The Spiritual Sequence of Psalms 1, 2, 3

“The sequence related to salvation also looks to this [our benefit], and the order which assists us to this end is best. For example, the first psalm removed humanity from its cohesion with evil. The second, having indicated the appearance of the Lord through flesh in advance, showed to what we should cling, and that to trust in him is blessed (Ps 2.12). The third predicts the temptation which rises up against you from the enemy, so that as soon as you have been anointed into the kingdom through faith, and rule with the true Christ, he attempts to cast you out of your honoured position, having coming not from without, but from you yourself.

For the adversary has no power against us from any other sources, nor are we cast out of our honoured position by any other, unless we ourselves become fathers of the evil offspring through deadly travail (labours).” St. Gregory of Nyssa, On the Inscriptions of the Psalms, Chapter 11 as in St. Gregory of Nyssa’s Treatise on The Inscriptions of The Psalms

As we read these psalms in every morning prayer of the Coptic Orthodox book of hours (agpeya) let us contemplate our departure from evil and the dawning of a new day where we can bear fruit as we wish. Let us not give place to the evils we are tempted by to come and take root in us but let us rather pursue the life of God and take each morning as a new opportunity to do so.