Sermon 22A
SERMON 22/A
SERMON ON THE RESPONSE OF PSALM 70:
"My God, deliver me from the hand of the sinner."
God is to be worshiped freely.
Every soul that earnestly sings psalms to God must necessarily think at that time about its own dangers and be touched by a somewhat intimate feeling, if by chance it is enduring some tribulation externally or some difficulty internally, and it refers what it sings to what it endures. We responded: Lord, deliver me from the hand of the sinner and from the hand of the criminal and injurious one. Perhaps each of you, when hearing these words from the reader or responding yourselves, thinks only of some enemy of yours, or someone who slanders you, or who is preparing to throw you into prison, or who might be composing a false document against you: you call that person a sinner, that person a criminal, and you desire to be delivered from him. You see someone singing, and singing with feeling, even accommodating the expression of the psalm with his face, sometimes even wetting his face with tears, sighing between the words of the song. He who does not discern affections, already praises that person, and says: "He listens to the reading with great emotion. How he groans, how he sighs!". But he is thinking about that enemy of his, from whom he fears some slander, some violence, some fraud and circumvention; and with all his might, and with all his innermost feelings, with voice, face, and sighs says: Lord, deliver me from the hand of the sinner and from the hand of the criminal and injurious one. Such a person singing, sings as an old man, and understanding carnally, tries, being old, to sing a new song. Let the new man sing if he sings the new song. What is it for the new man to sing? Let him be renewed by the desire for a new life, let him covet something else, let him sigh to God for something else, let him be a lover of the heavenly kingdom. To put it more briefly: let him be a lover of God, love God, love freely. For this was what the devil wanted to object to and in this he wanted to convict the holy man Job, as if he were old, so that he could prevent him from reaching what is promised to the new, by saying: Does Job fear God for nothing? Therefore, if he worships freely, he has overcome the devil; if he does not worship freely, he is overcome by the devil. For the slanderer's objection would have been valid if Job had not worshiped God freely. "That is why he worships you," he says, "because you have given him so much." Therefore, God allowed Job to be tempted so that from whom He knew He was worshiped freely, He might also show us something to imitate. For He was known to God, but was hidden from us. Therefore, see what happened to the devil's perversion: when he wanted to show one sinner, he made many imitators of the holy man. For he did not subject him to himself but showed him to us. So then? How was Job understood to worship freely? Because he did not give thanks when he had and blaspheme when he did not have, but he placed God's pleasure above all his riches, as if saying: "I have Him who gave, why should I seek what He gave?"
The Example of Job.
I will say then, Brothers, whoever worships the Lord for the sake of having wealth, having worldly honors, and asks these things from Him, it is clear that he does not worship freely. He worships for a reward. If God does not give him these things, he is to be forsaken. Whoever gives more is thought to be more worshiped. And only He gives. Nevertheless, if another gave, the lovers of these things would flee to him, abandoning God. Strive towards God, let God be your entire good, let God be your true good. Therefore, with all things taken away, since the devil did not take away the one who loved freely, even by his own voice the devil was cast down: The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away, as it pleased the Lord, so it has been done. He did not say: "And what shall I do against the Lord? I will mourn, because I cannot conquer Him." He said, the name of the Lord be blessed. Only for his sons, whose sin he feared, did he tear his garments, praying with fatherly affection for them. As for what God took away, he accepted it willingly, because he embraced God more willingly.
What it means to worship God freely.
Someone exists and says, "I do not worship God for riches, and He knows it, nor for vain and temporal honors." And for what reason then? Let us find a person worshiping and loving freely. And for what reason then? "I do not want riches," he says, "I desire the sufficiency of things. Nothing should be lacking in my house; I wish to be safe with my spouse, with my children. This is enough for me." Still, you do not yet worship God freely. Job shows us this himself. For the devil, indeed with the permission of God, who had taken away his riches—and he had not fallen, for he trampled them so that he might depend on God—also took away his health, and God permitted this. And Job was demonstrated to worship God freely, even though he worshiped and loved Him not for bodily health itself. And the devil did not strike him in one member. He made him putrid from head to foot. And this was for his greater subjugation so that he might be more greatly triumphed, so that the one who had seduced immortal Adam might be conquered by a putrid man. Hence, he struck him with a severe wound from head to foot, and while rotting with worms, he endured a tempting wife, left to him as an assistant by the devil. She herself was Eve, but he was not the same Adam. She subjected him to the persuasion of blasphemy so that he, losing patience, would lose Him whom he worshiped freely. But when would he lose Him, to whom he clung so? For what did he respond to the wife speaking such things? "You have spoken like one of the foolish women. Shall we accept good from the hand of the Lord, and not endure evil?" Behold one worshipping freely, even not for the health of the body itself, which we have in common with cattle.
Cling to God in faith, you will cling to His form.
Therefore, there is another thing that God keeps for us. For this reason let Him be worshiped, for this reason let Him be loved. He keeps Himself for those who love Him. He wishes to show His face to the purified, not with the eye of the flesh, but with the eye of the heart: Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Love, so that you may see, for what you will see is not despicable, it is not trivial. You will see Him, who made whatever you love. And if these things are beautiful, what must He be like who made them? God does not want you to love the earth, God does not want you to love heaven, that is, what you see, but Himself whom you do not see. But you will not always not see, if you do not always not love. Love Him while absent, so that you may enjoy Him when present. Desire Him whom you may hold, whom you may embrace. Adhere to Him first by faith, later you will adhere by sight. For now you walk as a foreigner by faith and hope. When you arrive, you will enjoy Him whom you loved as a foreigner. He Himself established the homeland to which you hurry to come. From there He sent letters to you, so that you may not delay returning from the pilgrimage. Therefore, if you aim for that homeland where you will enjoy the founder of the homeland, now you are in the desert among many temptations, the enemy must be guarded against. Learn against whom you sing: O God, deliver me from the hand of the sinner and from the hand of the criminal and the injurious one. The sinner is the devil, brothers, the criminal is the devil, the injurious one. From his hand wish to be freed, so that once the way is completed, along which he dares to lay in wait, you may come to the homeland where he cannot be admitted.
The enemy is the devil.
Hear that the devil is a sinner. It is written: From the beginning the devil sins. Now, who does not know that he is wicked and injurious? What is so wicked as being a murderer? Who killed a man first, if not he who deceived Adam? And he is injurious, who acts against righteousness, because he never stood in truth. Against this wicked and injurious one, it is sung: O Lord, deliver me from the hand of the wicked and injurious one. Do not contend with your neighbor who slanders, do not against the powerful who moves your boundary, do not against the one who ambushes you to kill you. For all these are men who ambush you. They are flesh and blood, they pass away. Hear the Apostle saying: Your struggle is not against flesh and blood. So, against whom is the struggle? Against whom is it said: Deliver me, O Lord, from the hand of the sinner and from the hand of the wicked and injurious one? It is not, he says, against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. By avoiding man, you are cautious; by praying, you are cautious of the devil. You avoid a visible enemy, so where he is present, you are not; for you avoid what you see. How will you avoid what you do not see? By praying. Pray against him: your weapons are your prayers. You are silent, thus he ambushes; you pray, and he is consumed. But pray with affection, by which you freely love.