The Sinner Beholding His Own Helplessness (Vv. 12–15)

Verses 12–15 present a new, as it were unexpected, turn of thought. In relation to St. David the Prophet, they may have historical significance; but for us their application to the penitent is far more important—what they express in the course of the sinner’s conversion and the formation in him of the resolve to leave sin. When good desires begin to spring up under the penitent feelings, then, if unobstructed, they ought immediately to be followed by rejection of sin and choice of a virtuous life, which is expressed in verse 19: I repent; I have sinned—I will not again. But because the enemy does not sleep, seeing that the moment is near when he will be spat out by the sinner, he raises on his part mountains of obstacles both without and within (v. 13) such that this decision will not come until all the obstacles raised are overcome. These are overcome by hope (v. 16). And this, having grown strong in the soul (vv. 17, 18), gives it boldness to say at last: I will not (v. 19). It is chiefly in this direction that we shall examine the said verses.

comes forward to be spat upon by the sinner, and on his own part raises up mountains of obstacles to the uttering of that final resolve, both without and within (v. 13); so that this resolve will not come before all the obstacles that have been raised are removed. These last are overcome by hope (v. 16). And hope, once it has grown strong in the soul (vv. 17, 18), gives the soul courage to say at last: I will not sin (v. 19). It is chiefly in this direction that we shall examine the said verses.

Ps. 37:12. My friends and my nearest stood directly against me, and my neighbors stood afar off.

«Directly against me they stood,» they took their stand over against me, but neither word of comfort nor any movement to help was seen. Either they fear to touch his spiritual wounds, or are at a loss what to say or do, or consider his fate decided: there is no point in worrying; better to leave him to himself.

«My neighbors stood afar off.» Here an even more sorrowful thought appears: they fear to approach him as a leper, so repulsive to them seemed his spiritual wounds. His own have recoiled because of his extreme sinfulness, have lost respect, affection, attention. All seemed to have decided: remain with your sins as you wish.

The Prophet describes what befell him in his outward state because of sin. He points to the alienation from him of all, even those close to him. Perhaps such a thing actually happened after his sin with Bathsheba. From common experience it is evident that acts of lust do indeed attract disrespect and contempt among one’s own—wife, children, kindred. What is surprising if the same happened to David? Now in his penitent feelings he recalls all this, while before he either did not notice it or paid no attention. From history, regarding the standing apart of those close to him, we can only point to how after the death of the child born from Bathsheba, everyone whispered among themselves, but were afraid to speak to him about it (2 Sam. 12:13). The repenting heart could see something reproachful in this.

To every repenting sinner this applies «either» in the sense that he too, having reviewed with sorrow the desolation wrought by sins in his soul, turns then to the disorder of good relations without, wrought by sin: for with no flagrant sinner can they be good. Only those who love sin are in harmony with those who love sin; all the honorable and virtue-loving shun them. The penitent may regret all this and draw from it a new incentive to speedier amendment of life. But more fully, what the Prophet said of himself applies to every repenting sinner in this respect: when he begins to repent, none of his own can give him any help in this matter. Here and no one of men is a helper. They may stand round and marvel—that is all. And they cannot understand what is happening in him. They see him bowed and lamenting, but to enter within and set things in order there no one of men can do. Therefore, repenting, he can with St. David say: from the sorrow of my heart my heart is troubled, my strength has left me, the light of my eyes is dimmed, and help is nowhere; my own all stand round and can do nothing: «my father and my mother have forsaken me» (Ps. 26:10)

The holy Fathers when hearing these words carry our thoughts to another world. Thus Basil the Great says: «The friends and intimate ones are good Angels, servants of God, who rejoice in the salvation of men. These friends, who before rejoiced in David’s deeds, during his sin withdrew from him and turned away; though they did not wholly abandon him, but stood afar off. When they stood afar, other certain ones, he says, came to work sin in me, and with violence broke in and mocked my soul» (In Zigabenus). A similar thought is in Athanasius the Great: «The Angels helping him abandoned him because of sin. For the holy powers withdraw during temptation, either for the testing, or for the punishment of the one being tempted.»

The relation to us of good and evil angels can be pictured thus: when a man sins and loves sin in his heart, the Angel departs, and from afar only watches to see if he can somehow awaken the sinner to understanding. While man does not incline toward sin, the Angel does not allow demons near him; but as soon as he inclines, the demon rightly gains power over the soul, and the Angel departs. For everything depends on freedom. Until the inclination, the Angel says to the demon: depart; see, he does not want you; but after the inclination the demon says to the angel: depart; see, he willingly gives himself to me; do not interfere; give him

freedom. Freedom decides everything. The demons, having gained entrance into the soul, freely opened, begin to tyrannize in it and teach it to every evil; they turn it away from good intentions and support sinful ones, and push it into various undertakings, all for the sake of sin, so as to tangle it more and more in sin, in hope of holding it in sin forever (Zigabenus). They cover

all within with fog, and man acts in that time without clear consciousness of the meaning, but as a driven creature is driven.

But this, invisibly happening in every sinner’s soul while he is in sin, is only hinted at here by the holy Prophet. His main thought is not this. He wants to show what the Angels do and what the demons do at the time when man comes to awareness of his sinfulness and when good desires begin to be sown in his soul before the face of the Lord. At that time the Angels stand round: they do not enter; for within there has not yet occurred the decision to cast off sin, only thoughts of it are conceived and occupy the soul. They stand, sympathizing with the warrior, and from afar helping him with sympathy and beckoning. And the demons? They gather then in anxiety, and wishing to hold the sinner in evil, whisper to him various thoughts to shatter the good beginning intentions to cast off sin.

Ps. 37:13. And they who sought my soul labored; and they who sought evil for me spoke idle talk and crafted deceit all day long,

«And they pressed hard,» with effort they pushed their way up to me; «those who seek my soul,» forming hostile designs against my life, contriving to cut it short; «those who seek evils for me,» carefully searching out every path and means to do me harm. «They spoke vain things,» they sought as it were to render my happiness empty, to ruin me, «or» they laid plans and nursed hopes vain, empty, impossible to fulfil; «and all day long they meditated deceit,» upon their intrigues,

plans for my ruin, slanders and the like, they discussed and made speech unceasingly—their only business was contriving how to devise some destructive thing for me.

Here perhaps also history. When the grieving David was surrounded by friends standing afar off, not knowing how to help him and comfort him, and with compassion awaiting the outcome of the struggle being waged in him, at that time also, probably, his foes were plotting their own. The awesome word from God through the prophet Nathan could have awakened hopes of those secretly harboring followers of Saul. They now stirred and began to devise, perhaps this was not God’s work toward restoring them? Other enemies might devise other plans. This did not escape David: either he guessed or others told him, or he somehow heard it himself. But in spite of this he undertook nothing, as if he had not heard, leaving the matter to the Lord’s judgment himself—as later at the curses of Shimei.

Who are these enemies in relation to the penitent? The enemy can be the world. Before it was a friend; now it becomes an enemy. All know that as long as moral change does not occur instantly, how many obstacles to the sinner’s conversion are made by worldly speech, custom, and order into which he was woven while living in sins! But the most evil enemies to the one converting are demons. Usually, with the departure of the Angels, demons overwhelm the sinner and begin to fulfill their desires in him, making him like a beast of burden. They drive, and he is driven according to their direction, not seeing whom he obeys. When he awakens from slumber, this dark side also becomes clear to him. It becomes evident that the impulses toward sins, though felt in him, are not his own but demonic, and that in satisfying them he is not satisfying himself but the demons, thereby tormenting himself. This discovery strengthens dislike of sin and kindles the desire to be freed from it, pointing out thereby the freedom from the yoke of hateful demons. Reaching such thoughts, he says to himself: behold whom I serve! No longer do I wish to be their slave. Perhaps this very rejection of the dark forces is the beginning of the resolve for good, as in baptism after the renunciation of Satan follows union with Christ. But when the penitent’s repentance takes this turn, then the enemies, who until now might not have paid attention to him (not having set himself on another path before, intending many times and accomplishing nothing), take their measures. They gather in crowds around (Athanasius, Antiphanes), and wishing to hold the sinner in evil, whisper to him various fears and anxieties, speak idle tales, laying snares: where are you going—into the unknown? All there is invisible, intangible, while you have already tested ours; you know the taste. Besides, if you turn about and change your life, you will have to change relations: friends will become enemies and erase you; you will lose

your position, and you will not be able to live. You began already—how many times?—Again you will return and with shame. But then, perhaps, you will not find such a situation as you have now.

Is it not better not to begin?—These whispers in multitude crowd into the mind of the one turning from sin and reach the heart. Some hear such speech; others have them buzz in their ears. The struggle here is for life and death. But God’s grace, assisting the repenting sinner, teaches him to reject such whispers—and he, having overcome them, takes from the struggle thoughts and feelings opposite to those being whispered, which then enter into the array of his resolve or into the points of the covenant with God being established in the heart. It is true that as long as these opposing thoughts and feelings do not overcome in the heart, the inner struggle remains without end; on the contrary, as soon as they are formed—namely readiness for all manner of deprivation, for insult from the world, for persecution, torments, and even death—immediately the struggle ends. Take courage, brother, and let your heart be strong! When such dispositions and readinesses arise and grow strong, then at once the resolve to leave sin comes about; the enemies, defeated, scatter, and the Angels—comforters, come forward with joy. All occurring here the holy Prophet afterwards remembers before the Lord in vv. 17, 18, and 19.

Ps. 37:14-15. But I, as a deaf man, did not hear; and as a mute man not opening his mouth. And I became as a man who does not hear and who has no rebuke in his mouth.

«As a deaf man»—either in truth he did not notice the schemes, due to his kindness and trustfulness, or he armed himself with such patience that hearing, he seemed not to hear. The latter is closer (Zigabenus). «As a mute man not opening his mouth»—he did not talk back, said nothing to defend himself or enlighten those. Perhaps by talking back he feared to provoke malice, and allowing them freedom hoped that it would sooner exhaust itself and disperse without meeting resistance and opposition. «And I became as a man who does not hear»—repeats the same with slight variations to show how great was his patience. «Who has no rebuke in his mouth»—as if he had no means to rebuke them. Although he could have, if he had let his tongue loose, exposed the schemes and rebuked the unrighteousness of his foes; but he did not use this right.

The holy Prophet wants to say: my own have withdrawn; enemies perpetrate evils. I am deaf and mute; I moved not; I left the fate of my enemies to God’s hands, having placed my own fate in His hands.

In the course of repentance this expresses a decisive disdain for demonic whispers. The spirits buzz various intimidations into the sinner’s ears; but the truly repenting does not heed them. What is pleasing to the Lord, let that be, he says to himself. His are the commandments; His is the protection of those fulfilling them!—And he not only does not listen now, but takes a resolve to henceforth not listen, having learned that the doing of sins is pleasing to demons while tormenting to himself. Before, whatever the demons whispered, he listened and obeyed everything. Now he seemingly does not hear, no matter how eagerly they labor to shatter his good thoughts and resolves. He does not enter into argument with them; for this is not profitable: you cannot argue them over, while sooner you will get tangled in confusion. Therefore the common advice of all the holy Fathers: do not listen to what they whisper. With one turn you will end all disputes; turn away, do not heed. This same law holds also in relation to the world and its attempts to hold the penitent in its power. Better not to argue. You do thus, and I thus. Argument will irritate memories and sooner shake the resolve than strengthen it. Better to break at once all bonds.

they busy themselves to shatter his good thoughts and resolves. He does not enter into dispute with them; for that is not safe: you will not out-argue them, but will sooner be entangled in disagreement. Hence the common counsel of all the holy Fathers: do not listen to what they suggest. With a single turning-away you will put an end to all disputes; turn aside, give no heed. The same law holds also with respect to the world and its attempts to keep the penitent in its power. Better not to argue. You say one thing, I another. Dispute will stir up memories and will sooner shake the resolve than strengthen it. Better to break all the bonds at once.