Excerpts from Kiahk Psalmody (Part2)

Excerpts from Kiahk Psalmody (Part2)


Swimming more in Kiahk Psalmody will reflect how the composer of our Coptic Psalies were very acquainted with the prefiguration of the Theotokos in the Old Testament and how they saw the reality in the New Testament, let me introduce you to some verses the first Psali for Friday Theotokia :
“For you are the birth giver of God, the Mother of the True light, for from you has shone forth us, The Sun of righteousness (Malachi 4:2)
The Master, the King of the ages, the true Queen (Ps. 45:8-11) gave birth to Him, with healing in His Wings (Malachi 4:2), for He is the Creator.
Therefore, we dedicate a feast, with praises, we exalt Him, He took what is ours, and gave us what is His. (repeated verse in the writing of Irenaeus, Athanasius, Cyril )
Let us gather at all times, to glorify you, O full of glory, for you are beyond understanding, who can declare your honor. This is the city of the King ( Ps. 48:1; 87:3; Heb. 12:22; Ps. 9:7, 10) Sion, (Zechariah 8:3; Ps. 132:13, many other places in the Bible), the Mother of Christ, for there is none like you, O Virgin Mary. Likewise, the city of Jerusalem, is Mary, the birth-giver of God, for He Who is seated upon the Cherubim, came and dwelt in her… Behold, we say, “Hail to you, O cloud (Is. 19:9; 16-19) that carries Christ, for you are the rational fishing rod, that catches Christians.”`

The Composer of the second Psali on Friday Theotokia took from the greetings of Archangel Gabriel "Hail, O full of grace, the Lord is with you!" and Elisabeth greetings to Mary “"Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb!” as a refrain to be said after each verse in the psali , here are some verses

“This is Zion and the new heaven, and the Throne of Christ (Ezek. 1; Dan. 7:7-13; Rev. 4:6-11): Blessed are you among women, and blessed is your Fruit
For you are truly the ladder (Gen. 28:10-17), the bush (Exod. 3:1-7) and the ark (Exod. 25:10-16; 37:1-9; Ps. 131:8;  Heb. 9:4) : Blessed are you among women, and blessed is your Fruit
Likewise, you are the Gate (Ezek. 43:27-44; 4:1-3), that is pure towards the East: Hail to you, O full of grace, the Lord is with you.
Another type of poem is taken from Isaiah verse “[2] Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth;” Isa.1:2 , the composer started by this verse , then extended to
“Hearken unto this, all ye nations, rejoice and be glad, in the feast of the Theotokos, the mother of Emmanuel our God, Let heaven hear her honor, and the earth proclaim her glory… Hearken unto to the tongue of incense Paul ( the composer here follows St. Cyril of Alexandria way in addressing St. Paul and the prophets). The apostle, who symbolized the Virgin, to the new third heaven (2 Corinthians 12:2), Hearken to Solomn…..Severus, Cyril)

What I want to say ? there are two types of psalies in the Kiahk psalmody, Arabic which is weak, probably it was composed late maybe by 17th century or so, it served its purpose in its time. The second type is the Coptic (Probably earlier as would argued by Dr. Youhanna Nessim Youssef) , it is more guanine, more concrete , contains the dogma, the Old Testament explained in the eyes of the New Testament. As we are in the immigration land, I would highly recommend that we go in our mid night psalmody for the Coptic psalies which was firstly translated by Holy Virgin Mary Church in Los Angeles, then was revised by St. Mary and St. Abraam Church in Saint Louis, Missouri. Online revised version was made by St. George and St. Shenouda Jersey City. I would urge our deacons to pray more Theotokiat from the weekdays ( Monday though Saturday). It has a deep theological understanding for the mystery of Incarnation.

I will continue to explore more deep meanings in Kiahk psalmody in the next blog.

The Above references was made easy by the article written by Paul Ladouveur “Old Testament Prefigurations of the Mother of God” and El Baramous Monastery edition of Annual Psalmody . 

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