Vespers and Genesis

June 24, 2003

During every Orthodox service of Vespers, the opening Psalm (103 [104]) is a song chanted to God as Creator and sustainer of all creation. The service normally takes place at the setting of the sun, when the light of this world begins to wane and the light of God must be yearned. The impending darkness of the night is symbolical of the original moment of Genesis, when “the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep” (Gen. 1.2). It is then, as we are told in the first book of Scripture, that “the spirit of God swept over the face of the waters; and God said, ‘Let there be …'” (Gen. 1.2-3).

Thus, during the vesperal service, we recall the primal darkness that received the first light of God’s grace and presence. And we bless God with all our soul and in joyful song, saying:

Bless the Lord, O my soul. O Lord my God, you are very great. You are clothed with honor and majesty, wrapped in light as with a garment. You stretch out the heavens like a tent, and set the beams of your chambers on the waters. … You make the winds your messengers, fire and flame your ministers. (Psalm 103.1-4)

Ultimately, we are recognizing God as the Creator of all things. Indeed, during this seminar, we also recognize the striking beauty of the North Sea in the words of the same Psalm:

You set the earth on its foundations, so that it shall never be shaken. You cover it with the deep as with a garment; the waters stand above the mountains. … You make springs gush forth in the valleys and flow between the hills. … From your lofty abode, you water the mountains; the earth is satisfied with the fruit of your work. … O Lord, how manifold are your works. In wisdom you have made them all. (Psalm 103.5-24)

Then, the Psalmist offers us a subtle but significant hint of the mutual love and reciprocal exchange that occurs between God and His creation. This he describes in a movement of looking:

The Lord delights in His works; He looks upon the earth. (Ps. 103.31-32)

God cares deeply about this world. He is concerned about the welfare and future of His creation. He never abandons the work of His hands – both the natural environment and the human person made in the divine image and likeness (Gen. 1.26). This merciful love is revealed in the way that God never ceases “to look upon” this world. His gaze forever accompanies us.

“All things look to God”

By the same token, humanity must neither abuse nor abandon the created world. The human person is called – in his or her capacity as priest of creation and never as proprietor of its material resources – to refer to God as the source and center of all beings and all things. Thus, as the Psalmist observes so eloquently:

All things look to you, Lord … you renew the face of the earth. (Ps. 103.27-30)

Again, the gesture is one of “looking to” God. God’s eyes meet our eyes and the eyes of the world in an act of communion and love.

Finally, this mutual exchange, the giving and the receiving, the one who loves and the one who is loved, coincides in the unique person of Jesus Christ, who is fully divine and fully human. When we remember our calling to return all things in thanksgiving to God, who renews all things for us in love, then – as the Orthodox service of Vespers concludes in the words of an ancient hymn from the early undivided Church – we are able to behold:

The radiant light of the sacred glory of Jesus Christ … singing praises at all times [and in all places] with joyful voices, just as the entire world offers glory to God.