Metropolitan Anthony (Pakanich) on the most life-affirming psalm.

Among the beautiful and soul-saving psalms there is one that strikes with its cheerfulness, filled with a special pacifying light. This is the 23rd psalm.

Its laconic content is permeated with life-affirming, amazingly beautiful, saving words that are so necessary for our timid soul, they reach its depths, find a response and seem to plunge it into a warm sea of joy, light and love.

That is why this psalm was placed at the beginning of the «Preparation for Holy Communion» as a covenant of the soul with God, manifested in the complete surrender of oneself to His holy will and eating already on earth the meal prepared by the Lord who loves Him.

To You, O Lord, my soul cries out with faith and hope. You are the Lord of all elements, the Creator of everything visible and invisible. My fragile life is in Your hands. In You I find strength and strength, joy and inspiration. With You I no longer need anything, You fill everything with Yourself:

«The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want»

Lord, lead me out of the hustle and bustle and into God’s silence. I bow to Your majesty and Sacrifice. You, the whole God, have become flesh, soul, mind, everything where death has penetrated in order to save the whole person. You have become the sun of the human universe, reduced to human nature, without diminishing your Deity.

I constantly keep Your image in my heart and firmly hope in Your help. I sacrifice myself to You, lead me on the path of peace, kindness, humility and purity:

«He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake»

I have no enemies, because I have you, who gave me a new life, filled with your light and love. The only enemies are my passions and fears, which are powerless for those who are with You. They are rendered harmless by your one Word.

Suffering in your name becomes joy and purification, loss becomes gain. For I have nothing of my own, but Yours is all good.

Struggling with evil and vice in myself, through pain and effort, I graft myself to You, like a branch to a vine. You are the vine and I am the branch (John 15:1-8). And I become a part of the Divine tree, I am re-created, I am reborn.

This is how my ascent to God begins here on earth.

Your Word is my shield and sword on the path to bliss. And bliss is in approaching You, in achieving the purest and most perfect vision of You, Lord:

«Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me»

You gave me more than you could give. I already taste in the temporary earthly life from the cup of eternal bliss that connects heaven and earth, man and his Creator.

This is the greatest gift, the manifestation of Your endless, most perfect, infinitely deep love, Lord:

«You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows»

All earthly blessings for me are nothing more than a dream. All my aspirations are reduced to one thing – to ascent to the Source of true blessings, truth and goodness. Strengthen me in this, Lord! Help to come closer to You, God, as far as it is accessible to human nature, and to contemplate You all the days of earthly life as the purest light and most perfect beauty:

«Surely [Your] goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever».

Recorded by Natalia Goroshkova