Categories: orthodox-life, hymns, great-lent
Date: 19 March 2012 01:15:05
After the chanting of Psalms 4, 6, 12 (13), 24 (25), 30 (31) and 90 (91)* at Great Compline during Great Lent, we join in the singing of a verses and a refrain which proclaims the birth of Christ using a number of verses from Isaiah. The same verses I believe are sung at Compline for other feasts, including Christmas, which the Orthodox call 'The Nativity according to the Flesh of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ'. You can find the complete text here (search for 'God is with us, understand you nations, and submit'), but a few should give you an idea:
And if I should trust in him, he will be sanctification for me:
For God is with us.
The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light:
For God is with us.
And of His peace there will be no bound:
For God is with us.
As well as being an indictment on my lack of Old Testament knowledge, shown most honestly in my recalling some verses were also from Handel's Messiah rather than thinking Isaiah straightaway, it shows how central the Bible is to Orthodox services. Many Psalms are read in their entirety; in others places lines of Psalms or other Scriptures are used as a verse, or a refrain, for hymns. In other places lines of Scripture are referred to or quoted in prayers. Old Testament writings, the Gospels, Acts and Epistles (Revelation is not read as far as I am aware in any Orthodox services) are read in services.
It can be easy to miss just how based on Scripture Orthodox services are. While I know liturgies are indeed and rightly based on the revelation to us of the Word of God, our Lord and Saviour Christ, and of the word of God in Scripture, it was not until I came across this page -- which mentions a book I may need to buy, "The Bible in The Liturgy", by the Very Reverend Father Constantine Nasr -- which provides Biblical references for everything that is said during the Orthodox Divine Liturgy, that I began to realise not only how much is straight from Scripture, but how easy it was for me to miss it, because I am ignorant of much of the Old and New Testaments. The Old Testament in particular. Being the only Scriptures of Christ, the apostles and the early Church, until the Church determined which books were to be included, the Old Testament -- in its events, its prophecies, and its words -- was key to the preaching that Jesus Christ was the expected Messiah. And these prophecies, these events, these types and foreshadowings of the Messiah, were used, and continue to be used, in the Church's worship.
I cannot make promises to know the Old Testament. But I am trying to increase my knowledge of it. I am reading through Genesis, Isaiah and Proverbs with the Church lectionary. I am listening to an Orthodox podcast called Search the Scriptures, and in particular a series called 'Introduction to the Bible' (though with around 27 lessons introducing the Bible and 27 on Genesis 'introduction' may not be the right word!) to help me gain a better understanding of the Scriptures, in particular the Old Testament, and their fulfilment in Christ. And I hope to keep this up after Great Lent.
For to me, it only causes me to wonder so much more, and to be amazed at God's plan for our salvation, when I not only read and hear the events of the Old Testament and see God's Love and Bounty towards Israel, but also to see that they all find their fulfilment in Jesus Christ. Thanks be to God.
(*) numbers in parentheses refer to the Psalms most English people will have as the Orthodox use a different text which translates to different numbers between Psalms 9 and 147