Salmos 68
John Damascene
Salmos 68:2
Concerning you, the defenders of idolatry, were these words spoken by the prophet. For a very, very little while and your place shall not be found, but "just as the smoke vanishes, and just as wax melts near a fire, so you will fail." But, as touching the divine wisdom of the gospel, the Lord says, "Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away." And again the psalmist says, "You, Lord, in the beginning laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the work of your hands. They shall perish, but you endure; and they all will wax old as does a garment, and you will fold them up as a vestment, and they shall be changed, but you are the same, and your years will not fail!" And those divine preachers of the coming of Christ, those wise fishers of the world, whose nets drew all people from the depths of deceit, whom you, in your wickedness and bondage to sin, do vilify, did by signs and wonders and manifold powers shine as the sun in the world, giving sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, motion to the lame and life to the dead. Their shadows alone healed all the ailments of humankind. The devils, whom you dread as gods, they not only cast forth from people's bodies but even drove out of the world itself by the sign of the cross, whereby they destroyed all sorcery and rendered witchcraft powerless. And these men, by curing every human disease by the power of Christ, and renewing all creation, are rightly admired as preachers of truth by all persons of sound mind. — BARLAAM AND JOSEPH 32:295-96
Salmos 68:32-33
And so, since God is spiritual light and Christ in sacred Scripture is called "Sun of Justice" and "orient," the east should be dedicated to his worship. For everything beautiful should be dedicated to God from whom everything that is good receives its goodness. Also, the divine David says, "Sing to God, all you kingdoms of the earth: sing to the Lord; who mounts above the heaven of heavens, to the east." And still again, Scripture says, "And the Lord had planted a paradise in Eden to the east; wherein he placed man whom he had formed," and whom he cast out, when he had transgressed, "and made him to live over against the paradise of pleasure," or in the west. Thus it is that, when we worship God, we long for our ancient fatherland and gaze toward it. The tabernacle of Moses had the veil and the propitiatory to the east; and the tribe of Judah, as being the more honorable, pitched their tents on the east; and in the celebrated temple of Solomon the gate of the Lord was set to the east. As a matter of fact, when the Lord was crucified, he looked toward the west, and so we worship gazing toward him. And when he was taken up, he ascended to the east, and thus the apostles worshiped him, and thus he shall come in the same way as they had seen him going into heaven, as the Lord said: "As lightning comes out of the east and appears even into the west, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be." And so, while we are awaiting him, we worship toward the east. This is, moreover, the unwritten tradition of the apostles, for they have handed many things down to us unwritten. — ORTHODOX FAITH 4:12