Through Your Glorious Ascension (Part I)
By the Reverend John Breck
Psalm 67/68 is considered by most biblical scholars to be the most difficult of all psalms to interpret.[1] The current consensus holds that the psalm was an ancient cultic hymn, originally recited in an autumn festival by the covenant-community of Israel. Its theme celebrates the coming of God to His people, from Sinai to Zion, in order to actualize in their midst His past mighty works of salvation. This actualization then leads the people toward the eschatological future, the age to come, when God’s glory and majesty will be recognized and acknowledged by all the nations of the earth.
As difficult to interpret as many may find it to be, this psalm, with its opening cry, “Let God arise!” is nevertheless one of the most familiar biblical pronouncements of the Orthodox paschal season. It begins with what the Church recognizes as a prophetic announcement of our Lord’s resurrection. This is complemented by what biblical and patristic tradition sees as allusions to Christ’s ascension and the sending of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. St Paul offers this interpretation in his letter to the Ephesians, where he modifies, in a minor yet significant way, the Septuagint version of Ps. 67: “When He ascended on high, He led a host of captives, and He gave gifts to men” (Eph 4:8). Those gifts, as the apostle declares, include the charismata, the “spiritual gifts” or gift of the Spirit Himself, bestowed upon the Church for the preaching of the gospel and the upbuilding of the Body of Christ.
Another theme emerges throughout this letter, also derived from Ps. 67/68. By his descent into the “depths of the earth,” into the heart of the fallen creation, Christ destroys the power of sin and death. And by His ascension in glory, He “fills all things with Himself” (Eph 4:9-10). This is the same message proclaimed by the Gospel of John: “No one has ascended into heaven but He who descended from heaven, the Son of Man,” and this, to work out salvation and eternal life for all those who believe (Jn 3:13-15).
The entire Christian mystery is expressed by this double movement of descent and ascension, the incarnation and glorification of the eternal Son of God. As Orthodox spiritual and liturgical tradition affirms, this movement was undertaken not for Christ’s own sake, but for ours. Through His incarnation, the Son of God took upon Himself our very life and being, the specific conditions of our human nature, in order to restore that nature to its original perfection, and to open the way for us to ascend with Him to the heights of heaven, there to share with Him His own glory and majesty.
Elaborating on this theme, St Irenaeus of Lyon declares in his treatise Against Heresies (III.19.3), “The Lord himself gave us a sign… A virgin conceived and bore a son, ‘God with us’ (Isa 7:14). He descended into the depths of the earth to seek the lost sheep, His own handiwork, which He Himself had made. Then He ascended into the heights above, to offer and submit to His Father this humanity (hominem) which had been found, becoming Himself the first-fruits of man’s resurrection.”
A familiar prayer, attributed to St Symeon Metaphrastes (a mid-tenth century Byzantine hagiographer) and included in the Orthodox prayers before communion, recounts the significance of events in Christ’s life, death and glorification, together with their spiritual and moral significance for believers:
“Through Your life-giving resurrection You raised up the first father who had fallen.
Raise me up, for I am sunk in sin, and give me the image of repentance.
Through Your glorious ascension You made the flesh that You assumed to be divine and placed it on the throne at the Father’s right hand. Grant me to receive a place at the right hand with the saved through communion of Your Holy Mysteries.”
[1] For example, A. Weiser, The Psalms (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1962), p. 481; see also the Oxford Annotated Bible (RSV), New York: Oxford, 1965, p. 704 note, repeated in the Oxford NRSV, New York: Oxford, 1991, p. 728 note.
~Taken from the website of the Orthodox Church in America (OCA), http://oca.org/reflections/fr.-john-breck/through-your-glorious-ascension.
