On the Spiritual Communion of Those Surrendered to God (Verses 3–4)

Ps. 33:3. Let the meek hear and be glad.

The meek lack the energy to stand against the assault of unfavorable circumstances and to push them aside by their own resistance. They grieve indeed—but how to escape from trouble they do not know and do not even undertake it. It is to such persons—as a consolation and encouragement to them—that the Prophet now turns his speech. “Since (Saint Basil the Great), he says, my salvation was accomplished through a mere change of appearance, with God’s assistance, let the meek hear this and be glad, seeing how even without a fight one can raise trophies of victory and, without having fought, prove to be victors.” Cast your care upon the Lord and He will arrange for you everything for which you have neither strength nor means. The Prophet places himself among all the oppressed and the pursued and wishes to share with all the means of deliverance of which he himself was found worthy. As someone who has found the road, having been lost, calls out to others who are wandering that they should follow him—so does the Prophet. He says, as it were: by the Lord I was saved; in the Lord my soul makes its boast. This is the surest path of deliverance from troubles. Rejoice in this discovery and hasten to set out on that same path, on which it has gone so well for me. In this sense Euthymius Zigabenus says: “by the meek, holy David means the guileless—those who do not return evil for evil; and let such be glad, he says, for God never abandons the meek, but always saves them in extremity, as He saved me; in me let them see an example of salvation from the Lord and rise to bold hope in Him.” “Let every righteous man (Athanasius the Great) be glad, hearing of the salvation the Lord has wrought for me and seeing how He saves all who hope in Him.”

Or the meek are “those who have tamed (Basil the Great) their dispositions, freed themselves from every passion, in whose souls there is no longer any tumult: such as Moses, who was meeker than all men on the face of the earth (Num 12:3), and such as the true followers of Christ, who have learned from Him to be meek and humble, just as He is meek and humble in heart (Mt 11:29). This is the community of the blessed, who are promised to inherit the earth (Mt 5:5).” In that case the holy Prophet’s address to the meek would carry the following meaning: I too have been numbered into your midst. By the circumstances of life I have been humbled and taught to place my salvation in God alone. Hear this and rejoice, as those who have gained a new member of one mind.

Or thus: the circle of meek people is a community of persons closely bound to one another. What concerns one concerns all; all sympathize with it and all feel it—one person’s trouble is a common trouble. And now holy David had vanished from the scene! Where, where to, what has become of him? He had sunk as though into the waves of the sea. But—by the power of God—he is delivered from trouble and, in grateful feelings toward God, calls out to all: I am alive! I have been delivered by God! The extremity was great; yet I did not lose heart and remain in that same God, and in Him I make my boast. Hear this and be glad. Such feelings Christians have often had to show and to experience during times of persecution. Expressing the same thought, Saint Athanasius says: “the Psalmist is not content to hymn God alone, but makes the partakers of his meekness also partakers of the song.”

Ps. 33:4. Magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt His name together.

Having invited the meek to share his joy, he now invites them also to share in the labor of magnifying the beneficent Lord. “As though he does not have sufficient strength to worthily proclaim the greatness of God, he asks that others also set to that same work and assist him” (Athanasius the Great). A single mind is not strong enough to encompass the majesty of God; this is why the Prophet calls all the meek to share in this action (Saint Cyril in Euthymius Zigabenus). As once the three youths in the Babylonian furnace, conscious of the greatness of the task of glorifying God and accounting themselves insufficient for it, called upon all creation to magnify the Lord—so too holy David, in the same mind, calls upon those of one mind with him in meekness and piety, that they might help him to worthily magnify the Lord (Anthimus, Patriarch of Jerusalem).

But however many minds may gather, they will not encompass as they ought the greatness of God, and however many tongues may be employed, they will not express it in a manner fully worthy of God. And yet, whatever measure this magnification by mind and word may attain, it is always an action and a state of the spirit that is solemnly joyful. Therefore, it is not so much the hope of jointly encompassing and fully expressing the greatness of God that moves holy David to invite all the meek to this, as it is the desire to make them partakers of his own reverent spiritual joy. If simple joy naturally tends toward sharing, all the more so does spiritual joy, which is freed from every passionate limitation and is stirred by objects capable of gladdening all. “I do not wish to magnify alone (Blessed Augustine)—says the true lover of the Lord—it is not as here, where if I embrace something, there is no room for another who also wishes to embrace it. In the Lord there is such breadth that there is room for all to embrace Him—in the desire to delight in Him. Exhort one another, saying: let us exalt His name together. If you love the Lord, draw all into this love, with whomever you enter into any relationship, and especially those who are in your household. Draw them into love of the Lord, whomever you can and however you are able—by exhortation, by petition, by instruction, by argument with gentleness and meekness. Draw all to love, so that when they begin to magnify the Lord, they magnify Him together, as it were in one voice. Those who have fallen away from the unity of the Church (in Augustine’s time—the Donatists; in ours—schismatics, Molokans, Khlysts) magnify the Lord in separation. Let us also say: let us exalt, brethren, His name together. Why do you separate yourselves and wish to magnify the Lord apart from us? He is one; why do you wish two peoples to stand before His face? Why do you wish to cut the Body of Christ asunder? When the Lord hung upon the Cross, enemies came and did not break His legs. But Donatus came (in our time, Avvakum, Uvarov) and cut apart the Body of Christ’s Church. On the Cross, in the hands of enemies, the Body of Christ remained whole, while in the hands of Christians the Body of the Church was not preserved whole. Let us therefore cry out to them with a strong cry: come, let us exalt His name together. This is the Church crying out to those who have fallen away; this is her voice, calling them back to her bosom!”

To magnify the Lord means to depict His greatness in word or song. The Lord is infinitely great in Himself and has revealed Himself as such in His works. Our magnification is not needed for His sake; rather, it is our duty, the duty of the creature to its Creator. On the other hand, greatness irresistibly draws forth a feeling of wonder, as a tribute to what is great. So it is with regard to God! When His greatness is recognized, felt, and as it were touched—then thoughts that magnify Him will of themselves swarm and form into a song, first in the heart and thence in word. The whole matter lies in beholding and touching the greatness of God.

This is attained by “one who (Basil the Great) with a reverent mind, in deep contemplation, examines the greatness of creation, so as to behold its Creator (Wis. 13:5) in the greatness and beauty of created things. For the more one penetrates into the laws by which the universe is ordered and governed, the more clearly one contemplates the majesty of the Lord and is disposed, according to one’s capacity, to magnify the Lord”.

This is also attained by one who, through deep reflection, perceives the manifestation of God’s greatness in His judgments and mercies toward the human race: in the Flood, in the confusion of tongues, in the leading of the Israelites out of Egypt, and above all in the redemption and salvation of mankind. Having understood and sensed this last, the Mother of God cried out: my soul magnifies the Lord! (Lk. 1:46). The same wonder and cry is involuntarily wrested from everyone who, with an undistracted mind, ascends into the contemplation of God’s greatness as manifested by Him in His providential acts toward the human race.

But not everyone is capable of this. One must first make the eye of the mind pure and acquire a tranquil heart. “One must (Basil the Great) entirely free oneself from outward tumults, produce perfect stillness in the hidden chamber of the heart’s counsels, and then draw near to the contemplation of God’s works. Just as it is impossible for a troubled eye to receive a true impression of a visible object, so it is impossible with a disturbed heart to comprehend the greatness of God in creation and providence. Therefore one must withdraw from all worldly affairs and not introduce into the soul any extraneous thoughts, whether through sight, hearing, or any other sense. For the battles raised by carnal thinking fill the interior of the heart with unceasing tumults and irreconcilable strife”.

But the Lord is magnified not only in word but in deed as well. “How can we, the humble, magnify the Lord, Who is great beyond all measure and comprehension? — asks Anthimus, Patriarch of Jerusalem, and answers: we can magnify the Lord by no other means than by doing, speaking, and thinking what is worthy of the greatness of God and pleasing to Him”. In this sense it is often said in the Psalms: let us magnify the Lord, let us exalt God and glorify Him. In this same sense we read in the Lord’s Prayer: may Your name be sanctified. These words mean: let us do, speak, and think what is worthy of the greatness, glory, majesty, and holiness of God. This is why holy Basil the Great approaches the interpretation of this verse as follows: “The Prophet gathers around himself a choir suited to the glorification of the Lord—his address is to the meek. Do not join me, he says, if you are turbulent, troubled, or if you inflame your soul with carnal passions; but come, you who are meek—you who have acquired steadiness and constancy of soul, who have shaken off sloth and drowsiness and stand vigilantly in the works of God”.

Such are the thoughts to which the first three verses of the Psalm lead us, as indicated by the holy Fathers and teachers of the Church. It is not difficult to notice what a progression of holy spiritual feelings there is in the holy Prophet! It begins with thanksgiving for one occasion; from this thanksgiving, aroused by the mercy of God, the mind passes to the contemplation of all God’s perfections and gives birth to the continual praise of God; from the contemplation of perfections the mind passes to the contemplation of God’s universal activity in all that takes place in creation generally and in the fate of man in particular, and disposes the spirit—referring everything to God—to find its rest in Him alone; finally, encompassing all in one thought, the holy Prophet rises to the comprehension of God’s greatness—both in His attributes and in His acts—and, like one who has found a precious and inexhaustible treasure, calls all to render Him the tribute of magnification that is His due. See to what height he has ascended and to what height he leads us! — Comprehension or the sense of God’s greatness strikes the spirit with wonder. Wonder in the contemplation of God’s incomprehensible greatness is the secret worship of the mind before the infinitely great God. This wonder strikes the mind as it penetrates into every attribute and every act of God. Wondrous are: God’s omnipotence, His goodness, His justice, His omniscience, His omnipresence, His creative power, His providence, and His redemption. Each of God’s attributes and acts, when the humble mind begins to penetrate into them, opens as it were a window onto God’s boundlessness, immensity, and incomprehensibility, in which the mind loses itself and as it were dissolves—and in deep self-abasement is compelled to cry out: who is like God!