The meaning of prayer
The prayer “For God is with us” is an Orthodox hymn of triumph, the victory of good over evil, true faith over paganism, read during the Nativity Fast, during which Orthodox believers prepare their souls and bodies for the moment when the gates will open and the words will sound: “Christ is born! We praise Him!”
The prayer “For God is with us” is read during the Nativity Fast
The Prophet Isaiah, many centuries before the Birth of Jesus, foresaw His descent into the human world, the Jews were waiting for the Messiah, and according to the promise of God, it was Emmanuel who would open the doors to eternal life. Emmanuel means “God is with us,” and it is before Him, the great and powerful, that a chant sounds, in which the repentant verses end with the joyful exclamation “For God is with us.”
Listening carefully to the text of the prayer “For God is with us,” one can trace the connection between Isaiah’s prophecy and the psalms of David and the prayer appeal of Manasseh. Repentance and glorification, repentance for sins and hope for life - this is the meaning of this prayer song and there is no contradiction in this.
Realizing their sinfulness, Christians do not fall into hopelessness, despair, or embitterment; they are filled with humility and repentance, having hope for mercy and help. And words of repentance are heard before the hymn of thanksgiving and praise to the Almighty, echoing the words of the Apostle Paul, who claims that our Strength is only in weakness. (2 Cor. 12:9).
Important! The prayer of repentance and proclamation of the power of the Lord has not lost its meaning in the modern world of passions and natural disasters, when uncertainty about the future and fear for the future generation cover the prayer “For God is with us” in Orthodox churches.
More prayers to the Lord:
- Prayer “My soul magnifies the Lord”
- Prayer to the Lord Jesus Christ for children
- Prayer for the Feast of the Ascension of the Lord
Interpretation of the text of the prayer
The prayer is composed of several verses taken from the book of Isaiah. That God is with us is emphasized in chapter 8, verse 10. Pagan - various beliefs to which the true Lord has not yet been revealed. Only the Orthodox are not afraid to live, for the Lord is omnipotent and omnipresent with us.
Jesus, with His miracles, emphasized His royal dignity, revealed on His frame. (Isa.9:6). The prayer appeal calls the Messenger of God an Angel. The first verses are addressed to the pagans, in them the Lord calls not to kneel before those in power, but to humility, recognition of the people with whom the Creator is.
“For God is with us” - a prayer of repentance and proclamation of the power of the Lord
Any conspiracy against Orthodoxy will be destroyed by the power of the Creator who loves the true Church, then there are verses about trust in the Almighty Creator, and the only fear that believers will experience is fear of the Lord. The fear of the Lord is called the stronghold of the soul in parables, and this is not only for the present generation, but also for future children.
The modern world is filled with the forces of evil; by reading the prayer book of Victory, Orthodoxy affirms the triumph of faith, for God is with us.
“For God is with us...”
I first heard this prayer at the Great Compline of the Nativity of Christ in 1994 in the Novgorod St. Sophia Cathedral. The service was especially solemn, two bishops served - our Leo, I don’t remember the second - either the Pskov bishop, or the Tver bishop. The cathedral is full of people. And everyone is overwhelmed with the joy of the holiday. It was the first time since I was baptized that I attended a Christmas service. I still didn’t understand everything, but the general festive uplift of spirit captured me too. And then the deacon’s bass sounded:
- God is with us, understand, pagans, and repent: as God is with us!
“For God is with us,” the Sofia choir confirmed in agreement.
- Hear to the last of the earth: for God is with us! — the same bass rumbled convincingly.
“For God is with us,” the choir responded again.
- Those who are able, repent: for God is with us! - the deacon insisted.
I had never seen him in Sofia before. He apparently arrived with the visiting bishop. Tall, over two meters, thin, with a thick black beard, he made quite a strong impression in appearance, but the most important thing about him was his amazing voice - a powerful, deep, beautiful bass timbre. Combined with the indisputability of intonation, everything he said bore the character of an unconditional, indisputable truth.
“For God is with us,” echoed not only in the choir, but also in my heart.
“As soon as you are able, you will also be victorious,” the magnificent deacon confidently and generously warned the “mighty,” “and the choir sealed it at the end: for God is with us!”
These words were a balm to the soul, which was still not recovering from the bitter shocks of the bloody and smoky October of 1993 and oppressed by the insolent triumph of Yeltsin’s liberal-comprador gang that had seized power in the country. For the first time my soul awoke from the oppression of these last months. I woke up and straightened up.
- God is with us!
And I felt like, just like that - all at once - millions of people like me were coming to life, straightening up, resurrecting to life. Like God is with us! I imagined: the entire Russian people, deceived, robbed, poisoned and slandered, are coming to their senses and coming to their senses. Like God is with us! I suddenly remembered the words of Viktor Petrovich Astafiev: “We are a big people. It’s not enough to kill us, we also need to be knocked down.” No, they haven't killed him yet. Yes, and don’t knock it down! Like God is with us! This is the whole point: as long as God, the Almighty and All-Merciful, is with us, no enemy - no enemies - all the enemies of the world and the underworld are not afraid of us: even if they are able again, then again (AND again!) there will be victories.
This was revealed to me then by the grace of the Born Savior of our Lord Jesus Christ. And since then, every time this prayer is read or sung in church, and this happens more than once a year, I experience the same uplifting delight. And the dust of civic despondency is washed away from me with these delightful, divinely inspired words.
Today, when tension in the country is growing in the face of the threat of a “color” revolution - and not just growing - it is being skillfully and powerfully whipped up in all the media, from the screens of the debilitator, on the hellish Internet - it is not at all superfluous, it seems to me, for all of us to remember and read this carefully wonderful prayer. By the way, it is directly related to the Patriotic War of 1812, the 200th anniversary of the victory of which we are now celebrating, neither shaky nor weakly, but still celebrating, and in pre-revolutionary prayer books it was published under the heading “Memory of the deliverance of the Church and the Russian state from the invasion of the Gauls.” In this regard, it is worth recalling that on December 25, 1812, Alexander I issued the “Highest manifesto on bringing thanksgiving to the Lord God for the liberation of Russia from enemy invasion,” and on August 30, 1814, another manifesto of the sovereign followed: “December 25, the day of the Nativity of Christ will be from now on, as a day of thanksgiving, under the name in the church circle: the Nativity of our Savior Jesus Christ and the remembrance of the deliverance of the Church and the Russian Empire from the invasion of the Gauls and with them the twenty tongues.” It was then that this prayer book, based on individual verses of the Book of the Prophet Isaiah, appeared in the Christmas church service. Since then, the Nativity of Christ has been celebrated in Russia not only as an Orthodox church holiday, but also as a military holiday - the Victory Day. A holiday that in its meaning and significance absolutely coincides with our current Victory Day. He remained such until 1917, when he was erased from life along with the entire “damned autocratic past”...
Meanwhile, the need for this uplifting prophecy, one might say, hangs in the air and is manifested, in particular, in the fact that more and more often recently many people are remembering its refrain: LIKE GOD IS WITH US.
Let us carefully read this prayer of Victory.
God is with us, understand, pagans, and repent: as God is with us.
Hear to the last of the earth: for God is with us.
O ye that are mighty, repent: for God is with us.
If again you are able, and again you will be victorious: for God is with us.
And even if you hold counsel, the Lord will destroy you: for God is with us.
And the word that ye say, shall not abide in you: For God is with us.
We will not be afraid of your fear, but we will be troubled: for God is with us.
Let us sanctify the Lord our God, and He will be our fear: for God is with us.
And if I trust in Him, it will be for my sanctification: for God is with us.
And I will trust in Him, and I will be saved by Him: for God is with us.
These are the children, even as God gave us: as God is with us.
People walking in darkness saw a great light: for God is with us.
Living in the land and shadow of death, light will shine on you: as if God is with us.
As a Son was born to us from a Child, and was given to us: as God is with us.
His rulership was upon His frame: for God is with us.
And His peace knows no bounds: for God is with us.
And His name is called the Great Angel of Council: for God is with us.
Wonderful Counselor: for God is with us.
God is strong, Ruler, Ruler of the world: for God is with us.
Father of the next century: for God is with us.
God is with us, understand, pagans, and repent: as God is with us.
The first seven verses are addressed to the “pagans” - all peoples, down to “the last of the earth,” warning those who, deluded by their power, may desire to attack the Orthodox Russian state, Holy Rus'.
“Repent” here does not mean submission, world domination, which the Anglo-Saxons are raving about. No, this is a call to humility. Do not submit to us, but to the fact that it is better not to mess with us, since God is with us. And even if you consider yourself “mighty”, powerful, so powerful that you are able, it seems, to subjugate the whole world - don’t, don’t delude yourself, accept the fact that it’s better not to touch us: don’t “push against the prick” . There were many who came before you - Tatars, Poles, Gauls with twenty languages from all over Europe, and Hitler with his all-European army. They all know how they ended up. Today the USA is numb. “Uncle Sam,” having robbed the whole world with the help of his green candy wrappers and become insolent with impunity, is rushing to impose his “shit democracy” and his inhuman “universal human values” everywhere. At the same time, the famous chess sharper Brzezinski, the pythia of American globalism, with his characteristic Russophobic shamelessness, announced to the whole world that “a new world order under US hegemony is being created against Russia, at the expense of Russia and on the ruins of Russia.” What doesn’t stop the current rulers of Russia from inviting him to our political forums as if nothing had happened and even bowing down in front of him! — instead of once and for all declaring this outspoken enemy of Russia and Orthodoxy persona non grata.
However, it is understandable: how can he, a servant of Satan, not hate Russian Orthodoxy and the Russian Orthodox Church if such things are read in our churches.
“And even those who hold counsel together, the Lord will destroy them.” Any advice you give (conspiracy, conspiracy, whatever) will ruin you. Even the all-powerful (as it seems to some) American Council on Foreign Relations, not to mention such a pot-bellied little thing as the Council of Europe, which patronizes perverts and Baltic fascists, and is also trying to revise the results of the Second World War and take away our Victory from us... Yes will not be! The Lord will destroy! “And the word that you speak will not abide in you...”, that is, none of your malicious intentions regarding Russia will be fulfilled... So “we will not be afraid of your fear, we will be embarrassed” - we should not care about all the instructions and demands and even the threats of anti-Christian Europe with all its bureaucratic structures, tolerance and pluralism, the “rights” of various degenerates and spiritual degeneration. It is not for them to teach us.
The next four verses talk about in whom we—each of us—can trust. To the Lord God. “We will sanctify Him, and He will be our fear.” And the fear of God, as you know, is the beginning of wisdom (Proverbs 1:7). “The fear of the Lord is the source of life. The fear of the Lord is the stronghold of the soul. <…> None of the people is as high as the one who fears the Lord. He who fears the Lord is like a light, showing many the path of salvation,” teaches the reverend. Ephraim the Syrian. And if I trust in the Lord, it will be for me “for sanctification” - and, trusting in Him, I will be saved by Him. That is, I will be saved by Him, the Lord God. And not only me, but also my children. And here, when reading this verse: “Behold the children whom God hath given unto me: even as God is with us,” my heart sank every time.
What do we do with the children God gives us? - And we kill them in their mother’s wombs! Either two million or more a year! Here it is, the hypocritical mug of liberal humanism: the death penalty for the worst criminals has been abolished, but we kill the most innocent babies without even allowing them to be born. What to call this horror? This is direct fighting against God: God shows us His mercy - we kill. And we resist the will of God, and we violate the commandment “thou shalt not kill,” and as a people we commit suicide. “Here you involuntarily shudder and shudder: oh, is God with us?!” Can we still trust in Him, in His boundless mercy?
Much has been said about the repentance of the Russian people. For perjury, for regicide, for apostasy from God. He has a lot to repent for. But today, the most important thing, it seems to me, what he should repent of is endless abortions. After all, repentance presupposes correction, a change of soul. Today, the anti-abortion movement is growing and expanding in the country - and this cannot but rejoice. But the state, of course, must have its say - ban abortions and severely punish all those who make “business” from this. However, the most important thing is the awareness of the COMPLETE IMPOSSIBILITY OF SUCH A CRIME AGAINST GOD FOR A NORMAL PERSON. This is natural for atheists: since there is no God, then everything is allowed. But for everyone who understands that God exists (and this is the majority of the Russian people: even those who do not go to church), such resistance to His will should be simply unthinkable.
It is no coincidence that the great mercy of God was shown to Russia - the Belt of the Most Holy Theotokos was brought from Athos. A shrine directly related to childbearing, helping against childlessness or infertility. That is, attracting the mercy of God. Help for the childless - and on the other hand, what a reproach to the murderers of their own children! No, the Lord has not left us yet.
The “International” has become too ingrained in us: “we will achieve liberation with our own hand” - that is, without God. This was very clearly manifested during the period of pre- and post-election political aggravation in the country in connection with the threat of the “Orange” revolution. The rallies of the pro-American liberal punks against Putin must be responded to with powerful rallies in support of Putin. All political jokes have their own parties - which means we, the Orthodox, need to have our own party. Otherwise, they scare us, we are destined for the fate of the marginalized. Some are concerned about the formation of a “third force.” Not for Putin and not against, but for the Motherland, for the truth, for the people. There is a debate: is such a thing conceivable? And is it even possible?.. It’s surprising that all these verbs come from Orthodox people, and even from priests.
What disputes can there be: THERE IS, undoubtedly, A THIRD FORCE. She is, however, both the first and the main one. This is the Creator of the world, the Lord God, “who always does with us great and unexplored, glorious and terrible,” which we all read every morning in our prayer books. “Thy will be done,” we say more than once a day. Let's carefully read the morning and evening prayers - at least these - and come to our senses, and stop wandering around rallies, listening to all sorts of crooks, watching idiots, raving about some kind of “democratic values” and “parties”. What kind of parties do we need and why do we need them when we have our Holy Orthodox Church, headed by Christ Himself, the pillar and affirmation of the Truth?! Pray and trust in the Lord. And according to your faith it will be done to you (Matthew 9:29). You must believe in Him, in God’s Providence for Russia and for us sinners, to truly believe - that’s all. It is He who is the mighty God, the Ruler, the Ruler of the world, as the final verses of the prayer we are considering say. The Father of the future age is also He. And not the Brzezinskys with their satanic “new world order”. No amount of socio-political vanity, of course, can acquire Grace. By prayer and fasting. Repentance and living according to the Gospel. And let us remember what Peter’s Fast was turned into by succumbing to the vile liberal provocation in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior? Yes, just the introduction into our consciousness of a thoughtlessly replicated obscene foreign language phrase has already polluted our souls. Not to mention the endless spiritually wasteful debates about this disgusting thing... What kind of discussions can there be with demons? The Church gave its worthy response to this and other blasphemies with a prayer service of 75 thousand people at the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. In which many thousands more Orthodox Christians throughout the country spiritually participated, as well as, most importantly, hosts of our saints. Conciliar prayer - with one mouth and one heart - is our main weapon in the increasingly fierce battle against the world rulers of the darkness of this age, against the spirits of wickedness in high places (Eph 6:12). But we will not abandon our cell prayer. “Pray without ceasing,” the apostle bequeathed to us. And the Lord God will hear us. With the parable of the unjust judge (Luke 18:1-8), Christ instructs us on how we should always pray and not lose heart: “Will not God protect His chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night, although He is slow to protect them? I tell you that he will give them protection soon.”
So -
God is with us, understand, pagans, and repent: as God is with us.
In today’s war, when all the forces of evil seem to have risen against us, and not only from outside, but also within the country, this wonderful prayer, which I decided to remind you of, is the spiritual tuning fork by which we should tune our souls to Victory, excluding any falsehood of despondency and lack of faith, in spite of everything - only for Victory. Like God is with us!
* * *
- I am Russian! What a delight! - exclaimed Alexander Vasilyevich Suvorov. - We are Russians. God is with us! - he addressed his soldiers before the battle - and he did not lose a single battle: the Lord did not disgrace his fiery faith. “We are Russians, we will overcome everything,” he expressed his confidence in one of his letters. - What about today? "I am Russian! - the man began to cry. And God cried with him,” writes the Russian poet. And Russian readers, who consider themselves patriots, are touched by this impotent anguish. What have we been brought to? And we got there without much resistance...
Tell me, who are we: the heirs of Suvorov - or the last children of Vlasov?
Ruslan Deriglazov, member of the Writers' Union, Veliky Novgorod, especially for the Russian People's Line
