NOTES for Psa 49

Appeal to God's mercy is a commonplace of many psalms. But what does it mean in practice? Hope that God will close His eyes to human sins? But will a person be better off because of that? Sin destroys a person's soul and poisons his heart just as disease poisons and destroys the body, and to indulge sin is the same as to let a disease run its course. Yet another thing is also true: if the Kingdom needs only the spiritually healthy, then no one born in the fallen world will ever see it. God's mercy is needed in order to resolve this contradiction that appears irresolvable. It does not, of course, imply indulgence toward sin. But it makes forgiveness of the sinner possible.

It would seem that if a person sincerely repents of what he has done and asks forgiveness, forgiving him is not so difficult even for a human being, not to mention God. But in reality everything turns out not to be so simple: every sin committed by a person, every evil he has done, has its consequences, with which, according to the laws of our untransformed world, nothing can be done. The ancients, especially in the East, did not speak by accident of karmic bonds that a person, while remaining within the framework of the fallen world, cannot break. Causes and effects exist here inseparably, and every attempt to change anything for the better, to correct the evil done, produces only new evil, binding the person trying to free himself from evil still more firmly to the bad infinity of sinful life. Only God's direct intervention in the situation can change the state of affairs radically.

But what can such intervention be? If God repays everyone according to his merits, no one will receive anything good: for there are no "ideal" or, in biblical language, sinless people in the world. Therefore we can count only on God giving each of us something that we not only have not deserved, but because of our nature corrupted by sin will never be able to deserve, even with the most sincere and intense desire. Desire, of course, is not unimportant: it is useless to offer an alternative to someone who is satisfied with the world in its present state. But the very possibility of an alternative in such a case must go against the fundamental laws of the fallen world, in particular the law of cause and effect, which does not allow reverse action. This possibility of an undeserved miracle is the practical manifestation of God's mercy.

Of course, if God wanted simply to abolish the law of cause and effect, He would perhaps have to create the world anew. But He finds another way out: to give the world the Kingdom, where this law acts differently than in our untransformed world. And He entrusted the bringing of this Kingdom into the world to the One who from the beginning was free from sin. Thus God's mercy opens for everyone seeking salvation the road into the Kingdom.

We are accustomed to saying casually that the Bible is a divinely inspired book, that none of it was written down by chance. Yet this psalm vividly shows that God speaks to us in a language understandable in every age. This language is rich and vivid, direct and sharp. God is frank with us; He hides nothing. We might perhaps prefer a different conversation, but He tells the plain truth. This simplicity is too unpleasant because, in an egocentric world, it is difficult for a person to accept that God, in fact, does not need him. He does not need trifles, sacrifices, bustle, or show. He needs nothing. He loves us freely. And He loves every one of us. Offer praise, give thanks to God for everything, and call upon Him in the day of your distress, whatever that distress may be. Do not judge God by yourself. He is not as you imagine Him, nor as you ultimately try to judge Him. God is other. As the Evangelist John would later say, "God is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all."