Text of prayer Psalm 52
In Church Slavonic
In the end, about Maelet, David is right
1 Folly in his heart: God is not corrupt and abhors iniquity, He does not do good.
2 The God of heaven is inclined towards the children of men. Do you see, understand or seek God?
3 All deviations, along with obscenity, do not do good, do not eat one thing.
4 Even all the workers of iniquity, who ate bread for me, will not remember the Lord unless they call on the Lord.
5 Where there is no fear, there is fear of fear, like God scattering the bones of godly men: you will be ashamed, because God despises them.
6 Who will give salvation to Israel from Zion? God will always restore the captivity of His people, Jacob will rejoice, and Israel will rejoice.
In Russian
For performance on maelele. David's teaching.
1 The madman said in his heart: “There is no God!” They became corrupt and became vile in iniquity; there is no one who does good.
2 God looked down from heaven on the children of men to see if there was anyone who understood or sought God.
3 They all left, together they became useless; there is no one who does good, there is no one.
4 Do not all the workers of iniquity know? Those who eat my people as they eat bread have not cried out to the Lord.
5 There they were terrified with fear, where there was no fear, because God had scattered the bones of godly men. They were ashamed because God despised them.
6 Who will save Israel from Zion? When God restores the captivity of his people, Jacob will rejoice and Israel will rejoice.
We read the Psalter. Psalm 52
Audio |
Conversation with Archpriest Alexy Ladygin about the Psalter.
– Dear brothers and sisters! Today we will analyze the 52nd Psalm. Like the other psalms that we talked about, it has the inscription: “In the end, about maeleth, reason for David.” Maelef is the musical instrument with which David sang this psalm. The greatest significance of the psalm is that it points out the most terrible shortcomings that lead a person to a corrupt and meaningless life. The words of this psalm are repeated - we met the same ones in the 13th Psalm, but here they have a slightly different meaning. Why is it repeated twice under a different name? The Holy Fathers say that the Lord wants, through the prophet David, to emphasize the significance of these words, something to which we must pay special attention: it speaks of a person’s faith in God. If a person does not recognize God, then he already dies here on earth, and the eternity that the Lord has prepared for every person will not belong to him.
The psalmist David repeats these words twice in different psalms: “He said foolishly in his heart: God is not corrupted and disgusted in iniquity, and does not do good.” Of course, only a person who has lost his mind can say: “There is no God.” A reasonable person sees God in everything. And here it is repeatedly said that even when a person looks at the outside world, he confirms that God exists: the whole world testifies that the Lord created him with his mind. A person who does not see this is devoid of reason.
Why does the enemy of the human race need the human condition so that he thinks that there is no God? F.M. said this very well. Dostoevsky: “If there is no God, then everything is permitted” - in order to do lustful, evil, depraved deeds, to create lawlessness, a person needs to leave God. There is no God - and your conscience does not convict you. There is no God - and you can do anything in this life. And we see how a person becomes impoverished in mind when he spends such a life. And after that, he begins to assert and tell everyone that there is no God - and you don’t need to accept Him, you don’t need to care about anything, and nothing should bother you. “... having been corrupted and disgusted in lawlessness, one cannot do good” - this is what a person’s renunciation of God leads to: he does disgusting and corrupt things, lives in lawlessness, and for him nothing good exists - he cannot do good.
So when we see in our world a lot of evil, untruth, lawlessness happening in this world, as well as emanating from specific people, from our loved ones, we should look for the reasons not in the forms of education, not in the fact that we have not given something to their children, not that they are psychologically or mentally dependent on something. The first reason for this untruth, disgusting, corrupt and lawless, is that we did not give the most important thing to our children: faith in God. Faith in God stops a person - a believer can only do good: all good things come from God. And the one who strives for God learns from Him to do good, to imitate God in truth, in mercy, in those deeds that He showed us when He came to this earth.
We also see another meaning of this psalm, it is the deepest: Christological - we said that the prophecies of David not only speak about events that happened in the Old Testament world, but also speak about the Coming of Christ and what it will be like: will they accept Christ or not. “The speech is foolish in his heart...” - the holy fathers believe that the insane Jews said that Christ is not God, and thereby corrupted and pushed into the disgusting and lawless all people who rejected Christ and did not accept His Coming. And they did not do anything good or good.
“God came from Heaven against the sons of men...”, that is, God came from Heaven to save the entire human race. “...see, do you understand or seek God? Having turned away from everything, there was no useless thing, not doing good, not even one.” God “came down from heaven upon the sons of men” - He saw the condition of man, and He sends salvation through His Only Begotten Son. And everyone should understand this and seek God. And all those who turned away were obscene, not doing anything good. And no one could do good on this earth: man left God and became lost, lost, began to become infected with all the untruths that began to be committed in people - both in the Jewish people and throughout the world: the pagans even went as far as killing and sacrificing own babies. And this is a very terrible act, this is already evidence of how deeply a person has sunk, he could no longer do anything good.
And only the Only Begotten Son, Who came to earth, gives Himself as a Sacrifice in order to save the entire human race. The Lord suffers for each of us, which is why the psalmist prophesies about Christ the Savior. “There are not even one.” That is, we are all evaders, we are all indecent, we are all damned sinners, we cannot do anything good. Even if we do something good, it is always mixed with either our pride, or prudence, or because of envy, but we cannot do a pure good deed. Only God can be good, and He alone has the fullness of righteousness, which He performs to this day and has accomplished for all mankind, coming here to earth and offering Himself as atonement for human sin.
“Lest all the workers of iniquity, who eat my bread for food, understand that they have not called the Lord?” They forgot God, of course. The Lord came to earth, and the Jews did not understand this great mercy, that they must follow Christ, but began to commit lawlessness: “... my people ate my bread,” they struck the holy apostles, and did not accept them, and persecuted them, and were given over to martyrdom, having not accepted Christ the Savior, becoming in opposition to him. Everyone who confessed or preached Christ was hated by them, and they put them to death.
“There you were afraid of fear, where there was no fear.” They saw in Christ that He would bring them some kind of suffering, that He would separate people, that He had come to disrupt peace and balance: they saw fear where there was no fear, says the psalmist David. The fear is something else - in the loss of Christ, in the fact that they turned away and moved on: all the troubles and suffering of this people are due to the fact that they did not accept Christ the Savior. Or, as the holy fathers say, they saw fear where there was none, when they came and began to say that Pilate should put a guard at the tomb: supposedly the disciples would steal the body, and then the last would be worse than the first. The disciples did not have any thoughts of stealing the Savior - they knew about His prophetic words that He Himself would rise on the third day, and that is why they waited for this moment: through confusion and doubt, suffering and trials, all from the enemy of the human race. But the Jews really had fear there, prophesies the psalmist David, where there was no fear, where there was no need to expect it.
“...as God scattered the bones of men-pleasers: you are ashamed, for God humiliated them.” Very strong words (as we see more than once in the psalmist David, who composes his prophetic words very deeply and always shows that the mercy of God never leaves the person who follows Him)! The Lord, of course, punishes those who live in untruth - not because he wants to punish a person, but so that the righteous and reverend can see that evil here has not only a beginning, but also an end, and the one who commits evil and follows creator of evil - the enemy of the human race, will be defeated in this life.
God always abolishes evil, shows that evil cannot have a victorious end on this earth. Therefore, probably, when we say that our children should be brought up on Russian fairy tales, on legends, we say what amazing fairy tales our people have: there, good always defeated evil, and not a single fairy tale contains victorious evil. Where did this come from? And when we analyze the Psalter in such detail, we begin to understand: this is where it comes from. This is not just our desire - it is a reality that the Lord always gives to those who love Him. He who follows the Lord will not have defeat, he will always have spiritual success, he will always be exalted into the truth of God and into the Kingdom of Heaven.
Evil is always punished, and good will always be victorious in this life, because for the sake of good the Lord created this world. For the sake of good, man was created so that he would constantly do good. And when we do good, the Holy Scripture tells us, we should not be proud of it, arrogant, proud of how good we are: we do what we must do - it was for this purpose that the Lord created man, called him to this life, so that we did good. This is our obedience, the purpose of our life. And, of course, we should be very worried about doing evil and untruth. Through these actions we move away from God, we turn our backs on Him and go in a completely different direction. This is the tragedy and defeat of man.
Why does a person have repentance? He has the opportunity to turn to God, move very far from evil and draw close to God. There is no such intermediate state where a person would be both next to evil spirits and next to God. If a person turns away from evil, turns away from it and goes to God, then he overcomes evil and untruth.
The psalmist shows the same thing here. What happened to the Jews who did not accept Christ? Did they go unpunished? Their malice, slander, untruth accompanied Christ the Savior everywhere - it was not just Judas who slandered and betrayed: the Jews slandered Him, used various tricks and words, as if they were pressing Pilate to the wall so that he would make a serious, irrevocable decision: “You will not be a friend.” Caesar”, “He considers Himself a King”, “We have no king except Caesar.”
Of course, they slandered - they were not looking for a spiritual kingdom, but an earthly kingdom. And because they did not receive their fictitious ideas, which they had been nurturing for centuries, they again develop anger, which always gives rise to slander. We can see an evil person - and we immediately know that such a person will slander and commit lies. Why is he slandering? Yes, because anger is no longer true, he is already becoming the son of the enemy of the human race. And if he becomes his son, then naturally he will continue to commit more heinous sins. This happens because the enemy of the human race is a slanderer, a liar, the father of lies, and any person who reaches such a state becomes like him. What's going on with these people? “...as God scatters the bones of people-pleasers.” They are people-pleasers. We have already said how they pleased Pilate and pleased themselves...
The common people pleased the high priests not because they completely agreed with them to crucify Christ: “Crucify, crucify Him,” they shouted because of people-pleasing, they were afraid of the lawyers, Pharisees, scribes, high priests, who in every possible way emphasized that the one who follows Christ, who supports Him, is outside our law (not God’s, but our law) - they came up with their own law and manipulated it, and forced people to be people-pleasers, because they themselves cultivated such an ideal.
“... I was ashamed, for God had humiliated them.” How will God humiliate them? “Like scattering the bones of people-pleasers.” If the bones are scattered, there is nothing left of the person. And here we are talking about a whole people. How did the Lord scatter? He drove them out of this land and scattered them throughout the entire universe. They lost their homeland, they lost their fatherland for this sin - for not accepting Christ: any negative role in the cause of God is punishable, and they lost their fatherland. Now, although Israel has been created, it cannot fully gather itself: all sorts of things are being invented to gather Israel until the end. The people are in dispersion, and this dispersion is not only a physical state, but a state of their mind.
"... humiliate them." How can God humiliate the Jews? Look how excellent they are in all over the world. But no matter how excellent their condition was, God made it so that they were also in humiliation. They are not accepted, they are spoken ill of, and if certain political conditions are created, persecution begins against them: within all people there is contempt for them. They are taken into account at the expense of their position, at the expense, perhaps, of some democratic laws. But some kind of political situation appears and persecution begins, as we saw recently in Ukraine. Many of the Jewish people suffered there - this was humiliation due to the fact that they did not accept Christ. The Holy Fathers tell us about this.
“Who will give out of Zion the salvation of Israel? God will always bring back the captivity of His people, Jacob will rejoice and Israel will rejoice.” There are several interpretations of the lines “Who will give out of Zion the salvation of Israel?” The Law was read in Zion, and several times a year it was proclaimed to the people by those who could read and proclaim this Law. And when the dispersion and destruction of Jerusalem occurred, Zion did not proclaim salvation to Israel: there was no one to proclaim it. We know that the city changed hands and Zion lost its original purpose.
But, on the other hand, the holy apostles came from Zion and began to proclaim salvation through Christ the Savior. “Once upon a time God will bring back the captivity of His people, Jacob will rejoice and Israel will be glad.” What kind of captivity are we talking about here? Of course, without Christ the Savior, without faith in God, every human soul is in captivity. And until a person finds God, he cannot have salvation, he is in a state of madness, and madness will push him into corruption, disgust and lawlessness, says the psalmist David. And only the one who finds God changes his consciousness, acquires the fear of God, because this is the first and wisest step in spiritual life, and then reason returns to man: the beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord. And then the captivity of passions, sin, lawlessness leaves him, and he returns to his land.
“Earth” is a spiritual understanding: this is the Kingdom of Heaven, which the forefathers Abraham, Jacob and Isaac preached about. And, of course, their joy will be inexpressible, because they accept their children in spirit, saved through Christ the Savior. Amazing words!..
A person cannot find salvation outside the Lord, outside the Coming of Christ, and today we know that the Christian religion is the most persecuted in this world. According to statistics, every ten minutes a Christian is killed in the world. There is a serious struggle going on - the enemy of the human race does not tolerate those who find the true God and go to salvation. This is not just a political, religious struggle, it is a spiritual battle. And here, as before, the enemy of the human race offers all sorts of tricks.
On the one hand, if we take the beginning of this psalm: “The fool speaks in his heart: there is no God, corrupted and disgusted in iniquity” - this struggle is waged through the corruption and depersonalization of a person, and then he renounces God: if there is no repentance, there is no feeling of guilt , then a person rejects God so as not to repent and regret his actions. And the enemy of the human race manages to lead many in this direction - a person eventually begins to believe that there is no God, he becomes insane. We think where new human values, new laws, absolutely terrible, inhumane (abortion, euthanasia) are adopted, where the most terrible human vices are legitimized. This happens because a person has gone mad - he has left God, and his mind has become darkened: he has renounced God and is committing lawlessness.
On the other hand, if a person is a believer, then he needs to be intimidated, persecution should be sent to him, which will confuse the person: “Or maybe it’s true to accept another religion or even be an unbeliever, so as not to suffer and remain in this world ? But here the psalmist David says that whoever stands, whoever accepts Christ, will return from captivity: “At some time God will bring back the captivity of His people, Jacob will rejoice, and Israel will rejoice.” The forefathers will rejoice, all the righteous will rejoice over such a person, because he has been returned from captivity, from the captivity that the enemy of the human race has prepared for him.
Here is such an amazing psalm, which both prophesies about Christ and draws parallels with modern life: David’s prophecy is not only for a certain time, it extends to all centuries. And we see the depth of his prophecy - words that tell us how we should act so as not to get lost in this life, so that we do not have despair, because all the same, God, by His Providence, will defeat all evil and establish goodness in our lives.
God bless you all! And see you again!
The Story of Psalm 52
The interpretation of Psalm 52 echoes Psalm 13. Both were written while David was being persecuted by King Saul, who realized that the psalmist had been appointed by the Lord himself to be his successor. However, he could not come to terms with this idea and sought to destroy a potential rival.
The purpose of the psalm is to convince us of our sins, to make us repent and tremble, remembering them.
The text of Psalm 52 contains the repentance of the great king of Israel, not because of his own misfortunes, but because of the lack of piety and faith in mankind. While singing the psalm, we must mourn the catastrophic degeneration of the world, the depravity of human nature, and at the same time rejoice, hoping for great salvation.
Interpretation of the text of Psalm 53
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The interpretation of the Orthodox Psalm 52 noticeably echoes the interpretation of Psalm 13. Both of them were written during the persecution of David by King Saul, who knew that the young psalmist was appointed by God Himself as his successor, but could not come to terms with this thought, and wanted to destroy a potential rival.
The Christian text of Psalm 52 contains the contrition of the future great king of Israel not so much about his own misfortunes, but about the lack of faith and piety among the entire human race.
When is it customary to read the prayer Psalm 52?
The text of Christian Psalm 52 reveals the main idea: the main cause of all lawlessness and sin is man’s denial of the existence of God. An unbeliever does not have a moral guideline; he does not have the feeling that the Lord sees all his deeds and thoughts, so he gradually goes over to the side of serving evil. The psalm also implies that a believer, on the contrary, feels the constant presence of God, and this keeps him within the framework of spiritual laws. It is recommended for fishermen to read and listen to Psalm 53 online to ensure good fishing.
Listen to the video of the Orthodox prayer Psalm 52 in Russian
Read the church text of Psalm 52 in Russian
To the head of the choir. On a wind weapon. David's teaching.
The madman said in his heart: “There is no God.” They became corrupt and committed heinous crimes; there is no one who does good. God looked down from heaven upon the sons of men to see if there was one who understood, seeking God. They all deviated and became equally obscene; there is no one who does good, not even one. Will not the workers of iniquity, who eat my people as they eat bread, and do not call on God, come to their senses? There they will fear fear, where there is no fear, for God will scatter the bones of those who fight against you. You will put them to shame because God has rejected them. Who will give salvation to Israel from Zion! When God brings back the captivity of His people, then Jacob will rejoice and Israel will rejoice.
Christian Psalter, text of Psalm 52 in Church Slavonic language
Reche is mad in his heart; there is God. Having become corrupted and disgusted by lawlessness, do not do good. God speaks from heaven to the sons of men, see if you understand or seek God. All evaded, together with indecency there was; do not do good, bring it to one. Will not all the workers of iniquity, who eat my bread for food, understand? I didn’t call on the Lord. There, fearful of fear, where there was no fear; like God scatters the bones of people-pleasers; I was ashamed, for God had humiliated them. Who will give salvation to Israel from Zion? God will always bring back the captivity of his people, Jacob will rejoice and Israel will rejoice.
Interpretation
To better understand the meaning of the song, it is necessary to distinguish the interpretation of Psalm 52 for each verse:
- Verses 5-6: Here David mentions “those who eat the people of God” and their oppressors who do not cry to the Lord. All slave traders of Jehovah's people will be punished because God will reject them from His blessings. A prophecy that one day God's captive people will be set free and return to their Lord because He can save them from both literal and spiritual captivity. If, when inspecting the land, there is someone to save.
- Verses 1-2. David's prophetic teaching about those who do not believe in the existence of God in their hearts and interfere in their affairs, are evil and cowardly, but remain unharmed, how can you believe? All non-believers are called crazy. In fact, crazy people are animals with only two arms and two legs. Otherwise, they are no different; they are guided only by instinct.
- Introduction - The song's lyrics are preceded by the author, David, and accompanying wind instrument instructions.
- Verse 3-4: At certain points in the development of mankind, God looks at the inhabitants to find at least one believer in Him. This describes the moment when the Lord, having searched the earth, did not find a single person who would do His will and live in righteousness. This point was quoted by the Apostle Paul, applying it equally to the people of God and to the Gentiles. It is not enough to know God's laws and live by them. You must accept all his plans and will. Accept Christ as God's Messiah. The Jews have not done this until now, continuing to wait for their Mission.
David's prophetic teaching about everyone who does not believe in their hearts that God exists and interferes in the affairs of people, for their deeds are vile and vicious, but they remain safe and sound, how can one believe? Everyone who does not believe God is called crazy, crazy, which means people. And people without minds are essentially animals, only two-legged and two-armed. As for the rest, there are no differences; instincts are the engine of life for all animals.
52:3,4 God looked down from heaven upon the sons of men to see if there was one who understood, seeking God. 4 All have turned aside and become equally indecent; there is no one who does good, not even one.
At certain moments in human history, God peers into the inhabitants of the earth in the hope of finding at least one who believes in Him. This describes a moment when God surveyed the earth, but did not find a single person who would do good - would do the will of God and live according to His righteousness. This point was quoted by the Apostle Paul in Romans 3:11 as applied to the Gentiles as to the people of God. At the moment Paul wrote about, the main cause of unbelief among God's people was the rejection of Christ. It turns out that it is not enough to know the laws of God, live by them and belong to the people of God. It is also necessary to accept all His plans as coming from Him, including accepting Christ as the messiah from God. What the Jews still cannot do, continuing to wait for their Messiah.
52:5,6 Will not the workers of iniquity come to their senses, eating up my people as they eat bread, and not calling on God? 6 There they will fear fear, where there is no fear, for God will scatter the bones of those who fight against you. You will put them to shame because God has rejected them.
Here David speaks of those who “devour the people of God” and their enslavers, who do not call on God. And it doesn’t matter who is trying to enslave God’s servants - a pagan or their own, just as the Jews tried to enslave Christians. All enslavers of Jehovah's people will be punished, for God will reject them from His blessings.
52:7 Who will give salvation to Israel from Zion! When God brings back the captivity of His people, then Jacob will rejoice and Israel will rejoice.
A prophetic indication that the captive people of God will one day be freed from captivity and return to their God, for God, who lives in Zion, is able to save both from literal captivity and from spiritual captivity in error - if He has someone to save at the moment of reviewing the Earth.
Why read Psalm 52?
Psalm 52 says:
- so that the Lord will bless the nets and there will be a lot of fish.
- protect yourself from secret enemies;
In churches, a version of the song in Church Slavonic is used; when sung, it sounds more melodic and is considered traditional. But reading Psalm 52 in Russian is not prohibited, especially if you do it at home. This will allow you to better understand the meaning of the text. It is recommended to turn to God in front of the images, abandoning all worldly concerns and immersing yourself in the meaning of the psalm. It is advisable for a woman to cover her head with a scarf. When reading a prayer, you should not be distracted, but focus completely on the meaning of the text so that the request is heard.
