Psalm 121
1 I lift up my eyes to the hills. From whence does my help come?
2 My help comes from the Lord, Who made heaven and earth.
3 He will not let your foot be moved, He who keeps you will not slumber.
4 Behold, He who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.
5 The Lord is your keeper; the Lord is your shade on your right hand.
6 The sun shall not smite you by day, nor the moon by night.
7 The Lord will keep you from all evil; He will keep your life.
8 The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and for evermore.
When daily vespers is served on Thursdays, this psalm’s opening question and answer are heard as the prokeimenon. Where does my help come from? “My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.” I am just a puny individual, walking a millisecond on the eternal stage, and nonetheless, my help comes from the Lord who made heaven an earth. This is precisely the affirmation that a philosopher like Cicero found impossible about popular religion. The creator of the universe taking an interest in any of us miserable individuals? You’ve got to be kidding.
But this is our faith. And it is a powerful reminder that every other good type of help must never eclipse our ultimate reliance on the Lord. This doesn’t mean we are quietists who wait passively for the Lord to fix all our problems. On the contrary, we do our best with all the effort and thought we can, and with whatever information we have. When we see something that needs doing or fixing, we don’t have to wait for a bolt of inspiration to take action. But what the results of our efforts will be…that’s up to God. As one of my favorite Proverbs puts it, “The horse is made ready for the day of battle, but the victory belongs to the Lord” (Proverbs 21:31).
Of course, there is another side. There are times when exuberance and confidence in God’s never-sleeping help gives way to a sense of His absence: Rouse Thyself! Why sleepest Thou, O Lord? Awake! Do not cast us off for ever! (Psalm 44:23).
But in an action-oriented culture like ours one of the big temptations is to forget about God’s presence or absence entirely and live as if he doesn’t figure in at all as we tackle problems. That’s why constant prayer and readiness for God’s guidance—for the person of faith—must accompany all our deliberations, plans and actions. If our default position is to take action, then we ought to be slowing down, asking questions and looking for the help that comes from the Lord.
New Reliquaries
Wednesday I made a very quick one-day drive to Ottawa and back again to Long Island to deal with car registration and pick up two reliquaries with icons prepared by iconographers Protodeacon Nazari and Matushka Tatiana Polataiko. The reliquaries will hold relics of Saint John Maximovitch of San Francisco and Saint Alexander Nevsky and be kept at Saint Sergius Chapel at the chancery. As for the car, we had it in Canada before we moved back to the US. The registration lapsed and we had to duly register it in Canada again before we could legally import it into the US.
His Beatitude, Metropolitan Tikhon, returns today from France. On Sunday he will be serving at St Nicholas Cathedral (Moscow Patriarchate) in New York City with Archbishop Justinian (MP) and Metropolitan Hilarion (ROCOR). Next Monday-Wednesday he will lead a meeting of representatives from OCA men’s and women’s monasteries. This is the first such meeting in many years and is aimed as an opportunity for “mutual upbuilding” and sharing of experiences, especially about the formation of spiritually healthy monks, nuns and communities.