Thursday
at Matins [1]
Psalm 61 (62)
Shall not my soul be laid bare before God?
for from Him is my salvation.
He alone is my God and my Saviour,
my protector, no more shall I be disturbed.
How long will you all set upon a man,
as if thrusting down a leaning wall or tottering fence?
But yet they have thought to cast away my wages until I thirsted;
they blessed with their mouths but in their hearts they cursed.
Even so my soul is laid bare before God,
for from Him is my patience.
For he alone is my God and my Saviour,
my helper, I shall not depart his side.
In God is my salvation and my glory,
He is the God of my help; my hope is in God.
Trust in Him all you congregations of the people:
pour out your hearts before him:
God is our helper forever.
Even so, the vain sons of men are dishonest liars;
deceitful are the sons of men when weighed in the scales:
their deceptions heap vainglory upon vainglory.
Trust not in iniquity and covet not riches:
though wealth abound, set not your heart upon it.
God has spoken once, these two things have I heard:
“Power belongs to God, and mercy to you, O Lord”
for you will render to every man according to his works.
We are never more ‘real’ than when we rise before dawn to watch and wait with the Lord. The serenity of sleep so often torn from our bodies at this hour reveals our vulnerabilities and our many defects as we take our first tentative steps into the darkness. In that dark stillness, shall not my soul be laid bare before God, who sleeps not nor slumbers but hears every thought and perceives even the most fleeting of aspirations as if they were shouted from a mountain top.
It is here that we are naked before God as were Adam and Eve in the garden. Where there is shame, we cover ourselves, hoping for time to correct our errors ourselves before revealing the scars of sin that disfigure our bodies. But God sees beneath the opulent folds of the cowl; the Creator knows every contour of our flesh and every impulse of our heart. He sees the open wounds and the scars of our iniquity and kisses them tenderly, knowing that these are the wounds of a war we fight daily in His name. O that we would lay bare these wounds, and take from God what He so lovingly offers: His protection, His patience, His strength and His mercy.
Is it the Matins bell that brought us here? Is it force of habit, or rule, or fear of correction? Never doubt that it is the soul’s answer to the call of our Lord that rouses the unwilling body from slumber. It is the Lord Himself who calls, and His lover, the soul, who responds to His invitation to draw strength from His well of power and mercy. It is not by our own strength that our eyes battle the darkness to perceive His light. It is not me that dragged my body, heavy-laden with sin and drunk with sleep to His sanctuary. It is His love that lifts and His light that guides me to His side, and God alone who is my help, my hope, my Saviour.
To the enemy I must seem like a leaning wall or a tottering fence. Why is it then that despite my infirmity I do not fall in the face of their unabating assaults? It is because the Lord has led me here and has buttressed me against their bombardment. Yet they will not relent. Daily the enemy will strengthen its siege, will deny me what is mine from the earth and tempt my guard with such worldly glories that no man could earn in his lifetime. Their words please the ear but revolt the heart which belongs to my God. Their promises of glory in man’s-self belie the truth that vanity is but a reflection, albeit in a gilded mirror, of our corruptible flesh which, however adorned, will rot and come to nothing. But we adorn ourselves with Christ and set our hearts upon His promise of life eternal, bringing to perfection this life we fleetingly borrow from the earth. So let us lay our earthly bodies before Him, pour out our hearts, and surrender our souls to His love. For as we empty ourselves of vainglory, so we are filled with His power and our wounds healed by His mercy to stand firm against the siege of the foe.
at Matins [2, 3]
Psalm 65 (66)
Shout for joy to God, all the earth,
sing a psalm to His name, give glory to His praise.
Say to God: “How tremendous are Your works, O Lord!
In the abundance of Your strength,
even the last of Your enemies
shall conceal their depravity before You.
Let all the earth adore you and sing your praise,
a hymn of praise to your name!”
Come and see the works of God,
tremendous in His counsels over the sons of men.
Who turned the sea into dry land;
that through the river they passed on foot;
there we shall rejoice in Him.
He rules in His might forever,
His eyes look down upon the nations;
let them that provoke Him not exalt themselves.
Bless our God, you nations,
and resound His praise;
Who gave life to my soul,
and lets not my feet stumble.
For You have proved us, O God!
You have tried us like silver is tried in the fire.
You have led us into a snare;
You have laid afflictions on our back;
You have set men over our heads.
We have passed through fire and water:
and You have brought us out into refreshment.
I will enter Your house with burnt-offerings;
I will repay the vows to You, which my lips have uttered,
and my mouth had spoken, when I was in trouble.
I will offer up to You holocausts full of marrow,
with burnt-offerings of rams;
I will offer to You bullocks with goats.
Come and hear, all you that fear God,
and I will recount what great things
He has done for my soul.
I cried to Him with my mouth,
with my tongue I extolled Him.
If I had looked upon iniquity in my heart,
the Lord would not hear me.
Therefore has God heard me,
and has attended to the voice of my supplication.
Blessed be God, who turned not away my prayer,
nor His mercy from me.
The darkness weakens as the night begins her retreat and that which we meditated upon in silent shadows now begins our enlightenment. There is no evil to be faced, except that which we face with the countenance of God before us. Even the most foul foe has already been subjected to the One Lord, Jesus Christ, and cowers before Him. It is in Him that we vanquish their true face, which they hide in fear from the Lord. It is His work alone that will bring the dawn, which pours light into the darkness of sin and death, raising up light-bearing sons of God redeemed from mere men to carry His light from our souls to the farthest reaches of the world, there to subdue the spirits of this night and send them fleeing to their harrowing home.
So let us resound with praise for this God, our God, who has worked His wonders using the dust of the earth He created to manifest His love, His power, and His salvation through the miracles that have marked our journey with Him since the beginning of time. Could we doubt Him, who turned the sea into dry land and rained down manna from heaven, that He wills to use such lowly tools as human flesh to conquer the world in His love – He that took flesh Himself to take our flesh to Himself, to make us co-heirs to a Kingdom without darkness. Doubt not, but believe. But know also that our victory, our inheritance, is all in Him.
That we have passed the trials by fire and water, which He gave, is only by clinging to His grace, and drawing on His strength, and relying on His infinite mercy. That we emerge from the darkness to His glorious light is a refreshment granted, not earned. Our soul desires to give in thanksgiving so much infinitely more than what the whole of creation contains, but even that would be giving what He had first given. But our God does not shame us for our inadequacy but continues to give in such abundance that today, the most precious oblation we can offer is the Body and Blood of His own Son, and with it our whole-selves, that we may be consumed in the fire of His love and rise with Him whose darkest night of death brought forth the unconquerable dawn.
And in this offering at our hands, placed there by the bounteous love of God, we find His answer to our prayer and the outpouring of His mercy for a man that would be dust if not for His life-giving breath.
at Matins [4, 5, 6]
Psalm 67 (68)
That God should arise and His enemies be scattered,
and that they who hate Him should flee from His countenance.
As smoke vanishes, so let them be no more;
as wax melts in the face of fire,
so may the wicked perish before the face of God.
And let the just feast, and rejoice in the sight of God,
and let them delight in gladness.
Sing to God, sing a psalm to His name:
lay His path before Him who ascends upon the west;
The Lord is His name.
Be exulted in His sight, or be flung from His presence:
He who is the father of orphans and the judge of widows.
God in His holy place: God who unites
men of the one care to dwell in a house;
who brings out them bound together in strength
and likewise them that provoke:
those who dwell in the grave.
O God, when you went forth in the sight of your people,
when you passed through the desert,
the earth trembled and the heavens dropped
before the face of the God of Sinai,
before the face of the God of Israel.
Pleasing rains You shall set aside
for your inheritance, O God;
though enfeebled, you have perfected it.
The march of daybreak advances upon the horizon, a procession of the Holy of Holies, the light of Christ Himself ascending to pierce the pall of darkness; a glimmer of that blinding light of the resurrection that is ours to clothe, when the shroud of night is thrown off forever on that day of His final dawning. And we shall be found waiting upon his return, as we wait each day to feast on the living Manna from heaven. For who shall adorn the road of His return but those that He has Himself gathered as one body, of different parts but of one heart and of one love for its head, our Lord and our God.
We have awaited this dawn, when we might rise to greet His coming, and witness the sanctification of fallen creation, just as the sun overflows the horizon filling the earth and sky with an unstoppable flood of cleansing light. Shadows first sent fleeing will be caught up, for none can hide from His light. Nowhere to run, they will be consumed in His effulgence, no more to be of this place, for the earth on which we stand is holy ground.
With this dawn God fulfils His promise to abide with Sion, to make the earth His dwelling. God is in His holy place and those who do not fear His light rejoice in it, for we have been gathered one people of His light, who through all ages have sung this psalm of expectant joy and have slept in the hope of the inheritance of His glory.
Your living creatures shall dwell in it;
O God, you have provided for the poor.
To them the Lord shall give His Word
of glad tidings in its fullest strength.
The most powerful kings shall be subjects of the Well-Beloved
and the house of beauty will divide their spoils.
If you should find repose in the apportioned lot,
you shall shine like the wings of a dove cast in silver,
with the plumes of her back set in gold.
When He that is in heaven appoints kings over her,
they shall be as pure as the snow of Selmon:
the mountain of God, a fertile mountain.
A mountain rich in curds, a fertile mountain:
why suspect there might be another richer in curds?
A mountain upon which God is pleased to make His dwelling,
it is there that the Lord shall dwell forever.
The chariots of God are many,
attended by tens of thousands of them that rejoice:
the Lord rides among them in Sinai, in His holy place.
You have ascended on high, leading captivity captive;
receiving gifts in the form of men:
even those who did not believe
that the Lord God dwelled there.
Blessed be the Lord day by day:
the God of our salvation shall prosper us on our journey.
Our God is the God of salvation, and of the Lord,
of the Lord are the channels from death.
Yet the Lord shall shatter the heads of His enemies,
the hairy crowns of those who proceed in their sinful stride.
The Lord said: “I will turn them back from Basan;
I will turn them into the depths of the sea,
that your foot may be dipped in your enemy’s blood,
and the tongues of your dogs reddened with the same.”
And the Word was made Flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the Only Begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1:14)
Receive the Word of God. Receive the Good News, the gift of Divine Love that nourishes the poor of heart, lifting us from our poverty to the opulence of the court of the King of kings.
The house into which we are gathered, we who are as parchment into which the Word is imbibed, is a beautiful house imbued with the Spirit of God, who like a dove lifts this prayer of our lips like a descant to our chant, to soar with the angels around God’s throne. How should we then not sing with the voice of our hearts to our King, Hosanna to the One who saves, and Maranatha to entreat His coming?
From His bounty He will feed the hungry with the richness of the curds of the milk of divine grace. Which of us should not be poor on that day? Who will stand with claim of greater riches? Emptying ourselves now, may we become as earthen vessels parched by the sun, impoverished in our hollowness, desirous of nothing that He does not give, of nothing that we may not give back to Him in thanksgiving, so that we are ever, of ourselves poor, and in Him alone prosper. Prosperous on our journey to meet Him, as we follow His Morning Star, the only path from death to life, from the blood of the enemy and the stench of decay to incorruptibility sealed by the Blood of New Covenant.
They have seen your goings, O God,
the goings of my God, my King,
who is in His sanctuary.
Princes went before You, joined with singers,
in the midst of young maidens, playing their timbrels.
In the assemblies bless God, the Lord
from the fountains of Israel.
There is Benjamin, in his youth,
in his ecstasy of mind;
the princes of Judah, their leaders;
the princes of Zabulon, the princes of Nephthali.
Command, O God, Your power:
confirm in us, O God, what You have wrought.
From Your temple in Jerusalem,
kings shall offer You gifts.
Rebuke the wild beasts of the rushes,
the herd of bulls that go amongst your people’s calves;
who seek to exclude those who have been tried with silver.
Scatter the warmongering nations;
ambassadors shall come out of Egypt,
Ethiopia shall soon stretch out her hands to God.
Sing to God, O you kingdoms of the earth;
chant your praises to the Lord;
sing to God, who mounts
above the heaven of heavens to the east.
Behold, His voice will resound, a voice of power:
“Give glory to God over Israel!”
His magnificence and His power reaches the clouds.
Wonderful is God in His holy ones;
the God of Israel, He who will give
power and strength to his people:
Blessed be God!
The exultant throng that goes before the Lord in His coming, heralds of the smoldering dawn, are all those in whose footsteps we stand, of whose prayers ours are but an echo; our brethren, the holy ones of God, clothed in the light of His immortality. Their prayers for us as they resound His praise, euphonic to our ears, resounding euphorically in our very souls, purge even the last remnant of somnolent night from our eyes, now wide in expectant longing for first light.
They invite us to join them as they have been called by Him to His side, to receive His light and take it forth until the darkest corners of the earth are resplendent in His glory. Let, then, this our house of His light resound with praise of His glorious grace; this psalm we sing projecting light from our souls as a melodious beacon that reaches beyond the clouds to join that same psalm sung by the chorus of saints in the presence of the source of Light and Life. Draw strength from this, our office of praise, these ancient songs of His holy ones; strength to be bearers of His light in our every work’s prayer.
So that from here we may join the attending throng at the chariot of our God and witness His glory over all the nations, uniting the tribes of Israel with all people of all time who praise Him in unison with us this day.
at Matins [7, 8, 9]
Psalm 68 (69)
Save me, O God,
for the waters have advanced up to my soul.
I am stuck fast in the mire of the deep,
where there is no firm footing.
I am come to into the depth of the sea
and the tempest has submerged me.
I am wearied with calling, my throat is hoarse,
my eyes have failed, whilst hoping for my God.
They are multiplied in beyond the hairs of my head,
those who hate me without cause.
My enemies are grown strong,
they who persecute me unjustly,
that I paid them back what I had never taken.
O God, You know my foolishness,
and my offences are not hidden from You.
Let not those who seek You
be ashamed on my account, O Lord,
Lord of hosts!
Let them not be confounded on my account,
who seek You, O God of Israel.
Because for Your sake I am become a reproach:
and shame has covered my face.
I have become a stranger among my brethren,
an outcast to the sons of my mother.
For zeal of Your house has eaten me up,
and the insults of those who reproach you
are fallen upon me.
I covered my soul with fasting,
and this was made a reproach to me.
I made a haircloth my garment,
and I became a byword to them.
They who sat at the gate spoke against me,
and I have become the drunkards’ song.
But I pray to you in truth, O Lord,
for the time of your favour, O God.
In the munificence of Your great mercy, hear me;
in the truth of Your salvation.
Draw me from the mire lest I stick fast:
deliver me from them that hate me
and from the deep waters.
Let not the swell of the stormy sea drown me,
nor allow me to be swallowed up by the deep,
and let not the pit close her mouth upon me.
Hear me, O Lord, for kind is Your mercy;
according to the multitude of Your great mercies
look upon me;
and do not avert Your face from Your servant,
for I am in distress: hasten to hear me.
Come to my soul’s assistance, and deliver it:
for an answer to my enemies, rescue me.
You know my abuses, my ambivalence,
and my shame.
You see before you all those that afflict me,
my heart calls for my own reproach and misery.
I yearned for one that would grieve with me,
but there was none;
and for one to console me,
but I found no one.
And they gave me gall for my food,
and in my thirst, they gave me vinegar to drink.
Let their table become a snare before them,
a fitting recompense and stumbling block.
Let their eyes be so darkened that they see not;
and let their backs always be bent down.
Pour out your wrath upon them,
and let your furious anger take hold of them.
Let their encampment be desolate,
and let there be none to dwell in their tents.
For they have persecuted the one You made to suffer,
and added to the agony of my wounds.
Heap guilt upon their guiltiness,
and let them not come into Your justice.
Let them be blotted out from the book of the living;
and not be written with the just.
But I am poor and anguished,
it is Your salvation, O God, that sustains me.
I will praise the name of God with a song,
and I will magnify Him with praise;
and it shall please God more than a young calf
hooven and growing horns.
Let the poor behold and rejoice:
seek God and your soul shall live!
For the Lord has heard the poor
and despises them not in their chains.
Let the heavens and the earth praise Him,
the seas and all that creeps within them;
for God shall save Sion,
and shall build up the cities of Judah;
and they shall dwell there,
and retain it as their inheritance;
and the seed of His servants shall possess it,
and they that love His name shall dwell therein.
From the ecstatic vision of our heavenly inheritance, we return with sobriety to the lives we must lead in order to attain it. For with the dawn, the world will awaken to a flurry of activity, to its comings and goings, and to its people’s pursuit of life within it. The winds of time change the world, blowing the dust of the earth from continent to continent. But it remains the same earth, the same dust out of which God formed man, and upon which, in the fullness of time, Jesus walked. The earth that received His Blood has not evaporated; it is here, today, in the ground beneath our feet. For in the passage of time there may be past and present and hope of future, but the earth is ever present – a witness to the ages. And man, too, who has been made king of all he surveys, has changed and certainly developed in his external mien, but in his essence remains the flesh and the flesh of his flesh that was once banished from the Garden of Eden; a flesh first formed from the dust of the earth and finally consigned to it.
It is into this world of man’s dominion that Christ the King of kings became Incarnate of the Virgin Mary and was made man. And it is in this same world that we, today, continue the redeeming work of the Emmanuel. And how are we to participate in this work of redemption completed in Christ, but to suffer, as He suffered, in the theatre of the world and at the hands of men; for the world is not our home and fallen man’s expression of humanity is not our destiny. How can we but suffer when evil abounds, and weep in remorse for our own participation in it. But to reject evil and live for Christ does not dry these tears, for with His eyes we see clearly man’s capacity for evil and suffer for upholding the Truth.
And so we cry to God for relief from the torment, but with Christ we submit ourselves to the will of the Father in sure hope that suffering precedes glory just as death precedes resurrection. We join the Psalmist in praying that our anguish will not be borne with bitterness but with love, so that our suffering may redeem and not condemn; may draw man closer to God, and the world closer to embracing the time of His favour.
On our account may man only ever more clearly see the love of God. On account of our suffering may man only every more clearly understand the testament of the Suffering Saviour: Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great. (Matthew 5:11-12)
Send your supplication soaring to the throne of God, not for deliverance from the present suffering but for perseverance in it, for the truth of His salvation lies in the surrender of all to Him and in death to self for rebirth into His life. To be overcome by suffering is to fear for self; to fight for yourself in the face of it; to struggle for your perceived self-worth and self-righteousness. Pray to be lifted from the mire of self-pity that bogs us down with this self-worth, and would pull us into the jaws of pride – for are we not more deserving than our Lord of suffering? And yet He endured all with silence and docility to the will of His Father in heaven.
Pray that we may ever see the countenance of God before us. As the Lord walks always before us in the road of suffering, so too may the radiance of His face be our hope in our present trials. Let fear never overcome us, even should we face the moment of death in this day, but His hope be our rescue from despair and a sign to our enemies that there is no suffering we would not embrace for the hope that God in His mercy will absolve us of our many failings through the sufferings of His Son.
For let us look at ourselves as we stand before Him. Which one of us is worthy? Which one without sin? Which one capable by his own power to rise to the throne of judgment and take salvation for himself? Who shall stand when He appears and endure the day of His coming (Malachi 3:2), which we hope for like the dawn of this day? Who but those whom He has Himself chosen and refined in the fire of His sacrificial love?
We are being refined, purged of impurity, destroyed and remade to join our offering with His whose death is the only righteous offering before God for the remission of sins. Despair not then when you hear the enemy scoff that God has deserted you, for as they heap insult upon your injury and laugh in the face of the Suffering Servant saying there is no God, they heap upon themselves guilt after their iniquity. When they give you bitter poison to eat washed down with spoiled wine, do not spit it back in their faces but drink willingly of the cup of suffering that God has permitted to be offered to you for the salvation of your soul and the sanctification of His chosen. And when the poison takes hold, do not curse your lot and seek revenge with your last breath. Trust in God that Truth shall never yield its life to the lies of the deceiver. What is gained by the suffering of His holy ones shall be lost forever to those who rise against Him. Look now and see: they and theirs do not even exist.
So it is for those that persevere in the in the way of the Lord, and who embrace their share in the redemptive suffering of the Saviour, that the hope which sustained them in their darkest days shall be their glorious vindication. What then shall we yearn for: that our house prosper us lives of grandeur; that our worship be rich and lavish; that our work be free of toil; our study self-ennobling; and our lives be fat, with length of days? Shall our sacrifice offer Him choicest gifts from our overflowing treasury? Or should the only metal we posses be the chains we beg our Saviour to break; our lives have their fill on His Word alone and our days be numbered only according to His will; our study be to perfectly discern His glory; our work be tireless in His service; our humble worship be directed solely to His praise; and that we should be counted among the poor whose voice He hears from on high?
The vision of His glory is before your face, a glory that daily lifts our souls to the highest heaven and feeds our mortal bodies with the Bread of Life and the Cup of Eternal Salvation. The Prophets from of old and the Saints of this, the final age, all point to Jerusalem, the Heavenly City where God is pleased to dwell, and which He has raised as our inheritance in Christ. May our choice this day and always be Christ, a choice upheld by our faith and confirmed by our willingness to follow Him in trust and hope of the eternal light of His dawn and eternal life in His Kingdom, where He lives and reigns for ever and ever. Amen.