As the eyes of a son upon his father, so are my eyes, O Lord, at all times towards Thee.
For with Thee are my breasts and my pleasure.
Turn not away Thy mercy from me, O Lord, and take not Thy sweetness from me.
Stretch out to me my Lord at all times Thy right hand, and be my guide even to the end according to Thy will.
Let me be well-pleasing before Thee because of Thy glory, and because of Thy Name let me be saved from the Evil One.
And let Thy gentleness, O Lord, abide with me, and the fruits of thy love.
Teach me the Odes of Thy truth, that I may bring forth fruits in Thee.
And the harp of Thy Holy Spirit open to me, that with all [its] notes I may praise Thee, O Lord.
And according to the multitude of Thy mercies so shalt Thou give to me. And hasten to grant our petitions.
And Thou art able for all our needs. Alleluia.
As the eyes of a son upon his father, so are my eyes, O Lord, at all times towards Thee.
The son looks toward the father for many reasons which apply here. First, he does so because of his intimate connection with his father, which includes the fact of the father being the archetype of the son. This is why it is said in the East and Middle East that “the father is born in the son.” Therefore the eyes of our soul and spirit are upon God because we are not creations, but offsprings (emanations) of the very being of God. God is the sun and we are the rays.
Ideally, the son looks to the father because he understands what is in the foregoing paragraph, and therefore looks to the father to see what he should be modeling himself upon, observing and imitating in order to unfold the inherent likeness to the father. It is so with each one of us and God. We are to be godlike and then become god. (Not God, but god: a perfect image-likeness.) We are meant to be on a finite scale just what God is on an infinite scale. We see few people attaining this, but how many are really trying, either in the right way or to the right degree? The fact still remains that is it our unalterable destiny.
The son looks toward the father because he desires a response from the father, a communication and a moving into a unity of life between himself and the father. It is the same with the individual spirit as it relates to the Cosmic Spirit. “Unto thee lift I up mine eyes, O thou that dwellest in the heavens. Behold, as the eyes of servants look unto the hand of their masters, and as the eyes of a maiden unto the hand of her mistress; so our eyes wait upon the Lord our God” (Psalms 123:1-2).
This is a familiar theme in the Bible:
“I waited patiently for the Lord; and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry. He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings. And he hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God” (Psalms 40:1-3).
“I wait for the Lord, my soul doth wait, and in his word do I hope. my soul waiteth for the Lord more than they that watch for the morning” (Psalms 130:5-6).
“The Lord is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him. It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord” (Lamentations 3:25-26).
It is because we are eternally part of God that we ever look toward God in the essence of our being. Oneness with God is our whole being, therefore it is the prime subject that should occupy our thought and life.
For with Thee are my breasts and my pleasure.
Another translation (from The Lost Books of the Bible and the Forgotten Books of Eden) says: “For with thee are my consolations and my delight.”
Only God can really soothe and calm the troubled soul to the extent that real healing and restoration take place and the soul becomes increasingly immune to all that troubles and distracts the ordinary person. In the same way, only communion with God gives real happiness or peace that keeps increasing to the point where nothing can disturb a continual state of joyful quiet in which the soul begins to permanently abide.
Turn not away Thy mercy from me, O Lord, and take not Thy sweetness from me.
This verse continues the idea of the previous one. We crave healing and peace and the blessed joy of continual contact with God.
It is an absolute necessity that the questing soul develops the conviction that only in God is there any fulfillment that can last and be meaningful. Being ourselves eternal beings, only Eternal Being can satisfy and glorify us. Jesus, our example, prayed: “O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was” (John 17:5). It is not heaven we should desire, but God alone.
Stretch out to me my Lord at all times Thy right hand, and be my guide even to the end according to Thy will.
Not remembering how we got into this mess (see Robe of Light), we have no idea how to get out. Therefore we need the guidance of God and our own awakened spirit to ascend the ladder of evolution “even to the end” in the attaining of Divine Consciousness which is the essence of our very existence. At the same time we need to heed the counsels of those great souls (mahatmas) who have gone on before us and reached the Goal. Daily we should be reading their biographies and words and applying them to our own lives. This is because it is God who guides us through those that show us the way by their example and teaching.
Let me be well-pleasing before Thee because of Thy glory, and because of Thy Name let me be saved from the Evil One.
We are part of God, and God’s glory is within us, waiting for us to awaken, uncover and bring it forth into every atom of our life. True spiritual life has various aspects, but the most important is that which enables us to come into touch with our eternal spirit. And that is profound and continual meditation which enables us to maintain outside of meditation the state of consciousness produced by meditation. (See Soham Yoga: The Yoga of the Self.) May the awareness of God be so developed and established in us that no evil can touch us, not even the cosmic evil known as “Satan.”
And let Thy gentleness, O Lord, abide with me, and the fruits of thy love.
The true spiritual ideal is not to be floating around in some exalted state of self-satisfaction, hoping that others will see and admire us and maybe even follow us, but rather that the qualities of God such as love and mercy will abound in us and bless those around us–that our mere presence will spread healing and awakening wherever we go. Many great souls are walking among us right now, changing lives by just being near us. They are never recognized by those they are blessing, but great change results from their presence. I have observed such people, even in places considered hopelessly negative, and spiritual friends have reported seeing them also.
Teach me the Odes of Thy truth, that I may bring forth fruits in Thee.
This verse is not referring to these Odes of Solomon, but is a petition for the same insight and inspiration that produced them. For this, no human teacher is possible. This is the direct teaching of Spirit to spirit, of God to us. When we have this divinely imparted knowledge, then we shall ourselves be trees of life in Paradise, bearing abundant fruit to the glory of God and the glorification of the world around us. For always there is the corollary: “Thy neighbour as thyself” (Matthew 19:19).
And the harp of Thy Holy Spirit open to me, that with all [its] notes I may praise Thee, O Lord.
The harp of the Holy Spirit is our inner being, the subtle levels we call spiritual “bodies.” Through yoga meditation our inner spiritual machinery (antahkarana) comes into operation and we become of aware of it and develop it fully so we may use all its aspects (“notes”) to praise God. We thereby become living harps of the Holy Spirit in the glorification of God.
And according to the multitude of Thy mercies so shalt Thou give to me. And hasten to grant our petitions.
It is God’s will to bestow all these mercies and graces upon us, so we can be sure that we will receive them abundantly when we ask aright and prepare ourselves to be capable of receiving them. And it will not be lifetimes away, but the glory will begin even now. “O taste and see that the Lord is good” (Psalms 34:8).
And Thou art able for all our needs. God wills to do all good things for us, and is able to do all good things for us. “That ye may have lack of nothing.… And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform.… And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us” (I Thessalonians 4:12; Romans 4:21; I John 5:14).
Read the next article in The Odes of Solomon for Awakening: The Odes of Solomon: 15