Brethren, let us listen to the Divine teaching, set forth in the Divine hymn. Let us listen to the verbs, let us listen to the sounds with which Heaven speaks, with which the Heaven thunders to us.

O you who seek happiness, who pursue pleasure, who thirst for pleasure! Come: listen to the sacred song, listen to the teachings of the salvific one. How long will you wander, prowl through valleys and mountains, through impassable deserts and wilds? How long do you torment yourself with unceasing and vain labor, not crowned with any fruits, with any lasting gains? Incline your humble ear: listen to what the Holy Spirit says through the mouth of David about human blessedness, which all men strive for, which all men hunger for.

Let everything around me be silent! and let my very thoughts be silent within me! Let the heart be silent! Let only reverent attention live, act! let holy impressions and thoughts enter into the soul, through Him!

David was a king and did not say that the throne of kings is the throne of human bliss.

David was a commander and a hero, from youth to old age he quarreled with foreigners in bloody battles; the number of battles he fought, the number of victories he won; to the banks of the Euphrates from the banks of the Jordan he moved the borders of his kingdom and did not say that in the glory of the victorious and conqueror is the bliss of man.

David gathered up innumerable riches, gathered them up with his sword. The gold lay in his storerooms like copper, and the silver was thrown into them like cast iron. But David did not say that in riches is the blessedness of man.

David had all the earthly consolations - in none of them did he recognize human blessedness.

When David was a youth, when his occupation was to feed the sheep of his father Jesse, suddenly, by the command of God, the prophet Samuel came and anointed the poor shepherd with holy oil as king of the people of Israel. David did not call the hour of his anointing as king the hour of blessedness.

David spent his childhood days in the wilderness. There his muscles began to feel the valor of the muscles of a hero: without weapons, with only his hands, he threw himself at a lion and a bear, strangled a lion and a bear. There his soul began to move, to be filled with heavenly inspiration. The hands that had crushed the lion and the bear made a psalter, touched the strings, tense and harmonized by the action of the Spirit: harmonious, sweet, spiritual, intelligent sounds were emitted. Far, far away, through time, through centuries and millennia, these sounds have rushed, repeated and repeated by countless voices, glorifying the name of David to all the ends of the earth, to all the centuries of its Christian life. David did not call the wilderness life, a life full of wondrous feats, wondrous inspiration, the bliss of man.

Blessed is the man, he sings, in whatever place, in whatever rank, in whatever condition and rank this man may be, who does not go to the counsel of the wicked, and does not stand in the way of sinners, and does not sit in the seat of the destroyers [2].

Blessed is the man who is preserved from sin, who reflects sin from himself, in whatever form, in what garb sin appears to him: whether he appears in a lawless act, whether he appears in a thought that advises iniquity, or in a feeling that brings pleasure and ecstasy to sin.

If with such strong courage a weak wife repels sin, then she too is blessed is the husband sung by David.

Participants in this blessedness, participants in the age of manhood in Christ, are youths and children, who firmly oppose sin. There is no respect of persons with the Righteous God.

Blessed is the man whose entire will is in the Law of God [3]. Blessed is the heart that has matured in the knowledge of the will of God, that has seen how good the Lord [4] is, that has acquired this vision by tasting the commandments of the Lord, that has united its will with the will of the Lord. Such a heart is a husband. Blessed is the heart kindled by Divine zeal! Blessed is the heart that burns with an insatiable desire for the will of God! Blessed is the heart, sweet and unbearably suffering of love for God! Such a heart is a place, a village, a palace, a throne of bliss.. From early morning the eagle sits on the top of a high cliff, its sparkling eyes greedily searching for prey, then it rises into the blue sky, swims, spreading its broad wings, in vast spaces, looking for prey. When he sees her, he descends on her with an arrow, with lightning, with another arrow he rises with her, disappears. He fed his young, and again he was on his guard, on the rock or in the sky. Such is the heart infected with the ulcer of incurable love for the commandments of God! And in this love there is bliss. In the commandments there is not only work: in them the spiritual mind is hidden and through them appears: from Thy commandments I understand, says the Prophet. With all my heart I seek Thee the Way of Thy commandments, when Thou hast enlarged my heart.. Learn in Thy commandments, O thou who loveth the earth.. The law of Thy mouth is good to me, more than a thousand gold and silver.. Thou shalt love Thy commandments more than gold and topazia.. Thy words are hidden in my heart, that I may not sin against Thee.. I will rejoice in Thy words, for thou hast gained much gain.. Guide me in the path of Thy commandments, as I will [5].