Psalm 142
A Maskil of David, when he was in the cave. A Prayer.
1 I cry with my voice to the Lord,
with my voice I make supplication to the Lord,
2 I pour out my complaint before him,
I tell my trouble before him.
3 When my spirit is faint,
thou knowest my way!
In the path where I walk
they have hidden a trap for me.
4 I look to the right and watch,
but there is none who takes notice of me;
no refuge remains to me,
no man cares for me.
5 I cry to thee, O Lord;
I say, Thou art my refuge,
my portion in the land of the living.
6 Give heed to my cry;
for I am brought very low!
Deliver me from my persecutors;
for they are too strong for me!
7 Bring me out of prison,
that I may give thanks to thy name!
The righteous will surround me;
for thou wilt deal bountifully with me.
The title of the psalm puts this prayer in the context of David fleeing for his life and hiding in a cave (1 Sam 24). It is a prayer of one in great distress, who feels abandoned by all, crying out to God as his last hope, as the One to whom we can pour out the deepest troubles of his heart.
The Fathers of the Church naturally saw this as the prayer of Christ in His suffering, but originally it was a prayer of someone dying, whose enemy is death, who looks to God as his refuge and “to lead him after death from the dungeon of Sheol into the land of life eternal” (M. Dahood).
Death is the prison here (verse 7) from which God alone can bring deliverance. Look carefully at an icon of Christ’s descent into hell and his liberation of Adam and Eve: we see Satan and his death-dealing power now bound and imprisoned, while the prison doors, chains and locks are smashed and trampled by Christ.
The services of the Church often mention our imprisonment and liberation, as in this verse from the Sunday before Great Lent, which recalls Adam’s exile from Paradise:
Adam cried lamenting: Woe is me!
The serpent and the woman have deprived me of my boldness before God,
and I have become an exile from the joy of paradise
through eating from the tree.
Woe is me! I can no more endure the shame!
I once was king of all God’s creatures on earth;
now I have become a prisoner,
led astray by evil counsel.
I was once clothed in the glory of immortality,
now I must wrap myself in the skins of mortality,
as one miserable, and condemned to die.
Woe is me! Who will share my sorrow with me?
But, Lord and Lover of mankind,
You have fashioned me from the earth and are clothed in compassion://
Call me back from the bondage of the enemy and save me!
This verse is a perfect reflection of Psalm 142. “Who will share my sorrow with me?” Who else but the Lord.
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Thirteen psalms are called “maskils,” a type of Hebrew poetry that may be linked to wisdom or instruction (hence the Septuagint translates maskil to mean “for understanding.” But it may be a technical term whose precise meaning is no longer known.
Archives Advisory Committee
Yesterday His Beatitude and the officers, with archivist Alexis Liberovsky, participated in a productive teleconference of the Archives Advisory Committee, chaired by Alexis Troubetzkoy. Progress is being made on making a detailed inventory of the collection and carrying out plans for sorting and culling redundant material. New comprehensive policies have been drafted as well on collection development and document retention. We will also be moving forward on hiring a technical consultant to recommend steps that need to be taken for archives security (protection from burst pipes, electrical fire, flooding) and optimal space design.
Ultimately the aim of the committee is to “assess the housing needs of the OCA Archives and to develop a strategic solution. The committee will also explore and develop outside sources of funding for such housing and other projects.”