Blessed Is the Man

Ps. 1.

A divinely-inspired Divine bard sings, striking the resonant strings.

When the noise of the world deafened me, I could not attend to him. Now, in the stillness of solitude, I begin to listen to the mysterious bard. And both the sounds and his song become, as it were, more intelligible to me. As if a new capacity opens within me—the capacity to attend to him and the capacity to understand him. I discern in his sounds a new feeling, in his words a new meaning, wondrous, wondrous, like the wisdom of God.

Saul! Cease your madness: let the evil spirit depart from you… sings holy David, playing the well-tuned harp.

I call Saul my mind, troubled and disturbed by thoughts issuing from the prince of this world. My mind—placed by God when the kingdom of Israel was established, at creation, and then at the redemption of mankind—as king, master of soul and body; through disobedience to God, through the violation of God’s commandments, through the breach of union with God, it has stripped itself of dignity and grace. The powers of soul and body do not obey it; it itself lies under the influence of the evil spirit.

Holy David sings, utters the words of Heaven. And the sounds of his psaltery are the sounds of Heaven! The subject of his song: the blessedness of man.

Brethren, let us hear the divine teaching set forth in the divine song. Let us hear the words, let us hear the sounds with which Heaven speaks to us, with which it resounds toward us.

O you who seek happiness, who pursue pleasures, who thirst for delights! Come: listen to the sacred song, listen to the teaching of salvation. How long will you wander, roam over valleys and mountains, through impassable deserts and thickets? How long will you torment yourselves with endless and fruitless labor, crowned with no fruit, no stable gain? Bow your obedient ear: listen to what the Holy Spirit speaks through the mouth of David concerning human blessedness, which all men seek, which all men hunger for.

Let all around me fall silent! And within me, let even my own thoughts be stilled! Let my heart be quiet! Let there live and act only reverent attentiveness! Let holy impressions and thoughts enter the soul through its means!

David was a king, and did not say that the throne of kings is the throne of human blessedness.

David was a commander and hero, from his youth to old age he contended with foreigners in bloody battles—as many battles as he gave, so many victories he won, moving the boundaries of his kingdom from the shores of the Jordan to the banks of the Euphrates—and did not say that in the glory of victor and conqueror lies human blessedness.

David amassed countless wealth, gathered it with his own sword. Gold lay in his treasuries as if it were copper, and silver was heaped in them as if it were iron. But David did not say that in wealth lies the blessedness of man.

David possessed all earthly consolations—he did not recognize human blessedness in any one of them.

When David was a boy, when his occupation was to tend the sheep of his father Jesse: suddenly, at God’s command, the prophet Samuel comes, and anoints the lowly shepherd with holy oil as king of the people of Israel. David did not call the hour of his anointing to the kingship the hour of blessedness.

David spent his childhood in the wild desert. There his muscles began to feel the strength of a mighty man: without weapons, with bare hands, he threw himself upon the lion and the bear, strangling the lion and the bear. There his soul began to be moved, filled with heavenly inspiration. The hands that crushed the lion and the bear fashioned the psaltery, touched the strings tautened and attuned by the action of the Spirit: there issued forth harmonious, delightful, spiritual, and intelligent sounds. Far, far away, through ages, through centuries and millennia, these sounds traveled, repeated again and again in countless voices, glorifying the name of David throughout all the ends of the earth, throughout all ages of its Christian existence. David did not call the hermit’s life, a life full of wondrous ascetic struggles and wondrous inspiration, the blessedness of man.

“Blessed is the man”, he sings,—in whatever place, in whatever station, in whatever state and rank that man may be, “who has not walked in the counsel of the wicked, nor stood in the way of sinners, nor sat in the seat of scoffers” (Ps. 1:1).

“Blessed is the man” who keeps himself from sin, who repels sin from himself, in whatever form, in whatever guise sin may appear to him: whether it present itself in a lawless deed, or suggest itself in a thought counseling lawlessness, or in a feeling bringing sinful pleasure and intoxication.

If a weak woman with such strong courage repels sin from herself, then she too is “the blessed man” sung of by David.

Sharers in this blessedness, sharers in the manly age in Christ—children and young people steadfastly resisting sin. There is no partiality with the righteous God.

“Blessed is the man” whose entire will is in the Law of God (Ps. 1:2). Blessed is a heart matured in knowledge of God’s will, having beheld “that the Lord is good” (Ps. 33:9), having attained this vision by tasting the Lord’s commandments, having united its will with the Lord’s will. Such a heart is a man. Blessed is the heart ablaze with divine zeal! Blessed is the heart burning with insatiable longing for God’s will! Blessed is the heart sweetly and unbearably suffering with love for God! Such a heart is a place, a dwelling, a chamber, a throne of blessedness!.. An eagle sits at dawn on the summit of a high crag, its gleaming eyes eagerly seeking prey, then it rises into the blue sky, soaring on spread wings through vast spaces, seeking prey. When it sees prey, it descends like an arrow, like lightning, upon it; another arrow of ascent, and it disappears with its catch. It feeds its young, and again stands watch: on the rock or in the sky. Such is a heart infected with an incurable wound of love for God’s commandments! And in this very love lies blessedness. In the commandments—not merely action: in them spiritual wisdom is hidden and by their means it is revealed: “From Your commandments I gain understanding,”—the Prophet says: “With all my heart I seek You… I run in the way of Your commandments, when You have enlarged my heart!.. I meditate on Your precepts, which I love greatly!.. Your law is better to me than thousands of gold and silver!.. I love Your commandments more than gold and precious stones!.. I have laid up Your word in my heart, that I might not sin against You!.. I rejoice in Your word, as one who finds great riches!.. Direct me in the path of Your commandments, for therein I delight” (Ps. 118:104, 10, 32, 47, 72, 127, 11, 162, 35).

The sun rises: men hasten to their occupations. Each has his own goal, his own intention. As the soul is in the body, so are the goal and intention in every human work. One labors, toils to gain perishable treasures; another to provide himself with abundant pleasures; another to acquire earthly, vain glory; still another says and thinks that his actions aim at the benefit of the state and society. The adherent of God’s Law has as the goal of all his labors, all his works, the pleasing of God. The world becomes for him a book of God’s commandments. He reads this book with his deeds, his conduct, his life. The more his heart reads this book, the more it is illumined by spiritual wisdom, the more it grows fervent to run the way of piety and virtue. It acquires fiery wings of faith, begins to trample every fearful enemy, to pass over every chasm, to dare every good beginning. Blessed is such a heart! Such a heart is: “the blessed man”.

Night comes with its shadows and dim light, which the night lamps of heaven shed, gathering people from the surface of the earth into their tents, their shelters. In these shelters, emptiness of soul, ennui; men strive to dull their torment with senseless distractions; idleness and corruption of morals surrender themselves to loud diversions, and the vessels of God’s temple—mind, heart, body—are used by Belshazzar for shameful purposes. The slave of earth, the slave of temporal worldly cares, barely escaped from the worries in which he was drowning throughout the day, prepares new worries for the following day; and his days, and his nights, his entire life—a sacrifice to vanity and decay. A humble lamp burns before the holy icons, pouring out a languorous light into the chamber of the righteous. And he carries his care, his incessant, gnawing concern. He brings into his chamber the memory of his daily deeds, compares it with the tablets on which God’s revealed will is written—with Scripture; he heals the defects in his deeds, his thoughts, his heart’s movements with repentance, washes them with tears; for the renewal and strengthening of his ascetic struggles, he asks Heaven for new strength, new light. A graceful light, a supernatural power descends from God into the soul bringing prayers with painful awareness of human poverty, weakness, and proneness to fall. Thus “day to day pours forth speech, and night to night shows forth knowledge” (Ps. 18:3). Such a life—constant progress, unceasing gains, eternal gains. He who so lives: “the blessed man”.

And this man will be “like a tree planted by streams of water” (Ps. 1:3). Such a tree does not fear the scorching rays of the sun, does not fear drought: its roots are always nourished with moisture; they do not await rain, never suffer lack of nourishment, the lack from which trees growing on mountain slopes and dry places often sicken, often wither, die. A tree growing on a height, open to the influence of winds and sun, drinking rain from heaven rarely, refreshed by heavenly dew rarely, resembles the man inclined to piety but leading an inattentive, scattered life, little and superficially occupied with the study of God’s Law. Sometimes even he is refreshed by the dew of compunction; sometimes upon his withered soul falls the life-giving rain of repentant tears; sometimes his mind and heart are stirred by movement toward God; but this state is not, cannot be constant, even prolonged. Religious thoughts and feelings, when not enlightened by clear and complete knowledge of God’s will, have no definition, no firmness, and therefore have no power and life. He who meditates on God’s Law day and night resembles a tree planted “by streams of water”. Constantly cool, fresh waters beat at the very roots of his being; constantly his mind and heart—these roots of man—are immersed in God’s Law, are nourished by the holy Law of God; constantly flow for him pure, powerful streams of eternal life. These waters, this power, this life: the Holy Spirit dwelling in the Sacred and Holy Scripture, dwelling in the commandments of the Gospel. Whoever constantly delves into Scripture, studies it in humility of spirit, asking God for understanding through prayer; whoever directs all his deeds, all the hidden movements of his soul according to the Gospel’s commandments—he will certainly become a partaker of the Holy Spirit dwelling in them. “I am a companion”—declared the Holy Spirit of Himself—“to all those who fear You and keep Your commandments” (Ps. 118:63).[1]

The study of God’s Law requires patience. This study is the acquisition of your soul: “in your patience”, the Lord commands, “acquire your souls” (Lk. 21:19). This is the science of sciences! This is heavenly science! This is science communicated to man by God! Its paths are wholly separate from those ordinary paths which earthly sciences follow, sciences of men, sciences born from our fallen reason from its own light, for our condition in the fall. Human sciences puff up and inflate the mind, enhance and foster the human self! Divine science opens to the soul prepared, fashioned, smoothed by self-denial, as if having lost its own nature because of its humility, become a mirror having no appearance of its own, capable by that means of receiving and reflecting Divine inscriptions. Divine science is the Wisdom of God, God’s Word. The son of Sirach speaks of it: “Wisdom exalts her sons and helps those who seek her. Whoever loves her loves life, and those who seek her early will be filled with joy. She takes hold of him who loves her, and in all places where she enters she blesses him. Those who serve her serve the Holy One, and the Lord loves those who love her. Whoever obeys her judges the nations, and whoever gives heed to her will dwell secure in hope”. Such is divine science! Such is the wisdom of God! It is God’s revelation! In it—God! Access to it is through humility! Access to it is through the rejection of one’s own reason! It is inaccessible to human reason! It is rejected by it, recognized as madness! And it, this daring, proud enemy of hers, blasphemously recognizes her as foolishness, takes offense at her because she has appeared to men on the cross and shines upon them from the cross. Access to her is through self-denial! Access to her is through crucifixion! Access to her is through faith! The son of Sirach continues: “If you believe, you will inherit her” (Sir. 4:12-17).

True, God-pleasing faith, in which there is no flattery or deception, consists in the fulfillment of the commandments of the Gospel, in the diligent and constant implanting of them in one’s soul, in struggle against reason, against God-opposing feelings, movements of heart and body. Both the reason and the heart, and the body of fallen man are hostilely disposed toward God’s Law. Fallen reason does not accept the reason of God; the fallen heart resists God’s will; the body itself, having undergone corruption, has acquired its own separate will, which the fall has abundantly given to man—the death-dealing knowledge of good and evil. Narrow and sorrowful is our path to the wisdom of God! Holy faith leads us to it, trampling, crushing the opposition both of reason, heart, and body of the fallen. Here is needed patience! Here are needed firmness, constancy, longsuffering! “In your patience acquire your souls”. Whoever wishes to bring forth spiritual fruit—let him accomplish with patience a prolonged war against sin, filled with various upheavals and sorrows! Only he can behold the fruit of the Spirit on the tree of his soul who cherishes this fruit with holy, tender, many and manly patience! Let us hear, let us hear again the Wise One! “Wisdom”—he speaks—“walks with him”—her disciple—“at first with dread and fear. And she torments him with her discipline, and she tests him with her judgments until she trusts his soul and he has proved to be steadfast. Then she returns to him and brings him gladness, and reveals to him her secrets” (Sir. 4:18-21).

Days, months, years pass by, and there comes “its time”, a time known to God, “who has put times and seasons in His own authority” (Acts 1:7), and “the tree planted by streams of water” brings forth its fruit. This fruit is manifest participation in the Holy Spirit, promised by the Son of God to all who truly believe in Him. Magnificent, wondrous is the fruit of the Spirit! It transforms the whole man! Holy Scripture is transferred from a book into the soul; there are inscribed with an invisible finger upon its tablets—upon mind and heart—the word of God and the will of God, the Word and the Spirit. There is fulfilled over such a man the promise made by the Son of God: “Out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. But this He spoke of the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive” (Jn. 7:38-39)—explains the beloved disciple of the Saviour, the intimate of Wisdom and of the Theology which she dispenses. Even the very “leaf” of such a tree “shall not fall” (Ps. 1:3). The leaf, according to the teaching of the Fathers, represents bodily ascetic struggles: and they receive their value, incorruptibility and life, in the renewal and rebirth of the soul by the Holy Spirit. The will of such a man becomes united with God’s will: he desires only what is pleasing to God, fulfills only God’s will. Therefore he has God as his helper in all his undertakings “and whatever he does, he prospers” (Ps. 1:3).

Not such a likeness for the wicked! The inspired David does not compare them with trees or with anything else having the property, the marks of life! A different, different likeness for them! “Not so, the wicked, not so”—sings the royal Prophet—“but like the chaff which the wind drives away from the face of the earth” (Ps. 1:4). O wicked! You are lifeless dust, lifted by a violent whirlwind—the noisy vanity of the world—from the face of the earth, whirling in the air, driven as a dense cloud that obscures the sun, all of nature.

Do not look at this cloud! Do not believe the deception of your eyes! To them the empty dust, the insignificant dust falsely appears as a cloud. Close your eyes for a moment, and the dust cloud, borne by the strong, momentary breath of the whirlwind, will fly past without harming your sight. After a moment you will open your eyes, look—where is the vast cloud? You will seek its trace, and there is no cloud, there is no trace after it, no mark of its existence.

With a dreadful song, with dreadful sounds, David continues to proclaim a dread, a fatal decree against the wicked. “Therefore the wicked will not stand in judgment, nor sinners in the council of the righteous” (Ps. 1:5). There is no share for the wicked “in the first resurrection” (Rev. 20), which the holy John described in the Apocalypse, in the spiritual resurrection occurring during earthly life, when the all-seeing Spirit touches the soul and renews it for eternal existence. The soul rises, comes alive to divine life. Its mind and heart are enlightened, become partakers of spiritual discernment. “Spiritual discernment is the feeling of immortal life”—according to the definition of Spirit-bearers.[2] This very discernment is a sign of resurrection. Thus, on the contrary, carnal-mindedness is the invisible death of the soul (Rom. 8:6). Spiritual discernment is the action of the Holy Spirit. It sees sin, sees the passions in itself and others, sees one’s own soul and the souls of others, sees the snares of the prince of this world, casts down every thought raised against the mind of Christ, repels sin from itself in whatever form it approaches: because spiritual discernment is the kingdom, the light of the Holy Spirit in mind and heart. “The wicked will not rise” to spiritual discernment! This discernment is the “council” of the “righteous” alone, their possession. It is inaccessible, incomprehensible to the wicked and sinners. It is God-vision, and only “the pure in heart will see God” (Mt. 5:8).

The path of the wicked is hated by God, so foreign and abhorrent to Him that Scripture represents God as turned away from it, as if not knowing it. On the other hand, the path of righteousness is so pleasing to God that Scripture says of it: “The Lord knows the way of the righteous” (Ps. 1:6). And truly, He alone knows this way! —Blessed path! You lead to God! You are hidden in the infinite God! Your beginning is God, and your end is God! You are infinite, as God is infinite.

The path of the wicked has a boundary, has a sorrowful limit! This boundary is at the edge of a deep, dark abyss, the eternal repository of eternal death. And “it will perish”—the path of the wicked—forever in this terrible abyss, having first brought to it and destroyed in it all those who walked it.

“The Lord knows the way of the righteous, and the way of the wicked will perish” (Ps. 1:6). “Blessed is the man who has not walked in the counsel of the wicked”, is not led astray by their way of thinking, their moral rules, their conduct, “but in the Law of the Lord is” his whole “will”.

Thus sings the heavenly, wondrous Bard: the hermit listened to his holy, divinely-inspired song.

1847. St. Nicholas Babaevsk Monastery