Arrangement of the Psalis

As previously mentioned, most Psali verses are ordered alphabetically according to the letters of the Coptic language.  However, there are a few exceptions that do not follow this arrangement: the Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday Annual Psalis.

There are also Psalis whose verses follow the reverse alphabetical order of the letters of the Coptic language.  Examples of this are the Adam Psali for the feast of Nayrouz, and the Adam Psali for “Your mercies oh my God”.  The same arrangement can be found in the conclusion of the Adam Theotokias adds 5 verses whose first letter spells the name of its author: Gabriel.  These Psalis whose verses are arranged in reverse alphabetical order are also commonly observed in the Greek Church.

The Name of Our Lord Jesus in the Psalis

Many of the Psalis focus on the repetition of the Name of Our Lord Jesus.  The words of many Psalis are derived from the Book of Psalms but are addressed to our Lord Jesus Christ.  Specifically, the daily annual Psalis are primarily short prayers and direct please to “my Lord Jesus Christ”.  

Note that throughout the communal prayers we often refer to the collective body of the Church.  For instance: 

• Verses of the commemoration of the saints end with “that He may forgive us our sins”

• “Have mercy upon us” is the conclusion of many verses throughout the psalmody hymns

• “for You have come and saved us” is another conclusion of many verses throughout the psalmody hymns

• “O Lord grant us the forgiveness of our sins” is the conclusion of many verses of the Lobsh for each Hos.

In the Psalis however, we personally plea to Our Lord Jesus Christ: “My Lord Jesus” or “My Lord Jesus Christ…”.  

It is also noteworthy to mention that the Church does not differentiate between our conversation with Our Lord Jesus Christ, and the calling upon His name.  Calling upon, praising, praying to His name, is equivalent to calling upon Him, praising Him, and praying to Him directly.  For example, in the conclusion of the Adam Daily Psalis we chant: “and whenever we gather for prayer, let us bless the name of my Lord Jesus.  We bless you O my Lord Jesus, deliver us through Your name for we have hope in you. This is also evidenced by the Sunday and Saturday Psalis for the Lord where we chant: “All of the souls together bless Your Name. My Lord Jesus help me”, and “With delight we praise You, all of us Your People, O my Lord Jesus Christ, my good Savior.”  Also, in the Sunday Psali we chant “Create in me a clean heart…”, and in the Monday Psali we chant “… and let us purify our hearts, in the name of my Lord” and “… the joy of our hearts is Your holy name, O my Lord Jesus.”

Conversing with, and repeating, the name of the Lord Jesus with short, strong prayers is a Coptic, monastic tradition, first observed and established in the deserts of Egypt.  This tradition, observed by mostly illiterate monks, were a source of comfort, prayer, and blessing. It then spread to their laymen visitors and the rest of the world.  This tradition is sometimes referred to as the “prayer of the heart” or “prayer of the arrow”.  It is through the repetition of the Lord’s name throughout the day that joy, peace, fulfillment, and gladness fill our heart, and rid us of any other desires.

The name of the Lord, as found in the Psalis, is a name glorified in His saints.  It is a source of victory over tribulations, and salvation from all our difficulties.  It is the food of life, which fulfills spiritual and physical needs.  The name of the Lord is alive in the mouths of the righteous; it purifies our hearts, and saves our souls, for it is the name of Salvation which enlightens our inner beings.  Through it our hearts are glad, our tongues rejoice, and our spirits receive joy.   The name of the Lord is the precious jewel which a person sells all that he or she has to obtain it.  The name of the Lord is full of glory; it is the fullness of all blessings. 

A person’s natural feeling always yearns to God who is the utmost perfection. One can never find rest in just prayers and asking things of God. To find rest, we should give, and we cannot feel that we are giving something adequate to God except by giving ourselves. “Therefore, when He came into the world, He said: ‘Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body You have prepared for Me.’” (Heb. 10:5)

Prayers and praising were made by God – through Jesus Christ – as an open gate for us to complete our love to Him, which we previously lost. “Therefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name.” (Heb. 13:15) 

Saint Mary in the Psalis

here is a specific Psali for St. Mary the Theotokos, which is the Sunday Adam Psali.  

This Psali describes St. Mary in many ways:

• My Lady the Bride

• The Virgin Full of Glory

• She who bore for us eternal freedom

• The golden vessel made of pure gold

• Jerusalem, the city of our God

• The Eastern Door

• The Rod of Aaron which blossomed and produced its Fruit

• Higher than the Cherubim, more blessed than the Seraphim

• The Pure Dove, who is full of Wisdom

• And many more…

These titles of our pure Lady in the Coptic Church are some of the oldest verses of prayer which have been handed down to us.  

This specific Psali starts with a prayer directed to our Lord directly: “Help me my Lord, Jesus the Compassionate, to glorify my lady, Your mother the Bride”. So even while glorifying our lady the Theotokos, we are praying to our Lord Jesus Christ. 

Contemplation on the Sunday Psali

“I sought after You, from the depth of my heart, My Lord Jesus help me.

Through the praises of the Holy Psalmody, our souls progress along a spiritual journey. We ask God to deliver us, as He brought those out of the land of sin and slavery into the wilderness. After being saved, we give thanks to the One Who saves us from our miseries. Then, at the envy and rage of the devil, we are pressured by his deceptive ways, trying to lure us back into Egypt by offering us the materials of this world. If we fight him through prayer, he begins to torture us physically and spiritually, but if we resist and pray to God, then we shall be freed from these afflictions and the God of heaven will stand in our midst. We will then call on the saints to stand with us, uniting the Church with the heavens, learning from them, asking them to pray for us as we endure trials in this earth. We are then, through God’s abundant grace, brought into the chorus of the heavens, as we pray the Fourth Canticle with all the choirs of the heavens, praising our awesome and powerful God as He sits on His throne. 

We then come to the Psalies in the Holy Psalmody. If we look at the words, we may notice a penitent approach in this hymn. How can one who stands in heaven show sorrow and remorse and ask for repentance? Although this seems contradicting, it is through the wisdom of the Fathers by the works of Holy Spirit that this beautiful hymn is put following the Fourth Canticle.

We begin the Sunday Psali for the Lord Jesus with this verse. This one verse can sum up the lives of the saints and why we honor them. How can we truly say to our Lord that we have sought Him from the depths of our hearts? Only a select few lived the life of Christianity, struggling with blood and sweat, confessing the Name of our Lord before the emperors, and showing their undying love for God. We can also take examples from the great fathers of the desert, such as St. Antony the Great. After hearing one command of the Lord (Mark 10:21) he journeyed into the wilderness, and because of his perfect zeal, he forsook all to follow the teachings of our Lord. We chant this first verse of the Psali so that He may sanctify our hearts and minds, so that we may follow Him as He said:

“If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.” (Matthew 16:24)

The second part of the first verse of the Psali is even more important than the first part. We mentioned that this verse can sum up the lives of the saints. Although the saints led the life of Christianity, truly seeking Christ from the depths of their hearts, they always followed their zeal for Christ with the words, “My Lord Jesus, help me.” They realized that they did not attain the spiritual gifts of heaven by their own power, but that it was the God of Heaven who bestowed upon them these gifts through His grace. King Solomon alluded to this when he wrote:

“The name of the Lord is a strong tower; the righteous run to it and are safe.” (Proverbs 18:10)

In singing these words, we too beseech God to help us, calling on the Name of the Lord as we run towards this strong tower. We also ask Him to illuminate our hearts so that we may follow Him. Out of His love, He hears the pleas that we may make.

“Do not lose your hope, for God cares for your salvation more than you do. He is the One who seeks your salvation, and this has been His way from the start” (H.H. Pope Shenouda III).

“You are the Son of God, I believe in You, My Lord Jesus, help me. You who carries, the sins of the world save me, My Lord Jesus Christ, help me.”

How can we pray to our Lord if we do not recognize who He is? Why should we meditate on His Name if we do know His significance in our lives? This seemingly straightforward passage is essential in the prayer of the Sunday Psali of our Lord Jesus. We meditate on His Name because He is the Son of God. This is the essential faith of Christianity, which separates us from all other religions, that our Lord Jesus Christ is the Only-begotten Son of God. 

Many heresies unfolded because of the lack of understanding of this one statement. One example of this is the heresy of Arius, who was defeated by the Holy Spirit working through the 20th Patriarch of Alexandria, St. Athanasius, who wrote many books concerning the reality that the Lord Jesus Christ was indeed the Son of God. One of St. Athanasius’s most famous pieces was titled On the Incarnation. If we do not believe that He is the Only-begotten Son of God, equal and consubstantial with the Father, then we have missed the act of redemption on the Cross. The Pharisees sought to kill Him because He identified Himself as the Son of God, but we, who are His children, must embrace Him, confessing Him to be the Son of God.

After we have believed in Him, confessing Him to be the Son of God, we then turn our eyes to the Cross, for it was there that we received redemption. If Christ were not the Son of God, then His death on the Cross would have been of no use to us, even if the person crucified had been an angel of heaven. Christ, the Son of God, descended from heaven, took our form, and lived among us. He fulfilled all the sayings of the prophets and lived the perfect life according to the Law. Our Lord Jesus Christ, being perfect, without the original sin of Adam, was the only One who could sacrifice Himself upon the wood of the Cross to redeem man from the bondage of sin, opening the gates of Paradise for us all.

“Both from the confession of the evil spirits and from the daily witness of His works, it is manifest, then, and let none presume to doubt it, that the Savior has raised His own body, and that He is very Son of God, having His being from God as from a Father, Whose Word and Wisdom and Whose Power He is. He it is Who in these latter days assumed a body for the salvation of us all, and taught the world concerning the Father. It is He Who has destroyed death and freely graced us all with incorruption through the promise of the resurrection, having raised His own body as its first-fruits, and displayed it by the sign of the cross as the monument to His victory over death and its corruption” (St. Athanasius).

“In the accepted time, hear me, My Lord Jesus Christ, help me.”

This verse is also very beautiful, showing the rising of the soul and its progression in strength, yearning more for the heavenly things. Whenever we pray these few words, asking God to hear us in the accepted time, we show how we have united our minds with our Lord Jesus Christ.

“I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one: I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me. Father, I desire that they also whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory which You have given Me; for You loved Me before the foundation of the world. O righteous Father! The world has not known You, but I have known You; and these have known that You sent Me. And I have declared to them Your name, and will declare it, that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them” (John 17:20-26).

These wonderful words were spoken by our Lord Jesus Christ to the Father, in His prayer before His death. These Holy, life-giving words show that our Lord has truly changed us in the prayer of the Holy Psalmody. We progress from asking for our physical needs, to abiding in the presence of God, being one with Him since it was the Son who asked that this may be done. We can see this because when we pray asking God to hear us in the accepted time, we are asking that His Will be done. We realize that it is not with our limited minds that we may endure, but we place all our thoughts before His Throne, believing and trusting in Him, knowing He is the Pantocrator. Our prayer has become like that which was spoken by our Lord to His Father, asking only of the things of heaven. We no longer care nor worry about early things, but instead, we take to heart that Our Lord Jesus Christ has already prayed on our behalf. We now wait, asking God to attend to all our needs (spiritual and physical) in the right and appropriate time.