Saint Basil the Great: Sermon on the Psalms
Every letter is divinely inspired and beneficial (2 Tim. 3, 16), and the Holy Spirit wrote it so that we humans would choose healing for our own passion. The book of Psalms contains what is most useful in all the other books. It is a common treasury of good teachings, it heals outdated mental wounds, gives healing to the recently wounded, restores the sick and supports the uninjured. It eradicates the passions, which in man’s life rule his soul in various ways. The Holy Spirit knew that it is difficult to lead people to virtue, because because of our tendency to pleasure, we are careless regarding the right path.
A psalm is the silence of the soul and the distribution of peace. It calms the confusion of thoughts, softens the irritability of the soul and makes abstinence wholesome. The psalm is a mediator of friendship, a union between the distant, a reconciliation of enemies. Psalm singing gives us one of the greatest goods, love, uniting people in one common choir. A psalm is a refuge from demons, a step under the protection of angels.
Psalm singing makes the holiday bright, a psalm forces even a stony heart to tears. The psalm is the work of angels, heavenly life, spiritual incense. With it, lessons are deeply imprinted on the soul. From the psalms we learn the greatness of courage, the dignity of wisdom, the perfection of prudence, the way of repentance, the measure of patience and every other good.
Since we sinned with the body when we gave our members as slaves to sin in order to commit iniquities, we should confess with the body, using for the forgiveness of sins the same instrument with which we sinned. Did you curse? Bless! Were you selfish? Give it! Have you been drinking? Fast! Were you proud? Lower yourself! Did you kill? Suffer martyrdom! It is necessary first of all to correct bodily actions, so that they are carried out in accordance with the word of God, and then to ascend into spiritual contemplations.
When we mortify the old man in us and when we renew ourselves day by day, we sing a new and renewing song of the Lord’s teachings. The one who strives for what is in front of him is always new to himself. Thus a new and renewed man sings a new song to God.