Speaking with God from the Depths of the Heart

by St. Grigor Narekatsi

Because your stern judgment
echoes mightily in the valley of retribution, (10)
contradictory impulses in my soul
brace for battle like clashing mobs.
Crowds of thoughts strike each other, sword
against armor, evil against good,
ensnaring me for death, as in other times,
when your grace had not rescued me –
that grace of Christ, which Paul,
chosen among the apostles,
taught was greater than the law of Moses. (11)

For as the Scripture says, “The day
of the Lord is upon us,” (12)
and in the narrow valley of Jehoshaphat (13)
on the banks of the Kidron, (14)
those small battle grounds
foreshadow on earth
victory in the life to come.
Thus, the kingdom of God in a visible form
has come already, charging me
on truthful testimony with wrongs
graver than those of the Edomites, (15)
Philistines and other barbarians –
wrongs that brought down the hand of God.
And whereas their sentences were measured in years,
my transgressions will be punished without term.
As the prophet and the parable-teller warned,
the dungeon and shackles (16)
are already at my threshold to show me
here and now my eternal disgrace.

Only you can work the miracle
to make life possible for a soul
so imperiled by doubt,
O Atoner for all, exalted beyond saying
in your boundless glory on high
forever and ever.

Amen.

Notes:

10 ...... Jl. 3:14.

11 ...... Acts 13:39, Rom. 8:2-3.

12 ...... Jl. 2:1, 3:14.

13 ...... 2 Chr. 20:16, 20:26-27.

14 ...... 2 Chr. 15:16.

15 ...... Is. 14:26-29, Jer. 47:1, 49:7-18.

16 ...... Is. 24:17, Jer. 48:43.

See Also:

Speaking with God from the Depths of the Heart - Part 1

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