Today, because of my recent experiences, I feel compelled to step away from our step-by-step explanation of the Psalter (but only in a sense). No, today, I would like to make some comments about my bishop's visit to my parish over this past weekend, particularly the celebration of the Hierarchical Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, which was celebrated on Sunday. Specifically, it would be helpful I think to comment on the meaning of the Psalms, which are used in this service.
It is a surprise to many Christians from a Protestant background that historical Christians (Catholic, Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox and Assyrians) do not look upon the Bible as being the word of God in the primary sense. No, the Word of God is primarily the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, Who became man as Jesus Christ. This Word of God has revealed Himself in the Scriptures, making them the "word of God" in a secondary and derivative sense. This self-revelation of the Word takes the form of words in the Holy Scriptures. But what happens when these words, which tell the story of salvation, are translated into action. Then they become liturgy. Liturgy is the Scriptures put into action.
The Hierarchical Liturgy has an entirely different form than the regular order of the Liturgy. At the beginning of the Hierarchical Liturgy, an elaborate procession of servers, carrying a cross, candles and other liturgical appurtenances, followed by all the clergy, leaves the holy sanctuary through its side doors and goes to meet the bishop at the entrance of the church. The bishop, on entering the church is greeted with incense and the singing of "Blessed be the Name of the Lord." This is the Incarnation. The entry of the bishop into the church represents the entry of the Word of God into this world, His own creation. Going to the Amvon of the Hierarch, the raised platform prepared for him in the center of the church, the clergy and the servers help him to put on his vestments, each of the prayers of those vestments being chanted as he is putting it on. Then, once he is fully vested, he takes a candelabrum with three candles in his right hand and a candelabrum with two candles in his left hand, and with these lighted candles he blesses first towards the east, then to the west, then to south and then to the north with the words of Psalm 79:14 "Lord, O Lord, look down from heaven! See and visit this vineyard and bring it to perfection, for your right hand has planted it. May your hand be upon the Son of Man, Whom You have confirmed for Yourself." The vesting shows to us the Word of God putting on our human nature in the womb of the Most Holy Mother of God. In this way, by putting on human flesh, the invisible God becomes visible to us, he becomes the True Light, Who comes into the world for the sake of enlightening every human being. The three-candle candelabrum represents the revelation of the Mystery of the Holy Trinity, the inner life of God, while the two-candle candelabrum represents the union of His divine and human nature in the unity of His Person. For these actions, the words of Psalm 79 are extremely appropriate, for the Word enters the world to renew and perfect "the vineyard," Israel, the Church. At the time that the psalm was written, a "son of man" just meant a human being, but as time went on and God's revelation continued into the Book of the Prophet Daniel, this became a title of the Messiah, a divine name of the Son. The Christ, according to Daniel's visions, was going to be the New Adam, but the New Adam was not like the old Adam. The New Adam doesn't have a different nature than the old Adam. No, He takes Adam's nature from the Virgin Mary and renews and perfects it. The prayer, "May your hand be upon the Son of Man, Whom You have made strong for Yourself," is, of course, first and foremost, about the Christ, but it is also a prayer concerning every human being that is incorporated into Christ in the Church, His Mystical Body.
What follows this first hierarchical blessing is the Liturgy more or less conducted as usual, but conducted by the clergy, the priest and deacons, who met the bishop when he first entered the church. In this, they represent the angels, who met and greeted the Word when He came into the world in the Incarnation. As the Letter to the Hebrews tells us, "When the Son came into the world, it is written, "Let all the heavenly powers worship Him." So, the Liturgy continues up to the Little Entrance, the Entrance with the Book of the Gospels. During this entrance, the bishop, who is still standing in the middle of the church on the Amvon of the Hierarch, takes the candles again and blesses, once again to the east, the west, the south and the north.
The continuation of the Liturgy symbolically represents to us the same story of salvation that is commemorated in every Liturgy and every service of the Church. Just as the four evangelists tell the story of salvation in different ways, so too do the various services tell the same story of salvation history in different ways. Each of us, however, should treasure this story before all else, in its written form assuredly, but also in the liturgical services we know and love. It is our story, the story of our salvation. Perhaps one way to remember this is to make our that prayer from Psalm 79 our particular prayer in these or similar words: "May your hand be on this child of Mary, whom You have made strong for yourself."
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