Psalm 51:15 (KJV)
O Lord, open thou my lips; and my mouth shall shew forth thy praise.
This Psalm is numbered 51 in the Masoretic Text (the text most Protestant bibles are translated from) and 50 in the greek Septuagint and latin Vulgate (the texts that most Orthodox and Roman Catholic bibles are translated from respectively). The immediate context of this Psalm is that it is King David's prayer of repentence after being confronted by the prophet Nathan concerning the murder and adultery that David had committed. King David had committed adultery with Bathsheba and, in an attempt to cover up his sin when she became pregnant, ordered her husband into a battle where the soldier was sure to die. David then took her to be his own wife after she had mourned the loss of her husband.
The immediate context of this verse can be found in the verse before it. Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, thou God of my salvation: and my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness. O Lord, open thou my lips; and my mouth shall shew forth thy praise. These words seem to imply that David is incapable of properly offering God the praise and worship that is due to God because of the gravity of this sin. It is only through seeking God with a broken and contrite heart, that healing and reconciliation can be obtained. Only then, after finding salvation in the Lord from the oppression of sin, can David be truly free to sing of God's righteousness and be able to please Him with offerings as a sacrifice of righteousness.
Liturgically speaking, this Psalm is probably the most used of all the Psalms in the Orthodox Church and other churches that worship according to the eastern rite. It is included in matins (morning prayer service), the third hour prayers, and in compline (late evening prayer service). The priest recites it while censing the church in preparation for the liturgy (the main worship service including Holy Communion), and then again when censing during the liturgy. After the preparation for the liturgy, this verse in particular is the last words to come out of a priest's mouth before giving the opening benediction to begin the liturgy. This Psalm is also typically included in the daily prayers that you will find in an Orthodox prayer book. This Psalm (although a different verse) is also quoted in the beginning of most traditional Roman Catholic and Western Rite Orthodox masses.
May we all cry out in imitation of King David, "Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions." and "Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me." with the hope of hearing those glorious words that were told to him from the prohet Nathan, "The LORD also hath put away thy sin" so that we may sing aloud of God's righteousness and in good conscience offer a "sacrifice of righteousness".
Thursday, July 28, 2011
Thursday, July 21, 2011
Made Perfect in Weakness
2 Cor 12:9
And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
In His sermon on the mount, our Lord said "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." and His mother said "He hath put down the mighty from their seats, and exalted them of low degree. He hath filled the hungry with good things; and the rich he hath sent empty away." in her Magnificat. It is in God that we live, move and have our being and without Him we can do nothing. Part of the Christian life is recognizing God as our source of life and strength and turning to Him as such, especially when we recognize trial and tribulation in our lives. It is ungodly pride that says "I can beat this myself" when adversity comes, and ungodly despair becomes the result when we fail to overcome that adversity on our own and on our own terms.
Christ Himself said that in this world we would have tribulation. Paul preached that we must endure much tribulation in order to enter into the kingdom God. This is for our benefit, for Peter writes that those who suffer according to the will of God are to commit the keeping of their souls to Him, and Paul writes that this is because tribulation works patience, patience works experience, experience works hope, and our hope in Christ makes us not ashamed. It is through our trials that we are given the opportunity to recognize our true need of God for everything including our own very existence. We are given the opportunity to cry out "save me" just as Peter did when he got out of the boat (don't be surprised if this becomes a recurring theme, I often have a tendency to think of things in terms of Peter getting out of the boat) and recognize the hand of God himself working in our lives to pull us closer to Him.
In the same sentence that Christ said that we would have tribulation in this world, He said to be of good cheer because He has overcome the world. Actually He didn't say to be of good cheer, the text literally says to have courage (look it up in the greek) because He has overcome the world. Our victory has already been acheived. It is by dieing to ourselves through our suffering in this world that we grow in living for God and bearing the fruit of the Spirit, of which we will reap if sown.
There is one catch to our victory, it's not always what we want, but what God wants for us. The immediate context of the verse from which the title of this post (and this blog) comes from is the thorn in the flesh which Paul asked the Lord three times to remove, to which our Lord simply answered, "My grace is sufficient for thee".
May God grant me to learn to glory in my infirmities that His power might be found in me. (I have a long way to go.)
And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
In His sermon on the mount, our Lord said "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." and His mother said "He hath put down the mighty from their seats, and exalted them of low degree. He hath filled the hungry with good things; and the rich he hath sent empty away." in her Magnificat. It is in God that we live, move and have our being and without Him we can do nothing. Part of the Christian life is recognizing God as our source of life and strength and turning to Him as such, especially when we recognize trial and tribulation in our lives. It is ungodly pride that says "I can beat this myself" when adversity comes, and ungodly despair becomes the result when we fail to overcome that adversity on our own and on our own terms.
Christ Himself said that in this world we would have tribulation. Paul preached that we must endure much tribulation in order to enter into the kingdom God. This is for our benefit, for Peter writes that those who suffer according to the will of God are to commit the keeping of their souls to Him, and Paul writes that this is because tribulation works patience, patience works experience, experience works hope, and our hope in Christ makes us not ashamed. It is through our trials that we are given the opportunity to recognize our true need of God for everything including our own very existence. We are given the opportunity to cry out "save me" just as Peter did when he got out of the boat (don't be surprised if this becomes a recurring theme, I often have a tendency to think of things in terms of Peter getting out of the boat) and recognize the hand of God himself working in our lives to pull us closer to Him.
In the same sentence that Christ said that we would have tribulation in this world, He said to be of good cheer because He has overcome the world. Actually He didn't say to be of good cheer, the text literally says to have courage (look it up in the greek) because He has overcome the world. Our victory has already been acheived. It is by dieing to ourselves through our suffering in this world that we grow in living for God and bearing the fruit of the Spirit, of which we will reap if sown.
There is one catch to our victory, it's not always what we want, but what God wants for us. The immediate context of the verse from which the title of this post (and this blog) comes from is the thorn in the flesh which Paul asked the Lord three times to remove, to which our Lord simply answered, "My grace is sufficient for thee".
May God grant me to learn to glory in my infirmities that His power might be found in me. (I have a long way to go.)
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
The First!... Of Many?
Hello everyone. I'm not sure what to do for my first post, so I will
just do a small introduction. The idea to do this came from a friend
of mine a few weeks ago. I've been doing some reading about religion
the last couple of years and expect this blog to deal with things
mostly from a religious perspective. Along my journey of looking at
religion and seeking to find truth, I was received into the Orthodox
Church in October of '10. I would hopefully expect my posts to be
from a perspective representing my faith in Christ. I apologize in
advance if I should happen to miss the mark in the sharing of my
thoughts.
I'm not sure exactly what the future holds for the inspiration of my
posts. I sometimes have a tendency to meditate the nature of
discussions I have with others and my personal struggles among other
things. My next few posts will most likely discuss my screen name and
the title and url of this blog. We'll see where it goes from here.
just do a small introduction. The idea to do this came from a friend
of mine a few weeks ago. I've been doing some reading about religion
the last couple of years and expect this blog to deal with things
mostly from a religious perspective. Along my journey of looking at
religion and seeking to find truth, I was received into the Orthodox
Church in October of '10. I would hopefully expect my posts to be
from a perspective representing my faith in Christ. I apologize in
advance if I should happen to miss the mark in the sharing of my
thoughts.
I'm not sure exactly what the future holds for the inspiration of my
posts. I sometimes have a tendency to meditate the nature of
discussions I have with others and my personal struggles among other
things. My next few posts will most likely discuss my screen name and
the title and url of this blog. We'll see where it goes from here.
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