The Monastery of the Temptation, above Jericho

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

The Burned-down Vineyard

The Burned-down Vineyard


At the “Holy God” before the Epistle reading during the Hierarchical Liturgy (when the Bishop serves), he—the bishop—comes out of the altar with the cross and his candle-stick and says, “Lord, Lord, look down upon this vineyard which thy right hand has planted, and establish it!” It is quite a moving sequence, followed immediately by the singing of “Holy God, Holy Mighty, Holy Immortal, have mercy on us!” as the hierarch blesses the congregation in three phases—the center, then the left, then the right sides, as he faces them.

This particular quotation that he offers—“Look down…” is from the Psalms, Psalm 80, in fact, and appointed to be read today in the Kathismata (Psalm readings) for Tuesdays during the Great Fast. The RSV renders the verse thusly:

Look down from heaven, and see; have regard for this vine, the stock which thy right hand planted.
The verse is the near culmination of a longer Psalm, one in which the Psalmist is lamenting the sad state of Israel summarized beautifully by the verses following the ones the Bishop sings: Here is the context, beginning with the words of the hierarch:

Turn again, O God of hosts! Look down from heaven, and see; have regard for this vine, the stock which thy right hand planted. They have burned it with fire, they have cut it down; may they perish at the rebuke of thy countenance!
Far from being a sweet blessing such as, “Lord look at this little vineyard—how beautiful—establish it, nurture it, bless it!” it is rather a serious call for mercy. Now it should be more evident why the hierarch sings this at Holy God.

In view of the last few readings from Isaiah, in which we saw how we are like a vineyard that has gone wild, producers of either wild or no fruit at all, we can also beg God during this 2nd Tuesday in Great Lent, to have mercy on us—for we have not only produced wild fruit, if any at all, but our wreckless sins burn the very vineyard of the Lord, and our axes, which would be better used to cut down the planks of our own sins (which fill our eyes more than the speck in our brother’s), are used to wreak havoc on the Lord’s vineyard, his church, by our careless swinging of the axe at others, to the destruction of even the most tender shoot.

Lord have mercy, indeed!

Here is the whole Psalm:

Psalm 80

1 Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel,
thou who leadest Joseph like a flock!
Thou who art enthroned upon the cherubim, shine forth 2 before Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh!
Stir up thy might,
and come to save us!
3 Restore us, O God;
let thy face shine, that we may be saved!
4 O LORD God of hosts,
how long wilt thou be angry with thy people’s prayers?
5 Thou hast fed them with the bread of tears,
and given them tears to drink in full measure.
6 Thou dost make us the scorn of our neighbors;
and our enemies laugh among themselves.
7 Restore us, O God of hosts;
let thy face shine, that we may be saved!
8 Thou didst bring a vine out of Egypt;
thou didst drive out the nations and plant it.
9 Thou didst clear the ground for it;
it took deep root and filled the land.
10 The mountains were covered with its shade,
the mighty cedars with its branches;
11 it sent out its branches to the sea,
and its shoots to the River.
12 Why then hast thou broken down its walls,
so that all who pass along the way pluck its fruit?
13 The boar from the forest ravages it,
and all that move in the field feed on it.
14 Turn again, O God of hosts!
Look down from heaven, and see;
have regard for this vine,
15 the stock which thy right hand planted.
16 They have burned it with fire, they have cut it down;
may they perish at the rebuke of thy countenance!
17 But let thy hand be upon the man of thy right hand,
the son of man whom thou hast made strong for thyself!
18 Then we will never turn back from thee;
give us life, and we will call on thy name!
19 Restore us, O LORD God of hosts!
let thy face shine, that we may be saved!

No comments:

Post a Comment