion that is greedy of his prey, and as it were a young lion lurking in secret places.” Do not these words remind us of our Saviour being judged before His death on the Cross? Indeed, for us, members of the Church, this prayer is not so much a cry of David as that of Christ.

Dear Brothers and Sisters, the words of this beautiful and expressive psalm can become for each of us a personal prayer at the beginning of the work day. Through the prayers of the Holy John of Kronstadt, may the Holy Spirit, who showered him so bountifully with gifts of grace and who at the third hour sanctified the apostles “hold up (our) goings in (God’s) paths, that (our) footsteps slip not” and “keep (us) as the apple of the eye, (and) hide (us) under the shadow of (God’s) wings.”

priest Alexis