Hence, sing the following: if you wish to know how to place your feet firmly upon the steps, so you don’t grow weary in your ascent and stumble: pray with these words, ‘Let not my foot be shaken!’ Psalm 120:3 What causes the feet to move? Why was the foot of Him who was in Paradise unsteady? But first, reflect on how the feet of him among the angels were shaken; he who, when unsteady, fell and transformed from an angel into a devil: for when his feet wavered, he fell. Investigate the reason for his downfall: it was pride. Therefore, nothing causes the feet to falter except pride; nothing leads the feet to fall but pride. Love prompts them to walk, to grow, and to ascend; pride leads to a downfall. Thus, correctly, the psalmist, inquiring how to rise without falling, implores God to benefit from affliction’s misery and avoid succumbing to excessive pride, saying, ‘Let not my feet be moved!’ And God responds, ‘Let him who holds you back not slumber. Be attentive, my beloved.’ It is as if one thought is echoed in two sentences: the rising man sings the song of ascents, saying, ‘Let not my foot be shaken.’ And it seems that God replies, ‘You say to Me, “Let not my foot be shaken”; remain vigilant, and your foot shall not falter.’
Choose Him who neither sleeps nor slumbers, and your foot will stand firm. God is never idle: if you desire a guardian who watches over you without rest, select God as your guardian. You plead for your feet not to tremble, and rightly so; yet He, in turn, instructs you not to let this bring you slumber. Perhaps you were about to seek human guardianship and asked, ‘Who can I find that does not slumber? Which person is perpetually awake? To whom do I turn? Where shall I return?’ The psalmist conveys to you, ‘He that keeps Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps’ Psalm 120:4. Do you wish to have a protector who neither slumbers nor sleeps? Behold, the One who preserves Israel, who does not slumber nor sleep, for Christ preserves Israel. Therefore, be part of Israel. What does Israel signify? It is interpreted as ‘Seeing God’. And how does one see God? Initially by faith, followed by vision. If you cannot yet perceive Him with your eyes, perceive Him through faith. Who exists that neither slumbers nor sleeps? When you search among humanity, you are misled; you will never find such a one. Therefore, do not place your hope in man: every person sleeps and slumbers. When does he rest? When dressed in the frail flesh. When does he sleep? When he departs this life. Do not place your faith in humans.
And who, you might wonder, will assist me except the One who neither slumbers nor sleeps? Pay attention to this: The Lord Himself is your keeper Psalm 120:5. Thus, it is not man who becomes sleepy, but the Lord watches over you. How does He watch over you? The Lord is your defense at your right hand. Here, a deeper understanding emerges; otherwise, it would have sufficed to simply state, ‘the Lord will keep you’ without adding specifics about the right hand. For how long? Does God protect only our right hand and not our left? Did He not create us all? Didn’t the One who crafted our right hand also fashion our left hand? Ultimately, if He chose to mention only the right hand, why did He articulate it as ‘at your right hand’ and not just state ‘of your left hand’? Why say this unless it is veiled truth waiting for us to uncover it? For He could have merely said, ‘The Lord will keep you,’ and added nothing more; or, if He had mentioned the right hand, He could state, ‘The Lord shall keep you at your right hand’; or at the very least, if citing His hand, He might have said, ‘The Lord will keep you on His hand, that is, on your right hand, and not solely on the hand of your right hand.’
Consider how you interpret the words from the Gospel, ‘let your left hand not know what your right hand is doing’? Matthew 6:3 If you grasp this, then you will comprehend the distinction between your right and left hands, realizing that God created both; but the left hand must not recognize the actions of the right hand. The left hand symbolizes all that is temporal; the right hand signifies the enduring and eternal promises of the Lord. If He who provides eternal life also enriches our present existence with temporal blessings, then He has fashioned both our right and left hands.
Now, let us turn to the verse of the Psalm, ‘The Lord is your defense at your right hand’ Psalm 120:5. When ‘hand’ is mentioned, it signifies power. How can we demonstrate this? Because the might of God is referred to as His hand. Of this, John states, ‘He gave them power to become sons of God’ John 1:12. From where have you obtained this power? It is given to those who believe in His Name. If you believe, then this very power to be counted among the sons of God has been granted to you. To belong to the sons of God is to be at His right hand. Therefore, your faith serves as the power of your right hand; that is to say, the authority bestowed upon you to be counted among the sons of God is the power of your right hand.
May the Lord safeguard you by the might of your right hand Psalm 120:6. I have conveyed this, and I think you recognize it. Had you not gleaned this and other truths from the Scriptures, you would not have articulated your understanding with your voices. Thus, dear siblings, you understand what follows; the Lord protects you through the strength of your faith, in which we have been given the ability to become sons of God, seated at His right hand. Why does God safeguard us? Due to offenses. From where do offenses arise? They are to be feared on both sides, for there are two commandments underpinning the entire Law and the Prophets: the love of God and love for neighbor. Matthew 22:37-40 The Church is cherished for the sake of the neighbor, and God for His own sake. God is metaphorically seen as the sun, while the Church is likened to the moon. Anyone who misinterprets God and fails to believe in the essential unity of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit falls prey to the deceptions of various heresies, particularly those of Arius. Should one believe in the Son or the Holy Spirit less than in the Father, they offend God and are scorched by the sun. Who would think that the Church exists exclusively in a particular location, rather than scattered throughout the world, and who could believe those who claim, ‘Here is Christ, or there’? Matthew 24:23 This was just heard when the Gospel was read; for He who paid such a great price has redeemed the entire world. Thus, one takes offense at their neighbor and is burned by the moon. Therefore, anyone who is mistaken in the essence of truth burns under the sun and suffers all day long because they err in Wisdom.
Consequently, God created one sun, which rises upon both the virtuous and the wicked; this sun is visible to all. Yet, there exists another sun—uncreated, unbegotten—through which all things were made; there is the mind of the Immutable Truth, in which the wicked declare, ‘The Sun has not risen over us.’ One who is not misled in the Wisdom itself is not tormented by the sun. Whoever does not err regarding the Church, nor in the Body of the Lord, nor in the created world meant for us in time, is unscathed by the moon. Yet, every person, even if they believe in Christ, is mistaken in some way unless what is prayed for here becomes actualized in them: ‘The Lord is your defense at your right hand.’ The Psalmist continues, ‘Lest the sun scorches you by day and the moon by night’ Psalm 120:6. Therefore, your shield is at your right hand, to protect you from the sun by day and the moon by night. Understand this, dear brethren, in a figurative manner. Indeed, while the visible sun burns by day, does the moon burn by night? Yet what causes the burn? Sin. Pay attention to the Apostle’s words: ‘Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is offended, and I burn not?’ 2 Corinthians 11:29.
For the Lord will guard you against all harm Psalm 120:7. He will protect you from the offense of the sun, from the offense of the moon, from all evil; He who is your shield at the arm of your right hand will neither sleep nor slumber. Why? Because we are surrounded by trials: the Lord will protect you from all evil. The Lord will preserve your soul, your very soul. The Lord will keep your going and your coming from now and forevermore Psalm 120:8. Not merely your body; martyrs have endured burns yet held on to their souls. The persecutors hardened their hearts against Crispina, whose feast we commemorate today; they tormented the wealthy and noble woman, yet she remained steadfast, for the Lord was her protector at her right hand. He was her Guardian. Does anyone in Africa, my brethren, not know her? She was illustrious, noble in birth, rich, yet all these attributes lay in her left hand, beneath her head. Her adversary approached to strike her on the head, and she raised her left hand, which was beneath her head, to counter him. Her head was uplifted, while her right hand was enfolded by the Lord from above.
THEOSIS