Psalm 116:2

mercy and truth

For his mercy is confirmed upon us: and the truth of the Lord remaineth for ever. (Psalm 116:2 DR)

Given that Psalm 116 contains only two verses, there is an extremely tight connection between both passages that flows seamlessly from the first verse to the second. The first verse stands as a command to the nations and peoples to praise the Lord, and the second verse provides the rationale for this command.

The Psalmist begins by explaining that God’s mercy is confirmed upon us, and the use of us encompasses the nations and peoples from the first verse, which certainly points beyond the Old Covenant to the establishment of the New Covenant in the Church. For under the Old Covenant there was a wall of separation between the Jews and Gentiles, such that the term us would only be appropriate in light of the future in which this wall of partition would be eradicated, as St. Paul explains:

For which cause be mindful that you, being heretofore Gentiles in the flesh, who are called uncircumcision by that which is called circumcision in the flesh, made by hands; that you were at that time without Christ, being aliens from the conversation of Israel, and strangers to the testament, having no hope of the promise, and without God in this world.

But now in Christ Jesus, you, who some time were afar off, are made nigh by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and breaking down the middle wall of partition, the enmities in his flesh: Making void the law of commandments contained in decrees; that he might make the two in himself into one new man, making peace; and might reconcile both to God in one body by the cross, killing the enmities in himself.

And coming, he preached peace to you that were afar off, and peace to them that were nigh. For by him we have access both in one Spirit to the Father. (Ephesians 2:11-18 DR)

St. Paul draws the sharp distinction between the present time and the former times when the Gentiles were without hope of the promise and strangers to the testament; in this state there could be no us in the mercy of God being confirmed. But in God’s great mercy the blood of Christ draws those near who were at one time afar off, and makes those nations and peoples which were at enmity into one people, one body, all the former enmities being destroyed in Jesus who reconciles them to each other and makes them one in Himself.

This mercy of God being to both Jews and Gentiles is thus confirmed in our Lord Jesus Christ. In our Lord’s high priesthood in the order of Melchizedek is a priesthood that precedes and surpasses the priesthood of the Old Covenant, and the mercy which is offered through His sacrifice is superior to that of the sacrifices offered by the sons of Aaron:

By so much is Jesus made a surety of a better testament. And the others indeed were made many priests, because by reason of death they were not suffered to continue: But this, for that he continueth for ever, hath an everlasting priesthood, whereby he is able also to save for ever them that come to God by him; always living to make intercession for us.

For it was fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners, and made higher than the heavens; Who needeth not daily (as the other priests) to offer sacrifices first for his own sins, and then for the people’s: for this he did once, in offering himself. For the law maketh men priests, who have infirmity: but the word of the oath, which was since the law, the Son who is perfected for evermore. (Hebrews 7:22-28 DR)

St. Paul here argues that since the law was what formed the priests of the Old Covenant, it was an imperfect priesthood in that the priests had to continually offer sacrifices first for their own sins and then for the people. But our Lord’s priesthood is by the word and oath of the Father, and thus perfected forever. And Jesus Christ, being without sin, was able to offer His perfect sacrifice once in the offering of His own perfect self, a sacrifice which is continually re-presented in that He lives to make intercession through the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. And since His priesthood is eternal and not established by the Law of the Old Covenant, it encompasses both Jews and Gentiles and brings them into unity in Himself within His own Body. For just as His body was broken on the cross, so the wall of partition is also broken between those who are united to His Body in the Church:

His mercy, of course, is confirmed upon us, along with his enduring truth. These names, his mercy and his truth, are often used to refer to the Savior. For example, in this psalm: “God sent his mercy and his truth, and rescued my soul from the midst of the lion cubs.” This truth was indeed the expectation of the Gentiles. Therefore, shining upon the human race, it invites all nations and all peoples to praise, teaching them to give thanks to the Father who confirmed his mercy and made the truth last forever. (Hesychius of Jerusalem, Fragments on the Psalms, 116, 2)

Mercy and truth are often paired together in the Scriptures, particularly in the Psalms. And in the parallelism of the Psalms truth generally follows mercy as a means of expanding the idea of mercy. Hesychius in the quotation above provides the reason for this, in that these terms are used to refer to the Savior Who shows forth the mercy of God, but is also Himself as God the truth Incarnate. There is a sense in which God’s mercy is the revelation of the truth about God, a means of particularly revealing His solicitude and charity towards His creation. The charity of God, after all, is the very reason that creation exists, the inexhaustible and fathomless depths of that overflowing love being the source of all that exists:

But thou hast mercy upon all, because thou canst do all things, and overlookest the sins of men for the sake of repentance. For thou lovest all things that are, and hatest none of the things which thou hast made: for thou didst not appoint, or make any thing hating it. And how could any thing endure, if thou wouldst not? or be preserved, if not called by thee. But thou sparest all: because they are thine, O Lord, who lovest souls. (Wisdom 11:24-27 DR)

And this truth as remaining forever secures the mercy of God remaining forever, as God loves all that He has made. For since God had no necessity to create and gains nothing by creation, it is the sheer gratuitousness of His charity that causes creation to be; if He did not love them, they would never have been created in the first place. The mercy of God in allowing that which of itself cannot be to actually be is a mercy beyond conception, for God gives without receiving and creates simply because He loves. This truth is most completely realized in the Incarnation in which God becomes a part of His creation, uniting the divine Person of the Word to the nature of man so as to show forth His mercy and truth in the promise of the Resurrection, to redeem the creation which was falling into nothingness:

For the Word, perceiving that no otherwise could the corruption of men be undone save by death as a necessary condition, while it was impossible for the Word to suffer death, being immortal, and Son of the Father; to this end He takes to Himself a body capable of death, that it, by partaking of the Word Who is above all, might be worthy to die in the stead of all, and might, because of the Word which had come to dwell in it, remain incorruptible, and that thenceforth corruption might be stayed from all by the Grace of the Resurrection. (St. Athanasius, On the Incarnation of the Word, 9.1)

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I found this vintage illustration of St. Joan of Arc and isolated it in Photoshop and separated the back flag from the head, since it was all originally one illustration. I then brought it into After Effects and rigged up the character in a new precomp using the puppet tool and Puppet Tools 3 to connect the pins to nulls to aid in animation. Next I created the slight movements of St. Joan and the waving of the flag.

In the main comp I found some arrows (I believe from the original illustration) and isolated them in photoshop and then put them into a precomp to use as sprites for a Trapcode Particular Emitter. I then animated the particles/arrows to fly in a flurry from left to right.

I finally added in some background textures , camera shake and color correction. This was a fun one.

Enjoy.

View a higher quality version of this gif here: