Swift Hearing of Prayer (Verse 18)

Ps. 33:18. The righteous cried out, and the Lord heard them and delivered them from all their tribulations.

God’s special favor toward the righteous, His special attention to them and the swift hearing of their prayers—this is proved here by the holy Prophet through examples of the ancient Fathers who lived before him, the holy and righteous ones: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Joshua, Gideon, and others, from whose extreme distress the right hand of God repeatedly saved them at their cry. To confirm that truly the eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and His ears attend to their prayer, look, he says, at what happened. In what anxiety was Jacob when he faced the prospect of meeting Esau? But he cried out to the Lord—and the Lord delivered him from that extremity. In what extremity was Moses before the Red Sea? But he cried out—and the Lord delivered him and the people from that great danger. And after David, does not history present the same examples? It suffices to recall the righteous King Hezekiah, who twice saw himself in bitter straits and was twice saved by God, to Whom he called out in prayer. Once, enemies had surrounded the city and were ready to destroy it; another time, death threatened to cut short the days he still counted as needed for himself. But in each case he cried out to God—and was immediately heard. All the enemies were destroyed in a single night by an Angel, at the Lord’s command; and death was postponed for another fifteen years. And there were many such wondrous deliverances with which the Lord favored those who fear Him, when they cried out to Him in pain and distress for help.

Of course, in the ordering of the temporal lot of every person, even of the righteous themselves, there is much that is incomprehensible. But this is because just as the Lord Himself in His essence and His attributes is incomprehensible, so He is incomprehensible to our feeble minds also in the workings of His providence. Yet the truth of God’s attention to the righteous and His special care for them does not cease to be a truth because we cannot grasp how and in what form the Lord accomplishes this.

Blessed Augustine dwells on this thought. “The three youths were righteous,” he says, “and when they cried out to the Lord from the fiery furnace, the fire was cooled by their songs of praise. The flame did not touch or burn the innocent and righteous youths who were praising the Lord. But someone will say: these were righteous and were heard; but I cry out and the Lord does not deliver me. Either I am not righteous and do not do what He commands—or perhaps He does not see me. Do not fear; only do what He commands. If He does not grant you deliverance in bodily things, He certainly grants salvation of the soul. His judgments are wondrous and unsearchable. Is not the same God who saved the three youths in the flames the God of the Maccabees? The former sang songs of praise in the flames, while the latter gave up their spirits. Is the God of the three youths not also the God of the Maccabees? But He delivered some and not others. Or rather, He delivered both; only the three youths He delivered in such a way that even carnal people were instructed, while the Maccabees He delivered not in this but in another way, so that their persecutors might go to greater torments. He delivered Peter, when an Angel came to him in prison and said: rise and go out. His chains immediately fell away; he followed the Angel and was delivered from imminent death (Acts 12:7). Surely Saint Peter did not lose his righteousness that afterward God did not deliver him from death on the cross? And I will say that in the latter case God heard him more fully than in the former. Then, in truth, he was delivered from all tribulations, for he was translated to where there is no grief or sighing; but after the first deliverance, how much he still had to endure in his life!”