Psalm 118: A Commentary by Saint Theophan the Recluse

Hardcover

After nearly 30 years of engagement with this text, we are delighted at long last to make it available to the faithful in permanent library form. Each reading (and there have been many) has deepened our appreciation of the profundity of the commentary, which never succumbs to the temptation of mere academicism. It is a book which can be read from beginning to end -- or from any random point -- with equal benefit. Brief notes on the many Church fathers and authorities cited by St. Theophan, not part of the Russian text, are appended. Deluxe edition: silver binding, gold-stamped, gilded edges, marker ribbon. Meant to be treasured for a lifetime -- or the lifetime of a friend or loved one. Hardbound “Psalm 118 is second only to Psalm 50 (‘Have mercy on me, O God...’) in its frequency of use in Orthodox liturgical practice. In a full cycle of services, despite (or perhaps because of) its extraordinary length, it is recited at the Midnight Office every night during the week, and (for most Sundays of the year) at Matins. It forms the backbone of all funeral services and the Lamentations at the Tomb served on the night of Holy Friday, elaborated with intercalated troparia. Its unusual structure, organized as it is into twenty-two stases in which each verse (in Hebrew) begins with the same letter of the alphabet, in sequence, may well have been intended as a mnemonic device. In many ways, this psalm may be seen as a summation of the entire Psalter, a legacy to be especially treasured. St. Theophan’s commentary is meditative, not scholarly in intent, despite his extraordinarily extensive quotations from earlier commentators and spiritual authorities. What he, like King David before him, wants is for us to do the commandments, the law of God, not just think about them. The attentive reader will quickly discern also the saint’s wide-ranging linking of the thoughts of the psalmist to other books of holy Scripture."